DITV Reaction: UTRGV’s Basketball Schedule Has Some Smoke on It

Photo from Coach Chambers IG

UTRGV dropped the 2026-27 basketball schedule and my first reaction?

Yeah…there’s some smoke on this thing.

The Brandon Chambers era starts Nov. 2 at the Fieldhouse against Texas A&M-Kingsville, but there isn’t much time for a slow introduction. Prairie View comes to town Nov. 7. Texas State follows Nov. 10.

And after a trip to UT Arlington and one more home game, the schedule starts to move real quick

A six-game road stretch with Austin Peay, UNLV, Nicholls, LSU New Orleans, Texas State and Dayton.

Six straight away from the Valley.

That’s not exactly easing a new team into the season.

For me, that stretch might be the most interesting part of the entire schedule. New coach. New rotation. Plenty of new faces. You’re going to find out pretty quickly who can travel, who can handle bad stretches and who Chambers trusts when games get uncomfortable.

Then there’s the one everybody is going to notice.

Dec. 29. Arkansas.

Photo courtesy of UTRGV Athletics

That’s a measuring-stick night. Go into an SEC building, see where you stack up and bring that experience back with you when the Southland race gets serious.

But don’t get so caught up looking at the road games that you miss what’s coming to the Fieldhouse.

SFA. Lamar. Corpus Christi. McNeese.

Those are the ones I want to see with the building packed and the Valley behind this team.

That’s what makes this schedule fun. There are recognizable names for the casual fan, tough road games for the basketball junkies and plenty of Southland games that are going to carry real weight.

UTRGV basketball has reached a point where just being competitive isn’t the conversation anymore.

November introduces us to Chambers’ Vaqueros.December puts them through it.January and February tell us what they’re really working with.

The schedule is here.

Now bring basketball back to the 956.