MOREHEAD - The Sean Woods Era will begin on Friday when the Morehead State University men’s basketball team opens its 2012-13 regular-season against defending Northeast Conference champion LIU Brooklyn. Tip-off from the brand-new Barclays Center in Brooklyn is set for 5:45 p.m.

The contest will also be the season opener for the Blackbirds, who finished 25-9 overall last season and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. MSU and LIUB have not met in men’s basketball since the 1982-83 campaign, when the Blackbirds squeezed out an 81-79 win on a neutral floor.

Woods previously spent time with five Division I men’s basketball programs and led Mississippi Valley State to the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

A former standout guard for the University of Kentucky, Woods led Mississippi Valley State to 50 overall wins and 44 Southwestern Athletic Conference victories from 2008-2012. The 2011-12 Delta Devils finished 21-13 overall, 17-1 in the SWAC, won the conference tournament and advanced to the school’s fifth-ever NCAA Tournament.

MVSU improved by 14 overall wins and 10 conference victories from his first season to his fourth. Woods was recognized as the 2011-12 SWAC Coach of the Year and earned the prestigious Ben Jobe Award, which honors the top minority coach in NCAA Division I men’s college basketball.

Prior to accepting the head position in Itta Bena, Miss., Woods spent time on the coaching staffs at TCU (2006-08), Texas A&M Corpus Christi (2005-06) and High Point (2003-05).