2010-11 Basketball Schedule Released

The Virginia Tech basketball schedule was released today, and it’s a far cry
from last year’s soft non-conference schedule that landed the Hokies in the NIT.
Tech is taking on some excellent competition before ACC play kicks in this year.

As we know, last year the Hokies were left out of the NCAA Tournament because
their non-conference strength of schedule was not high enough. Things have been
improved there for this season.

The Hokies will have two more games, on Nov. 27 and Nov. 28, in the 76 Classic.
Possible opponents for those games are DePaul, Oklahoma State, Murray State,
Stanford, Tulsa and UNLV.

The Purdue game is part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, and it will be
televised nationally by ESPN at 7:30pm on December 1. ESPN will also show Tech’s
game at Kansas State on November 16 at 4pm as part of their 24 hours of
basketball to open the season. The Boilermakers and the Wildcats are expected to
start the season in the top 10, and some early season projections have Purdue as
the #2 team in the country, behind only Duke.

Expected to challenge Duke in the ACC race this season, Virginia Tech will
have 13 regular season games televised by one of the ESPN networks. It has not
been decided whether some of the games will be shown on ESPN or ESPN2, but they
will be shown somewhere. Game time and television coverage for the Mississippi
State in the Bahamas on December 18 has not been announced, but it seems like a
strong candidate to be an ESPN game as well.

That’s a good non-conference schedule. The games against Purdue, Kansas
State, Mississippi State and whomever Tech draws in the 76 Classic will help the
overall non-conference strength of schedule, but there are still plenty of easy
wins on the list.

Virginia Tech’s ACC schedule will begin early this season, with in-state
rival Virginia visiting Cassell Coliseum for a Sunday Night Hoops matchup on
December 5 at 6pm. That game will serve as the first ACC contest of the season,
so the winner will be at the top of the conference standings very early in the
year.

The Hokies won’t play another conference game until January 8, when they host
Florida State. Tech will be challenged by four consecutive games to begin
January, and four consecutive games to end the regular season.

From January 8 through January 20, the Hokies will host Florida State, play
at UNC, host Wake Forest and travel to Maryland. From February 22 through March
5, Tech is at Wake Forest, home against Duke, home against Boston College and at
Clemson.

ESPN’s College GameDay will be in town for Virginia Tech’s February 26 game
against the Duke Blue Devils. That game will tip at 9pm and be televised
nationally on ESPN.

We have updated our schedule page with the 2010-11 schedule. Click
here to get a complete look at Tech’s slate.