Donte Clark and the UMass men’s basketball team will appear on TV 11 times during the Atlantic 10 schedule which was released Tuesday.
Donte Clark and the UMass men’s basketball team will appear on TV 11 times during the Atlantic 10 schedule which was released Tuesday. Credit: GAZETTTE FILE

By MATT VAUTOUR

There won’t be much easing into Atlantic 10 play for the UMass men’s basketball team.

With seven scholarship newcomers joining the Minutemen for the 2016-17 season, the nonconference schedule appears designed to help ready them for league play.

They’ll open conference play at home against St. Bonaventure (Dec. 30, TBA) in a rare league game before New Years. It comes just two days after a nonconference road game at Georgia State (Dec. 28, TBA) in Atlanta.

Road games at George Mason (Jan. 4, TBA) and VCU (Jan. 7, 1 p.m. NBCSN) follow.

UMass catches a little bit of a break as VCU students, which contribute a lot to the difficult atmosphere at the Siegel Center, will be on semester break.

The VCU game starts a stretch of three straight against teams expected to be among the league’s favorites. UMass hosts Dayton on Jan. 11 (7 p.m. CBSSN) and is at Rhode Island on Jan. 15 (2:30 p.m. NBCSN).

The Minutemen host Saint Joseph’s (Jan. 18, 7 p.m. ASN) and Fordham (Jan. 21, 12:30 p.m. NBCSN) before their first meeting with former coach Travis Ford at Saint Louis (Jan. 25, TBA).

UMass closes January with its second game with George Mason (Jan. 28, TBA).

February starts by sandwiching a home game against Rhode Island (Feb. 7, 7 p.m. CBSSN) between two trips to Philadelphia, where it will play La Salle (Feb. 1, TBA) and St. Joe’s (Feb. 11, 2:30 p.m. NBCSN).

UMass is at Duquesne on Feb. 15 (TBA) before hosting Davidson (Feb. 18, noon, NBCSN).

The Minutemen close the season with a trip to George Washington (Feb. 23, 7 p.m. ASN), home games against La Salle (Feb. 26, 1 p.m. ASN) and Richmond (March 1, TBA) before closing the year at St. Bonaventure (March 4, 4 p.m. ASN).

All games listed as ASN are produced by the American Sports Network and broadcast by regional sports networks. NESN, NESNplus or Comcast SportsNet would be the most likely to pick up the games locally.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage