BOONE, N.C. – When it hosts its first postseason tournament home game since 2010, App State men's basketball will square off against USC Upstate from the Big South Conference on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
The Mountaineers and Spartans are two of the 32 teams in the field of the Basketball Classic presented by Eracism, a new postseason tournament open to deserving teams not selected for the NCAA Tournament or NIT.
Future-round games could be played at the Holmes Convocation Center and will be determined at least in part by the first-round game attendance. This year's App State season attendance total of 40,474 fans set a record for the Holmes Center that opened in 2000.
Per current university guidelines, face coverings are now optional on the App State campus and inside campus facilities.
Each game of the tournament will be held on the campus of one of the participating schools. In lieu of a traditional bracket, the field and matchups will be set after each round. All games will be broadcast on the ESPN+ platform.
The Basketball Classic semifinals are scheduled for Tuesday, March 29 and the Championship Game on Thursday, March 31.
About the 2021-22 Mountaineers
Led by first-team All-Sun Belt guard
Adrian Delph and his 17.4 points per game, the Mountaineers are 19-14 with a chance to achieve the 13th 20-win season in program history. The team's 19 wins are the most since 2009-10, and their second-place finish in the Sun Belt Conference standings with a 12-6 league record was their best since joining the league eight years ago. App State beat Georgia Southern before falling by five points to eventual Sun Belt tournament champion Georgia State in the semifinals in Pensacola, Fla.
App State has played the 26h-toughest nonconference schedule in the country, having faced six teams that made the NCAA Tournament field of 68 – 2-seed Duke, 8-seed North Carolina, 13-seed Akron, 13-seed Vermont, 15-seed Delaware and 16-seed Georgia State – as well as a number of squads that were selected to the NIT, CBI and Basketball Classic.
This is the first time in program history that App State will play in the postseason in consecutive years.
About the 2021-22 Spartans
USC Upstate – which is 2.5 hours away from Boone in Spartanburg, S.C. – is 14-16 overall and finished third in the south division of the Big South Conference with a 10-6 league record. Upstate made the Big South tournament semifinals for the first time since joining the league in 2018-19 and lost to eventual champion Longwood 79-70.
Bryson Mozone leads the team in scoring with 15.4 points per game, and Jordan Gainey adds 13.6 per outing. The Spartans are known for efficient shooting percentages, ranking 55th in the country in 3-point percentage (36.1) and 76th in free-throw percentage (74.5). Point guard Dalvin White ranks 22nd nationally with an assist-turnover ratio of 2.58.
About The Basketball Classic
Administering the Basketball Classic is a seasoned panel with deep roots in the sport that previously conducted the College Insider, Inc. Postseason Tournament (CIT) from 2009-19.
App State's Postseason History
- 1979 NCAA Tournament (first round)
- 2000 NCAA Tournament (first round)
- 2007 NIT (first round)
- 2010 CollegeInsider.com Tournament (semifinals)
- 2021 NCAA Tournament (First Four)
- 2022 The Basketball Classic
