Liberty will begin defense of its ASUN men’s basketball regular season and tournament title on January 2nd at Florida Gulf Coast, as the full ASUN men’s basketball schedule was unveiled Tuesday.
Head coach Ritchie McKay and his Liberty Flames will be seeking to replicate the success the program saw from last year, when the team won a school-record 29 games and advanced to the program’s 4th ever NCAA Tournament game.
In the first season as an ASUN member, the Flames shared the ASUN regular season title with Lipscomb following a 14-2 conference finish, then went on to win the ASUN Tournament after defeating the Bisons in Nashville on March 10th.
Last season’s conference schedule also opened in Fort Myers, Florida when Liberty announced its presence to the rest of the conference with an impressive 18-point drubbing of annual ASUN contender FGCU.
The league office provided the Flames no favors, as just two days after the trip to Southwest Florida and the conference’s southernmost member, Liberty will travel to the ASUN’s northernmost member NJIT to face the Highlanders on January 4th. Over 1,200 miles separate the ASUN counterparts.
The Flames will open the home portion of its ASUN slate with a 3-game homestand on January 9th and 11 facing North Alabama and Jacksonville, respectively. The homestand concludes one week later when Lipscomb returns to the Vines Center on January 18th. The Flames and Bisons played 3 times in 2018-19, with the road team winning all 3 contests, including the ASUN championship game.
A road trip to northern Florida follows, when Liberty faces North Florida on January 23rd and Stetson on January 25th. The North Florida Ospreys handing Liberty its 2nd and final loss of the ASUN schedule back on February 23rd.
Kennesaw State (Jan. 30) and FGCU (Feb. 1) visit the Vines Center as the calendar turns to February. Liberty will then travel to Jacksonville to face the Dolphins on February 6th and North Alabama on February 8th.
The final 3 regular season home games will take place on February 15th against NJIT, February 20th against North Florida, and February 22nd against Stetson. The final two regular season games will be played on February 27th at Kennesaw State and March 1st at Lipscomb.
Non-conference games we have learned about to this point include a home date against Radford to open the season on November 8th, the Bahamas Showcase, a Lynchburg visit by Navy, a trip to Baton Rouge to play LSU, facing Grand Canyon in the Jerry Colangelo Classic, and the Battle for the Capital Tournament.
Liberty’s 2019-20 MBB Schedule
