Davidson faces a challenging basketball season opener. Who is it?

The Davidson Wildcats’ upcoming nonconference basketball schedule features a healthy dose of Power 5 conference competition.

The Wildcats, who are releasing the schedule Thursday, will face the SEC’s Auburn and Vanderbilt, in addition to a game against the ACC’s Wake Forest at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center. There’s the possibility of more games against Power 5 teams when the Wildcats play in the Orlando Classic in November. The Wildcats open against Marquette in that tournament, which also includes Southern California, Fairfield, Harvard, Maryland, Temple and Texas A&M.

Davidson, which returns five starters from last season’s team that finished 24-10 and played in the National Invitation Tournament, will be tested right away, opening Nov. 8 against national semifinalist Auburn in the Veterans Classic doubleheader in Annapolis, Md.

Tigers coach Bruce Pearl said recently he’s not sure scheduling Davidson was the right thing to do.

“People in the world of college basketball know that you don’t schedule (Davidson coach) Bob McKillop and Davidson because he’s too good of a coach and they’re too good of a program,” Pearl said. “We built this program on the belief that we want our players to play against the best.”

“The Wildcats’ final nonconference game is Dec. 30 at Vanderbilt.

Davidson and Wake Forest will play in uptown Charlotte on Nov. 22. The Wildcats face Mecklenburg County rival Charlotte on Nov. 12 at the 49ers’ Halton Arena.

The nonconference schedule is rounded out with home games against UNC Wilmington (Nov. 16), Nevada (Nov. 19) and Coppin State (Dec. 10); and road games against Northeastern (Dec. 7) and Loyola-Chicago (Dec. 22).

“What a terrific schedule for our program,” Wildcats coach Bob McKillop said in a statement. “It will be consistently challenging for our players and coaches and very exciting for our fans. From the beginning of November through the end of December, we will have the opportunity to play on the national stage, and this will certainly prepare us for the rigors of (Atlantic 10) conference play.”

The Atlantic 10 will likely announce its conference schedule by mid-September.

Davidson knows it will have home-and-home games against Fordham, Rhode Island, Richmond, Saint Joseph’s and Virginia Commonwealth; home games only against George Mason, La Salle, Massachusetts and Saint Louis’ and road games only against Dayton, Duquesne, George Washington, St. Bonaventure.

This story was originally published August 29, 2019 at 10:38 AM.