The University of Illinois Springfield men's basketball team announced its 2018-19 schedule this afternoon. The Prairie Stars have an exciting slate of contests including 15 home games and some big non-conference tests early in the year.
 
UIS opens the season on Nov. 9-10 when it hosts the Prairie Stars Tipoff Classic. The season will start against Malone on that Friday night, followed by a Saturday afternoon game versus Hillsdale the next day. Both of those teams were top-four Great Midwest Athletic Conference programs last year, and Hillsdale was in the NCAA Tournament.
 
The Prairie Stars will take a swing through the state of Missouri on Nov. 16-19, starting with the Central Missouri Classic on Nov. 16-17. Two days later, UIS will face the 2017 NCAA Division II National Champions, Northwest Missouri, in historic Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo.
 
The remaining non-conference schedule includes home games with MacMurray, Purdue Northwest, Lindenwood-Belleville, and Lincoln Christian, and a road game at Missouri Western.
 
The conference schedule gets an early start on Nov. 29 and Dec. 1 when the Prairie Stars visit Maryville and Missouri-St. Louis. GLVC play resumes after Christmas with an important stretch for UIS, when it plays seven out of nine games at home in Springfield, Ill.
 
UIS will play 18 conference games total, as it looks to finish in the top-eight and make the conference tournament in Edwardsville, Ill. Some of the top GLVC home dates include a Jan. 19 game against Drury and the March 2 regular season finale against Bellarmine, both teams that made last year's NCAA tournament field.
 
UIS improved by five wins last season, and had its best overall record since 2011-12.