Just before the new school year began, the Mountaineers released their 2023-2024 basketball schedule Aug. 9.

Beginning the season on Nov. 7, the Black and Gold host the Oakland City Mighty Oaks, a private school in Indiana that plays under the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, a step below the NCAA. App State should be able to use this game to get their legs warm, as they quickly jump into more difficult games. 

After the first game at home, the team spends the majority of November on the road. They travel to the campus of Northern Illinois to face the Huskies in the SBC vs. MAC Challenge, a series where every Sun Belt team faces off against a school from the Mid-American Conference.

Just three days later the Mountaineers make a west-coast trip to face the Oregon State Beavers in hopes of defeating a Power Five team for the second year in a row. While it won’t be an easy game, Oregon State was one of the worst Pac-12 teams last year, finishing the season with only 11 wins.

To end the four-game road trip, the Black and Gold face UNC Wilmington and Murray State on back-to-back nights as a part of the Fort Myers Tip-Off Event, hosted in Fort Myers, Florida. UNCW comes off a strong season where they finished third in their conference, while Murray State looks to improve upon their disappointing first season in the Missouri Valley Conference. 

App State matches the four away games with four home games, including the biggest Holmes Convocation Center

matchup in over 20 years. Prior to that matchup, App State faces the Austin Peay Governors from Clarksville, Tennessee, on Thanksgiving weekend. 

To end the November schedule, App State will play East Tennessee State in a rematch of last year’s game. During the 2022-23 season, the Mountaineers got the best of the Buccaneers in a matchup that ended in a close game, 74-70. In the last matchup, App State made the trip to ETSU’s home court. This year, App State  gets to play host, as the game will be played in Boone. 

On Dec. 3, the Mountaineers will host the Auburn Tigers as a part of the two-for-one series between the two programs. It will be the first time since 2000 that a Power 5 school played in the Holmes Convocation Center, making it one of the biggest games that App State has played at home. Two days later, Division II program Central Penn makes the trip up the mountain. It should be a nice cool down from the intensity of facing such a big-time team like the Auburn Tigers. 

After a brief break in the action, App State will face Queens in Charlotte. The Royals recently made the move up from Division II to Division I, joining the Atlantic Sun Conference. It’s the first of three consecutive games the Mountaineers will play against North Carolina teams. 

Although the location has not been officially announced, the Black and Gold will then compete against Gardner-Webb at a neutral site to start their winter break schedule. 

In the last non-conference game for a while, the Mountaineers face the UNC Asheville Bulldogs in Hickory in the App State Hickory Hoops Classic. The university recently opened a campus in Hickory, expanding upon the evergrowing school. 

The Bulldogs are coming off a season in which they finished as the Big South regular season and tournament champions, punching their ticket to the NCAA tournament where they lost to the UCLA Bruins. It will be a good mid-season test for the Mountaineers before they begin their conference games. 

The first Sun Belt game for the Black and Gold will be played against ULM in Boone just before the new year. App State then starts January with away games against South Alabama, who defeated the Mountaineers in the SBC tournament last season, and the Troy Trojans.

App State plays eight games against four opponents between Jan. 11 and Feb. 3. In that span, they play Coastal Carolina, James Madison, Georgia State and Georgia Southern two times each, once at home and once away. 

App State then plays at Texas State, before having a break in conference play to return to the SBC vs. MAC Challenge. At this time, the opponent for the continuation of the series is undetermined, but it’s been announced the game will take place at the Holmes Convocation Center on Feb. 10. 

In the last stretch of games, the Mountaineers go back to conference play in two games against Marshall, a home game versus Louisiana, two against Old Dominion and a home game against Arkansas State to finish the regular season.

Shortly after, the conference standings will determine the seeding of the SBC tournament, during which, the Black and Gold will compete to earn a ticket to the NCAA tournament.