Posted Tuesday, July 26, 1:26 a.m.
Updated 10:13 a.m.
Men’s basketball fans will have to wait at least another month for a full 2005-2006 schedule. But Director of Athletics Jack Kvancz confirmed Monday that the Colonials will take a preseason excursion to Australia and open their season at home against Kennesaw State University.

On Aug. 13, the Colonials will head to the land down under for a series of five or six games.

“It’s been in the works for four years,” Kvancz said in a phone interview Monday.

On the trip, the Colonials will be without the services of freshmen Robert Diggs, Noel Wilmore and Montrel McDonald. The three incoming freshmen will not be considered students by the mid-August departure.

The overseas trip will rule out a repeat appearance in the Preseason NIT, as the NCAA does not allow an overseas trip coupled with any preseason tournament. The Colonials have been mentioned in the past for the Maui Invitational and the Great Alaskan Shootout, Kvancz said in May, but the invitations never materialized.

A source close to the team said the team will be joined by a Comcast television team doing a human-interest piece on the Colonials, but Kvancz said he had not heard of that agreement.

The Kennesaw State Owls of Georgia will need to endure thousands of screaming fans in the Smith Center for the Colonials’ first home game since winning the Atlantic 10 championship earlier this year. The 2003-2004 Division II champions will be competing in their first season as a Division I team in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Kvancz said the game will count toward the Colonials’ rankings percentage index (RPI).

In addition to the Dec. 5 contest at the MCI Center against the University of Maryland, the Colonials will play North Carolina State in Raleigh, according to sources close to the program.