Home games against five of the top seven finishers in Conference USA last season highlight the league play portion of the 2017-18 WKU men’s basketball schedule, WKU announced Wednesday.

The Hilltoppers will play home-and-home series with 2017 C-USA regular-season and tournament champion Middle Tennessee and third-place Old Dominion, as well as host second-place Louisiana Tech.

The 18-game conference slate also includes home-and-home series with UAB, Marshall and Charlotte and single games against the other eight teams in the league.

WKU will kick off the conference schedule with home games against Louisiana Tech (Dec. 28) and Southern Miss (Dec. 30) at E.A. Diddle Arena.

The Hilltoppers then hit the road with trips to Marshall (Jan. 6), Old Dominion (Jan. 11) and Charlotte (Jan. 13).

That time away from home will be followed by three consecutive games in Diddle Arena, starting Jan. 18 against UAB. WKU will then welcome Middle Tennessee on Jan. 20 and Marshall on Jan. 27.

The first matchup with Middle Tennessee will be the 135th meeting in the series that dates back to 1914-15. WKU leads the series 93-41 and 52-15 in Bowling Green.

The schedule continues Feb. 1 with a road swing to UTEP (Feb. 1) and UTSA (Feb. 3), followed by home games against Florida Atlantic (Feb. 8) and FIU (Feb. 10).

Two more stops in the Lone Star State follow at North Texas (Feb. 15) and Rice (Feb. 17) before the Hilltoppers host Charlotte on Feb. 22 and Old Dominion on Feb. 24 in the regular-season home finale.

WKU wraps up the regular season on the road against two of its main conference rivals, at Middle Tennessee (March 1) and at UAB (March 3).

The C-USA Tournament will be March 7-10 at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.