CLARKSVILLE, Tenn (CLARKSVILLENOW) —Third-year Austin Peay State University men’s basketball head coach Matt Figger has announced a challenging slate for the 2019-20 schedule, featuring multiple contests against high-major competition.

Austin Peay will face four Power Five opponents before the calendar turns over to 2020. This is in addition to the 14-game home schedule, 16 including exhibition contests, which will take place on the newly-refurbished Dave Loos Court. The Govs also will make a repeat visit to the St. Pete Shootout. There will unfortunately be no title defense, as the event has moved from tournament to classic format for the 2019 edition.

“The schedule is, for lack of a better term, hard,” Figger said. “It’s tough. It’s going to test us from day one. We’ve got a three-game road stand that will really test us a team. There’s visits to West Virginia, Arkansas and Georgia. We’ve got two neutral-site games in St. Petersburg with no home court advantage to give us a good measuring stick ahead of Christmas. It’s going to challenge us, challenge our leadership. We have to speed a lot of things up fast.”

After taking no exhibition contests a year ago, the Govs will have two in 2019—Union College, Oct. 24 and Lees-McRae, Nov. 2. Those predate the regular-season opener against Oakland City, Nov. 5—the fourth-straight season the Govs have opened the home slate against the Mighty Oaks and the third time since 2012-13 Oakland City has served as Austin Peay’s regular-season opener.

The Governors first three road games will be as challenging a three game non-conference trip as any other Ohio Valley Conference squad will face this season. The Govs get the road trip underway with a Nov. 9 visit to Western Kentucky, seeking their first win against the Hilltoppers since 1999. That’s followed by Austin Peay’s first-ever trip to Tulsa to take on the Golden Hurricane, Nov. 16, in their fifth season under former Miami head coach Frank Haith. The trip wraps up slightly closer to home against Vanderbilt and first-year head coach Jerry Stackhouse, Nov. 20.

For the first time since December 2017, the Govs will host back-to-back Division I opponents when Southeastern Louisiana (Nov. 23) and South Carolina State (Nov. 25) visit the Dunn Center to close out November. Former Gov Ed Stephens, a grad transfer in Figger’s first season at Austin Peay, is an assistant on the South Carolina State coaching staff.

December begins with a visit to Arkansas, the Governors second straight journey to Fayetteville, Dec. 3. The Govs then return home to host North Florida for the first time since 2015 in a Dec. 7 contest before venturing back out on the road to take on another high-major in West Virginia, Dec. 12. Austin Peay then wrap up the nonconference home schedule against McKendree, Dec. 17.

Austin Peay’s return appearance at the St. Pete Shootout begins Dec. 21 against Duquesne, with the Dec. 22 contest scheduled to be against Alabama State. The Govs then break for Christmas before returning to the road to wrap the nonconference slate at Georgia, Dec. 30, for the program’s first-contest against the Bulldogs.

The Govs open up 2020 and the Ohio Valley Conference schedule Jan. 2 against Southeast Missouri, followed by UT Martin (Jan. 4). Austin Peay then embarks upon a four-game roadtrip, taking the Govs to Tennessee Tech (Jan. 9), Jacksonville State (Jan. 11), Southeast Missouri (Jan. 16) and UT Martin (Jan. 18).

But for the rest of January and over half of February, the Govs won’t leave the midstate area. Following the road trip, Austin Peay gets a four-game homestand against Tennessee State (Jan. 23), Belmont (Jan. 25), SIU Edwardsville (Jan. 30) and Eastern Illinois (Feb. 1). They follow that with return trips to Tennessee State (Feb. 6) and Belmont (Feb. 8) in Nashville before returning home to host Murray State (Feb. 13) and Eastern Kentucky (Feb. 15).

The Govs close out the regular season with three of four on the road, beginning with the Illinois journey to take on SIUE (Feb. 20) and Eastern Illinois (Feb. 22). The season’s lone battle against Morehead State comes Feb. 27 in the home finale, and the Govs once more close out the regular season with a trip to Murray State for the second leg of the Heritage Bank Battle of the Border contest.

For the third year in a row, the OVC Basketball Championships will take place in Evansville, Indiana beginning March 4, with Championship Saturday set for March 7. The 2020 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships begin Tuesday, March 17 with the First Four in Dayton, Ohio.