The Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center will be a busy place for the next five days.
The site of Friday's Extranvanga honoring the Top 100 football players in South Carolina State history will showcase the school's two basketball programs in separate exhibitions tonight.
At 6 p.m., the SCSU women will face Augusta State in its closed exhibition of the preseason. The Lady Bulldogs are looking to post its first winning season under fourth-year head coach Tonya Mackey and its first since the 2002-03 season.
The public will be able to attend for free the men's exhibition featuring SCSU against Voorhees College starting at 8 p.m.
The Tigers (2-0) are coming off a 71-60 victory Saturday over Brewton-Parker in the BPC Tip-Off Classic in Mount Vernon, Ga. They return leading scorer and NAIA All-American guard/forward Antonio Bolton, who's led the team in scoring two years in a row.
As for SCSU, it's the team's second scrimmage in a week. Under new head coach Tim Carter, the Bulldogs are looking to rebound from three straight losing seasons and return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003.
With Friday's season-opener at the University of South Carolina on the horizon, Carter is looking to speed up the process of rounding his team into a cohesive unit.
"The game tomorrow night will help us kind of figure out where we're are," he said. "We're really far behind right now offensively where we're going to be. We made some changes in our offense this past week, so we're not going to be as sharp as we would normally be this time of year. But that's the process you have to go through when you're learning a new team."
Injuries to center Julius Carter and point guard Derrick Davis have forced Carter to juggle this starting lineup for tonight's exhibition. Newcomers Jessie Burton and true freshman Carrio Bennett will start in the backcourt, with Everett Spencer playing a wing position. David Cobb and either junior college transfer Jason Johnson or Chris Miller-Williams will start in the frontcourt.
"It's going to be a game where I'm going to try to play as many people as I can," Carter said. "An exhibition game, you'd like to play well. You'd like to win them. But winning is not always the most important thing as much as it is about learning what you can about your team and also giving everybody a chance to get in and play."
WSSB 90.3 FM will carry the SCSU/Voorhees exhibition game.