Monmouth, out of the Colonial Athletic Association, travels to Virginia to take on the Cavaliers out of power-five conference, the ACC. Monmouth is 0-1 on the season after losing at Seton Hall on Monday night. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, are 1-0 following a 12-point win over North Carolina Central to start the season. The opening tap for this matchup is set for 9:00pm EST.
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For the second time in Monmouth head coach King Rice's tenure at Monmouth, his team is changing conferences. Monmouth is now a part of the CAA just under a decade after leaving the NEC for the MAAC prior to the 2013-14 season. Once again Rice finds himself having to prepare for a whole new set of teams to compete with in a different league.
“I think we fit in the league,” Rice says. “I just want our fans to understand and people to understand this is a major, major jump. And we’re built for it, but we have to have to build up to be ready for it.”
Rice's job will be made even more difficult as he had to spend the offseason rebuilding his roster after losing all five starters from last year's 21-win team. Rice will need to lean on some returning veterans that played marginally last season and some transfers as the team gears up for another brutal out of league schedule that includes Seton Hall, Illinois, Syracuse and tonight's opponent, Virginia.
“There's so much love. We're two black men who get to coach college basketball.” – King Rice pic.twitter.com/niXIWYZ6Lw
— Monmouth Basketball (@MonmouthBBall) November 10, 2022
Monmouth opened up their season against one of those tough non-conference opponents on Monday, Seton Hall. Myles Foster led the way for Monmouth with 18 points and 15 rebounds in a 79-52 loss to the Pirates. He scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half but Monmouth was never able to mount much of a challenge. They shot just 30% for the game against the active Seton Hall defense. They were even worse behind the arc, shooting a paltry 11% from 3-point range.
“Any time you come up and play a high-major club, it can go badly for you. Seton Hall impresses you with their size. I wish our younger guys would have made a few more, we got clean looks, we just weren't making them. You feel bad because we're such a young club but this is what college basketball is.” Rice said after the game.