Basketball season will finally commence this weekend in Hamilton for the Colgate Raiders, barring a COVID-19 outbreak.

Fortunately, up to this point, Colgate has yet to be put on pause this season for COVID-19 related test results. For the Raiders, their season ended last season in the Patriot League tournament finals, falling to Boston University. It's a memory still fresh in the teams mind ahead of the season tip-off.

But this season will present challenges players and coaches have yet to face. Across the country, COVID-19 spikes have changed the way teams have scheduled and played games. In the Patriot League, things are no different. One of the major changes and challenges teams will face is playing consecutive days against the same program. After the league implemented a conference only basketball schedule, they scheduled teams to play consecutive days against the same opponent, in the same location, to reduce team travel for safety concerns.

For Colgate's coach Matt Langel, he had to revert back to his days playing in Europe to help prepare his team for what a weekend-only schedule of basketball would look and feel like. Langel reffered to his time as a player and coach in Europe playing weekend only games as his main reference for preparing his players.

While the Raiders believe they have a strong plan in place and a foundation to handle whatever obstacles are thrown their way this season, they are not going to relax. Langel said "until that ball on Saturday is tipped-off, I probably wont be quite comfortable yet."