Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
COLUMN: Five Non-Conference Hoops Days I'm most excited to see played in 2023
10/22/2023 7:58:00 PM | General, Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball
The season's tipoff is just over two weeks away!
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Strange as it may seem, given the leaves have not quite consistently changed colors here in Murfreesboro, but they'll be competitive basketball played in the Murphy Center this week, as the Lady Raiders host UT Southern on Friday at 6 p.m. in the first of their two exhibitions.
After hearing from both program's coaches at this week's CUSA Tipoff (you can read highlights from the day in Huntsville, Ala. in last week's notebook here), my excitement for the season ahead in the Glass House has only grown.
And with both programs putting together schedules that will challenge their teams both at home, at neutral sites and especially on the road ahead of Conference USA play, we'll have a good chance to see how the offseason work of both the Blue Raiders and Lady Raiders has manifested itself against quality competition very early on in the 2023-24 season.
But like any schedule, there's some games that are more exciting than others. Here's five dates, four in the Murphy Center and one at a close-by neutral site, that I'm hoping you'll join me in watching this season.
Women's Basketball hosts Memphis, Men's Basketball hosts Northern Kentucky, November 6
Monday, November 6 is the first day of the 2023-24 season in which NCAA Division I teams can compete in both men's and women's basketball. Both the Blue Raiders and Lady Raiders didn't want to wait even a day to start their seasons. And with both teams at home that Monday, they've set up a delightful doubleheader for fans of Middle Tennesses, with the Lady Raiders hosting Memphis at 5 p.m. and the Blue Raiders hosting Northern Kentucky at 7:30 p.m.
Picked fifth in the American Athletic Conference's preseason poll, the Memphis Tigers will be playing their first game under head coach Alex Simmons. Simmons, who comes to Memphis after taking Gardner-Webb to the NCAA Tournament, was a member of Lady Raider head coach Rick Insell's staff at MTSU from 2010-2013 and coached with associate head coach Matt Insell at Ole Miss when the younger Insell led the Rebels from 2013-18. Rick Insell also coached Simmons at Shelbyville High prior to Insell taking the MTSU job.
For the men's game that follows, head coach Nick McDevitt will have his team face the Norse of Northern Kentucky, picked first in the preseason poll for the always tough Horizon League. NKU is coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2023, a year where they entered the final media timeout against Houston trailing by just four points prior to falling to the Cougars in the first round.
Men's Basketball hosts Stephen F. Austin, November 9
Later that same week, the Blue Raiders will continue a five-game homestand to start the 2023-24 season, taking on Stephen F. Austin at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.
This game is another one where MTSU will face a well-respected opponent, with the Lumberjacks picked second in the WAC this season and are just outside of the Top 100 in KenPom's preseason rankings. But it's not one that would necessarily be on my radar each year (other than SFA is probably my favorite Duke home loss by a non-UNC team ever), without the fact that it also kicks off the first ever WAC/CUSA scheduling initiative this basketball season. This season, 36 games (18 for both genders) have been set up between the two conferences, with each CUSA member getting one road and one home game in the scheduling matchup.
The goal is to help programs in both conferences schedule quality opponents (and perhaps more importantly, home games against quality opponents), and the matchups appear to be designed to that end. The Lady Raiders, for instance, will host Top 70 NET team Stephen F. Austin later in the season, on December 17.
I'm curious how the whole initiative, which is scheduled for multiple years, works out, and you'll get a chance to see some quality teams from a part of the country we don't travel too often to this season in the Glass House!
Women's Basketball hosts Princeton, November 12
I've long admired the Princeton Women's Basketball program, which I first learned a bit about when my alma mater, North Carolina, hired then-Tigers coach Courtney Banghart as the Tar Heels' new women's basketball coach late into my senior year in Chapel Hill. In a league where there's additional challenges to create a program that can compete with the best of the best in the sport, the Tigers have continued to do that under head coach Carla Berube, who is 75-12 since taking over for Banghart in 2019.
Rick Insell has long championed that his Lady Raiders would play anybody in the country in their gym, so long as they're willing to make the trip to Murfreesboro as well. Getting the Tigers, who've made the second round of the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons, to come to the Glass House will give his team an early season test that will show where exactly this iteration of MTSU measures up early in the season.
The results from the 1 p.m. Sunday tipoff will set the tone for the Lady Raiders' trip to the Bad Boy Mowers Women's Battle 4 Atlantis tournament the next week and could prove to be crucial to any at-large and/or postseason seeding hopes come March.
Men's Basketball hosts UAB, November 21
With some many former members of Conference USA departing the league this year, I was a bit saddened to be losing some of the fun matchups I've enjoyed on the hardwood these past two seasons. While the Lady Raiders have kept most of their closest competitors in the league, only losing Rice out of last season's Top Five teams, the Blue Raiders are the only team that finished in the Top Six teams returning to Conference USA in 2023.
But, we won't lose at least one of those marquee matchups this season, with UAB coming to the Murphy Center on Tuesday, November 21 for a 6:30 p.m. tip. Two of the last three games these programs have played have gone to overtime and both rosters have undergone major changes this offseason, creating a fresh outlook for both teams.
One thing I'm sure will remain in as the series shifts from conference play to non-conference, however: these two teams will really, REALLY, want to beat the one across from them. And with the highly athletic styles of ball both teams play, it promises to be another barnburner that will draw national interest just for the basketball on display.
Women's Basketball welcomes Tennessee to Huntsville, December 6
Am I cheating a bit to include a neutral site game in a list where my goal was to highlight the best home games Blue Raider fans can see this year in the non-conference slate? I'll let you be the judge but given that you get a ticket to the Lady Raiders' showdown in the Probst Arena at the Von Braun Center in downtown Huntsville, Ala. with the purchase of your Lady Raiders' season tickets, I think I'll count this game as a "home" one for Middle Tennessee.
I won't need to sell y'all on the excitement of playing a team like the Lady Vols, particularly amongst friends in the Volunteer State. There's a reason that they were the standard in women's hoops for decades under Pat Summit and, while not quite back to the national title level, aren't far from that conversation entering the 2023-24 season. It's the type of team that you always hope to get on your schedule if you're the Lady Raiders, one that will likely help your NET win or lose. But particularly with the win.
The crux of why this game is being played in Huntsville, just two hours away (or an hour and half if you know the Southern Tennessee back roads like Rick Insell does) from the Glass House, is it gives MTSU a chance to play in the gym that will host the Conference USA Tournament come this March, which will only help when the games have winner-take-all stakes. And Lady Vols Kellie Harper being the second coach on this list to have played for Rick Insell as a prep athlete makes for an interesting footnote to the day as well.
Tipoff in the Rocket City is set for 6:30 p.m. on that Wednesday. You can join us for that game, and every game listed above, by purchasing your season tickets for both the Blue Raiders and Lady Raiders at just $230 combined for both seasons. Details below!
After hearing from both program's coaches at this week's CUSA Tipoff (you can read highlights from the day in Huntsville, Ala. in last week's notebook here), my excitement for the season ahead in the Glass House has only grown.
And with both programs putting together schedules that will challenge their teams both at home, at neutral sites and especially on the road ahead of Conference USA play, we'll have a good chance to see how the offseason work of both the Blue Raiders and Lady Raiders has manifested itself against quality competition very early on in the 2023-24 season.
But like any schedule, there's some games that are more exciting than others. Here's five dates, four in the Murphy Center and one at a close-by neutral site, that I'm hoping you'll join me in watching this season.
Women's Basketball hosts Memphis, Men's Basketball hosts Northern Kentucky, November 6
Monday, November 6 is the first day of the 2023-24 season in which NCAA Division I teams can compete in both men's and women's basketball. Both the Blue Raiders and Lady Raiders didn't want to wait even a day to start their seasons. And with both teams at home that Monday, they've set up a delightful doubleheader for fans of Middle Tennesses, with the Lady Raiders hosting Memphis at 5 p.m. and the Blue Raiders hosting Northern Kentucky at 7:30 p.m.
Picked fifth in the American Athletic Conference's preseason poll, the Memphis Tigers will be playing their first game under head coach Alex Simmons. Simmons, who comes to Memphis after taking Gardner-Webb to the NCAA Tournament, was a member of Lady Raider head coach Rick Insell's staff at MTSU from 2010-2013 and coached with associate head coach Matt Insell at Ole Miss when the younger Insell led the Rebels from 2013-18. Rick Insell also coached Simmons at Shelbyville High prior to Insell taking the MTSU job.
For the men's game that follows, head coach Nick McDevitt will have his team face the Norse of Northern Kentucky, picked first in the preseason poll for the always tough Horizon League. NKU is coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2023, a year where they entered the final media timeout against Houston trailing by just four points prior to falling to the Cougars in the first round.
Men's Basketball hosts Stephen F. Austin, November 9
Later that same week, the Blue Raiders will continue a five-game homestand to start the 2023-24 season, taking on Stephen F. Austin at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.
This game is another one where MTSU will face a well-respected opponent, with the Lumberjacks picked second in the WAC this season and are just outside of the Top 100 in KenPom's preseason rankings. But it's not one that would necessarily be on my radar each year (other than SFA is probably my favorite Duke home loss by a non-UNC team ever), without the fact that it also kicks off the first ever WAC/CUSA scheduling initiative this basketball season. This season, 36 games (18 for both genders) have been set up between the two conferences, with each CUSA member getting one road and one home game in the scheduling matchup.
The goal is to help programs in both conferences schedule quality opponents (and perhaps more importantly, home games against quality opponents), and the matchups appear to be designed to that end. The Lady Raiders, for instance, will host Top 70 NET team Stephen F. Austin later in the season, on December 17.
I'm curious how the whole initiative, which is scheduled for multiple years, works out, and you'll get a chance to see some quality teams from a part of the country we don't travel too often to this season in the Glass House!
Women's Basketball hosts Princeton, November 12
I've long admired the Princeton Women's Basketball program, which I first learned a bit about when my alma mater, North Carolina, hired then-Tigers coach Courtney Banghart as the Tar Heels' new women's basketball coach late into my senior year in Chapel Hill. In a league where there's additional challenges to create a program that can compete with the best of the best in the sport, the Tigers have continued to do that under head coach Carla Berube, who is 75-12 since taking over for Banghart in 2019.
Rick Insell has long championed that his Lady Raiders would play anybody in the country in their gym, so long as they're willing to make the trip to Murfreesboro as well. Getting the Tigers, who've made the second round of the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons, to come to the Glass House will give his team an early season test that will show where exactly this iteration of MTSU measures up early in the season.
The results from the 1 p.m. Sunday tipoff will set the tone for the Lady Raiders' trip to the Bad Boy Mowers Women's Battle 4 Atlantis tournament the next week and could prove to be crucial to any at-large and/or postseason seeding hopes come March.
Men's Basketball hosts UAB, November 21
With some many former members of Conference USA departing the league this year, I was a bit saddened to be losing some of the fun matchups I've enjoyed on the hardwood these past two seasons. While the Lady Raiders have kept most of their closest competitors in the league, only losing Rice out of last season's Top Five teams, the Blue Raiders are the only team that finished in the Top Six teams returning to Conference USA in 2023.
But, we won't lose at least one of those marquee matchups this season, with UAB coming to the Murphy Center on Tuesday, November 21 for a 6:30 p.m. tip. Two of the last three games these programs have played have gone to overtime and both rosters have undergone major changes this offseason, creating a fresh outlook for both teams.
One thing I'm sure will remain in as the series shifts from conference play to non-conference, however: these two teams will really, REALLY, want to beat the one across from them. And with the highly athletic styles of ball both teams play, it promises to be another barnburner that will draw national interest just for the basketball on display.
Women's Basketball welcomes Tennessee to Huntsville, December 6
Am I cheating a bit to include a neutral site game in a list where my goal was to highlight the best home games Blue Raider fans can see this year in the non-conference slate? I'll let you be the judge but given that you get a ticket to the Lady Raiders' showdown in the Probst Arena at the Von Braun Center in downtown Huntsville, Ala. with the purchase of your Lady Raiders' season tickets, I think I'll count this game as a "home" one for Middle Tennessee.
I won't need to sell y'all on the excitement of playing a team like the Lady Vols, particularly amongst friends in the Volunteer State. There's a reason that they were the standard in women's hoops for decades under Pat Summit and, while not quite back to the national title level, aren't far from that conversation entering the 2023-24 season. It's the type of team that you always hope to get on your schedule if you're the Lady Raiders, one that will likely help your NET win or lose. But particularly with the win.
The crux of why this game is being played in Huntsville, just two hours away (or an hour and half if you know the Southern Tennessee back roads like Rick Insell does) from the Glass House, is it gives MTSU a chance to play in the gym that will host the Conference USA Tournament come this March, which will only help when the games have winner-take-all stakes. And Lady Vols Kellie Harper being the second coach on this list to have played for Rick Insell as a prep athlete makes for an interesting footnote to the day as well.
Tipoff in the Rocket City is set for 6:30 p.m. on that Wednesday. You can join us for that game, and every game listed above, by purchasing your season tickets for both the Blue Raiders and Lady Raiders at just $230 combined for both seasons. Details below!
The basketball season ticket renewal deadline is TODAY!
— Middle Tennessee Athletics (@MTAthletics) October 20, 2023
You don't want to miss this season in the Murphy Center as BOTH @MT_WBB and @MT_MBB are the top teams in the CUSA Preseason Polls!https://t.co/MX3iMrPbyM
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