Baylor MBB Announces the 2024-25 Season Slate

WACO, Texas – Baylor men’s basketball announced its full schedule for the upcoming season on Thursday afternoon.

The Bears will see 11 teams who have made the Sweet 16 since 2019, including the two-time defending national champion UConn Huskies as part of the Big 12-Big East Battle. Tip times and networks for a majority of the games will be released at a later date.

The schedule begins with a 2021 national title rematch against Gonzaga on Monday, Nov. 4, at Spokane Arena in Spokane, Wash. This season will mark the eighth meeting between the two programs, with Baylor riding a two-game win streak in the series. The last meeting was a 64-63 thriller in the 2022 Peacock Classic at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.

The schedule continues on Saturday, Nov. 9, with a rematch of the 2021 Elite Eight with the Arkansas Razorbacks at The American Airlines Center in Dallas. The Bears are riding a three-game win streak against the former Southwest Conference foe, the most recent win coming in 2023, a 67-64 win by the Bears.

The home opener will tip on Tuesday, Nov. 12, when the Sam Houston State Bearkats come to Foster Pavilion. The first meeting with SHSU since 2017 will kick-start a two-game homestand that closes with Tarleton State on Nov. 17. Former Baylor assistant Billy Gillispie will bring his squad to Waco for a second time in three seasons after BU beat the Texans, 80-57, in the last meeting in 2022.

Baylor heads back on the road for the Continental Tire Baha Mar Championship on November 21st and 22nd. Held at the Baha Mar Resort in Paradise Island, Bahamas, the event begins with Baylor facing St. Johns in a 6:00 p.m. CT tip on CBS Sports Network, with the Bears to play either Virginia or Tennessee the following night at 6:00 or 8:30 on CBS Sports Network.

BU will host New Orleans the day before Thanksgiving at Foster Pavilion. First-year head coach Stacy Hollowell brings the Privateers to Waco for the first time since 2018, an 84-44 BU win at the Ferrell Center.

The final non-conference road trip takes Baylor to the home of the two-time defending national champion, UConn Huskies, on Dec. 4. A battle of two of the last three title winners, Baylor and UConn have met just once before, a 96-88 Husky win in Waco in 1965.

Dec. 9 starts a three-game homestand to close out the non-conference slate, with the Wildcats of Abilene Christian leading things off. The Bears and Wildcats are playing for the first time since December 5, 1972. The final game before Christmas features a rematch of the 2022 NCAA Tournament first-round game against Norfolk State on Dec. 11.

The final game before conference play is a home date against Arlington Baptist on Friday, Dec. 27.

For just the second time since 2013-14, Baylor will open its conference schedule at home. Big 12 newcomer Utah comes to town for the conference lid-lifter on Tuesday, Dec. 31, before a trip to Ames to face the defending co-champion Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday, Jan. 4.

Cincinnati makes a return trip to Foster Pavilion on Jan. 7 after the Bears beat the Bearcats 62-59 in the building's infancy a season ago.

BU returns to the road for a two-game swing in the Grand Canyon State, kicking off with a game in Tempe, Ariz., against Arizona State on Saturday, Jan. 14. Baylor then heads southeast for its first trip to Tucson since December 2018 to battle the Arizona Wildcats.

A rare Sunday conference tip awaits the Bears on Jan. 19 against TCU before closing the homestand with Jerome Tang bringing his Kansas State Wildcats to Foster Pavilion on Jan. 22. It will be Tang and the Wildcats’ first time in the new building after he spent 19 years as Scott Drew’s assistant at Baylor from 2003-22.

Another road trip out west has the Bears at Utah on Saturday, Jan. 25, and at BYU on Tuesday, Jan. 28.

The only regular-season meeting with the Kansas Jayhawks will tip on Saturday, Feb. 1, at Foster Pavilion. Baylor only plays Texas Tech once in the regular season for the first time since 1957, and that meeting will be held in the Hub City on Tuesday, Feb. 4.

UCF makes its inaugural trip to Waco on Saturday, Feb. 8, before Baylor heads to Houston in a rematch of the 2021 national semifinal on Monday, Feb. 10. The game is the first of two meetings with the defending Big 12 co-champions over the final month.

West Virginia makes its first trip to Waco since 2023 on Saturday, Feb. 14, ahead of a Big Monday showdown with Arizona on Monday, Feb. 17.

BU will accumulate some airline miles for the next two-game road stretch, playing Colorado in Boulder, Colo., on Saturday, Feb. 22 and then at Cincinnati on Tuesday, Feb. 25.

The only meeting of the regular season with Oklahoma State will come on the first Saturday of March at Foster Pavilion.

Baylor closes the regular season with a Texas two-step, starting with a trip to Schollmaier Arena to play TCU on Tuesday, March 4, before capping the campaign with a home finale against Houston on Saturday, March 8.

The Big 12 Championship will run from March 11-15 at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo.