Baylor Men's Basketball One of Four Teams to Headline the Baha Mar Bahamas Championship

WACO, Texas – Baylor men's basketball is one of four teams selected to participate in the 2024 Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship next November at the Baha Mar Convention, Arts & Entertainment Center, announced Sunday.

The tournament bracket and schedule will be released at a later date. It will be BU's third appearance on the island, boasting a 6-0 mark and two Battle '4' Atlantis championships in prior visits.

The Bears are 40-13 in regular-season tournaments under Scott Drew, winning four of the last six midseason tournaments.

The Bears have 1-1 marks all-time against Virginia and St. John's. BU matched up with the Cavaliers at the Continental Tire Main Event last season in Las Vegas, Nev., an 86-79 win by the Cavs. Baylor beat back the Red Storm in the Charleston Classic in 2012 en route to BU’s first NIT Title in program history later that season.

A matchup with Tennessee would be a first for the Bears and the Volunteers, but Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes coached at Texas from 1998-2015. He faced Baylor 39 times, with BU winning nine of its last 15 games against Barnes and the Horns.

The Bahamas Championship is one of three events that make up Baha Mar Hoops at the Baha Mar resort during each Thanksgiving holiday. The largest regular-season event in the sport of college basketball, the 2023 version of the Baha Mar Hoops features 22 NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball teams competing in 26 games over 10 days.

BU will spend the 2023 Thanksgiving holiday in the Big Apple as a part of the NIT Season Tip-Off at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., opening against Oregon State on Wednesday, Nov. 22, at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN2. A win on Wednesday would put the Bears in the championship on Friday at 4:30 p.m., against the winner of Pittsburgh and Florida. Kevin Brown and Fran Fraschilla will be on the call for all four games in the event.