FARMVILLE, Va. – For five months, first-year Longwood men's basketball head coach
Griff Aldrich has been assembling his team.
Now with his coaching staff in place and a roster 16 players strong, Longwood's first-year head coach has outlined the road his first Lancer team will travel in 2018-19.
Aldrich announced the first half of the Lancers' 2018-19 men's basketball schedule Thursday, unveiling a 15-game non-conference slate that features six home games and sends Longwood to six states outside the Commonwealth before the start of Big South play.
"We are really pleased with this year's schedule for our players and team," said Aldrich, whose first season at Longwood follows a stint at UMBC where he played a pivotal role in turning around the Retriever program from NCAA cellar-dweller to March Madness darling in 2018.
"The schedule accomplishes several goals for our program, including laying the groundwork for exciting regional rivalry games and providing tough competition to prepare us for Big South Conference play. We look forward to this season and hope our fans, students and community supporters will enjoy this slate of opponents."
The schedule pits Longwood against teams from nine different conferences and provides an early postseason trial run with a three-day, three-game tournament at Seattle University in late November. That cross-country trip will include three of Longwood's nine non-conference road games and will mark the Lancers' first trip to the West Coast since the 2011-12 season.
Along with those road trips, Longwood will host six opponents in Willett Hall in November and December, including Randolph College in the Nov. 6 season opener, Delaware State on Nov. 16, Commonwealth foe VMI on Dec. 1, Frostburg State on Dec. 7, Averett on Dec. 13 and Stetson on Dec. 21. Each of those home games will air live on ESPN+, the new digital streaming platform from ESPN that hosts live games from all Big South Conference institutions, while all 15 non-conference matchups will also air live on WVHL 92.9 Kickin' Country FM.
Aldrich's first year at the Longwood helm will see the Lancers tangle with opponents from the Atlantic 10, Atlantic Sun, Conference USA, Ivy League, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), Southern Conference, Summit League and the Western Athletic Conference.
Included in that mix are matchups against Central Virginia rival Richmond, Commonwealth rival VMI, and MAAC runner-up Fairfield, which advanced to the 2018 MAAC Championship game. In total, the Lancers will face four teams that reached at least the semifinals of their conference tournaments last season, including Cornell, Denver, Fairfield and Seattle.
Longwood will go into the 2018-19 season armed with a roster that features three returning starters and nine letterwinners from last year's squad, along with seven newcomers that Aldrich and his first-year staff brought in during their first recruiting cycle. Highlighting that group are high-scoring senior guard
Isaiah Walton and sixth-year senior forward
Damarion Geter, both returning starters whom Aldrich appointed team captains for 2018-19.
In total, Longwood's veteran-laden squad includes three seniors, six juniors and three sophomores, all complemented by a four-man freshman class.
Lancer fans anxious to get their first look at that group will not have to wait long, as Longwood kicks off 2018-19 in Willett Hall with the season-opener against Randolph College on Nov. 6. That matchup is one of two home games in November, followed by a matchup against Delaware State on Nov. 16 that bookends Longwood's first two road games of the season at Richmond on Nov. 9 and at UMES on Nov. 13.
Following the Delaware State game, Aldrich will guide the Lancers through four consecutive road games, beginning with a showdown at Charlotte on Nov. 19 and following with the three-game tournament at Seattle. In The Evergreen State, Longwood will take part in a four-team tournament hosted by Seattle that also includes Fairfield and Denver. The order of those games has yet to be finalized, though Longwood is guaranteed to face all three foes between Nov. 23-25.
The Lancers then return to Farmville to host back-to-back home games, welcoming VMI to Willett Hall on Dec. 1 and Frostburg State on Dec. 7. A road game at Duquesne in Pittsburgh follows on Dec. 9 before the Lancers return home once more to host Averett on Dec. 13. A trip to Cornell awaits on Dec. 17, followed by the final non-conference home game of the season against Stetson on Dec. 21. The Lancers' non-conference schedule wraps up in Charleston, S.C., at The Citadel on Dec. 29.
The Big South Conference will release its conference schedule at a later date.
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