The Dayton, Purdue and Texas A&M women's basketball teams have all bowed out of the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic at South Point Arena over safety concerns.
The three teams had all agreed to be part of the tournament in coordination with officials from Destination Basketball, which ran the Las Vegas Invitational last month at The Mirage.
The Dayton, Purdue and Texas A&M women's basketball teams have all bowed out of the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic at South Point Arena over safety concerns.
The three teams had all agreed to be part of the tournament in coordination with officials from Destination Basketball, which ran the Las Vegas Invitational last month at The Mirage.
"We are all about giving our players the opportunity to play the game they love," Texas A&M coach Joni Taylor said in a statement, according to ESPN. "Given the circumstances surrounding the Las Vegas Invitational, we decided to withdraw from the tournament. We are very thankful to Purdue for being adaptable and for allowing us to host them" instead.
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The Las Vegas Invitational saw a bevy of problems, including not having adequate medical personnel on site, which resulted in Auburn freshman Kharyssa Richardson lying on the court for 50 minutes after falling hard and appearing to hit her head before EMTs arrived.
The Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic is slated for Dec. 19-21 and includes Campbell, Cleveland State, Jacksonville State, Lindenwood and Utah Tech.
"The five teams that are going to be at the South Point were five teams we already had," said operations manager Bret Seymour. "To be honest, our other five are happy they [the three that withdrew] aren't there anymore because they like it as a non-Power 5 event. We took those three to help. It's OK. It's really actually better for us because they're not there this year for that particular event."
Seymour said the three Power 5 teams that withdrew discovered they would be playing at South Pointe rather than the Mirage and decided to bow out.
"Destination Basketball had the contracts with Purdue, Texas A&M and Dayton," Seymour said. "We did not. ... We were surprised they claimed they didn't know."
