Report: FGCU To Play Home And Home With UC Santa Barbara

(Courtesy of Linwood Ferguson)

UPDATE: Saturday, June 21

UCSB will play at FGCU on Monday, Nov. 17 at 7:00 p.m. ET and the Eagles head to Santa Barbara to battle the Gauchos on Monday, Jan. 5 at 10:00 p.m. ET (via press release).

END UPDATE

Florida Gulf Coast will play a home and home series with UC Santa Barbara in the 2014-15 season, a source with knowledge confirmed to the Eagles Nest on Thursday. The contract has not officially been signed, but both games will be played this season with the Gauchos visiting Dunk City for the first contest and the Eagles visiting UCSB later in the year.

UCSB finished last year with a 21-9 overall record, including a 12-4 mark in the Big West Conference. After finishing 2nd in their conference, UCSB season ended with a 69-38 loss to Cal Poly in the Big West quarterfinals.

Although most home and home series are usually played over two years, in this case UCSB and FGCU will battle twice in 2014-15. This is rare but in an interview with the FGCU Eagles Nest last week, FGCU AD Ken Kavanagh said the Eagles were pursuing this option.

"We're even looking at a couple schools where we may play a home and home against them in the same year where we play one home and one road against the same team," Kavanagh said. "It's not a common occurrence but it does happen occasionally."

The Eagles have now added another opponent to a hefty slate of non-conference openings. They already have games scheduled at Xavier (Dec. 28) and Iona (TBD), as well as home contests against Furman (Dec. 18) and FIU (TBD).

Kavanagh said FGCU is "very likely playing" in the Gulf Coast Showcase, a Thanksgiving tournament located at Germain Arena. The field is comprised of FGCU, East Carolina, Evansville, Marist, Green Bay, Fresno State, and San Francisco. Each team is guaranteed three games.

With only 14 A-Sun games filling their schedule, FGCU has ground to make up. They will continue to have three 'guarantee' games, one being Xavier. Also, the Eagles attempted to schedule contests with Belmont and FAU, but for various reasons they both fell through.

Florida Gulf Coast will arguably have their deepest team in program history. Coming off an Atlantic Sun regular season title and NIT appearance, they return three starters in Brett Comer, Bernard Thompson, and Jamail Jones.

Transfers Marc-Eddy Norelia, Julian DeBose, Brian Greene Jr, and Nick Pellar all become available. In addition, Christian Terrell, Zach Johnson, Eric Moeller, and Demetris Morant round out the Eagles incoming freshman class. The latter of the four is applying for an NCAA hardship waiver in order to be eligible immediately at FGCU.

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