FARMVILLE, Va. – A showdown against Southland champion Stephen F. Austin, a matchup against Big 12 foe Texas Tech and a home game against Commonwealth rival James Madison highlight the 2016-17 Longwood men's basketball schedule, announced Thursday by head coach Jayson Gee.
 
Heading into Gee's fourth year at the helm, the Lancers will navigate a 2016-17 field of Division I opponents that amassed a combined record of 295-278 last season. Three of those teams, including mid-major powerhouse Stephen F. Austin, BCS program Texas Tech and Big South champion UNC Asheville, advanced to the 2016 NCAA Tournament, while four of Longwood's nine Division I non-conference opponents are coming off 20-win seasons.
 
"This schedule, particularly the non-conference portion, is daunting, and with good reason," Gee said. "These road trips to Stephen F. Austin, Texas Tech and Creighton, hosting James Madison, they're not just about exposure for Longwood. It's about exposing our players to a high caliber of basketball and tough environments.
 
"We have a team this year that is mentally and physically tough, and it's a young group that will be here for a long time. They want to be challenged, and they want to get better. We know we're capable of winning these tough games, and we know for sure this schedule will make us better this year and in years to come."

WVHL Kickin' Country 92.9 FM will carry all games live both on the airwaves and online, while all Longwood home games and Big South games will stream for free on the Big South Network. Darius Thigpen returns as the play-by-play man for Longwood basketball on WVHL, this year taking on a full-time broadcast role for all 31 regular season games and the postseason.
 
In total, the Lancers will face six teams that advanced beyond their conference tournaments into 2016 postseason play and seven that won at least 20 games last season. The frontrunner among that group is the four-time reigning Southland champion Stephen F. Austin, which is coming off a Cinderella postseason in which they followed an 18-0 conference record with an upset over No. 3 seed West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament second round. The Jacks finished the year 28-6 and welcome Longwood to a home arena in which they have won 27 consecutive games.
 
The Stephen F. Austin trip is the first of Longwood's two road trips to The Lone Star State. The Lancers return to Texas in December to take on Texas Tech in Lubbock in their final game before Christmas, facing the Red Raiders just two days after a Dec. 19 matchup at 21-win and College Insider Tournament quarterfinalist Ball State in Muncie, Ind.
 
That two-game road swing will be Longwood's most challenging of the season, pitting the Lancers against a Ball State team that amassed a 21-14 record overall record last season and a Texas Tech program that finished as the 50th-ranked program in all of college basketball according to the final NCAA Rating Percentage Index.
 
In another road trip to a mid-major dynasty, Longwood heads to Omaha, Nebraska, on Dec. 10 to take on Big East member Creighton. That matchup puts the Lancers up against a Bluejays program that has won 20 games in 16 of the past 18 seasons and has advanced to 19 total NCAA Tournaments, including nine since 2000.
 
Colonial Athletic Conference member and Virginia rival James Madison will make a return trip to Willett Hall on Dec. 3, returning to Farmville for the first time since Longwood packed 1,963 spectators into a sold-out arena in the last game between the teams in Willett Hall on Dec. 1, 2010. The site of Longwood's last win over the Dukes, who finished third in the CAA in 2015-16, also came in Farmville on Dec. 3, 2008, when the Lancers overcame a 13-point deficit to upend the Dukes 79-76 in front of more than 1,600 fans.
 
Longwood will also face another in-state rival in George Mason, taking on the Patriots in Fairfax, Va., for the second straight year on Dec. 12. That game will feature a rematch of George Mason's 75-70 win on Dec. 19.
 
The Lancers open the season with back-to-back home games, including the preseason opener against neighboring Hampden-Sydney on Nov. 5 at 5 p.m. Longwood then welcomes Maine to Willett Hall on Nov. 13 before trekking to Nacogdoches to face Stephen F. Austin two days later.
 
The non-conference slate precedes an 18-game Big South schedule that allows for a balanced double-round robin ledger against the Lancers' nine league counterparts, following the departure of Coastal Carolina. The conference schedule opens in Willett Hall against Campbell on Dec. 29, fewer than three months after the Longwood home court serves as the site of the 2016 Vice Presidential Debate.
 
The Big South, which has had at least three programs qualify for postseason play each of the past four years, will utilize a Wednesday-Saturday format four different weeks when the calendar turns to 2017.  The remaining weeks feature four Thursday dates -- Jan. 19, Jan. 26, Feb. 9 and Feb. 23 -- that will be ESPNU Wildcard national television selections announced 21 days in advance.
 
The 2017 Big South Men's Basketball Championship returns to a home-site/earned seed format last used in 2012.  The four lowest seeds will compete in the first round on Tuesday, Feb. 28, which will be hosted by the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds.  The quarterfinals and semifinals will be played at the No. 1 seed on Thursday-Friday, March 2-3 on ESPN3, while the highest remaining seed will host the championship game on Sunday, March 5 at 1:00pm on ESPN -- the first Big South title game appearance on ESPN since 2007.
 
The Lancers will run that gauntlet with a 2016-17 roster that includes the Big South's top returning three-point shooter in senior guard Darrion Allen and the league's sixth-leading rebounder in redshirt junior forward Khris Lane. Those two are the lone returning starters from a Lancer squad that advanced to the Big South Tournament quarterfinals after earning an eighth-place regular season finish, which was the program's highest since joining the conference in 2012-13.
 
Joining Allen and Lane in the rotation will be redshirt junior forward and three-time team captain Damarion Geter, who returns to the court after missing the entire 2015-16 season with a shoulder injury. Geter, who had played in every game of his first two years as a Lancer, will join Lane in bolstering a frontcourt that welcomes the biggest player in the Big South in 6-10, 245-pound Saint Joseph's transfer Obi Romeo and 6-8, 215-pound sophomore forward Jahleem Montague.
 
Longwood's backcourt also gets a makeover with the additions of UC Davis transfer Isaiah Walton, junior college transfer Kendrick Thompson and freshman point guard Juan Munoz. Those three join Allen and redshirt sophomore point guard Bryan Gee, who both played in all 33 games last season, and senior Isaac Belton, who has played in 70 games during his first thee years as a Lancer.
 
The Lancers will also get reinforcements on the wing with 6-8 sophomore Chris Shields joining 6-5 freshman JaShaun Smith in swingman roles.  Shields averaged 6.6 points, 2.6 rebounds per game and 1.4 assists per game in 14 contests off the bench last year while shooting .345 (10-of-29) from three-point range. Smith, meanwhile, comes to Farmville as one of the most athletic freshmen in all of college basketball, as evidenced by his appearance as the No. 1 play on ESPN's SportsCenter this past December.

2016-17 Longwood Men's Basketball Schedule

Date	Opponent	Location	Venue	Time	Radio	TV/Video
Nov. 5	Hampden-Sydney (exh.)	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	5 p.m.	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Nov. 13	Maine	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	2 p.m.	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Nov. 15	at  Stephen F. Austin	Nacogdoches, Texas	Johnson Coliseum	11 a.m.	WVHL 92.9 FM
Nov. 18	Salem International	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	7 p.m.	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Nov. 23	at  Saint Francis (Pa.)	Loretto, Pa.	Degol Arena	7 p.m.	WVHL 92.9 FM
Nov. 28	Dartmouth	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	7 p.m.	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Dec. 3	James Madison	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	5 p.m.	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Dec. 10	at Creighton	Omaha, Neb.	CenturyLink Center	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM
Dec. 12	at George Mason	Fairfax, Va.	EagleBank Arena	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM
Dec. 14	Averett	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	7 p.m.	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Dec. 19	at Ball State	Muncie, Ind.	Worthen Arena	7 p.m.	WVHL 92.9 FM
Dec. 21	at Texas Tech	Lubbock, Texas	United Supermarkets Arena	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM
Dec. 29	Campbell*	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Dec. 31	at High Point*	High Point, N.C.	Millis Center	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Jan. 4	Presbyterian*	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Jan. 7	at Winthrop*	Rock Hill, S.C.	Winthrop Coliseum	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Jan. 11	at UNC Asheville*	Asheville, N.C.	Kimmel Arena	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Jan. 14	Gardner-Webb*	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Jan. 19	Radford*	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Jan. 21	at Charleston Southern*	Charleston, S.C.	Buc Dome	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Jan. 26	Liberty*	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Jan. 28	at Presbyterian*	Clinton, S.C.	Templeton Center	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Feb. 1	High Point*	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Feb. 4	at Gardner-Webb*	Boiling Springs, N.C.	Paul Porter Arena	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Feb. 9	at Campbell*	Buies Creek, N.C.	Pope Convocation Center	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Feb. 11	UNC Asheville*	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Feb. 15	Winthrop*	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Feb. 18	at Radford*	Radford, Va.	Dedmon Center	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Feb. 23	at Liberty*	Lynchburg, Va.	Vines Center	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Feb. 25	Charleston Southern*	Farmville, Va.	Willett Hall	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
Feb. 28	Big South Championship First Round	TBA	TBA	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	BSN
March 2	Big South Championship Quarterfinals	TBA	TBA	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	ESPN3
March 3	Big South Championship Semifinals	TBA	TBA	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	ESPN3
March 5	Big South Championship Game	TBA	TBA	TBA	WVHL 92.9 FM	ESPN

 
All times EST and subject to change
*Big South game
Bold designates home game
BSN designates Big South Network broadcast

 
#GoWood