Ohio Announces 2000-01 Men's Basketball Schedule
Slate Features Final Four Participant Wisconsin, Virginia, West Virginia and a Trip to the ASU azcentral.com Holiday Classic
Contact: Heather Czeczok at 740-593-1299 or sports.media@ohio.edu
ATHENS, Ohio (September 26, 2000) -- Ohio University announced its 2000-01 men's basketball schedule on Tuesday. The schedule features a competitive slate of non-conference games to complement Ohio's Mid-American Conference schedule. The season culminates with the MAC Championship at Cleveland's Gund Arena March 8-10. First round games will be played at campus sites on March 5th.
The 2000-01 schedule continues Ohio's philosophy of playing competitive and challenging schedules. "As we like to do, we have put together a very challenging non-conference schedule to go with the very competitive MAC league games," explained head coach Larry Hunter. "One of the reasons our players choose Ohio is because we consistently play teams from the Big Ten, ACC, Big East, Conference USA, SEC, and PAC-10. Only having 11 home games makes it tough, but this kind of schedule is full of opportunity and should help prepare us for rigors of the conference play."
Ohio's non-conference schedule features trips to 2000 Final Four participant Wisconsin and Virginia, both of which kick off home-and-home series between the teams that will see return trips to The Convo by both squads. Those trips are part of a five-game stretch of road contests that opens with a game against Niagara in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After stops at Virginia and Wisconsin, Ohio travels to Duquesne before opening MAC action at Western Michigan.
The only home game on the December schedule is a visit from West Virginia on Tuesday, December 19. Ohio returns to the road with a trip to Oakland before a short holiday break. Then the Bobcats travel to Arizona State for the azcentral.com Holiday Classic on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 29-30. The Bobcats open the tournament with host-team Arizona State, before facing either Pepperdine or UNC Charlotte.
The schedule for January and February includes the remainder of Ohio's MAC slate. First-year Parents' Weekend will be celebrated on January 20 as Ohio faces Akron. The annual Sibs' Weekend festivities will include Ohio's matchup with Eastern Michigan on February 10. Other MAC teams coming to The Convo in January include Kent State, Miami and Northern Illinois. Marshall, Bowling Green, Buffalo and Central Michigan are scheduled for trips to Athens in February.
Ohio is coming off a 20-13 season in 1999-2000. While eight letterwinners return from that team, the Bobcats will have to fill the gaps left by the departure of All-MAC forward Shaun Stonerook and guard Sanjay Adell. In addition to three returning starters, Ohio adds juniors Jon Sanderson and Alex Liatsos and freshmen Kevin Shorter, Jaivon Harris and Thomas Stephens.
Season tickets for Ohio basketball can be purchased through the Ohio Athletics Ticket Office by calling 740-593-1300 or 1-800-575-CATS (2287). The 14-game package includes both exhibition games, 11 regular season games and the MAC Championship first-round game.
