BOONEVILLE, Miss. - The Northeast Mississippi Community College men's basketball team has a demanding road ahead for its conference championship defense.
The Tigers will travel to five of the top seven teams in the Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference (MACCC) standings from last season during the upcoming 2024-25 campaign.
"I think our league is going to be top to bottom very challenging," Northeast head coach Cord Wright said. "The travel wears on you, but you just try to prepare yourself as much as you can in the preseason. Hopefully you've got enough talent and enough things go your way that you can steal a few on the road."
League play for the Tigers begins on Monday, January 13 at East Central Community College. It is the first of five trips for Northeast to members of the old eight-member south division.
The Tigers visit the three furthest schools in the MACCC from their own campus in terms of miles in Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Pearl River Community College and Southwest Mississippi Community College.
The contests with the Bulldogs and the Wildcats are postseason rematches from last March. Northeast also goes to reigning region winner Jones College on Monday, February 17.
The non-conference portion of the Tigers' schedule looks similar to one year ago. Northeast welcomes Jackson State (Tenn.) Community College for its season opener on Monday, November 4.
Three two-day tournaments dot the calendar, including the return of the Tigers' classics that are named for Bonner Arnold and Harvey Childers. The pair of hall of fame coaches both led Northeast to the national championship game during their famed careers.
East Mississippi Community College, Reid State (Ala.) Technical College and Wallace (Ala.) Community College Selma are the participants for the Bonner Arnold Classic from November 8-9.
The Harvey Childers Classic features Dyersburg State (Tenn.) Community College, Missouri State University-West Plains and Northwest Mississippi Community College just over one month later.
The Tigers journey to the Show Me State for the third straight year to battle North Arkansas College and MSU-West Plains in the Grizzly Tournament. It is the first meeting between the host Grizzlies and Northeast since February 2013.
"We've kinda covered that region pretty well over the last couple of years," said Wright. "I like the Missouri trips because it gets our guys into a different area, but it's not so far that it's a long, long day of travel."
There are 17 total regular season games inside legendary Bonner Arnold Coliseum, which is one less than the previous campaign. That includes five-in-a-row going into the lengthy Christmas layoff.
The Tigers and rival Itawamba Community College will compete in a home-and-home series for the first time in three years. The matchups take place on December 5th in Booneville and January 21st at Fulton.
"Overall, it's a solid schedule," Wright said. "It's a good mixture of home and away. I think there are some challenges in there for us. We tried to get some teams that will make our guys better."