TOLEDO, Ohio - The University of Toledo men's basketball team (2-1) is heading to southwest Florida this week to compete in the Gulf Coast Showcase at Hertz Arena in Estero, Fla.

       The eight-team tournament, which starts on Monday, Nov. 19 and continues through Wednesday, Nov. 21, features four schools in this week's collegeinsiders.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll — No. 3 South Dakota State, No. 12 Louisiana, the No. 13 Rockets and .No. 23 UC-Irvine — as well as Colorado State, Florida Gulf Coast, Texas-San Antonio and Tulane.

       Toledo opens tournament play on Monday night at 7:30 p.m. vs. Florida Gulf Coast (2-2) and will play either Colorado State or Louisiana on Tuesday. The Rockets will be looking to bounce back from Wednesday's 84-74 setback at Wright State, while the Eagles posted an 84-78 victory over SDSU in their most recent outing on Friday evening.

       The tournament will be webcast at gulfcoastshowcase.com for a fee of either $9.95 per game or $24.95 for the entire tournament. Fans can also listen to an audio broadcast on utrockets.com or the Rocket Radio Network.
 
POST TOUCHES
•  Toledo is 1-2 vs. FGCU with the home team emerging victorious in the three previous meetings that occurred in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
•  Senior guard Jaelan Sanford leads the Rockets and is tied for fifth in the MAC with 20.0 ppg. The Evansville, Ind. native tallied a season-high 30 points at Oakland in UT's season opener and ranks 17th on UT's all-time scoring list with 1,336 points.
•  Junior forward Willie Jackson opened the season with two double-doubles and has six in 22 career games in a Rocket uniform. Jackson, who is averaging 13.3 ppg and a team-high 9.0 rpg, also tallied double-doubles in last year's MAC Tournament vs. Eastern Michigan (career-high 18 pts.-10 reb.) in the semifinals and Buffalo (11 pts.-10 reb.) in the championship game.
•  Senior forward Nate Navigato knocked down three treys at Wright State on Wednesday to move into third place on UT's career three-point field goal list with 228 treys.
•  Junior center Luke Knapke is perfect from the field in the Rockets' first three games. He is 11-of-11 from two-point range and 7-of-7 from behind the three-point arc.
•  Sophomore guard Marreon Jackson leads the MAC with 6.7 assists per game and is tied for first with a 4.0 assist/turnover ratio.
 
REGULAR-SEASON TOURNAMENT TIME UNDER COACH KOWALCZYK
•  The Rockets have participated in five three-day regular-season tournaments since Coach Kowalczyk took over UT's program in 2010.
•  UT won the 2K Sports Classic Sub-Regional in 2013 hosted by Detroit Mercy by posting wins over Stony Brook, Florida Atlantic and the host Titans.
•  Toledo also won the Texas-Pan American Tournament in 2012 with victories over Texas State, USC-Upstate and UTPA.
•  The Rockets finished second at the Great Alaska Shootout in 2015 by defeating San Jose State and Loyola Chicago before falling to Middle Tennessee in the championship game.
•  Toledo posted a 1-2 mark at the Challenge in Music City in 2016 with a double-overtime win over Evansville followed by losses to Middle Tennessee and UNC-Wilmington.
 
SOME TEAM STATISTICAL TIDBITS
• At least four Rockets have scored in double digits in each of UT's first three games with five scoring in double figures in two contests.
• Toledo has five players scoring in double digits with senior Chris Darrington coming off the bench with a 10.7 scoring mark.
• Toledo leads the MAC with an 80.5 free-throw percentage.
• Toledo has six different players shooting 80 percent or better from the free-throw line with each of those individuals making at least five trips to the charity stripe.
• Toledo is 8-2 in games decided by five points or less since the start of last season