NC State releases 2016-17 basketball schedule

NC State’s full 2016-17 basketball schedule is out, finally. The Wolfpack will play two exhibition games in early November before opening the regular season against Georgia Southern on Nov. 11. Commence the Dennis Smith countdown clock, folks.

This is the full non-conference schedule. (More on that in another post.)

Nov. 11 — vs. Georgia Southern

Nov. 13 — vs. St. Francis-Brooklyn

Nov. 18-21 — Paradise Jam (three games, beginning with Montana)

Nov. 26 — vs. Loyola-Chicago

Nov. 29 — at Illinois (B1G/ACC Challenge)

Dec. 3 — vs. Boston U.

Dec. 10 — vs. Tennessee State (Reynolds game)

Dec. 15 — vs. Appalachian State

Dec. 18 — vs. Fairfield

Dec. 22 — vs. McNeese State

Dec. 28 — vs. Rider

The Wolfpack have only one true road game, and there’s no doubt that this portion of the slate is lacking some of the quality we’ve seen from Mark Gottfried schedules in the past. State will spend all of December in Raleigh before kicking off league play at Miami.

January comes with a nice opportunity, as State has a stretch of home games against Georgia Tech, Pitt, and Wake Forest. But State also has games at UNC, Duke, and Louisville in that first month, which is pretty daunting.

Anyway, I’m excited. Up and at them.