Charleston, S.C. ? Participating in the Charleston Classic, opening the brand new Carolina First Center against South Carolina and other home games against Davidson, Coastal Carolina and UNC Wilmington, as well as road contests at Preseason #1 North Carolina and NCAA Tournament participant Winthrop, highlight the College of Charleston’s 30-game regular season 2008-09 men’s basketball schedule, it was announced on Friday.
“When you look at the strength of our conference, we play as tough a schedule as anyone can play,” said third-year coach Bobby Cremins, who returns all five starters from last season’s team that reached the Southern Conference’s Tournament semi-finals. “The teams outside of our league are excellent opponents for the College and the addition of the Charleston Classic makes our schedule great.”
“We host the Charleston Classic, which should be a very exciting tournament for the city of Charleston. It should be a great college basketball environment for our fans and students.”
The bracket for the Charleston Classic will be released later. Teams participating along with the Cougars are Clemson, East Tennessee State, Hofstra, Temple, TCU and Western Michigan. An eighth team will be announced shortly.
Charleston has 16 games at the Carolina First Center and 14 road games, including its annual contest against Charleston Southern at the North Charleston Coliseum Nov. 20.
The non-conference schedule includes road games at South Carolina State, Winthrop and North Carolina. The Cougars will also host the Gamecocks, Coastal Carolina and UNC Wilmington. The contest against South Carolina marks the first time in Cougar NCAA history that an SEC school has faced CofC at home. The Carolina First Center will be officially dedicated prior to that game.
“We finally got the South Carolina game rescheduled, thanks to the efforts of Coach Darrin Horn. It will be our first official home game which will be tremendous for us. And thanks to Roy Williams’ generosity and love of the Lowcountry we have worked out a road game at North Carolina this year. The Tar Heels return the game at home next season and we’ll head back to Chapel Hill in the 2010-11 season.”
“I don’t mind playing a difficult schedule as long as it doesn’t hurt our team, but as always it will be very challenging for us this season.”
The Cougars will play home-and-home series with nine of 11 league opponents. Charleston plays two league teams once when it hosts Southern Conference newcomer Samford and travels to Chattanooga. The Cougars open SoCon play at Elon Dec. 4th, with their first home league game against Davidson Dec. 29th. Charleston’s contest against the Wildcats at the Carolina First Center will be broadcast on an ESPN network station. Davidson is coming off an Elite Eight appearance in the 2008 NCAA Tournament.
The 2009 Southern Conference Basketball Championships will be held March 6-9 at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga, Tenn.