Men's basketball announces 2021-22 schedule

The Defiance men's basketball program has announced its schedule for the 2021-22 season. The schedule features 12 home games at the Karl H. Weaner Center as well as three exhibition games against NCAA Division I teams.

The Yellow Jackets will open the season with three straight games starting with an exhibition game at Purdue Ft. Wayne on November 4 before hosting Miami-Hamilton and Marantha Baptist on the 5th and 6th. The team will then travel to Wisconsin to play Carthage on November 13 and head to Pennsylvania to play Penn State Shenango on November 22. The Yellow Jackets will then by their second Division I exhibition of the season on November 23 at Miami University.

DC will return home to host Manchester in their first Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference game of the season on December 1 before traveling to Franklin on December 4 and facing Bellarmine on the exhibition game in Louisville on December 5. The Yellow Jackets will then host Hanover on December 11 and Adrian on December 15 before finishing the 2021 calendar year with a tilt on the road at Oberlin on December 19.

The Purple and Gold will return to action with a New Year's Day game against Mount St. Joseph at the Weaner Center and continue HCAC play with home games against Bluffton (January 5), Earlham (January 19), and Franklin (January 22). Road games in the first month of 2021 include Transylvania (January 8), Anderson (January 12), Rose-Hulman (January 15), Mount St. Joseph (January 26), and Hanover (January 29).

Defiance will begin February on the road at Manchester before returning home for three straight games against Transylvania (February 5), Anderson (February 9), and Rose-Hulman (February 12). The Yellow Jackets will then conclude the regular season with road games at Earlham and Bluffton on February 15 and 18.

The first round of the HCAC Tournament will take place on February 20.

The Yellow Jackets will be led by first-year head coach Josh Gibson. Gibson spent the 2020-21 season as an assistant coach at NAIA Indiana University East and has previously served as head coach at Urbana University, Lourdes University, and Brescia University.