Maryland Basketball To Host Butler In 2017 Gavitt Games
ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Big Ten and Big East Conferences announced Wednesday the matchups for the Gavitt Tipoff Games, with Maryland hosting Butler at the XFINITY Center on Wednesday, Nov. 15 on either FS1 or the Big Ten Network. Tipoff will be announced at a later date.
The Gavitt Tipoff Games is an annual early-season series played between the two conferences and named in honor of Dave Gavitt, founder of the BIG EAST and basketball visionary.
Maryland is 2-0 all-time in Gavitt play, defeating Georgetown 76-75 last season at Verizon Center and 75-71 on Nov. 17, 2015 at XFINITY.
Maryland trails in the all-time series with Butler, 1-0. Butler topped the Terps, 62-59, in the second round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament in Buffalo, N.Y.
Last season Maryland reached the NCAA Tournament for a third consecutive season under head coach Mark Turgeon and won 24 games during the regular season for a third straight year as well.
Scheduled through 2022, the Gavitt Tipoff Games will be played on consecutive days in the first full week of the college basketball season. The series will span eight years, with games played at home sites. Each BIG EAST team will participate a minimum of six times, while Big Ten programs will take part a minimum of four times. Teams from both conferences already meet in some traditional rivalry games, and those matchups will continue in the upcoming seasons.
The unique series between the two conferences is named to honor the late Gavitt, who had a profound and lasting influence on the sport of basketball on the collegiate, professional and Olympic levels. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.