As the front page shows, NCAA Division I Final Four participant George Mason is opening their 2006 season with an exhibition against one of our own, Marymount, on November 1st.

With our new partnership with D3scoreboard.com we can now list these exhibition games, a fair number of which involve Division I opponents. Usually there’s some connection between the schools, either geographic proximity or through staff relationships. For example, St. Joseph’s Assistant Coach Dave Duda will see the team he coached to the Division III Sweet 16 last year when Widener visits the Hawks in Philadelphia.

Here are some of those Division III vs. Division I exhibitions. If you’re near one and so inclined, they’ll give you a chance to see some Division III basketball a couple weeks before we start for real on November 17.

Men

Wednesday, November 1: Marymount @ George Mason
Wednesday, November 1: Carnegie Mellon @ Pittsburgh
Wednesday, November 1: Central (Guard Brett De Hoogh pictured) @ Northern Iowa
Wednesday, November 8: UW-Platteville @ Purdue
Wednesday, November 8: UW-La Crosse @ UW-Green Bay
Thursday, November 9: Widener @ St. Joseph’s (Pa.)
Friday, November 10: Buena Vista @ Iowa
Friday, November 10: Washington U. @ Southern Illinois-Carbondale

Women

Thursday, November 2: UW-River Falls @ Wisconsin
Thursday, November 2: Concordia (Wisc.) @ UW-Milwaukee

I’m sure there are more out there, particularly on the women’s side, so please feel free to share.