Men's Basketball Opens the Season at N.C. State on Friday

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The UNC Asheville men's basketball team opens the 2011-12 season on the road Friday night when the Bulldogs travel to North Carolina State for a 7 p.m. tip-off. Thursday's game will be broadcast locally on WWNC (570-AM). You can also listen to the game on the world-wide web for free at www.uncabulldogs.com by clicking on the live link on the front of the website.

The defending Big South Conference champions begin a busy weekend. They'll open their new Kimmel Arena on Sunday afternoon against top-ranked UNC Chapel Hill at 4 p.m. The game is sold out and will be nationally televised by ESPNU.

Veteran Bulldog coach Eddie Biedenbach is excited about the weekend but his total focus is on the Wolfpack. N.C. State is Biedenbach's alma mater as he played there in the 1960's and served as an assistant coach in the 1970's and early 1990's.The Wolfpack went 15-16 last season but should be much improved under first-year coach Mark Gottfried.

"We have a tremendous challenge in playing N.C. State," commented Biedenbach. "They have a good team and do a lot of things well. We're going to have to play at a very high level to have any chance of winning."

The Bulldogs opened exhibition play on Monday night with a 98-67 victory over Lees-McRae at Kimmel Arena. J.P. Primm scored 24 points, while Matt Dickey added 18 for Asheville. Jaron Lane finished with 12 points.

"We did a lot of good things against Lees-McRae but there's still plenty to work to do," admitted Biedenbach. "We seemed to get better as the game went on. The important thing is we got a chance to play a lot of different combinations."

Asheville is looking for its first ever win against N.C. State. The Bulldogs are 0-15 all-time vs. the Wolfpack. The teams have not played since the opening game of the 2003-04 season when State recorded a 71-46 victory.

BULLDOG NOTES

UNC Asheville is the preseason favorite to win the Big South Conference championship. It's the first time the Bulldogs have been picked so high since the 2002-03 season.

Bulldog senior guard Matt Dickey is the Big South Conference Preseason Player of the Year. Senior guard J.P. Primm made the Big South Preseason All-Conference team.

Head Coach Eddie Biedenbach is the Big South Conference's all-time winningest head coach with 216 victories. He was an All-ACC guard for N.C. State in the 1960's and was named as the Wolfpack Player of the Decade for the 1960's in 2003.

Asheville went 8-8 in road games last season. It was the most road victories by a Bulldog team in more than 30 years.

Senior guard J.P. Primm needs just 56 assists to become the school's all-time leader in that category. Primm has 456 career assists entering Friday's game. He needs 40 steals to become the all-time leader at Asheville in that category. Primm has 180 steals coming into tonight's action.

Asheville was ninth nationally in steals last year with a 9.1 per game average.