HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss men's basketball program has announced its 2016-17 schedule.
"We have a very challenging schedule," head coach Doc Sadler said. "At least eight of our games will be against postseason teams from last year, including several in our conference and the Hawai'i tournament. I'm excited about this season, and the schedule is going to be the toughest we've had in a long time."
Four of the eight schools in the Diamond Head Classic (Dec. 22-25 in Honolulu) made it to the NCAA Tournament field last year, and the entire event will be shown on the ESPN Family of Networks. Southern Miss will open with San Diego State on Dec. 22 at 7 p.m. CT before playing either Tulsa or Stephen F. Austin the next day. The third and final opponent on Dec. 25 is to be determined. Southern Miss travel packages are available as well. Hawai'i, Illinois State, San Francisco and Utah round out the field.
The Golden Eagles tip-off their season with a pair of home exhibitions against Mississippi College (Nov. 3) and William Carey (Nov. 7), both at 7 p.m.
The regular season commences Friday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. against Tougaloo in the first all-time meeting between the schools. Southern Miss will then travel to LSU for a Tuesday night contest, the second game in the series since 2004 when the Golden Eagles prevailed 88-84 in Biloxi.
Southern Miss returns home with three consecutive 7 p.m. games versus Union (Nov. 18), Alabama A&M (Nov. 21) and South Alabama (Nov. 30), and it has defeated USA six consecutive times since 2009.
The next two contests are Sunday and Tuesday showdowns on the road at Jackson State and Florida State, respectively. Tulane then comes in Saturday, Dec. 10, marking back-to-back contests against former Metro Conference (and C-USA for the latter) rivals. The Golden Eagles have won 13 of the last 15 head-to-head battles with Tulane, including a nine-game streak from 2009-14.
Southern Miss concludes its mainland non-conference slate Dec. 19 versus Mississippi State in Jackson at the Mississippi Coliseum. It's the first installment of the four-year series the teams will play at that site. The two teams have not squared off since the 2001 NIT, and the last regular season one was in 1995.
The team will have five days to recuperate from Hawai'i before beginning C-USA play on New Year's Day against Louisiana Tech at home, then hosting UTSA and UTEP on Jan. 5 and 7, respectively.
Southern Miss will play on every C-USA campus except for FIU, Florida Atlantic, Marshall and Western Kentucky. The team's senior day will be celebrated Saturday, Feb. 18 versus FAU.
The regular season ends with three straight road contests at Rice and North Texas before the March 4 conclusion at Louisiana Tech. The C-USA Tournament will be held in Birmingham from March 8-11.
This offseason became a new era for the Golden Eagles, as program legend and 13-year NBA veteran Clarence Weatherspoon became an assistant as well as Southern Miss grad and former Associate Head Coach Kyle Roane in the Director of Basketball Operations role. He filled the void of Golden Eagle alumnus Chris Croft, who became an assistant after running operations the previous two years.
Further schedule updates, including tip-off times, can be found throughout the season by visiting SouthernMiss.com or following @SouthernMissMBB on Twitter.
