Mercer preparing for tough schedule

Even with all the new faces, Mercer basketball head coach Bob Hoffman wasn’t shy about challenging this team with a difficult schedule.

Mercer opens the season against Brewton-Parker on Nov. 11. The very next game is against Florida in Jacksonville.

The Bears play Georgia Southern and East Carolina in Savannah, while the home schedule includes games against Davidson and La Salle, and the road schedule features trip to George Mason, Clemson, Auburn and Kennesaw State.

“I think it makes you better when you get stretched,” Hoffman said. “You find out more about your team when you play a variety of good teams, and we’re going to have some coming in here, and we’re going to go on the road and play some and some on neutral sites. And all of them are perceived, a lot of them are perceived in conferences that would be above us with some media types, but in our minds our league is really good.

“We got off to a great start last year and had multiple wins in Power 5 games from our conference. I think that will be the case again this year because our league is going to be pretty good.”

Mercer opens Southern Conference play Dec. 31 at Wofford and plays its first conference home game against VMI on Jan. 5.

This story was originally published September 29, 2016 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Mercer preparing for tough schedule."