Blue Raider’s C-USA Basketball Schedule for 2016-17

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kermit Middle Tennessee men’s hoops kicks off the New Year with a bang as the reigning Conference USA Champions host last season’s regular season pacesetter, the UAB Blazers.

Head Coach Kermit Davis announced the full conference slate on Monday with the Blue Raiders non-conference match-ups still to be released.

“We think that the 2016-17 C-USA season is as complete and competitive it has ever been,” Davis said. “We have eight all-conference players returning in C-USA as well as a host of great freshmen.

“I don’t think the league has ever recruited as well as it did this past season.”

After the C-USA opener against UAB on Jan. 1, MT will hit the road to take on Rice (Jan. 5) and North Texas (Jan. 7) before returning to the Murphy Center to face off against Marshall (Jan. 12) and WKU (Jan. 14).

“We’re looking forward to a great conference home schedule and what a way to start it with UAB, Marshall and WKU in the first two home weekends,” Davis added.

Middle Tennessee’s second conference road trip will be a Florida swing with a Jan. 19 meeting at FIU before moving just up the road to battle Florida Atlantic (Jan. 21).

Southern Miss (Jan. 26) and LA Tech (Jan. 28) close out the month of January in Murfreesboro after which the Raiders will open up February at UTSA (Feb. 2) and UTEP (Feb. 4).

Old Dominion (Feb. 9) and Charlotte (Feb. 11) are the next challengers to visit the Murphy Center before Middle Tennessee goes on a tough three-game road trip to WKU (Feb. 16), Marshall (Feb. 18) and UAB (Feb. 25).

The Blue Raiders close out the regular season with a homestand against FIU (March 2) and Florida Atlantic (March 4) before preparing for another postseason run.

Middle returns its top two scorers from the 2015-16 squad that went 25-10 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament Round of 32.

Junior Giddy Potts (14.9 ppg) and senior Reggie Upshaw (13.7 ppg) both earned all-conference honors a season ago while the latter served as the C-USA Tournament MVP for the Blue Raiders.

Middle Tennessee returns five additional letterwinners and welcomes a host of talented newcomers as they look to replace three starters lost to graduation and defend their Conference USA title.

“We lost three good seniors that meant a lot to our team, but we return our top two scorers and have seven others back that were a part of our program last year,” Davis stated. “Those guys are going to have to have a real critical role in the ongoing growth of this program.