FAU Basketball Opens Monday: Men Host LIU in Boca Raton, Women Open at Miami
Both Florida Atlantic teams tip off the 2026-27 season at 7 p.m. Monday — the men against defending NEC champion LIU in the programs' first meeting, the women in Coral Gables for their 22nd meeting with the Hurricanes.
BOCA RATON — Florida Atlantic basketball opens its season twice on Monday night. The men's team tips off at 7 p.m. at home, hosting LIU on Abessinio Court at the Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena on ESPN+, while the women's team opens at the same hour on the road at Miami, on ACC Network Extra, FAU Athletics announced in its schedule releases.
The men's opener is a first: FAU and LIU have never met, and the Sharks arrive as the defending Northeast Conference regular-season and tournament champions and a 2026 NCAA Tournament team — one of three tournament teams on the Owls' early schedule. Head coach John Jakus enters his third year, and the Owls' full slate carries 13 nationally televised games, 10 of them in American Conference play. After a Nov. 6 trip to Wright State, FAU plays five straight at home: William & Mary, Coastal Georgia, Florida Gulf Coast, Mercer and Davidson.
The women's opener renews a familiar matchup — the 22nd all-time meeting between FAU and Miami — under head coach LeAnn Freeland, whose team plays 16 home games this season and visits Florida on Nov. 19. Monday's two openers start a winter in which Palm Beach County's Division I program is on national television or streaming nearly every week.
