Earlier today, head coach Dale Layer and Liberty released its 2013-14 basketball schedule. Yes, you heard that right, on July 22nd the Flames released their upcoming basketball schedule. Great job to all those involved on getting this out so early. Anyways, here’s a look at who the Flames play out of conference.
Obviously the Flames toughest challenge will be taking on the Cavaliers in Charlottesville especially a UVA team focused on getting to the NCAA Tournament. This will be Liberty and Virginia’s first meeting since 2008 when a Ritchie McKay (now an assistant coach at UVA) and Seth Curry led Flames team upset the Cavaliers. Princeton and Delaware, though of smaller leagues, will both be formidable foes for Liberty. Getting Princeton, of the Ivy League, to the Vines Center is a feat in and of itself, looking forward to that matchup. Missouri State and William & Mary both have the potential to be solid, top-200 teams before the season is finished. Austin Peay has a pretty solid history, and will hopefully rebound from a disastrous 2012-13 season. All in all, a solid schedule with a couple of places to grab folks’ attention, and several good tests to prepare the Flames for conference play. Sure, the three sub-DI opponents are disappointing, but can be overlooked. Perhaps the Big South will eventually adopt an 18 game conference schedule to help its teams schedule fewer sub-DI opponents.
This is a disappointing schedule. There isn’t much to be excited about but at least most games should be winnable. I hope Liberty builds off the success of last year and repeats as tournament champions!