On November 9th, Gator basketball will face off against Georgetown on the USS Bataan in the Navy-Marine Corps Classic. The USS Bataan is a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship commissioned into the United States Navy in 1997. The Bataan is currently stationed in Norfolk, Virginia and will be docked in Jacksonville, Florida for the game. The ship has seen some action in it’s 15 years on the seas. Duties have included the Iraq war (2003-2007) and more recently the relief effort in Haiti for the 2010 earthquake. This will be the 2nd year in a row that the NCAA has played a game on a large Navy Vessel.
Gatorzone.com’s Chris Harry was lucky enough to be able to travel with the University of Florida’s operations team scouting out the USS Bataan and looking into the logistics of playing a basketball game on a ship. Chris spent a few hours this afternoon tweeting out pictures from the trip.
Awesome pics. Haven’t been excited for a basketball season opener in awhile…probably will be more excited next year too. Good times for Billy D