The Atlantic 10 unveiled the men’s basketball conference schedule Tuesday, according to a press release.
The Colonials will take part in six nationally televised A-10 games this season broadcasted on NBC Sports and CBS Sports, the release states. The release added that each team will have two bye dates worked into its schedule between Jan. 13 and Feb. 24, and the final weekend of the regular season, March 5 to 7, will be left open for makeup games.
“The 2020-21 year will be a unique and challenging season due to the COVID environment,” A-10 Commissioner Bernadette McGlade said in the release. “Utilizing multiple bye dates, creating an open weekend at the end of the season and moving games into December was deliberately done to allow for maximum flexibility to ensure the safety of our student-athletes, teams and campuses.”
The Colonials’ conference schedule is set to begin on the road with a rematch of last year’s A-10 Tournament first round on Dec. 30. Fordham bested the Colonials all three times the two teams faced off last season.
GW will then head home to defend the Smith Center against Duquesne and Massachusetts. Last season, the Colonials split their two games with the Dukes and nabbed a 24-point victory over the Minutemen.
The team will then make a trip to St. Bonaventure before returning home to take on VCU. A season ago, the Bonnies and the Rams swept the Colonials.
GW will then hit the road for three straight games at Dayton, Rhode Island and George Mason from Jan. 17 through Jan. 27. GW will have a week between its meetings with Dayton and Rhode Island.
The Flyers and the Rams both topped the Colonials in 20-point-plus victories last year. GW knocked off George Mason twice last season, both times deciding the game by six points.
The Colonials are set to face the Flyers a second time, but the date and time are TBD.
Another meeting with Fordham is set to close out the month of January. The Colonials will have a weeklong break before taking on Saint Louis, who was projected to finish second in the conference. The Billikens stifled a GW comeback victory last season early on in A-10 play.
After facing the Billikens, GW will square up with the predicted No. 1 finisher in the A-10 – Richmond. The Spiders beat the Colonials in both meetings last season. The Colonials will then travel to La Salle, who also came out on top in the teams’ lone meeting last year.
The team will then play a pair of home games against Saint Joseph’s and St. Bonaventure on Feb. 17 and Feb. 21, respectively. The Colonials crushed the Hawks last season in a 16-point victory.
The squad will cap its home-and-away series with Duquesne and George Mason to round out the month of February. The Colonials will travel to Pittsburgh Feb. 24 and take on the Patriots Feb. 27 in its final home game of the year.
The conference schedule is currently planned to conclude March 2 with a trip to Davidson. The last time the two teams met, the game descended into a four-overtime slug match, but GW came out on the right side of a 107–104 win.
While GW’s nonconference schedule is still being finalized, the Colonials are set to face off South Carolina in the Smith Center Dec. 14. The Gamecocks had the nine-point advantage when the final buzzer sounded in their meeting last season.
GW, who was projected to finish No. 11 in the A-10, is set to open the 2020-21 season Nov. 25 at the Veterans Classic. The squad will take on Navy at noon.
