Get Ready! #AEHoops Schedules Unveiled
BOSTON — With #AEHoops teams preparing for the 2019-20 season, the America East Conference announced its league basketball schedules for the upcoming season on Wednesday morning. The slate will consist of 144 games as teams vie for positioning ahead of the #AEPlayoffs.
The men’s and women’s seasons will be made up of 72 regular-season contests each with all games taking place over a nine-week stretch in January, February and March. For the 15th-straight season, each team will play a 16-game, double round-robin schedule, which prioritizes television opportunities, competitive equity and reduction of missed class time for student-athletes.
Highlights
- Twenty-five players who have earned All-Conference, All-Rookie or All-Academic honors in the past return in 2019-20.
- For the first time since 2015-16, both players of the year will return as Anthony Lamb and Blanca Milan are back to lead their respective teams, Vermont and Maine, in defense of their league titles.
- Three first-year head coaches join the fray for 2019-20: Geno Ford (Stony Brook men), Johnetta Hayes (UMBC women) and Morgan Valley (Hartford women).
- The women’s conference schedule begins on Thursday, Jan. 2 highlighted by a rematch of the last two championship games, Hartford at Maine.
- The men’s conference schedule begins on Saturday, Jan. 4. Reigning champion Vermont opens on Jan. 8 vs. Stony Brook in a matchup of the top two teams in the final 2018-19 standings.
- One of the four men’s matchups on Thursday, Feb. 20 will be selected to air on ESPNU. The matchups are Hartford at New Hampshire, UMBC at UAlbany, UMass Lowell at Binghamton and Vermont at Stony Brook.
- The women's regular season concludes on Feb. 29 while the men end on March 3.
- Where teams finish in the regular-season standings will prove crucial once again as the higher seed will host each round of both the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments for the second-straight year.
- It will be the sixth-straight year of the America East Men’s Basketball Playoffs with all games played at home sites. Host teams are 30-5 (.857) in the #AEPlayoffs with the #1 seed winning four titles and the #2 seed winning one.
- The women's tournament, the America East Women’s Basketball Playoffs, will take each round to campus sites for the second-straight year. Top-seeded Maine beat Hartford last season to claim its second-straight crown.
- The top eight teams in the standings will qualify for the #AEPlayoffs on both the men's and women's side.
- The women's playoff dates are: Quarterfinals: Wednesday, March 4; Semifinals: Sunday, March 8; Final: Friday, March 13.
- The men's playoff dates are: Quarterfinals: Saturday, March 7; Semifinals: Tuesday, March 10; Final: Saturday, March 14.
Once again, all America East home games will air on ESPN networks this year with the majority of those on ESPN+/3.
About America East: The America East provides its member schools and their athletic programs a platform upon which student-athletes can achieve both collegiate and life success through the promotion and nurturing of athletic excellence, academic achievement and leadership, on and off the field.
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