It was reported by Jon Rothstein that NC State will host a tournament to start the 2020-21 season, Nov. 25-27 against Charleston Southern, Eastern Kentucky and North Florida. CSU will be the opener.

The Wolfpack had originally been expected to play in the Empire Classic in Brooklyn, N.Y., along with Baylor, Michigan and Villanova as fellow headliners, but both the Pack and Wolverines withdrew from the event due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Matt Norlander of CBS Sports also reported that NC State has agreed to play Connecticut on Dec. 5 at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., roughly 30 miles from UConn's campus.

NC State’s full schedule is expected to be announced by early-November.

Here’s a rundown of how those four opponents.

In 2019, the Huskies finished 19-12, including a 10-8 record in the American Athletic Conference.

UConn ended the season ranked No. 60 in the NET (the NCAA's evaluation method) and had notable home wins over Florida (62-59), Tulsa (72-56), Cincinnati (72-71 OT) and Houston (77-71). It also had an 80-55 neutral court win over Miami.

Second-year head coach Dan Hurley's biggest departure this offseason was senior guard Christian Vital, the team's leading scorer (16.4 points per game) and rebounder (6.3 points per game) in 2019-20.

Sophomore guard James Bouknight will return as the only double-figure scorer from last year. As a freshman in 2019-20, Bouknight started in 16 contests and averaged 13.0 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.

Senior forward Tyler Polley also returns as a 40.5 percent three-point shooter from last season. The 6-9, 215-pounder was an every-game starter for the Huskies and was the team's third-leading scorer before suffering a season-ending ACL tear in practice in January.

A year ago, Charleston Southern went 14-18 overall and 7-11 in the Big South Conference. Against notable competition, they lost by 29 points at Dayton and 48 points at Michigan State, but it did upset Missouri on the road, 68-60, and knocked off North Carolina Central by five at home.

The team finished with a final NET ranking of No. 316 (out of 353 teams).

CSU must replace its leading scorer from last season, but the Bucs do return senior guard Phlandrous Fleming Jr., who contributed 17.7 points and a team-best 8.7 rebounds per game in 2019-20, and made 45 three-pointers. Fleming was also named the Big South Defensive Player of the Year.

Also back are two more players who averaged double figures in senior guard Deontaye Buskey (10.5 points per game) and senior forward Ty Jones (10.4). CSU may be poised for an improvement this coming season.

Eastern Kentucky marks the return of former NC State assistant coach A.W. Hamilton, who was on the sideline for Kevin Keatts’ first season as the head coach of the Wolfpack before landing the gig at EKU.

This offseason, Hamilton announced that he is cancer-free after battling stage II melanoma.

The 2019 portion of the 2019-20 schedule was not kind for Eastern Kentucky. They were 3-10 when the calendar year flipped. That included 32-point losses at Kentucky and at Louisville.

Starting with a Jan. 2 win over Tennessee Tech in its Ohio Valley Conference opener, Eastern Kentucky went 13-7 in the year 2020, all in league action, and fell to Belmont in the conference tournament semifinals.

EKU returns leading scorer, Raleigh native and product of Southern High in Durham Jomaru Brown, a junior guard who averaged 18.4 points and led the team with 87 assists in 32 games. Also back is 6-foot-9 junior forward Tre King, who contributed 11.3 points and 5.1 boards per game while leading the team with 25 blocked shots.

Two more regular starters — sophomore forward Michael Moreno, who averaged 8.6 points a game, and senior guard Russhard Cruickshank, who leads the returning players in made threes last season with 46 — additionally return.

That should give Hamilton a strong enough core to be a contender again in the Ohio Valley and likely improve on its 16-17 overall record and final NET ranking of 291.

North Florida was the most competitive of the three teams last season. The Ospreys were the Atlantic Sun conference co-champions in the regular season but lost in the semifinals of the conference tournament to Lipscomb.

North Florida finished with a 21-12 overall record and ranked No. 175 in the NET rankings at the conclusion of the season.

That's notable considering the cut-off for a quad three win at home is No. 160. If the Ospreys improve slightly this season, it could end up being a sneaky quad three contest for the Wolfpack.

UNF played a difficult non-conference schedule and finished 0-4 against Power Five competition. It lost road matchups with Florida (74-59), Florida State (98-81), Syracuse (82-70) and Iowa (83-68).

The 2019 Atlantic Sun regular-season co-champions return leading scorer and rebounder 6-7 junior forward Carter Hendrickson. He started every game last season for North Florida and averaged 14.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per contest.

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