The Daemen College men’s basketball team will open the 2019-20 season in exciting fashion with an exhibition game at Syracuse University on Oct. 26. The game takes place at the Carrier Dome, a venue that seats 34,616 spectators for basketball, making it undoubtedly the largest arena that a Daemen team will have ever played in. A tip-off time is still to be determined.
“The majority of our roster is from Upstate New York, and when you grow up here and follow college basketball, the one name that stands out is Syracuse,” said Daemen head coach Mike MacDonald.
“The level of consistent success that coach [Jim] Boeheim has had is something that we all strive for in basketball. For our guys to play such a historic program in an iconic building like the Carrier Dome will make for a special day.”
It will mark the seventh straight season that Daemen has opened with an exhibition game against a Division I opponent, but their first against one from the Atlantic Coast Conference, a league that many consider to be the best in the country.
Ticket information for the exhibition game will be announced at a later time.
The exhibition is the second high-profile event on Daemen’s 2019-20 schedule. The Wildcats will open the regular season by participating in the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic with games against defending Division II national champion Northwest Missouri State University (Nov. 1) and Missouri Western State University (Nov. 2).