Tournament directors for the 2017 Paradise Jam announced on Friday the event will be relocated to the Liberty University Vines Center, Nov. 17-19. The Paradise Jam was relocated from St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands due to Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria.
In conjunction with the tournament, Liberty University will donate all of the tournament gate receipts to the humanitarian relief efforts in the U.S. Virgin Islands in order to assist with the recovery due to the hurricane destruction.
All donation efforts will be coordinated through LU Send Now, the university’s quick response team for urgent disaster relief and humanitarian needs. Since the beginning of the academic year, LU Send Now has dispatched students to help with hurricane relief efforts in Texas and the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, plus currently has students working in Mexico following a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Central Mexico.
The tournament received several proposals to host from the participating schools with the tournament directors ultimately selection to host the 12-game event in Lynchburg. The eight-team tournament includes Colorado, Drake, Drexel, Houston, Liberty, Quinnipiac and Wake Forest.
The 2016 tournament had two postseason qualifiers in Ole Miss, earning a No. 5 seed in the NIT, and last year’s champion, Creighton, qualifying as a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament.