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 WCU head coach Larry Hunter in enters his second season. |
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July 5, 2006
Cullowhee, N.C. - Western Carolina head coach Larry Hunter announced his 2006-07 men's basketball schedule, which features 11 home games and road contests with the likes of Purdue, Xavier, Dayton, Clemson and South Carolina, as well as a two-day tournament at Saint Mary's College of California. After playing an exhibition on Nov. 10, Western Carolina will open the 2006-07 season on Nov. 14 at region rival UNC Asheville. The Catamounts, like all Southern Conference teams, will play 18 league games this year, as compared to 14 in the past several seasons, with WCU playing each league team twice, facing Georgia Southern and Furman just once.
"We again have a very challenging non-conference schedule playing teams from the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Atlantic 10, Big South and West Coast Conference," Hunter said. "Adding to this tough schedule is the fact that the Southern Conference schedule has expanded from 14 to 18 conference games and has us playing three league games before Christmas. Our team will have to develop a road warrior mentality as 13 of our first 18 games are away from the Ramsey Center."
2006-07 WCU Men's Basketball Schedule in HTML Format
2006-07 WCU Men's Basketball Schedule in PDF Format
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The public will get their first look at the Catamounts on Nov. 10 (the Friday night prior to the Appalachian State football game) as Western will host Muskingum. The Fighting Muskies are coached by Geno Ford, who played for Hunter at Ohio and is the brother of WCU assistant Dustin Ford. Four days later, Western will play the first of its many road contests as it travels to UNCA on Nov. 14.
The Catamounts will then go to West Lafayette, Ind., to face Purdue on Nov. 17. Western and Purdue have only met one previous time when the Catamounts nearly became the first 16-seed to upset a top seed in the first round of the NCAA Championship. In the 1996 NCAA West Region in Albuquerque, N.M., Western, led by 1996 SoCon Player of the Year and current Catamount assistant coach Anquell McCollum, and Purdue were tied at 71-71 with less than three minutes remaining. The Boilermakers' Brandon Brantley scored the game's final basket with 1:30 left to play and WCU's final attempts to tie the game came up empty for the 73-71 setback.
Western will return to the Ramsey Center Nov. 20 and 27 to host Atlanta Christian and Toccoa Falls, respectively, before hitting the road for four straight contests. The Catamounts will open SoCon play on Nov. 29 at Wofford, travel to 2006 NCAA Tournament team Xavier on Dec. 2, play at Gardner-Webb Dec. 9 and return to the state of Ohio on Dec. 16 to face Dayton.
Coach Hunter's squad will return to SoCon play to play with back-to-back home games Dec. 18 and 21, hosting league foes The Citadel and College of Charleston, respectively. The Catamounts will step out of league play one final time, playing four games away from the friendly confines of the Ramsey Center. Starting the swing will be a Dec. 23 meeting with Clemson at Littlejohn Coliseum. Five days later, Western will travel to the San Francisco bay area (Moraga, Calif.) to play in the Saint Mary's College Tournament Dec. 28-29. In addition to facing the host Gaels on the 28th, the Cats will face either Conference USA's Rice or Belmont, who represented the Atlantic Sun in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. WCU will open the 2007 year with a road game at defending NIT Champion South Carolina.
From that point, Western will play all league games, starting with a home contest versus UNC Greensboro on Jan. 6. Six of the Catamounts' next eight games will be played on the road, including games at Chattanooga (Jan. 8), at Appalachian State (Jan. 15), at Furman (Jan. 20), at Davidson (Jan. 27), at The Citadel (Feb. 3) and at the College of Charleston (Feb. 5). WCU's only home games during that span are a Jan. 22 meeting with Elon and a Jan. 29 contest with Wofford.
The good news is, Western will play four of its final six games at home, hosting Georgia Southern (Feb. 10), Chattanooga (Feb. 12), Davidson (Feb. 17) and Appalachian State (Feb. 19). Road games during the stretch run include a game at UNC Greensboro on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) and the 2006-07 regular-season finale at Elon Feb. 22.
The 2007 Southern Conference will return to the North Charleston (S.C.) Coliseum Feb. 28-Mar. 3.
