For the third time in six years, the Western Washington University men’s basketball team begins its 2015-16 season at the Conference Commissioner’s Association Division II Tip-off Classic on Oct. 30 through Nov. 1. The first two days take place at the Anaheim Convention Center and the final day at Cal State Dominguez Hills.
The Vikings also competed in the former Disney Tip-off West Coast Classic in 2010 and 2012, winning two of three games each time.
WWU opens against University of Colorado-Colorado Springs on Friday, Oct. 30, at 4 p.m., then faces Upper Iowa University on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 11:15 a.m. and Minnesota State University-Moorhead on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 6:15 p.m.
Also competing in the tourney are Cal Baptist University and University of Alaska Anchorage.
Fourteen of WWU’s 29-game schedule are at “home”, 11 at the Whatcom Community College Pavilion and three at Skagit Valley Community College as Sam Carver Gymnasium begins a two-year renovation.
The home schedule includes Multnomah on Nov. 14, Brigham Young Hawaii on Nov. 18, Flagler on Nov. 20, Saint Martin’s on Dec. 3, Seattle Pacific on Dec. 5, Simon Fraser on Dec. 15, Quest on Dec. 18, Concordia OR on Jan. 14, Western Oregon on Jan. 16, Montana State Billings on Jan. 28, Alaska Anchorage on Feb. 4, Alaska Fairbanks on Feb. 6, Central Washington on Feb. 18 and Northwest Nazarene on Feb. 20.
All of those games will be at Whatcom CC except for Multnomah, Quest and Northwest Nazarene which take place at Mount Vernon.
The Vikings’ second road trip of the campaign will be to Honolulu, Hawaii, where they will play Grace Bible on Nov. 27 and Hawaii Pacific on Nov. 29.
Completing WWU’s schedule are road games at Montana State Billings on Jan. 2, Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 7, Alaska Anchorage on Jan. 9, Northwest Nazarene on Jan. 21, Central Washington on Jan. 23, Simon Fraser on Jan. 26, Western Oregon on Feb. 11, Concordia on Feb. 13, Seattle Pacific on Feb. 25 and Saint Martin’s on Feb. 27.
Head coach Tony Dominguez (4th year, 71-22) returns four starters and nine letter winners from last year’s 20-11 team that reached the championship game of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament.