Tourney Tested Competition Abound in 2008-09 La Salle Men's Hoops Schedule
July 10, 2008
Philadelphia, PA- Their third trip to the Paradise Jam Tournament in St. Thomas U.S. Virgin Islands where they will face the Connecticut Huskies is just the start of a challenging non-conference schedule for the 2008-09 La Salle University Explorers. The Explorers’ schedule will include as many as eight teams who participated in the NCAA Tournament and six others who were part of the N.I.T. field.
Head Coach Dr. John Giannini’s squad will open the 2008 Paradise Jam on St. Thomas, their third invitation to the event, with UConn on November 21st and will draw from a field that includes 2008 NCAA teams Miami, Wisconsin and San Diego as well as Valparaiso, Southern Mississippi and Iona in the three game, four day tournament.
Giannini is excited about the challenge of playing so many talented opponents, “A goal with our non-conference schedule this year was to play as many as winning programs as possible in order to strengthen our post season chances and improve our RPI as well as challenge our team and prepare for the Atlantic 10 part of our schedule. There is no question we have accomplished that this year with the teams we have scheduled.”
Miami, UConn and Wisconsin are all ranked in many pre-season top-25 lists.
Also highlighting the non-conference schedule are home games against Big 5 rival Villanova who return five starters from an NCAA Sweet-16 team as well as ACC foe and N.I.T. participant Florida State. Both games will be played on La Salle’s campus at Tom Gola Arena.
After travelling to Ivy League Champion Cornell on December 20th the Explorers will challenge another conference champion and NCAA team in Mount Saint Mary’s when they host The Mount three days later at Gola Arena.
“I think it is reasonable to expect that over half of our non-conference schedule will include post-season teams from last year or teams that will play in the post season this year,” noted Giannini. “The other non-conference games include traditionally strong programs that return most of their talent from last year and are seen as improving teams.”
Also on the schedule is MAAC regular-season champ and tourney runner-up Rider as well as America East runner-up Hartford.
The Explorers will host a total of nine non-conference games at Gola in addition to a full slate of Atlantic 10 games.
Although the complete A-10 schedule will not be released for several weeks, the Explorers have learned that they will have conference home-and-home series with George Washington, N.I.T. finalist Massachusetts and 2008 A-10 Champion and NCAA participant Temple.
The A-10 schedule will provide a total of four games against NCAA Tournament teams (Temple, Xavier and Saint Joseph’s) and an additional four games against N.I.T. participants (Charlotte, Dayton, UMass).
The Explorers open the 2008-09 campaign at Gola Arena on Saturday November 15th against Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference regular season champion and N.I.T. participant Morgan State.
All game times will be announced at a later date. La Salle University Men’s Basketball 2008-2009 SCHEDULE
DATE OPPONENT TIME November Sat. 15 MORGAN STATE Tue. 18 FLORIDA STATE Fri-Mon. 21-24 Paradise Jam (St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands) (Miami, Southern Mississippi, Wisconsin, San Diego, Valparaiso, or Iona) Fri. 21 Connecticut Sat. 22 TBA Sun. 23 TBA Mon. 24 TBADecemberTue. 2 BUCKNELL Sat. 6 at Hartford Sun. 14 VILLANOVA Wed. 17 RIDER Sat. 20 at Cornell Tue. 23 MOUNT SAINT MARY’S Wed. 31 MANHATTAN January Sat. 3 HOWARD Wed. 21 PENNSYLVANIA |
