San Francisco Releases Schedule
By Mary Harvill
The San Franciscos Dons have become one of the latest teams to release their full schedule for the 2015-16 season. The first game of the season will be on the road at Illinois-Chicago on November 13, 2015. Home games will kick off on November 16th in War Memorial Gym against Rice.
The Dons will play Eastern Washington University at home on December 1st though Tyler Harvey who was drafted by the NBA and Parker Kelly who graduated will not be with EWU. Montana appears on the schedule too, on December 4th which is becoming an annual game for USF.
The Rice game will be part of the Roundball Showcase, a tournament that will matchup teams on various campus locations across the US. Rice, Fresno State, UC Riverside and Delaware State are set to play USF, representing Conference USA, Mountain West, Big West and the Mid-Eastern Athletic conferences, respectively.
The top early season WCC matchups in 2015-2016 for USF will be against Pepperdine which is poised for a major breakout this season and Portland which will be a good measure of whether or not USF can lead the middle of the pack of WCC teams or if USF will be hanging around the basement of the conference. The Portland game will be held on New Year’s Eve in San Francisco which will give one of the teams their new year’s basketball wish. If USF plays well against Pepperdine or Portland, they may be strong enough to give BYU a run for it. It is unlikely that USF will be serious challengers to Gonzaga.
Other noteworthy pre-season opponents for the Dons include Cal-State Northridge on December 7 and Coppin State on December 18.
The 2015-16 schedule has the makings of a good looking win-loss preseason record for the Dons and more importantly, the confidence they will need to be successful against the always strong WCC opponents.