HELENA, Mont. -- Trips across six states, an exhibition against Oregon State and the return of the Carroll Classic highlight the Fighting Saints men's basketball 2019-20 schedule. 

"We are happy to get our schedule released and very pleased with the high level of competition we will be facing," Saints coach Kurt Paulson said.  

The Saints open the season on Oct. 18 with a Purple and Gold Scrimmage to be played at the PE Center at 6 p.m. 

Less than a week later, the Saints will descend upon Oregon State to face the Beavers in an exhibition in Gill Coliseum. 

It will be a neat reunion for coach Paulson. He served as the Director of Basketball Operations at Oregon State under current head coach Wayne Tinkle from 2014-18.  

"We are very gracious to Wayne Tinkle for hosting us at Oregon State and in a Pac-12 venue," Paulson said. "It will be a treat for our players to play in that environment." 

The Saints have early season matchups against Cascade Collegiate Conference strengths, Eastern Oregon (coached by former Saints assistant Carlito Labarda Jr.) and Southern Oregon. Both programs finished in the middle of the very talented CCC, which, like the Frontier Conference at nationals a season ago, pitted two of its programs against each other in the NAIA tournament semifinals. 

Before the Frontier Conference's earnest start to the schedule, the Saints will also face Walla Walla University at College Place, Washington, and then head to Fullerton, California, to match up with Hope International and Westmont College, a pair of NAIA tournament regulars. 

During the holiday break this season, the Saints will travel to Arizona for a group of games. Carroll will face Mount Vernon Nazarene University, Benedictine University Mesa and Arizona Christian University, the latter which fell 80-78 in the quarterfinals of the NAIA tournament to eventual national champion Georgetown.   

Prior to the conference schedule resuming, the second annual Carroll Classic will come back to the PE Center. The Saints will face SAIT Polytechnic and Walla Walla, and welcome in Montana Tech to face both opponents, too. 

"We know that the Frontier Conference schedule will be extremely tough and our nonconference slate is challenging as well," Paulson said. "We tried to get games that will test our young group before Frontier play begins." 

As the Fighting Saints look to make their fifth consecutive trip to the NAIA national tournament, they do so with a much younger roster. The Saints graduated a bulk of its firepower from a team that advanced to the program's first championship in school history and posted a 29-8 record. 

While incumbents like senior Dane Warp, an honorable mention All-American last season, return, and key contributors Shamrock Campbell (Frontier Conference Co-Freshman of the Year), Jovan Sljivancanin and Eetu Villa now have a season under their belts, the Saints will also be leaning on freshmen to contribute right away.

"We will have a mix of young players with some great game experience and some young players with no college game experience," Paulson said. "The nice thing is that our freshmen group played at high levels of high school basketball so it won't take them long to adjust to the college game and we can't wait too long for that as we need them ready now."

The full schedule is listed below. 

CARROLL COLLEGE MEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE 19-20'

DATE OPPONENT LOCATION TIME

10/18/19 Purple Gold Scrimmage Helena, MT 6:00pm

10/23/19 Oregon State University(Exhib) Corvallis, OR TBD

11/1/19 Southern Oregon University Butte, MT(HPER) 3:00pm

11/2/19 Eastern Oregon University Butte, MT(HPER) 5:00pm

11/14/19 Walla Walla University College Place, WA 7:00pm

11/23/19 Hope International University Fullerton,CA 8:00pm

11/25/19 Westmont College Fullerton, CA 8:00pm

11/30/19 Whitworth University Helena, MT 3:00pm

12/3/19 Montana Tech University Helena,MT 7:30pm

12/6/19 Lewis-Clark State College Helena, MT 7:30pm

12/14/19 Mount Vernon Nazarene Chandler,AZ 12:00pm

12/16/19 Benedictine UniversityMesa Chandler, AZ 10:00am

12/17/19 Arizona Christian University Chandler, AZ 6:00pm

12/27/19 Montana Tech vs Walla Walla (Carroll Classic) Helena, MT 2:00pm

12/27/19 SAIT Polytechnic (Carroll Classic) Helena, MT 7:00pm

12/28/19 Montana Tech vs SAIT Polytechnic(Carroll Classic) Helena,MT  5:00pm

12/28/19 Walla Walla University (Carroll Classic) Helena, MT 7:00pm

1/2/20 Concordia University of Edmonton Helena, MT 7:00pm

1/7/20 Montana State University-Northern Havre, MT 8:00pm

1/11/20 University of Providence Helena, MT 7:30pm

1/15/20 Rocky Mountain College Billings, MT 7:30pm

1/17/20 University of Montana-Western Helena, MT 7:30pm

1/22/20 Montana State University-Northern Havre, MT 8:00pm

1/25/20 University of Providence Great Falls, MT 7:30pm

1/29/20 Rocky Mountain College Billings, MT 7:30pm

1/31/20 University of Montana-Western Helena, MT 7:30pm

2/5/20 Montana Tech University Helena, MT 7:30pm

2/7/20 Lewis-Clark State College Lewiston, ID 8:30pm

2/11/20 Rocky Mountain College Helena, MT 7:30pm

2/15/20 University of Montana-Western Dillon, MT 7:30pm

2/18/20 Montana Tech University Butte, MT 7:30pm

2/22/20 Lewis-Clark State College Lewiston, ID 8:30pm

2/27/20 University of Providence Helena, MT 7:30pm

2/28/20 Montana State University-Northern(Senior Night) Helena, MT 7:30pm