The '13-14 college basketball season will "tip off for the first time in Asia when Georgetown and Oregon meet Nov. 8 at a U.S. Army base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea," according to Andy Katz of ESPN.com. The U.S. Department of Defense and the Army, in "conjunction with ESPN, agreed to host the game at Camp Humphreys, an Army base located 45 miles south of Seoul." The last regular-season college basketball game in Asia was in December '82, "when Houston and Virginia squared off in Tokyo." ESPN and the DOD last year created the Armed Forces Classic, with a "five-year rotation serving all five military branches, the first of which involved the Air Force." Michigan State and UConn last season "played in a C-5 transport plane hangar at Ramstein Air Base in Germany." The Army was "next on the rotation with the likely turn going to the Coast Guard, the Marines and then the Navy in Years 3 through 5." This year's game will take place at the Army's 110,000-square-foot Humphreys Community Fitness Center, "which houses three basketball courts, an indoor pool, a track, a racquetball court and other fitness events." The two teams will have "plenty of events on the base, interacting with the troops during their stay in South Korea." Oregon coach Dana Altman said, "The conference is trying to promote the Pac-12 brand in Asia" (ESPN.com, 7/30).
