Georgia Southern (0-0) @ Wake Forest (0-0)

Time: 7:30 p.m. ET (Friday, November 10, 2017)

Location: Winston-Salem, NC (Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum; 14,665)

TV: ACC Network Extra (WatchESPN)

Radio: WakeForestSports (Live Audio Stream of Broadcast)

Live Stats: WakeForestSports.com

Twitter: @WakeMBB, @BloggerSoDear, @BSD_RaJohnston

Odds: Wake Forest -10, O/U of 160 (KenPom: 85-75)

The college basketball regular season is finally here, and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons will kick off it’s season by welcoming the Georgia Southern Eagles to Winston-Salem. Coached by Mark Byington, the Eagles went 18-15 last season and made a trip to the CBI, where it fell to Utah Valley 74-49 in the first round.

Juniors Ike Smith and Tookie Brown lead an experienced Eagles squad that should compete for the Sun Belt Conference champion in a very deep league this season.

Smith led the Sun Belt in scoring last season at 19.6 PPG and should eclipse the 1,000 point mark for his career tonight in Winston (needs 2 points). He is also on the Preseason Watch List for the Lou Henson Award, which is given annually to the best Division I mid-major basketball player.

Brown, at 5-11, is no slouch on his own, averaging 17.1 PPG last year as a sophomore

The Eagles lost to N.C. State 81-79 in it’s season opener last season and started the Sun Belt 7-0 before faltering bit down the stretch and finishing 11-7.

This will be a fun matchup that should see the first team to 80 win the game. It is a bit tougher than the Deacs have started it’s season with in year’s past, so the team will need to hit the ground running.

The same lineup that started against Queens is expected to start tonight (Crawford, Woods, Brown, Thompson, Moore). I would also expect the big men to get a lot more run tonight in a “real” game than they got last Friday.

If you live in the Winston-Salem area then be sure to head to the Joel to check the Deacs out, but otherwise tune in on WatchESPN at 7:30. Go Deacs!