MARTIN, Tenn. – It was announced today that The University of Tennessee at Martin men’s basketball team will play host to the Longwood University Lancers in the Ramada Worldwide BracketBusters series on Saturday, Feb. 23. Tip-off time from the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center will be announced at a later date.
The Skyhawks are 3-4 all-time in the BracketBusters event, which features 122 teams featuring 15 collegiate athletic conferences in its 11th and final year.
Although the Skyhawks and Longwood have never met on the basketball court, the two programs are linked by former UT Martin head coach Cal Luther. Luther served as head coach at Longwood from 1981-90 and is the school’s all-time winningest coach – posting five winning seasons while going 136-105 as bench leader for the Lancers. Less than a year after leaving Longwood, he was appointed UT Martin’s head coach in December 1990 and led the team until 1999, ushering in the school’s Division-I/Ohio Valley Conference era. He won conference coach of the year honors at both Longwood (1987-88) and UT Martin (1995-96).
The Lancers are currently 3-20 overall with a 0-9 Big South Conference record. Located in Farmville, Va., Longwood is guided by head coach Mike Gillian, who is in his 10th season at the helm.
Longwood is led by Tristan Carey, who averages 14.6 points per game. The 6-4 junior guard also leads the team in three-point field goals made (51 of the team’s 109) and steals (2.2 per game). Inside, the Lancers feature 6-9 freshman forward Michael Kessens, who scores 12.5 points per game and leads the squad in field goal percentage (.551), rebounding (8.7 per game) and blocks (1.3 per game). Kessens recently picked up his third Big South Conference Freshman of the Week accolade this season after posting back-to-back 20-point performances last week.