HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – Lenoir-Rhyne University will start its next men’s basketball season trying to beat one of its graduates.
The Bears have announced their 2018-19 schedule, highlighted by an exhibition game at Tennessee in which they will face LRU alum and former basketball player Rick Barnes’ Vols on Nov. 6.
SULLIVAN
LRU will be in its third season under head coach Everick Sullivan after going 11-16 overall last season and tying Newberry (S.C.) and Coker for fifth place in the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) last season.
The Bears started 0-4 last season and lost three of their last four at the end, falling in the SAC quarterfinals to Queens (32-4), which lost in the NCAA Division II semifinals.
LRU is 21-33 overall under Sullivan and 18-24 in league games.
“The trip to Knoxville is exciting for a number of reasons and is a win-win for our program,” Sullivan said in the press release. “After our athletic director, Kim Pate, informed us that Coach Barnes had reached out to her in reference to playing a game this year it was something I felt we had to make happened.
“This is a once in a lifetime experience for our guys and we really appreciate Coach Barnes and UT for making this game happen.
“Although it is only an exhibition game for us, we will be challenged with playing a nationally ranked, NCAA tournament team in our first game of the season.
“Our guys are excited and looking forward to competing and showing everyone what kind of team we’re going to have this year.”
LRU have played exhibition games in the past against Barnes, including when he was head coach at Texas.
The Bears open the season Nov. 9 at home with a 5:30 p.m. game against Young Harris.
LRU will play back-to-back games against schools from Conference Carolinas — Emmanuel on Nov. 10 in Hickory and Southern Wesleyan at Shuford Gym on Nov. 13.
The first road games of the year for the Bears are Nov. 16 at Livingstone and Nov. 17 at Johnson C. Smith.
The first SAC game is Nov. 20 at home against Newberry, S.C.
“We believe that we have put together a schedule that will challenge us and set us up for the tough South Atlantic Conference,” Sullivan said in the press release. “The non-conference schedule has a good mix of the competitive teams…
“We feel that we will have a great gauge of where our team is at when we finish the non-conference slate. Hopefully this schedule gives us the opportunity, and motivates the guys to lock in and get ready to play at a high level every single night.
“Step by step, we want to close the gap on what we are today and what we can be, and I think this schedule will help us prepare for that.”
LRU’S SCHEDULE: https://lrbears.com/schedule.aspx?path=mbball