Longwood men's basketball opens the 2026-27 season at home as part of a doubleheader with the women's program on Monday night inside the Joan Perry Brock Center.
Following the women's contest with The Apprentice School at 5 p.m., the Lancer men squares off with Pfeiffer at 7:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Sam Hovan (play-by-play) and Chase Strawser (analyst) on the call.
Fans can keep up with Longwood men's basketball by following the program on social media as well. Be sure to check out the Lancers on
- Longwood kicks off its 49th season as an NCAA-affiliated program on Monday night vs. Pfeiffer and the 20th campaign as a full Division I member.
- The Lancers open the season at home for the third-straight season. Since 2007, Longwood is 13-6 in home openers and 8-3 when they start the schedule at home.
- Longwood and Pfeiffer meet for the fourth time in the last six years and are former conference rivals in the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference from 1995-2003. During the last three meetings, Longwood is averaging 103.33 points per game against the Falcons and winning by a nearly 40-point margin (39.33) per contest.
- After finishing tied for fourth place in the Big South standings last season, the Lancers rank in the same spot to open this season and were just three points shy of third-place Winthrop in the conference's preseason poll by vote of the league coaches. High Point was the league's preseason favorite followed by Presbyterian.
- Longwood has won two of the last five Big South Championships. The Lancers won the league tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2022 and 2024.
- Following last year's 16-win campaign, Longwood is currently on a streak of five consecutive seasons with 16 or more wins. The stretch is the longest in school history, and the Lancers have averaged more than 20 wins per season over the last five years.
- Fifth-year wing
Alphonzo Billups III and sophomore
MJ Williams were named to the preseason All-Big South Second Team in October. Longwood was one of three programs in the league, along with High Point and Presbyterian, to have multiple preseason All-Big South selections.
- The Lancers return a pair of starters from a season ago in Billups III and sophomore
Elijah Kelly. Billups III averaged 8.1 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game, while starting 18 of 32 games. He scored in double figures on 10 occasions, including a career-high 25 points against USC Upstate. Kellys started 17 games, including 13 of the Lancers' final 14 contests, and averaged 2.3 points and 1.7 rebounds per game.
- Senior
Jaylen Benard returns for his fourth season in the Blue and White. Appearing in every game over the last two seasons, he has averaged 6.3 points and 3.3 rebounds per contest over that stretch. Longwood's leading scorer during the scrimmage portion of the schedule, Benard will look to build on his strong close to the 2026 season. He averaged 11 points and five rebounds per game, shooting 50% from the field and hitting 7-of-17 (41.2%) from 3 over the final three games last year.
- Williams and sophomore
TJ Robinson arrive in Farmville as playmaking transfer guards. Williams, a North Carolina Mr. Basketball finalist in high school, was a double-digit scorer in his rookie season at Eastern Kentucky and ranked sixth in the Atlantic Sun in assists (4.2) and seventh in steals (1.5). Robinson averaged 9.6 points and 2.7 assists per game during his freshman season at St. Peter's.
- Billups III, who is the Lancers' top returning scoring, closed the 2026 campaign strong. Over the final six games, he averaged 12.7 points per game, while shooting nearly 50% from the field and 3-point range. During the stretch, he shot 49.2% from the floor (29-of-59) and 48.5% from the 3 (16-of-33) and tallied his top two career scoring games.
- Longwood Athletics announced Skanska will be the inaugural jersey patch sponsor of Lancer basketball. Longwood and Skanska have built a strong partnership in recent years, with the global construction and development company overseeing several capital projects on campus, including the Joan Perry Brock Center.
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