Aug. 6, 2008
From Lafayette Athletic Communications
EASTON, Pa. - The Leopards will face five Northeast Conference opponents and a pair of teams from the America East and the Atlantic 10 during the 2008-09 season.
The upcoming season begins on the road at Wagner before hosting Stony Brook and Temple at Kirby Sports Center in back-to-back home games. The game against Temple marks the second time in three seasons that an A-10 team has ventured to Easton and it opens a busy weekend for Lafayette athletics with the Maroon Club Hall of Fame Induction on Friday prior to the game and the Lafayette-Lehigh football the next afternoon.
The Leopards embark on their farthest trip of the season when the team travels to the home state of senior point guard Andrew Brown to take on the University of Colorado on Nov. 25. Colorado is just the sixth Big 12 opponent Lafayette has faced in men's basketball.
Lafayette will face former Lafayette assistant coach and player Drew Dawson at Hartford on Dec. 4, an inaugural meeting of the two teams. Robert Morris comes to Easton for a return engagement on Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. along with another former Fran O'Hanlon assistant, Andrew Toole.
The Leopards renew their series with Fordham (Dec. 8) and Penn State (Dec. 21). Lafayette last played Fordham, of the A-10, during in the 2005 season. It has been seven years since the Leopards last took on the Big Ten Nittany Lions at State College.
The non-conference slate includes two squads that made the 2008 NCAA Tournament field in Temple (Nov. 21) and Mount St. Mary's (Jan. 2). The Temple contest is a return game from the 2006-07 season. Last season, Brown set a school-record with nine three-pointers at Mount St. Mary's on Dec. 21 to lift the Leopards over the Mount 76-72.
Lafayette faces each of its Patriot League opponents both home-and-away with the first round starting at Holy Cross on Jan. 10 at 3:30 p.m. Before the second round of conference match-ups, the Leopards face their final non-conference opponent of the regular season, Fairleigh Dickinson in Teaneck, N.J. on Feb. 2. Patriot League play resumes on Feb. 7 at Kirby Sports Center, hosting Holy Cross at 1 p.m. The regular season finishes at home against American on Feb. 28.
The Patriot League Tournament begins with the quarterfinals on March 4 and the semifinals on March 8. The championship game will take place at the highest seed on March 13.
