Charlotte announces schedule

Charlotte 49er head men's basketball coach Alan Major is taking on a heavy schedule for his first year as head coach. Major will lead the Niners against eight teams that participated in the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Charlotte will play four home games against NCAA Tournament teams, as well as a fifth against NIT Tournament Champion Dayton.

“The schedule is challenging with teams like Tennessee, which could be a top 15 team, and going to Oregon State and to the Charleston Tournament for three games in four days where we will be tested by teams like Georgetown and NC State. It’s definitely a schedule that has some BCS flavor,” Major said of the non-conference slate. “You want to put yourself in position by the end of the year that you’ve seen every scenario. I think this schedule is set up that way. We have strong home and road games, a multiple-game format, a cross country trip – hopefully this will put us in the position that we have seen a lot by the time late February, early March rolls around.”

In addition to Tennessee, Xavier and Dayton, the Niners will also play home games against NCAA Tournament participants Richmond and Winthrop.

Charlotte will travel and play in the Charleston Classic, which will be aired nationally on ESPN. The eight-team tournament currently consists of Charlotte, N.C. State, Georgetown, Wofford, George Mason and East Carolina. There are still two teams to be determined to complete the field.

Charlotte will also play four road games against NCAA Tournament teams including Temple, Georgia Tech, Xavier and Richmond.

“The goal of this team is to be playing in March and with this schedule we put ourselves in position to do just that,” Major added.

The non-conference portion of the schedule will be highlighted by Charlotte's bout with Tennessee on Dec. 17. The game will be played at Time Warner Cable Arena and will be aired nationally on CBS College Sports.

Charlotte opens the season on Nov. 13 against South Carolina State before heading to the Charleston Classic, Nov 18-21.

After returning from the Charleston Classic, the Niners will head west and play at Oregon State on Nov. 24 before returning home to face Radford on the 27 to close out the first month of play.

Charlotte will head to Greenville, N.C. to take on East Carolina on Dec. 1 before returning to Halton Arena to face Winthrop.

Charlotte will gain play in the Hornet's Nest Rivalry when they play at the Davidson Wildcats on Dec. 11. Following Charlotte's game with the Volunteers, the Niners will play host to Wright State on Dec. 22 and will close out the non-conference schedule with games at Mercer (Dec. 30) and at Georgia Tech (Jan. 2).

Charlotte will open conference play with a pair of road games against Richmond (Jan. 5) and St. Bonaventure (Jan. 8). Charlotte hosts Fordham in their conference home opener on Jan. 15 and will stay in town to take on UMass on the 19th.

Charlotte will then hit the road again as they take on Duquesne (Jan. 22) and Temple (Jan. 26) before starting a three-game homestand against La Salle (Jan. 29), Xavier (Feb 2.), and George Washington (Feb. 5).

Charlotte heads up to the great white north to take on Rhode Island on Feb. 12 and returns to Halton for a match-up with Dayton on Feb. 16.

The Niners will play two of their final three regular season contests in the friendly confines of Halton Arena, squeezing a road game at Xavier (Mar. 2) between home contests against Richmond (Feb. 26) and the season finale against St. Josephs (Mar. 5).

The A-10 men's basketball tournament will be held on March 8, 11-13. Opening round games will be held at campus sites while the final rounds will be held at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ.