Previewing Maryland basketball’s non-conference schedule

Maryland basketball’s schedule is starting to fill out.

We now have a start date to the Terps' season, as the team released the matchups and dates for its non-conference opponents on Monday.

Mark Turgeon and company invite Randolph Macon to the Xfinity Center for an exhibition on Nov. 2, then get the season underway Nov. 10 on the road against Stony Brook.

The schedule is light on high-profile matchups. In fact, most of the marquee games on the schedule were known ahead of time.

Maryland announced their Nov. 15 matchup with Butler back in May, as part of the Gavitt Games announcement. Butler represents one of just two 2017 NCAA Tournament teams Maryland will face before Big Ten competition. The Terps invite Butler and Bucknell, followed by Jacksonville State to College Park in a three-game home stretch from Nov. 15-20.

Maryland follows that stretch with the Emerald Coast Classic, where it'll play Saint Bonaventure and either TCU or New Mexico from Nov. 24-25 in Florida. The Terps then take a trip north for the ACC/Big Ten challenge against Syracuse on Nov. 27.

The rest of the schedule doesn't have much by way of exciting matchups. While you can never afford to take an opponent for granted, Maryland, led by its trio of sophomores, will try use this somewhat soft non-conference schedule to get ready for the rigors of Big Ten play.