Your spring break basketball road trip

Jim Dallke

Spring break isn’t just for drunken fun in exotic locations. If college basketball is more your speed, here are a few games worth checking out, in person or on television, in early March. From UNCW’s final home game on Saturday March 1 to arriving at the CAA Tournament on March 7, The Seahawk has laid out the perfect spring break road trip for basketball fans.

Saturday, March 1Old Dominion at UNCW, 4 p.m.

Sunday, March 2Duquesne at Charlotte, 2 p.m.Trip from Wilmington to Charlotte: 197 miles, 3 hours, 30 minutesWhy this game? Charlotte should be in the upper half of the extremely competitive Atlantic 10 along with resurgent Duquesne. Former Northeastern coach Ron Everhart has turned the Duquesne program around in his second year and brought big man Shawn James with him in the move.

Monday March 3Western Carolina at UNC Greensboro.Trip from Charlotte to Greensboro: 92 miles; 1 hour, 30 minutes.Why this game? UNCG’s Kyle Hines is the best player in the SoCon other than Stephen Curry. As UNCW fans saw in Decemeber, UNCG is a pretty solid team and should contend in the SoCon.

Tuesday March 4Wake Forest at Virginia Tech, 7 p.m.Trip from Greensboro to Blacksburg, Va.: 152 miles; 2 hours, 3 minutes.Why this game: This game should be a pretty interesting matchup of two midle of the road ACC teams. It took an Ishmael Smith buzzer-beater for the Deacons to survive at home vs. the Hokies in December.

Florida State at North Carolina, 8 p.m.Trip from Greensboro to Chapel Hill: 50 miles; 57 minutes.Why this game? It’s not quite the experience of going to many college basketball arenas, but if you haven’t been, the Smith Center is worth checking out. A veteran core of Jason Rich, Toney Douglas and Isaiah Swann make the Seminoles a team capable of big upsets in the ACC.

Wednesday March 5Duke at Virginia, 7 p.m.Trip from Blacksburg to Charlottesville, Va.: 142 miles; 2 hours, 30 minutes.Trip from Chapel Hill to Charlottesville: 187 miles, 3 hours 40 minutes.Why this game: Duke has a penchant for losing in Charlottesville, and Sean Singletary will be looking to hand the Blue Devils another loss in his final shot at them. If you’ve never been to Charlottesville, the campus is worth checking out as well as the state-of-the-art John Paul Jones arena.

Fordham at Richmond, 7 p.m.Trip from Blacksburg to Richmond: 209 miles; 3 hours, 30 minutes.Trip from Chapel Hill to Richmond: 165 miles, 2 hours, 50 minutes.Why this game? Nothing too intriguing about this game really, but it’s a tad on the cheaper side if you don’t want to pay for tickets at Virginia because they won’t come cheap. Richmond plays a fairly slow brand of basketball, if that’s your thing.

Thursday March 6Howard at Hampton, 8 p.m.Trip from Richmond to Hampton, Va.: 78 miles; 1 hour, 20 minutes.Trip Charlottesville to Hampton: 146 miles; 2 hours, 30 minutes.Why this game? Hampton is probably the best team in the MEAC and this is a rivalry matchup. Can’t say I know much else, but I do know that it closes out one glorious week on the road.

Friday, March 7CAA Tournament, Richmond, Va.