UNC Greensboro men’s basketball announced its 2019-20 regular season schedule today, which features a combined nine games against teams that were in either the NCAA Tournament or NIT last season and 10 games against opponents that finished the year in the top 100 of the NCAA NET rankings. A difficult non-conference schedule boasts three matchups against former National Champions including a home contest against NC State on Sunday, Dec. 15. Additionally, the Spartans will face three defending regular season conference champions in December in Radford, Vermont, and Northern Kentucky.
Radford won a share of the Big South regular season championship last year after an NCAA Tournament appearance the year prior, while Northern Kentucky won the Horizon League’s regular season and tournament titles last season during a 26-win campaign. Vermont, meanwhile, swept the America East’s titles as the Catamounts are currently one of just eight Division I programs to win at least 20 games each of the last 11 years.
“We are excited to finally announce our schedule, as we are glad that we were able to secure a number of quality opponents,” said Head Coach Wes Miller. “This schedule will really test us both at home and on the road. Certainly people understand the challenges we face in Kansas, Georgetown, and NC State, but there are other programs on our non-conference schedule that are coming off championship seasons with postseason success. This is one of the most difficult non-conference schedules during our tenure here at UNCG, and it will help prepare us for play in the SoCon.”
The Spartans are coming off of a record-breaking season, as UNCG won a program-best 29 games along with earning the No. 1-overall seed in the NIT. UNCG defeated Campbell in the first round of that tournament for the school’s first-ever postseason victory. UNCG also broke program records for consecutive home victories (17) and non-conference victories (11) during the milestone season.
UNCG is returning back-to-back Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Year selections in senior forward James Dickey and junior guard Isaiah Miller. Miller is the lone returning All-SoCon first-team pick in the league while Dickey was named an All-SoCon third-team selection.
Entering his ninth season as head coach, Miller is the longest tenured coach in the SoCon and has guided the Spartans to 81 victories over the last three seasons, tied for the eighth-most wins in Division I during that stretch.
Season tickets for the 2019-20 UNCG men’s basketball season are on sale starting as low as $139. Reserve your seats as the Spartans look to build on their recent success. Season tickets include complimentary parking passes, buddy passes to bring friends to a game, an exclusive invitation to an open practice with the team, the opportunity to purchase discounted women’s basketball season tickets, and more.
Contact the UNCG ticket office at 336-334-3250 or email Tyler Weedon at t_weedon@uncg.edu for more information. Season tickets can be purchased online at this link.
Four-game mini plans, which guarantees a ticket to the NC State game, along with group tickets will go on sale Monday, Sept. 16, for $75. Single-game tickets excluding the NC State contest, meanwhile, will go on sale Tuesday, Oct. 1. Single-game NC State tickets will go on sale Monday, Oct. 14.
Opening the season against the Aggies
For the second-straight season, UNCG and North Carolina A&T will play each other on the opening night of the season, this time with the game taking place on Tuesday, Nov. 5, at the Greensboro Coliseum. It will mark the 20th meeting all-time between the Spartans and Aggies with most of those matchups coming between 1992-2002 when the two schools met for 10 straight years.
Last season, UNCG downed North Carolina A&T 74-66 at the Corbett Sports Center.
A showdown with the Jayhawks
UNCG’s second game of the year will see the Spartans take on three-time National Champions Kansas at historic Allen Fieldhouse on Friday, Nov. 8. The only previous meeting between the two schools took place on Nov. 22, 2002, as the Jayhawks scored a 105-66 victory. The Spartans have faced current Big 12 schools only five times, with the last game taking place against West Virginia on Dec. 7, 2002.
Hosting the Spartan Invitational
UNCG will once again be hosting a multi-team event in Greensboro during non-conference action, with four games taking place during an eight-day span. The final game against Appalachian State will be UNCG’s first against the Mountaineers since they left the SoCon in 2014. That game is scheduled to take place on Monday, Nov. 18. This will be the 45th meeting between the two North Carolina schools with the series split evenly at 22 wins each.
The first game of the Spartan Invitational will pit UNCG against Averett (Nov. 11) before first-ever contests with Montana State (Nov. 15) and Tennessee Tech (Nov. 16).
A holiday weekend in our nation’s capital
For the second time in four seasons, UNCG will face Georgetown in downtown Washington, D.C., with this showdown taking place on Saturday, Nov. 30. The game will be the third all-time meeting between the Spartans and Hoyas, with the first two contests taking place on Nov. 14, 2011, and Dec. 22, 2016 ,respectively. In this year’s contest, UNCG will be looking for its first victory in the series.
Following that game, the Spartans will share a court with Kennesaw State for the first time in school history on Wednesday, Dec. 4.
Two quality mid-major opponents on the road
On the backend of a home-and-home series, UNCG will travel to Virginia to face Radford on Saturday, Dec. 7. After punching its ticket to the 2018 NCAA Tournament, Radford last season won a share of the Big South regular season title en route to a 22-win campaign.
Last season in their first tilt in 21 years at the Greensboro Coliseum, UNCG defeated Radford 65-58 to close out the non-conference slate.
Eleven days later on Dec. 18, the Spartans will take a trip to the Green Mountain State to take on Vermont. The meeting will be the third all-time in the series between the Spartans and Catamounts. Over the last 11 seasons, the Catamounts are one of just eight Division I teams to win at least 20 games.
The ACC comes to Greensboro, so too does a league champion
For the first time in two seasons, UNCG will host an ACC school when NC State comes to the Greensboro Coliseum on Sunday, Dec. 15. The game concludes a home-and-home series with the Wolfpack.
The first game of the series between the two North Carolina schools came on Dec. 16, 2017, when the Spartans wiped away a 14-point deficit to score a historic 81-76 victory at PNC Arena. The victory was the Spartans’ third-ever against an ACC opponent and the first against one of the four league teams in North Carolina.
On Saturday, Dec. 21, Northern Kentucky will make its first appearance in Greensboro after claiming the Horizon League’s regular season and conference titles last season. Over the last three years, UNCG and Northern Kentucky have combined to win 153 games while being just two of 33 teams with at least 72 wins during that span.
The Spartans’ final non-conference game will take place on Saturday, Dec. 28, against William Peace.
SoCon play
UNCG will begin SoCon play the week prior to Thanksgiving, when the Spartans host VMI on Sunday, Nov. 24. After spending the entire month of December in non-conference action, UNCG’s next conference opponent will be on Wednesday, Jan. 1, against Mercer. The SoCon has slightly altered its conference schedule, with games typically taking place on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Additionally, schools no longer have “travel partners,” as is the case when UNCG travels to Wofford three days later for a game in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on Saturday, Jan. 4.
After the Mercer game, UNCG will host ETSU (Jan. 8) and Chattanooga (Jan. 18). Also in the opening month of 2020, UNCG will travel to Furman (Jan. 11), The Citadel (Jan. 15), Samford (Jan. 25), and Western Carolina (Jan. 29).
UNCG will play nine games during February, starting with a matchup at ETSU on the first day of the month. After the game against the Buccaneers, the Spartans will return to Greensboro for three-straight games against The Citadel (Feb. 5), Samford (Feb. 9), and Western Carolina (Feb. 12). The Spartans will also host Wofford (Feb. 19) and Furman (Feb. 26). On the road, UNCG will go to Mercer (Feb. 15), VMI (Feb. 22), and Chattanooga (Feb. 29).
The 2020 Ingles Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Championship presented by General Shale will take place March 6-9 in Asheville, North Carolina.
Learn more about men’s basketball and UNCG Athletics at uncgspartans.com.
