WALTHAM, Mass. – As it has annually for the past seven seasons, the Bentley University men's basketball team will open its season by hosting a Tip-Off Classic at the Dana Center Friday and Saturday evening.

Coach Jay Lawson's club, which has won five straight season-openers, will make its 2016-17 debut against a difficult opponent, a Bloomfield College team that was tabbed the preseason favorite in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference's North Division.

The Bentley-Bloomfield match-up is slated for 8 pm in the second-half of an opening night doubleheader. Prior to the Falcons taking the court, perennial Tip-Off participant Merrimack College will meet up with Post University at 6 pm.

On Saturday, the two Northeast-10 teams will trade opponents with Merrimack taking on Bloomfield at 6 pm and Bentley facing Post in the nightcap.

The Bentley team that Lawson puts on the court this weekend will have a significantly different look from the one that hosted Southern New Hampshire in the 2016 Northeast-10 championship game about 250 days ago. Five players from that squad have graduated, including All-America forward Tyler McFarland, Northeast-10 Man of the Year Keegan Hyland and six-foot-six guard Alex Furness. Combined that trio accounted for about 68 percent of the scoring on a team that reached the NCAA East Regional.

The other five who played at least 13 minutes a game do return, including two who started the majority of the season, senior guard Ferguson Duke (Dartmouth, N.S./Hun School (N.Y.)) and junior forward Brandon Wheeler (Stamford, Conn./Trinity Catholic HS).

Duke started 20 of the 23 games he played, averaging 8.2 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.7 rebounds. Wheeler, one of five players who appeared in all 30 contests, was one of the Falcons' top rebounders and finished with averages of 5.5 points and 5.9 rebounds.

Guards Matt Barr (Stratham, N.H./Cushing Academy) and Ryan Richmond (Toronto, Ont./ Thomson Collegiate) led the non-starters in minutes played. Richmond scored six a game and Barr finished at 4.3.

In the preseason Northeast-10 coaches' poll, announced earlier this week, Bentley was tabbed to finish fifth in the eight-team Northeast Division.

Bloomfield garnered the top spot in the CACC after bringing back ten letterwinners from last year's team that finished 15-13 overall and 13-6 in the CACC. Four of five starters are back, including second-team All-Conference forward Nick Davidson, who averaged 17.1 points and 5.3 rebounds. Forwards Rakwan Kelly (11.6) and Ignacio Diez (9.3) are also offensive threats, as is guard Safee Abdus-Sabur who scored 9.4 a game as a freshman last winter.

Post, number three in the preseason CACC North coaches' poll, is coming off a 14-13 season that included a 10-9 mark in the conference. Longtime UMass-Lowell assistant Marc Kuntz was named the Eagles' head coach in July after four years as a New Hampshire assistant and inherited nine returnees. That list includes junior guard Tyler Desrosiers, the team's top scorer (16.3) and a second-team All-CACC honoree. Six-foot-seven sophomore Tama Okros, who put up 12.2 points a game as a rookie, is also back.

Merrimack, which has a 15-game winning streak in the Tip-Off Tournament, enters a new era this winter with former Warrior Joe Gallo succeeding 36-year head coach and Bentley Hall of Famer Bert Hammel at the helm. In addition, the Warriors were hit hard by graduation, losing three guards who combined for over 50 points a game last season. The starters for Merrimack in a recent exhibition at Fairleigh Dickinson included grad student Anthony Barry (10.3 ppg), junior Kyle Howes (5.1), sophomore Ryan Boulter (6.0) and freshmen guards Juvaris Hayes and Jaleel Lord.

Bentley will also see Merrimack next Wednesday when they host the Warriors in the team's Northeast-10 opener.