BLACKSBURG, Va. - A trip to Cancun to play Seton Hall, plus eight home Atlantic Coast Conference contests, highlight the 2009-10 Virginia Tech men’s basketball schedule.

The Hokies will also travel to Philadelphia for a Thanksgiving weekend tournament and make trips to Big 10 opponents Iowa and Penn State. Southeastern Conference foe Georgia will play in Cassell Coliseum on Dec. 6.

“This year’s schedule will be both challenging and rewarding,” head coach Seth Greenberg said. “We have a terrific opportunity in our non-conference schedule to find out more about ourselves, while preparing for the grueling ACC season.”

The Hokies open the 2009-10 ACC conference season on Sunday, Jan. 10, as they travel to Chapel Hill to face defending national champion, North Carolina, in a nationally-televised game on FoxSportsNet. Tech will later host the Tar Heels, along with league foes Miami, Boston College, Clemson, Virginia, Wake Forest, Maryland and NC State in Cassell Coliseum. Along with Carolina, the Hokies will travel to Florida State, Virginia, Miami, NC State, Duke, Boston College and Georgia Tech this season.

“Once again, the ACC will be one of the premier conferences in America,” Greenberg said. “Our conference schedule will put us against 11 of the most competitive teams in all of college basketball.”

Virginia Tech will participate in the Philly Hoop Group Classic at the famed Palestra in Philadelphia over Thanksgiving weekend. The Hokies will host Brown in the season-opener on Nov. 15 in Cassell Coliseum as the first game of the event and will then travel to Philadelphia to play 2009 NCAA Tournament participant Temple on Nov. 27 and Delaware on Nov. 28 in the Palestra.

Tech will travel to Iowa City, Iowa to play the Hawkeyes on Dec. 1, as part of the 11th Annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge, in a game televised by ESPN2 at 9:30 p.m. The Hokies will also travel to Campbell on Nov. 23 and Penn State on Dec. 12 in a game at 8 p.m., on ESPN2.

The Hokies will play its first-ever regular season game on foreign soil on Jan. 2, as they travel to Cancun, Mexico to play Seton Hall, in a game televised by one of the ESPN networks.

Following the season-opener against Brown, the Hokies will then host UNC Greensboro on Nov. 17. The remaining home non-conference games will be against Georgia, VMI, Charleston Southern, UMBC, Longwood and North Carolina Central. In all, Virginia Tech will play 16 home games, the most since Tech hosted 17 home games in the 2005-06 season.

“Our non-conference schedule will give us the opportunity to learn about ourselves,” Greenberg said. “We will play against teams from a number of different major conferences and teams that play different styles of basketball. If we are fortunate enough to have success in our non-conference schedule, it will bode well for our ability to earn a post-season berth.

The Hokies will have at least 16 regular season games televised. More games may be added to television schedules at a later date. Also, all games in the ACC Tournament will be televised by either Raycom or one of the ESPN family of networks.