The ACC released its basketball schedule for the 2010-11 season Thursday, boasting of a record 182 games on national television in the upcoming season.
Virginia and Virginia Tech open conference play against each other in Blacksburg on December 5 as part of Fox Sports’ Sunday Night Hoops series.
For Virginia, the season opens with a Friday night game against William and Mary just hours before a senior day football clash with Maryland.
The early non-conference schedule is dominated by the Maui Invitational, which created a scarcity of weekend home dates. There are no Saturday games at John Paul Jones arena until ACC play begins.
In the conference portion of the schedule, things start quickly with back-to-back games against North Carolina and Duke at the start of January. Virginia Tech returns to Charlottesville on February 19.
The Hokies will face an upgraded non-conference schedule this season as they try to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2007.
A weak non-conference schedule is the main reason the Hokies didn’t play in the NCAAs last season. Their non-conference schedule ranked 339th of 347 teams nationally. Two of their first seven games this season should improve that rating.
In the season’s second game, on Nov. 16, the Hokies play at Kansas State, which returns three of five starters from last season’s Elite Eight team, including their leading scorer, guard Jacob Pullen.
Five games later, on Dec. 1, they host Purdue in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Like Kansas State, Purdue has a good chance of being ranked in the top 10 nationally in the preseason poll. The Boilermakers, who made the Sweet 16 last season, return their top three scorers: guard E’Twaun Moore and forwards Robbie Hummel and JaJuan Johnson.
Also of note, the Hokies face two of the ACC's top teams, Duke and North Carolina, just once each — and they get the Blue Devils at home.
The ACC Tournament will take place from March 10-13 in Greensboro.
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