Men’s basketball teams around the Presidents’ Athletic Conference announced their schedules over the last week for the 2018-2019 season, including the Waynesburg University Yellow Jackets. The Jackets will play a 25-game schedule with 16 PAC games.

“We always try to have a competitive schedule,” said head coach Mark Christner. “In the last four years, we’ve ended up playing a team that has made the Elite Eight in the national tournament. We’re excited about who were playing in non-conference play and how that might translate to help be competitive in the conference.”

Junior forward Shane Johnson has the same viewpoint as his coach regarding the schedule and has confidence in his team heading into the upcoming season.

“There’s some challenging games and some great tournaments were going to, but I believe there’s not a game on the schedule that we don’t have the ability to win,” Johnson said.

According to Christner, the Yellow Jackets will face a “regionally strong” schedule, playing all teams on the east coast and in the Great Lakes Region. Waynesburg will open the season in Hamburg, New York in the Hilbert Hawks Against Hunger Tip-Off Tournament. The men will play Hilbert Nov.16 and either Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) or Utica College on Nov. 17.

“Hilbert will be a great challenge for us,” said Christner. “They won 18 games last year and they’re a team in region that’s had a great program for the last few years.”

Waynesburg will also compete in the Mount St. Joseph Tip-Off Classic in Cincinnati, Ohio during Thanksgiving Break. The Jackets will play Mount St. Joseph College Nov. 24 and North Park University from Chicago Nov. 25.

“North Park plays in the CCIW (College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), which is one of the premier conferences in the nation,” Christner said. “It should be a fun matchup.”

The Yellow Jackets will open PAC play Nov. 28 at home against Grove City and all but four of their games will be in-conference the rest of the way. Three of those four will be played in three consecutive games in late December and early January. Waynesburg will travel to Penn State Behrend, who won 21 games last season, Dec. 18, and then will host Muskingum Dec. 22 and Kenyon Jan. 3.

“We have played great games with Muskingum over the last five or six years,” Christner said. “The games have always been close and its been pretty even between us over the last few years.”

The fourth non-PAC team the Yellow Jackets will face is a familiar foe in Thomas More, who left the conference after the 2017-18 season. After the Saints’ departure, all conference teams were left with two open dates and were tasked with filling those openings. Thomas More also had to create an independent Division III schedule.

“They reached out to other teams in the PAC and I had a good relationship with [head coach] Drew Cooper, so we agreed to play,” said Christner. “It’s pretty much impossible to fill a bye date in February because everyone is in league play. We needed to fill a bye date, so we filled it with Thomas More.”

Due to the departure of Thomas More and key graduating classes around the PAC, Christner is optimistic about the season and ready to get started.

“It’s a new era in the PAC,” Christner said. “A lot of good players have left, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out.”

Johnson sees the PAC as a league that is up for grabs.

“It will certainly be a different look with a lot of seniors graduating last year,” said Johnson. “The league should be pretty wide open and I’m excited to see how well we can compete this year to bring home a PAC title.”

Although the 2018-19 season hasn’t started yet, Christner has already started the scheduling process for 2019-20.

“We usually work a year in advance,” said Christner. “We’re looking pretty good for scheduling next year. We already have our tip-off tournament situated and have some returners back on the schedule.”

The tip-off tournament that kicks off the 2019-20 season for Waynesburg will be held in Salisbury, Maryland and will have Salisbury University, Ursinus College and Gwynedd Mercy University competing.

All other PAC schools have their schedules for 2018-19 finalized as well. Conference play will begin Wednesday, Nov. 28 with the final day of regular season conference play Saturday, Feb. 16. The PAC tournament will start on Feb. 19 and conclude on Feb. 23.