The Kent State men's basketball program will return to Southwest Florida during the week of Thanksgiving to play in the inaugural Naples Invitational, as event organizer bdG Sports announced the tournament bracket.

The eight-team tournament will be played at the Community School of Naples from Monday, Nov. 22 through Wednesday, Nov. 24. The field is limited strictly to mid-major programs, with seven of the eight earning NCAA Tournament bids in the past decade.

The Golden Flashes will battle James Madison in the opening game of the tournament at 12 p.m. on Nov. 22 and then either Wright State or George Washington on Nov. 23. Kent State's final game in Naples will be against one of the four teams on the opposite side of the bracket, which consists of East Tennessee State, Murray State, Missouri State and Long Beach State.

Veteran head coach Rob Senderoff will lead a team that returns four starters from last season. Malique Jacobs (10.0 ppg, 4.8 rpg) and Giovanni Santiago (9.1 ppg, 4.1 apg) led the Flashes in minutes played, while Tervell Beck (11.7 ppg, 4.8 rpg) and Justyn Hamilton (8.9 ppg, 6.8 rpg) are the top returners in the frontcourt. Transfers Sincere Carry and Andrew Garcia have been double-figure scorers at previous stops. Carry was a 2020-21 Preseason All-A10 Third Team selection and posted averages of 11.9 points and 5.4 assists over 63 games at Duquesne. Garcia has scored more than 1,000 points in his collegiate career and averaged 8.7 points and 4.0 rebounds per game during his only year at Georgia this past season. The 6'-6" wing earned All-America East Second Team honors in 2018-19 at Stony Brook, where current Kent State assistant coach Randal Holt was a member of the staff.