ESPN Events Reveals Field for 2023 Myrtle Beach Invitational
The field for the 2023 Myrtle Beach Invitational is set and will feature four schools that participated in the post-season last March after finishing atop their conference’s regular-season standings – the College of Charleston (Colonial), Furman (Southern), Liberty (Conference USA) and Vermont (American East).
Coastal Carolina (Sun Belt) will be the third school from South Carolina in the fifth annual Myrtle Beach Invitational, along with Saint Louis (Atlantic 10), Wichita State (American) and Wyoming (Mountain West).
The 2023 Myrtle Beach Invitational will be played November 16, 17 and 19 at the HTC Center on the campus of Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C. All games will be televised across the ESPN platforms.
After winning post-season conference tournaments, College of Charleston, Furman and Vermont in the NCAA Championships, while Liberty participated in the National Invitational Tournament after losing its league finale at Kennesaw State 67-66.
Both College of Charleston and Furman lost to Final Four participant San Diego State in the opening rounds of the NCAA’s South Regional in Orlando. Before meeting the Aztecs, Furman upset fourth-seeded Virginia in the first round.
Vermont saw its 15-game winning streak snapped in the first round of the NCAAs as the Catamounts lost to second-seeded Marquette in Columbus. Liberty rebounded from its setback to Kennesaw State in its conference post-season tournament by defeating Villanova in the NIT opener before losing to Wisconsin in Madison.
Host Coastal Carolina will be making its second appearance in the Myrtle Beach Invitational after placing fourth in the 2019 event, where the Chanticleers upset Utah in the opening round before losing to Baylor and Mississippi State. Coastal Carolina coach Cliff Ellis enters the 2023-2024 season as the 14th winningest 4-year college coach all-time with 828 victories in 45 seasons. Ellis also won 72 games in three seasons as a junior college coach.
Owned and operated by ESPN Events, the Myrtle Beach Invitational will make tickets available for purchase this summer following the announcement of the complete tournament schedule. In the meantime, fans can sign up for first access to tickets at http://www.myrtlebeachinvite.com.
Past Myrtle Beach Invitational champions include UCF (2018), Baylor (2019), Utah State (2021) and UMass (2022). Three teams in the 2022 Myrtle Beach Invitational competed in the post-season with Boise State and Texas A&M advancing to the NCAAs while Charlotte captured the College Basketball Invitational title.
MYRTLE BEACH INVITATIONAL NOTES – The field has a combined eight shared or outright conference regular season titles in the last three seasons, with Vermont leading the America East each of those three years, Liberty at the top of the ASUN standings two of the three, and Charleston (Colonial), Furman (SoCon) and Wichita State (American) each topping the standings once in that span. Six of the eight teams in the field have appeared in the NCAA Tournament at least once in the past three seasons – Charleston, Liberty, Furman, Vermont, Wichita State and Wyoming.
- Coastal Carolina is led by Cliff Ellis, who ranks second among active coaches (10th all-time) with 828 Division I wins and has coached in more Division I games than any coach other than Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim.
- College of Charleston spent multiple weeks in the Associated Press Top 25 during a 31-4 season in 2022-2023 that resulted in an NCAA Tournament appearance.
- Furman has topped the 20-win mark in six of the last seven seasons and advanced to the Second Round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament with a win over Virginia.
- Liberty moves to Conference USA this season after winning or sharing the regular season conference and/or division title in each of its five seasons in the ASUN.
- Saint Louis has finished in the top four of the Atlantic 10 standings in three of the last four seasons, including a tie for second place last year.
- Vermont has won or shared the America East regular season title in each of the last seven seasons, with four NCAA Tournament appearances during that span (the 2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled).
- Wichita State, which has appeared in eight of the last 11 NCAA Tournaments, is guided by first-year head coach Paul Mills, who took Oral Roberts to the Sweet 16 in 2021.
- Wyoming earned an at-large bid to the 2022 NCAA Tournament and was picked 2nd behind eventual Final Four participant San Diego State in the 2022-2023 Mountain West preseason poll before a string of injuries throughout the season.
