The 2021-22 Roanoke College men’s basketball season will begin this Friday, November 12, with the 2021 Dick Leftwich Tip-Off Tournament. The event will be played in the Cregger Center and feature Eastern (Pa.), Marietta (Ohio), and Christopher Newport.
Christopher-Newport has made a Final Four appearance in the NCAA National Championship Tournament twice in the past six seasons while Marietta finished the 2020-21 campaign ranked #5 in the D3Hoops.com Top 25 poll. The Maroons play Eastern in their opener at 6 pm Friday with the Consolation and Championship scheduled for 1 pm and 3 pm on Saturday the 13th.
The Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) released the 2021-22 ODAC Men’s Basketball preseason poll last week and Roanoke received one first-place vote and was picked to finish second in the poll, as voted on by the league’s coaches. Hampden-Sydney received 11 of the 12 first place votes and was the overwhelming favorite to finish first in the conference.
The Maroons enter the season after competing in an abbreviated, due to the Covid pandemic, schedule one season ago. Last year, Roanoke finished with an overall record of 10-2, 7-0 in ODAC play, on their way to securing the top seed in the 2021 ODAC Men’s Basketball Tournament. The Maroons fell to eventual champion Randolph-Macon in the semifinals, 77-71. Randolph-Macon went on to finish the year ranked number one in the nation in the final NCAA DIII Men’s Basketball rankings.
The 2021-22 edition of the RC hoops team enter the season with a #20 preseason ranking by D3hoops.com. The Maroons have just two seniors on the roster, guards Nick Price and Tripp Greene.
Roanoke is back home again next Wednesday, November 17, to host Methodist College at 7 pm.