Courtesy of North Carolina A&T Athletics
EAST GREENSBORO — The North Carolina A&T men’s basketball team has been selected to play in the seventh annual Emerald Coast Classic, which Global Sports announced on Tuesday.
“The Emerald Coast Classic is one of the best preseason tournaments in the country,” said A&T head coach Will Jones. “The field is awesome with two teams that played in the NCAA tournament last season. It will be great for this team as we mold a contender in the Big South Conference.”
The tournament features a stacked pool of teams, including Power Fives such as LSU, who reached the Sweet 16 last season, and Penn State, Wake Forest and Oregon State. On Thanksgiving weekend, November 26-27, the tournament will take place at Raider Arena at Northwest Florida State College (NFSC) in Niceville, Fla.
First-round matchups will be held on the campuses of the respective home teams, with second and third-round games taking place on-site in Niceville.
The Aggies will face the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in an on-campus, first-round matchup on Thursday, Nov. 18, in Winston-Salem. The team will depart shortly for a west coast showdown against the Stanford Cardinals before heading to Niceville, Fla., to take on Samford Friday, Nov. 26 at 2:30 p.m. in the second round.
The championship round will feature an 11 a.m. game between the losers of the A&T/Samford game and the winner of McNeese State/St. Francis NY and a 1:30 p.m. game between the winners, respectively.