PIRATES RELEASE HOOPS SCHEDULE
Maurice D. Williams 8/11/09

HAMPTON, Va. – The Hampton University men’s basketball team released its 2009-2010 schedule on Monday, a slate that features a combined an in-season tournament and 13 non-conference foes.

“We’ve got a competitive schedule,” interim head coach Edward Joyner Jr. said. “We have a wealth of teams that are good … a lot of mid-majors, a team from the Big East, a team from the ACC, that we think we can be competitive with.”

The Pirates will kick things off on Nov. 14, when they travel to Philadelphia to take on LaSalle before playing host to Iona Nov. 17 at the Convocation Center. Virginia Commonwealth will visit on Nov. 23, before the Pirates hit the road again to take on William & Mary on Nov. 25.

Hampton will participate in the World Vision Basketball Classic Nov. 27-29 in Laramie, Wy. along with Monmouth, Pepperdine and Wyoming, before heading to Tampa, Fla. to take on South Florida on Dec. 2. The Pirates will then travel to Madison Square Garden in New York City for the annual Big Apple Classic against Howard, their first Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) game of the season.

“(The tournament) serves two purposes, I think,” Joyner said. “One, it’s an early gauge on playing back-to-back in a tournament format. Two, we get to look on a national scale of where we stand as a team.”

The Pirates will then have three straight games on the road – Dec. 9 at Delaware, Dec. 19 at Towson and Dec. 23 at Virginia. Hampton will then close out the bulk of its non-conference schedule on Jan. 3, ringing in the New Year at the Convocation Center against Fordham.

The Pirates’ last non-conference game will be on March 1, when Longwood pays a visit.

The bulk of the conference schedule will kick off on Jan. 9, when the Pirates will host Coppin State, with Morgan State following on Jan. 11. The team will take to the road on Jan. 16 and 18 for dates at Norfolk State and North Carolina A&T, before returning home Jan. 23 and 25 to take on Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M.

Four straight road games then await the Pirates – at Delaware State on Jan. 30, at Maryland-Eastern Shore on Feb. 1, at South Carolina State on Feb. 6 and at Winston-Salem State on Feb. 8. Norfolk State will then come to the Convocation Center on Feb. 13, with North Carolina A&T following on Feb. 15.

Hampton will head to Florida to take on Bethune-Cookman on Feb. 20 and Florida A&M on Feb. 22, before returning home for a Feb. 27 date against Delaware State and March 4 against Howard.

The 2010 MEAC Basketball Championships will be held March 8-13 in Winston-Salem, N.C.