CHARLOTTE – The Big South Conference released its 20-game men's basketball schedule on Wednesday which features five road series and five home series per school.

This year's schedule format has been adjusted to limit travel and help ensure the health and safety of student-athletes, coaches and staff.  In lieu of a traditional home-and-home series format, teams will play alternate home and away dates, and have a minimum of three days in-between scheduled contests.  

The conference season will commence with 10 teams playing from Dec. 9-22 before the schedule resumes Dec. 30 through Feb. 19.  The schedule, which is subject to change, includes a bye for each squad during the league season.
 
Contingencies were built into the schedule to allow flexibility for completing the season in full, as any games impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic could be made up on various alternate dates, including the week of Feb. 20-27.  In addition, teams will need just seven players to start a two-game conference series, while the second game of the series can begin with six players.  Teams will also have the option to start a conference series with less than the required minimum number of seven players.
 
Again this season, the Big South will have six national television appearances on ESPNU as part of the league's annual "Wildcard" series.  The six dates will be announced at a later date when finalized.

Gardner-Webb will open the league slate on December 9-10 at home vs. Presbyterian and will also have two-game home series in Paul Porter Arena against Charleston Southern (Jan. 4-5), UNC Asheville (Jan. 19-20), Campbell (Jan. 29-30) and High Point (Feb. 11-12).

The Runnin' Bulldogs will have road trips at Hampton (Dec. 30-31), at Radford (Jan. 14-15), at USC Upstate (Jan. 24-25), at Winthrop (Feb. 4-5) and at Longwood (Feb. 18-19).

The 20212 Hercules Tires Men's Basketball Championship tournament will be held on campus at higher seeds beginning with the first round on Tuesday, March 2.

The event will then move to the No. 1 seed's home court on March 4-5 for the quarterfinals and semifinals. The championship game will be played at the highest remaining seed on Sunday, March 7.

Gardner-Webb enters the 2020-2021 season with 25 games on its overall slate, including dates at Duke (Nov. 25), Florida State (Nov. 27), Georgia (Nov. 29) and Pittsburgh (Dec. 12). The 'Dogs will also take on VMI on a date to be determined in December.

Head coach Tim Craft returns three starters from last year's third-place team, with All-Conference guard Jaheam Cornwall (6-0, 175, Sr.) among the league's top marksmen from long range. Ludovic Dufeal (6-8, 205, Jr.) and Kareem Reid (6-9, 210, So.) also return and combined to block 118 shots in 2019-2020.