MISSOULA — The Montana men's basketball team announced its non-conference schedule on Tuesday afternoon, which rounds out the Grizzlies' 2020-21 basketball schedule.
Montana will open the season against USC of the Pac-12 Conference on Nov. 28, three days after NCAA Division I college basketball is set to begin across the country. Montana will also travel to take on Georgia of the SEC on Dec. 8 and Washington and Arizona of the Pac-12 on Dec. 16 and Dec. 22, respectively.
Montana will also play a 20-game Big Sky Conference schedule that begins on Dec. 3 at Southern Utah.
Montana has played against Pac-12 schools 11 times in Travis DeCuire's tenure as head coach with 2020-21 serving as his seventh season leading the Griz. Montana has gone 0-11 in those games. Montana is 0-2 against SEC schools in DeCuire's tenure with losses to Mississippi in 2016 and Arkansas in 2019.
According to a media release, Montana has had eight different schedules lined up for the 2020-21 season due to COVID-19. The release added that at one point Montana had 13 non-conference games scheduled, with seven set to take place in Missoula, including one against a Mountain West Conference opponent.
"The uncertainty has definitely been the most difficult part," DeCuire said in the media release. "People want to limit how much they travel, and unfortunately for us, the teams that can be a bus trip or direct flight don't want to play us in Missoula. Going from needing 13 non-conference games to just five, it was still just as difficult.
"We'll put our schedule into the database and wait and see. The reality is, a lot of games are going to get canceled, and we're going to try and replace as many of those games as possible."
Montana added that it is still looking to add another non-conference game or two, including finding a way to schedule one in Missoula.
For a full preseason look at the Montana men's basketball team, click here.
