RICHMOND, Va. – NCAA Tournament teams Wichita State, Virginia, Texas, Iona and Charleston, as well as a trip to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., highlight VCU Men’s Basketball’s 2018-19 non-conference schedule, released Thursday.
In all, eight of VCU’s 2018 non-conference foes reached the postseason in 2017-18, including single-digit NCAA seeds Virginia (1) and Wichita State (4). Additionally, eight of VCU’s potential non-conference opponents in 2018-19 finished last season in the RPI’s top 100.
“Our philosophy every year is going to be to try to have the best out-of-conference schedule that we possibly can have, one of the better ones in the country, if not the strongest,” said VCU Head Coach Mike Rhoades. “I think that’s very important. The brand we have at VCU now, everybody knows we’ll play anybody anywhere.“
VCU officially kicks off its 51st season of men’s basketball on Tuesday, Nov. 6 when it hosts Gardner-Webb at the E.J. Wade Arena at the Stuart C. Siegel Center, where the Rams have sold out 117 consecutive home games.
The Rams will host a pair of home contests with Hampton (Nov. 9) and Bowling Green (Nov. 12), which received an NIT bid last season, as part of the GotPrint.com Legends Classic, presented by Old Trapper, regional round. VCU will head to the prestigious Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. for the Legends Classic Championship Round. VCU will face Temple on Monday, Nov. 19 at Barclays, then advance to take on either Cal from the PAC-12 or storied Big East stalwart St. John’s on Tuesday, Nov. 20. Both games will air on the ESPN family of networks.
Home dates with former CAA-rival Hofstra (Nov. 24), reigning CAA Champion Charleston (Dec. 15), AAC powerhouse Wichita State (Dec. 22), 2018 MAAC Champs Iona (Dec. 1), and potential MAAC favorite Rider (Dec. 30) are also on deck. Wichita State finished the 2017-18 season ranked No. 16 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll and No. 25 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
VCU will also challenge itself with three road contests in a four-game stretch in late November and early December that includes visits to rival Old Dominion (Nov. 28), Texas (Dec. 5) and Virginia (Dec. 9), the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed last season.
The Rams’ full Atlantic 10 Conference schedule will be released in the coming weeks, but VCU’s home match-ups in league play will be La Salle, UMass, Saint Joseph’s, Saint Louis, Dayton, George Mason, George Washington, Rhode Island and Richmond.
New season ticket orders for the 2018-19 season will be taken starting in September through the season ticket wait list. Please click here to be added to the wait list and to be contacted when seats become available.
Mini plans and single game tickets will be available in October. Please visit vcuathletics.com for up-to-date details and on sale dates.
As outlined in the VCU Athletics Seat Equity Plan, VCU Athletics will conduct a re-seating of men’s basketball season tickets every three to five years. The next re-seating will take place in August of 2020 prior the 2020-21 Men’s Basketball season. Season ticket holders will receive more information regarding the re-seating from the Ram Athletic Fund in the coming months.
VCU MEN’S BASKETBALL
2018-19 NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
DATE OPPONENT TIME
Oct. 20 VCU BLACK & GOLD GAME TBA
Oct. 30 TBD (Exhibition) TBA
Nov. 6 GARDNER-WEBB TBA
Nov. 9 &HAMPTON TBA
Nov. 12 &BOWLING GREEN TBA
Nov. 19 %vs. Temple 9:30 p.m.
Nov. 20 %vs. Cal/St. John’s 5/7:30 p.m.
Nov. 24 HOFSTRA TBA
Nov. 28 at Old Dominion TBA
Dec. 1 IONA TBA
Dec. 5 at Texas TBA
Dec. 9 at Virginia TBA
Dec. 15 CHARLESTON TBA
Dec. 22 WICHITA STATE TBA
Dec. 30 RIDER TBA
Home games in BOLD and played at the E.J. Wade Arena at the Stuart C. Siegel Center
& – GotPrint.com Legends Classic presented by Old Trapper – Richmond Regional
% – GotPrint.com Legends Classic presented by Old Trapper – Championship Round (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Game dates and times subject to change. All times EST
