2024 Cancun Challenge Preview

FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Officials with Triple Crown Sports are gearing up for another great Cancun Challenge event. The 2024 Cancun Challenge will see 18 men's and women's programs make the trip to Cancun over Thanksgiving week to the all-inclusive Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya.

The 17th annual Men’s Cancun Challenge, set for Nov. 26-27, 2024 welcomes eight teams to this gated, trusted and all-inclusive resort, where teams play in a converted ballroom that is walking distance from guest rooms. The event features four teams in the Riviera Division (Belmont, LMU, Tulane and Wyoming) and four teams in the Mayan Division (Bethune-Cookman, Gardner-Webb, North Dakota and Southeastern Louisiana).

The 19th running of the women’s event will be held Nov. 28-30. For 2024, the four-team Mayan Tournament will feature Providence, San Diego State, VCU and Wisconsin. These squads will play a three-game round robin at the event. In the Riviera Tournament, six teams will be making the trip and playing two games while in Mexico – BYU, Idaho State, Iowa, Rhode Island, Rice and Vermont.

The Riviera Division of the men's tournament will be televised on CBS Sports Network, while the Mayan Division, as well as the entire women's tournament, will be streamed live on FloCollege.

Check out a preview of each of the team's making a trip to Cancun below, or view the Digital Program at the top.

Men's Participants

Bethune-Cookman will use a fresh cast this season, with 11 newcomers. Reggie Ward Jr., a 6-foot-6 senior forward, is the Wildcats’ sole returning starter and averaged almost 10 points per game last season. A handful of the new group topped double figures in scoring in their previous locations, including Gianni Hunt (6-4 guard from CSUN), Jarrell Love (6-7 forward from Baton Rouge CC) and Jesus Carralero-Martin, a 6-7 Spanish forward from Campbell. The squad reached the SWAC tourney semifinals for the first time last year.

Gardner-Webb turns to former associate head coach Jeremy Luther after the exit of Tim Craft (188 wins in 11 season). Anthony Selden returns to Gardner-Webb for his final season of eligibility after spending one season with Rice; Jahmain Mann, who played his freshman season at GWU in 2020-21, returns to Boiling Springs after stops at Vanderbilt and Georgia State. Guard Darryl Simmons II scored 22 points in a season-opening loss at No. 12 Tennessee.

North Dakota’s two preseason all-Summit League first-teamers have inside-outside skills – junior Treysen Eaglestaff started 32 games last year and shot better than 38 percent from 3-point range, and senior Amar Kuljuhovic averaged 8.7 rebounds per game while shooting 61 percent. Coach Paul Sather guided the Fighting Hawks to their first winning season as a Summit League program last year, and the team was picked to finish sixth in 2024-25.

Southeastern Louisiana is replacing four starters and only has five returners from a year ago, so head coach David Kiefer is digging into a style reset and asking his group to play much more uptempo than in previous years. That’s a great fit for South Florida transfer Sam Hines Jr., a 6-foot-6 guard who started 55 games for USF in three seasons. There’s some length in the low post with 6-11 junior Brody Rowbury, who started 30 games for this group last season. Another key piece is at point guard with Lamar transfer Jakevion Buckley, a senior.

Belmont joins Gonzaga, Kansas and Oregon as one of four programs to win 20 or more games in 14 consecutive seasons; the Bruins do have work ahead, having to replace all five primary starters from a year ago. Sophomore 6-foot-9 forward Brigham Rogers did get nine starts last year, and 6-5 junior guard Isaiah Walker got 23 starts and averaged six points and five rebounds per contest. Coach Casey Alexander is 118-42 in five seasons with the Bruins.

Loyola Marymount has a definite focal point in the lineup with junior Jevon Porter (brother of the NBA’s Michael Porter Jr.) – the 6-foot-11 forward played two years at Pepperdine and averaged better than 16 points per game in 21 contests after returning from an injury. Senegal native Matar Diop adds more length at 6-10; he played last year at Nebraska. San Jose State transfer MJ Amey Jr., a 6-2 junior guard, averaged 15.7 points last year and started 31 games.

Tulane watched the transfer portal carefully and pulled in three players from classic basketball powers. Rowan Brumbaugh started 20 games at Georgetown and shot 37 percent from 3-point range; Kaleb Banks played two years at Indiana and was the Georgia 4A prep player of the year in 2022; and Mari Jordan moves over from Georgia after redshirting his freshman season. Jordan scored 18 points in a season-opening victory versus Louisiana Christian.

Wyoming eagerly brought back Sundance Wicks to be the new head coach for 2024-25. He was an assistant in Laramie for three seasons before running the show at Green Bay last year and going 18-14, one year after that program went 3-29. The Cowboys said goodbye to their four double-figure scoring weapons from a season ago. In this year’s opener, Obi Agbim rang up 25 points and six assists; the senior scored 33 points for Fort Lewis in last year’s RMAC tourney title game.

Women's Participants

Providence gets a boost from Olivia Olsen and Grace Efosa, both named to the preseason all-Big East team. Olsen, a 6-foot-3 senior forward, averaged 13.7 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.7 blocked shots per game and shot 52.6 percent; Efosa, a fifth-year 5-11 guard, ranked second on the team in scoring (12.7) and rebounding (5.5) and added 1.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Second-year coach Erin Batth previously was recruiting coordinator at Michigan and NC State.

San Diego State’s Adryana Quezada, a sixth-year forward, led the Aztecs in scoring and rebounding last year, averaging 14 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. She shot 53 percent from the field and was an All-Mountain West selection. All seven returners are in their fourth year of college or later and four of them are in their fifth year or later. The lineup also boasts Kim Villalobos, who started 35 games last year and came through with 10.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.7 steals per game.

VCU will lean on Timaya Lewis-Eutsey, a 5-foot-8 junior guard who was named an All-Atlantic 10 third team selection last season after averaging 12.9 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. Junior guard Mary-Anna Asare is a defensive stopper who topped 10 points per game and shot 40 percent from long range. Fifth-year forward Mykel Parham reeled in 8.4 rebounds per game last year; coach Beth O’Boyle’s team held opponents to just 53.2 points per game.

Wisconsin flexes with Serah Williams; the 6-foot-4 forward led the team with 17.4 points per game, and with an average of 10.7 rebounds and 2.8 blocks, Williams was tabbed the 2024 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year for 2023-24. Junior guard Ronnie Porter played 35 minutes per game last year and kicked off this season with a career-best 19 points versus Wright State. Head coach Marisa Moseley coached at UConn when that program won five NCAA championships.

BYU tangles with the Big 12 while introducing five freshmen and four transfers. From the freshmen group, Delaney Gibb was the 77th-ranked player in ESPN's 2024 HoopGurlz recruiting rankings, and she’s joined by two-time Idaho 4A player of the year Brinley Cannon, three-time Utah 6A state champions Sarah Bartholomew and Naia Tanuvasa and Idaho 5A All-State honoree Kambree Barber. Amari Whiting averaged 10.6 points per game last year for the Cougars.

Idaho State coach Seton Sobolewski likely eyeballed last year’s 29 percent shooting from 3-point range; the Vandals went 11-for-22 in their season-opening win versus Arizona Christian. Sophomore forward Piper Carlson has been productive offensively at the start of 2024-25. Milana Nenadic, a redshirt-freshman transfer from Maine, enjoyed a lot of international success playing for Canada. ISU features players from Angola, Australia, Croatia and Portugal.

Iowa cast quite the Caitlin Clark-shaped shadow last season; new coach Jan Jensen (an assistant for 24 seasons) will surely turn to Villanova transfer Lucy Olsen, who was No. 3 in the nation in scoring last year at 23.3 points per contest. Forward Hannah Stuelke averaged 14 points and 6.6 rebounds per game last year despite a nagging knee injury; she will likely be more productive at the ‘4’ if centers Addison O’Grady and Ava Heiden can handle the middle.

Rhode Island had to like the early look from San Diego transfer Harsimran Kaur, who finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds in 26 minutes in a win over Stonehill. Sophie Phillips is arguably the best 3-point shooter in program history; she hit 89 3’s a year ago and started all 34 games. Anaelle Dutat, making her second career appearance on the preseason Atlantic 10 all-defensive team, finished the year second on the team in rebounds, grabbing 6.5 per contest.

Rice leads with preseason AAC first-teamer Malia Fisher, who paced the Owls in several categories last season, averaging 13.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 0.7 blocks per game – she’s currently nursing an injury. Junior guard Dominique Harris scored 17 points in the 2024-25 opener; she hit a team-best 61 3-pointers a year ago. Head coach Lindsay Edmonds signed a five-year contract extension in April after leading Rice to the AAC tourney title in March.

Vermont will deploy fifth-year forward Anna Olson; she received preseason America East all-conference honors for the fourth consecutive season. She ranked second on the Catamounts in scoring a year ago, averaging 12.3 points per game during conference play and 11.6 overall. The Catamounts were the first America East women's program to reach the semifinal of a postseason tournament, making a run to the Fab 4 round of the Postseason WNIT.

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