CHARLOTTE, N.C. – ESPNU has selected the Radford at Longwood men’s basketball contest as its first Big South Wildcard broadcast of the 2023-24 season, it was announced today by the Big South Conference office. The game will move from its current Wednesday, Jan. 10 date to Thursday, Jan. 11 and will tip at 9 p.m. inside the new Joan Perry Brock Center in Farmville, Va.
The match-up will mark the second meeting between the squads on ESPNU. It will be Radford’s 14th appearance in the Big South’s ESPNU Wildcard series, and seventh for Longwood. The teams are currently 1-2 in the Big South standings, as the Lancers currently have the league’s best record at 12-2 — including an 8-0 record at the JPB, while the Highlanders are tied for second at 10-4.
Longwood had the nation’s longest winning streak at 12 games from Nov. 11-Dec. 20. The Lancers are ranked No. 109 in the NET and their non-conference wins include Maryland-Eastern Shore, N.C. Central, Delaware State (twice), Bethune-Cookman, Morgan State, Milwaukee and VMI. Picked fifth in the conference preseason poll, the Lancers currently rank first in the Big South in scoring defense (61.6), scoring margin (+17.6), field goal defense (39.3) and rebounding margin (+13.6). Longwood is led by Walyn Napper (14.4 points, 4.9 assists, 1.9 steals).
Radford enters this week on a five-game win streak with wins over Elon, N.C. Central, VMI, Bucknell and West Virginia during that span. The Highlanders, with a NET rating of 139, have also knocked off Marshall, Morgan State and Northern Colorado, while two of their four losses have been by one possession. Radford is tops in the Big South in three-point percentage (38.0) and three-point defense (28.3), while ranking second in scoring defense (66.9), free throw percentage (74.7) and field goal defense (39.9). The Highlanders have three players averaging double-figures, led by Kenyon Giles (14.6).
This is the 11th year of the Big South’s ESPNU Wildcard series, which again features six Thursday broadcasts –- Jan. 11 (Radford at Longwood), Jan. 18, Feb. 1, Feb. 15, Feb. 22 and Feb. 29 — that are selected 14-21 days in advance. A total of 47 games have been played in the series that began in 2013-14, and while the home teams are 31-16, the 47 contests have been decided by an average of 9.30 points, with 28 59.6 percent) of those being decided by single-digits.
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