New head coach Travis Ford and the men’s basketball team announced their 2016-2017 schedule on Sept. 6. SLU will play a total of 31 games in the regular season, including 19 at Chaifetz Arena. The Billikens will be glad to be able to play a majority of their games at home in St. Louis with strong crowd support.
The men have only one home exhibition game this season, which will take place on Nov. 4 against Greenville College. The team will follow with their season opener against Ball State on Nov. 11, also at Chaifetz Arena.
Non-conference opponents include Southern Utah, Eastern Illinois, Brigham Young University, Alabama, Valparaiso, Samford, Kansas State, Wichita State, Chicago State, Southern Illinois, SIUE, Winthrop and North Carolina A&T. SLU has a home-court advantage in the nonconference season, as they will take on nine of these opponents here in St. Louis at SLU’s Chaifetz Arena.
SLU will compete in 18 conference games, 9 of which will be televised on various networks. Tree of SLU’s games will appear on NBC Sports Network. In addition, three more will be shown on American Sports Network, two on CBS Sports Network and one on ESPNU. Some of the games will be locally televised on Fox Sports Midwest, but the specific games that will appear on that network have yet to be announced by network officials.
SLU basketball will open conference play at home against Rhode Island on Dec. 30. They will reach the halfway point of their A-10 season on Jan. 28, after they travel to Washington, D.C. to take on George Washington. Feb. 8 will mark the start of a stretch of six games against teams who reached the 2016 postseason. The Billikens will conclude the regular season on March 4 at Richmond.
The Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Championship will be in Pittsburgh on March 8-11, and all of the games will appear on national television. A full schedule can be found online at slubillikens.com.
SLU will be well-tested this season in a slew of challenging games on the court. Men’s basketball will face 14 opponents who reached the postseason last year. However, Ford and the Billikens are eager to start a new era of basketball in St. Louis and will look forward to the tests. The SLU community is just as excited to see what kind of team the Billikens will be in November, while looking ahead to how the team will grow as the season unfolds into the spring.
