Virginia Basketball: Breaking down 2023-24 non-conference schedule
Regular Season Games
These are the “normal” regular season in a team’s schedule. Exhibitions, in-season tournaments, named rivalry games, or challenges are excluded from this section.
November 6 vs. Tarleton State
As is customary for most major college programs, the season starts with a home game against a very beatable opponent. The Texans are a mid-tier WAC program and shouldn’t pose a major threat to the Cavaliers. The most interesting member of the Tarleton State program is not a player but a coach: head coach Billy Gillispie.
November 14 vs. North Carolina A&T
There are four teams below North Carolina A&T in Bart Torkvik’s projections for the 2023-24 season. That’s not in the Colonial Athletic Association – that’s in the entire country. The projection doesn’t even have eight players listed on the Aggies’ roster. It’s going to be a long year for that program.
November 16 vs. Texas Southern
Johnny Jones and Texas Southern play in the SWAC, but they often find themselves in the Big Dance at the end of the year. They’ve made the NCAA Tournament in three consecutive seasons, winning their First Four contests in 2021 and 2022. They lost in the First Four last year to Fairleigh Dickinson, which of course ended up upsetting Purdue. This shouldn’t be a hard game for Virginia, but the Tigers can be sneaky good, once clocking a memorable win at Michigan State about a decade ago.
December 5 vs. North Carolina Central
North Carolina Central continues Virginia’s relatively easy non-conference schedule. LeVelle Moton has created a very consistent program in the MEAC and there should be a lot of veteran contributors to the program, which could make a trip to Charlottesville interesting. Still, Virginia will be heavily favored.
December 16 vs. Northeastern
Bill Coen built Northeastern into an upper echelon CAA team, but the program has struggled in recent years. In the past two seasons, the Huskies have finished at or near the basement of the conference, posting an overall combined record of 19-41. They should once again be in the league’s bottom half this year.
December 19 at Memphis
This is the only true road game in Virginia’s non-conference schedule. It’s not a coincidence that this also projects to be arguably the toughest challenge for the Cavaliers. Penny Hardaway recruits talented teams to Memphis, recently snagging Alabama transfer Jahvon Quinerly. Kendric Davis is gone, but the combination of Quinerly and Caleb Mills is strong. Depending on the future of Mikey Williams, who is dealing with a legal situation, Memphis could be a top-two team in the AAC.
December 27 vs. Morgan State
After the trip to Tennessee, the non-conference schedule ends with a much easier contest at home against another MEAC program, Morgan State. The Bears annually hover around .500 in recent years, but don’t pose a significant challenge to the Cavs.