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William and Mary basketball schedule has two national TV games

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wm-logoThe Colonial Athletic Association announced its 2015-16 men’s basketball schedule on Monday afternoon, highlighted by nine games televised nationally on the NBC Sports Network. The defending regular season champion William & Mary will have two of the six regular season national broadcasts. The Tribe opens the league slate at home for the fourth-straight year, this time on New Year’s Eve, and will have five Saturday home games in CAA play.

W&M’s first national NBCSN broadcast will be on Saturday, Feb. 6, when the Green and Gold hosts Delaware for a 2:30 p.m. tip. The regular season finale at James Madison on Saturday, Feb. 27, will also be nationally televised on NBCSN. The Tribe, Delaware, Northeastern, Hofstra and JMU will each have two national NBC Sports Network broadcasts, the most in the league.

NBCSN will provide national television coverage of CAA basketball for the fourth consecutive year. The network, which is available in nearly 85 million homes, will air six regular-season contests along with the semifinals and finals of the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship. All NBCSN games are also available online through NBC Sports Live Extra.

The CAA schedule includes 18 games with all 10 league teams facing each other at home and on the road. The regular-season slate opens on Thursday, December 31 with a full schedule of five games and concludes on Saturday, February 27. With the exception of games moved for television, the league schedule will follow a Thursday/Saturday format throughout the season.

By utilizing a late December date, the CAA has eliminated all ‘three-games-in-a-week’ sequences which previous schedules have featured. The Thursday/Saturday format provides more consistent play-dates and an attempt to provide some consistency in prep-time.

W&M’s first two league games come at home as part of the New Year holiday weekend. The Tribe hosts Towson on New Year’s Eve, Thursday, Dec. 31, before ringing in 2016 with the College of Charleston two days later on Saturday, Jan. 2.

The Green and Gold plays three of its first four league games at home. Following a trip to Drexel on Thursday, Jan. 7, W&M meets Northeastern in a rematch of the CAA Championship Game from last season at Kaplan Arena on Saturday, Jan. 9.

The Tribe embarks on a stretch that includes four out of five on the road. W&M makes its southern trip in the CAA to Charleston (Jan. 14) and UNCW (Jan. 16), before returning home to face Elon on Thursday, Jan. 21. The Green and Gold travel to Hofstra (Jan. 23) and Delaware (Jan. 28) to close out the stretch.

W&M hosts James Madison on Saturday, Jan. 30, and then treks to Northeastern for the first game of February on Saturday the fourth. After opening the month on the road, the Tribe plays four of its next five at home inside Kaplan Arena. Following the NBCSN broadcast against Delaware on Feb. 6, W&M hosts Hofstra on Thursday, Feb. 11. The Tribe travels to Towson on Feb. 13, before warping up its home schedule against UNCW (Feb. 18) and Drexel (Feb. 20).

The final two games of the regular season will come on the road at Elon (Feb. 25) and James Madison (Feb. 27). The game with the Dukes will be the second NBCSN broadcast with a 2:30 p.m. start time.

The CAA Men’s Basketball Championship returns to Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Md. on March 4-7. NBCSN will televise both semifinal contests on Sunday, March 6 and the conference title game on Monday, March 7.

The CAA will announce additional television games with partners Comcast SportsNet and the American Sports Network in conjunction with the conference’s basketball media day on October 27. All dates and times for CAA conference games are SUBJECT TO CHANGE. The Tribe’s non-conference slate will be released at a later date.

– Source: TribeAthletics.com

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