The Big South Conference announced the men’s hoops conference slate on Thursday, finalizing the Radford’s men’s basketball schedule for the 2017-18 season.
“Our league continues to be one of the most underrated leagues in the country,” Mike Jones said. “The quality of players, coaches and teams is very high throughout and makes every night a challenge. We look forward to competing this year, in what I believe, will be the strongest the league has been during my tenure. Whomever represents the Big South in the NCAA and NIT tournaments will be prepared to win games because of our conference schedule.”
Radford begins conference play one week after competing at the Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic by traveling to Clinton, S.C., to face Presbyterian on Dec. 30. The Highlanders return to the Dedmon Center for the next two games and open the month of January hosting the Big South regular season and tournament champion, Winthrop (Jan. 3). The Eagles represented the Big South Conference in the NCAA Tournament last season.
Three days later on Jan. 6, UNC Asheville travels to Radford. After the homestead the Highlanders travel to Charleston, S.C., for a Tuesday night meeting with Charleston Southern (Jan. 9) and then travel north to play at Gardner-Webb on Jan. 12.
Radford will host the other Big South Commonwealth schools over the next week of play. The first is Liberty on Jan. 15, with Longwood coming to town just three days after on Jan. 18. The Highlanders take a trip to North Carolina and take on Campbell (Jan. 21) inside Gore Arena on Sunday night, before traveling to High Point on Jan. 24. The month of January concludes with Radford hosting Charleston Southern (Jan. 27) thus completing the season series with the Buccaneers.
The month of February features eight games, including four at home and six overall in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Highlanders welcome Gardner-Webb to Dedmon for a Thursday night matchup on Feb. 1, before heading to Rock Hill, S.C., for the final meeting with Winthrop on Feb. 3. On Feb. 7, High Point makes the return trip to Radford before the Highlanders visit their final team outside of Virginia in UNC Asheville (Feb. 10).
Campbell (Feb. 15) and Presbyterian (Feb. 18) will be the final two teams playing inside Dedmon for the regular season. The Fighting Camels make the journey on a Thursday, while the Blue Hose visit on a Sunday. Radford makes the return trip to Liberty (Feb. 22) and Longwood (Feb. 24) to close out the regular season.
The Big South Men’s Basketball Tournament will begin on Tuesday, Feb. 27 and end on Sunday, March 4. Every team will make the tournament and the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds host the No. 9 and No. 10 seeds. Quarterfinal play will begin on Thursday, March 1 and will be hosted at the No. 1 seed.
–RU Athletics