Longwood University Athletics

FARMVILLE, Va. – With a core of returning veterans and a recruiting coup featuring high-impact transfers from Wake Forest, James Madison and N.C. Central, Longwood's 2021-22 men's basketball roster has been years in the making.
 
When the season tips off on Nov. 9, head coach Griff Aldrich will waste no time putting that squad to the test.
 
Tuesday Longwood's fourth-year head coach unveiled a daunting 2021-22 non-conference schedule featuring Longwood's first-ever multi-team event of the Division I era in Willett Hall and showdowns against multiple NCAA Tournament teams and reigning conference champions. The 14-game slate will pit the Lancers against teams from nine difference conferences, including Big Ten stalwart Iowa, reigning Big East champion Georgetown, reigning Southland champion Abilene Christian, Conference USA runner-up Old Dominion, and MEAC runner-up Morgan State.
 
While reserved seating season tickets for Longwood men's basketball are sold out, general admission season tickets for the Lancers' home schedule – including the five-game multi-team event in Willett Hall on Nov. 19-21 – remain on sale at www.LongwoodTickets.com.
 
In total, Longwood's 11 Division I non-conference foes posted a 122-96 record a year ago with both Iowa and Abilene Christian topping the 20-win plateau, and Abilene Christian, Georgetown, Morgan State and Old Dominion all reaching their conference championship game.
 
"We are excited with this year's non-conference schedule," Aldrich said. "As always, we seek to create a schedule that will really prepare us well for Big South Conference play. This year is particularly exciting as we will host our first-ever MTE in Willett Hall, which will bring high-quality programs to Farmville for an outstanding weekend of basketball."
 
Longwood's historic multi-team event will bring American, UMBC and Western Carolina to Willett Hall on Nov. 19-21. That three-day tournament will feature five games, with the Lancers taking on all three teams, and Aldrich – the former Director of Recruiting & Program Development for the 2018 America East Champion UMBC Retrievers – facing off against his former team for the first time.
 
The Lancers will attack that schedule with a roster that includes starting senior guard DeShaun Wade, starting senior forward Zac Watson, starting sophomore forward Jesper Granlund, and Big South All-Freshman Team point guard Justin Hill. Along with those four, the Lancers also return junior forward Leslie Nkereuwem, who averaged a career-high 8.2 points per game as a sophomore, and have added a number of impact transfers including Michael Christmas (James Madison), DA Houston (College of Charleston), Jordan Perkins (N.C. Central) and Isaiah Wilkins (Virginia Tech/Wake Forest).
 
That Lancer lineup will dive head-first into the 2021-22 schedule with a Nov. 9 season opener at Iowa, which finished the 2020-21 season ranked No. 7 in the NCAA NET and No. 8 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll. Armed with one of the nation's top returning point guards and three-point shooters in Jordan Bohannon, the Hawkeyes went 14-2 in Carver-Hawkeye Arena last season and will put a four-game home win streak on the line against the Lancers in the season opener.
 
Longwood fans will not need to wait long before seeing their Lancers live, however, as the opener at Iowa precedes a five-game homestand in Willett Hall. That nearly two-week slate of home games begins on Nov. 12 when the Lancers debut in Farmville against Virginia University of Lynchburg and follow two days later with another matchup against Mid-Atlantic Christian University.
 
Those two games precede the 2021 Lancer Invitational, which will see Longwood face American (Nov. 19), UMBC (Nov. 20) and Western Carolina (Nov. 21) on consecutive days in Willett Hall. Along with Longwood's games, fans can also get a glimpse at the Lancers' competition when Western Carolina faces UMBC on Nov. 19 and American faces Western Carolina on Nov. 20.
 
After that five-game home gauntlet, Longwood hits the road for a pair of top-tier post-Thanksgiving battles, starting with a trip to Norfolk to face Old Dominion on Nov. 26 and following with trek to Washington, D.C., where they will face reigning Big East champion and Patrick Ewing-coached Georgetown on Nov. 30. Both of those matchups will pit Longwood against teams the program has faced just once in the Division I era, with the last contest against the Monarchs coming on Nov. 17, 2009, and the last and only game against Georgetown – then ranked No. 21 in the nation – on Dec. 10, 2012.
 
After the Georgetown game bookends the November portion of the schedule, the Lancers return to Willett Hall for another extended homestand with games against Delaware State (Dec. 4), Morgan State (Dec. 11) and Carolina University (Dec. 14). Those will be the final home bouts before Big South play begins in January and Lancer fans' last chance to see their team live before Longwood ends the non-conference schedule with three consecutive road games.
 
Those final three non-conference games send Longwood to St. Francis-Brooklyn (Dec. 19), Abilene Christian (Dec. 22) and Maryland Eastern Shore (Dec. 30). The St. Francis game in Brooklyn will be Longwood's first trip to The Empire State since facing Cornell on Dec. 17, 2018, and the program's first trip to the Boroughs since pulling out a 70-69 win at Manhattan on Nov. 28, 2015.
 
Meanwhile, the Abilene Christian game will take Longwood to Abilene, Texas, the home state of current Lancers Justin Hill (Houston), DA Houston (Houston), Prosper Obidiebube (Houston) and Zac Watson (Plano), and the former home of Aldrich.

Longwood Men's Basketball 2021-22 Non-Conference Schedule

Day	Date	Opponent	Location	Radio	Video/TV
Tuesday	Nov. 9	at Iowa	Iowa City, Iowa	WVHL 92.9 FM
Friday	Nov. 12	Virginia University of Lynchburg	Farmville, Va.	WVHL 92.9 FM	ESPN+
Sunday	Nov. 14	Mid-Atlantic Christian University	Farmville, Va.	WVHL 92.9 FM	ESPN+
Friday	Nov. 19	American	Farmville, Va.	WVHL 92.9 FM	ESPN+
Saturday	Nov. 20	UMBC	Farmville, Va.	WVHL 92.9 FM	ESPN+
Sunday	Nov. 21	Western Carolina	Farmville, Va.	WVHL 92.9 FM	ESPN+
Friday	Nov. 26	at Old Dominion	Norfolk, Va.	WVHL 92.9 FM
Tuesday	Nov. 30	at Georgetown	Washington, D.C.	WVHL 92.9 FM
Saturday	Dec. 4	Delaware State	Farmville, Va.	WVHL 92.9 FM	ESPN+
Saturday	Dec. 11	Morgan State	Farmville, Va.	WVHL 92.9 FM	ESPN+
Wednesday	Dec. 14	Carolina University	Farmville, Va.	WVHL 92.9 FM	ESPN+
Sunday	Dec. 19	at St. Francis-Brooklyn	Brooklyn, N.Y.	WVHL 92.9 FM
Wednesday	Dec. 22	at Abilene Christian	Abilene, Texas	WVHL 92.9 FM
Thursday	Dec. 30	at Maryland Eastern Shore	Princess Anne, Md.	WVHL 92.9 FM

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