DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After a change to the playing field, the Jacksonville Dolphins have a new schedule for the College Basketball Invitational presented by Purple.

The Dolphins were initially slated to face off with Cleveland State in the Quarterfinals of the CBI, but the playing field dropped a team and caused a change to the tournament bracket. Now, the Dolphins will face the winner of Manhattan and Incarnate Word in the Quarterfinals on March 24.

Tipoff for Monday's game will be at noon and will be streamed on FloCollege. If the Dolphins are victorious, they will face the winner of Illinois State and Presbyterian in the Semifinals on March 25 at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.

Jacksonville is joined by two other ASUN schools in FGCU and Queens in the tournament field. 

On Wednesday March 12, the Dolphins announced they accepted a bid to compete in the College Basketball Invitational presented by Purple. Play will begin in Daytona Beach on March 23rd and continue until a champion is crowned on March 26th.

"The CBI Tournament is an awesome platform and a chance to prove our resilience and skill," head coach Jordan Mincy said. "We've fought hard to get here. Now, it's time to compete, leave it all on the court and chase that championship. My goal four years ago when taking this job was to play in the postseason and we are accomplishing that."

Jacksonville finished its regular season with a 18-12 record and a 12-6 record in regular season conference play. JU will be appearing in its first postseason tournament under Mincy as well as its first postseason tournament since playing in the College Insider Tournament at the end of the 2016-17 season.

The 2024-25 season ended for JU in the Atlantic Sun Semifinals, where the #4 Dolphins were defeated by Co-Conference Champion #2 North Alabama after defeating #5 EKU at home in the ASUN Quarterfinals.

This will be Jacksonville's first appearance in the CBI, and its 25^th appearance in a postseason tournament in school history. Since 2000, JU has played twice in both the NIT and CIT.

The CBI is in its 17^th year and is a single-elimination, full bracket featuring 11 teams this season from across the nation. Last year, Seattle defeated High Point to claim the title.

Plenty of big-name teams and coaches have parlayed successes from the CBI like former FAU coach Dusty May, who coached in the tournament in 2022 a year prior to the team's Final Four run. Shaka Smart coached the VCU Rams during their CBI tournament run as did current Oklahoma coach Porter Moser with 2015 CBI Tournament champions Loyola Chicago. 

Tickets are on sale for the CBI, hosted at Daytona Beach's Ocean Center, at https://collegebasketballinvitational.com/.

Games for the CBI will be streamed on Flosports.com until the Semifinals, which will be aired on ESPNU. The Championship game will be aired on ESPN2.
 
HOW WE GOT HERE

Jacksonville's 2024-25 season had a litany of highlights and memorable moments.

On Nov. 20th, the Dolphins traveled to Blacksburg, Virginia where they defeated Virginia Tech 74-64. The win over an ACC foe represented the school's first victory over a Power 4 opponent since 2010. Forward Zimi Nwokeji lit up the contest with a game-high 19 points and game-high nine rebounds.

Jacksonville won its final non-conference game of the year on home court against ETSU on Dec. 14th.

The Dolphins dropped their first ASUN game of the season after a hardfought battle to eventual ASUN Champion Lipscomb (65-70) before rattling off seven consecutive wins. 

Along the way, Jacksonville had wins over Austin Peay, at Bellarmine, at EKU, North Alabama, Central Arkansas, at West Georgia and at Queens.

JU continued its winning with a three-game winning streak over Stetson, Bellarmine and UCA. The seven games won in a row was the best such streak for the Dolphins since the 2009-2010 season.
 
Winning six straight road contests also was the best streak JU had mounted since the 1986-87 season.

The regular season concluded with wins over EKU and Stetson before ASUN Tournament play began.

Looking to complete a three-game sweep over EKU, Jacksonville defeated the Colonels 78-67 in a game that had the sporting world with their eyes on Swisher Gymnasium.
 
Jacksonville last played in Florence, Alabama on March 6th against North Alabama. The Lions got the best of the Dolphins in the third game between the two schools, 78-63.  

After an almost two week layoff, JU will begin basketball play once more, looking to add a banner to the historic ceilings of Swisher
Gymnasium. For more information on the JU basketball season, visit judolphins.com/sports/mens-basketball/.

For more information on the CBI, visit collegebasketballinvitational.com.