You can tell Tony Bennett thinks his Virginia basketball team will be competitive this year by looking at the nonconference schedule he has put together for November and December.
Bennett’s ‘Hoos will compete in the Las Vegas Main Event in November with the field including Baylor, UCLA and Illinois and will host Elite Eight participant Houston at JPJ on Dec. 17.
Virginia will also play at Michigan in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Can’t credit Bennett for that one, which is thanks to ESPN.
The rest of the nonconference schedule is pretty basic: North Carolina Central is the home opener on Nov. 7, with additional home contests against Monmouth (Nov. 11), Northern Iowa (Nov. 14), Maryland Eastern Shore (Nov. 25), JMU (Dec. 6) and Albany (Dec. 28).
The game with Houston comes after the winter exam break. Houston was already going to be tough, but playing them after the break will make that one infinitely tougher.
Ticket plug: fans interested in becoming season-ticket members can join the waitlist here. Single-game ticket information will be announced later in the fall on uvatix.com.