Men's basketball team hosting Jim Grimes Classic this weekend

It will be a special weekend at Titan Field House on the Melbourne campus of Eastern Florida State College.

The men's basketball team is hosting the Jim Grimes Classic on Friday and Saturday featuring some of the top teams in the country.

Jim Grimes was the associate head coach of the men's basketball team for the 2012-2013 season before taking over the women's program on March 18, 2013. In his three-plus seasons as the women's coach, Grimes led them to Southern Conference titles in 2014-15 and 2015-16, earning trips to the NJCAA Region 8/FCSAA Tournament both seasons.

He passed away at the age of 45 on Jan. 29, 2017.

"Jim Grimes was one of my best friends, an assistant coach in my first three years here and was a wildly successful women's coach before passing away last year so I wanted to do something to honor him and his legacy," Men's basketball head coach Jeremy Shulman said during the Inside Titan Sports TV show. "It is going to be an unbelievable classic and it is going to be very special to me. … To get the caliber of teams here is special. It is going to be great basketball and remember a really, really great man."

The classic begins Friday evening with the men's basketball team facing Polk State College at 5 p.m. Then Tallahassee Community College will play Snow College at 7 p.m.

On Saturday, Polk State will play Tallahassee Community College at 2 p.m. with the Titans playing Snow College at 4 p.m. The men's game on Saturday will be broadcast live on WEFS-TV and at efsctitans.com/webcast

The Titans come into the weekend 8-1 overall and on a seven-game win streak, scoring over 110 points in the past two games.

Sophomore point guard Ahmed Ali has been the NJCAA Region 8 Player of the Week the past two weeks and comes into the weekend averaging 21 points per game.

Tallahassee is 8-0 this season and ranked No. 13 in the NJCAA Division I poll while Snow College is 5-1 and receiving votes in the poll. Polk State is 2-7 but has won two of the past four games heading into the weekend.

Admission is free to games at Titan Field House.