Baylor basketball announced tipoff times and television network designations for its entire 2017-18 schedule on Thursday. All Baylor games will be televised for a sixth consecutive season.
The Bears’ third-tier TV schedule consists of seven games in non-conference play. BU opens the season Nov. 10 on Fox Sports Southwest (FSSW) with a noon CT tip against Central Arkansas. The Bears’ next two games will be on Fox College Sports (FCS), with a 7 p.m. tip against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Nov. 13 and an 8 p.m. tip against Alcorn State on Nov. 17.
BaylorVision on Fox Sports will also produce games against Sam Houston State (Dec. 4), Randall (Dec. 9), Savannah State (Dec. 17) and Southern (Dec. 20). The Sam Houston State game tips at 7 p.m. and the game against Randall will be played at Fort Hood and tip at 6 p.m., with both games aired on Fox Sports Southwest-Plus (FSSW+). The Savannah State game tips at 2 p.m. on FSSW and the Southern game tips at 7 p.m. on FCS.
Additionally, Baylor’s Nov. 28 game at Xavier will tip at 5:30 p.m. and air on FS1, and the Bears’ Dec. 29 game at Texas Tech will tip at 7 p.m. on FCS.
All told, Baylor will have 21 regular-season games on ESPN networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3), nine games on Fox networks (FS1, FCS, FSSW, FSSW+) and one game on CBS.
The Bears return six letterwinners, including three starters, from last season’s 27-8 team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16. BU welcomes back four seniors in 2017 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Manu Lecomte, 2017 Big 12 All-Defensive Team member Jo Lual-Acuil Jr., Terry Maston and Nuni Omot. Baylor also returns junior guards Jake Lindsey and King McClure.
BU adds four newcomers eligible for the 2017-18 season, including a pair of players who redshirted last season in Mark Vital and Tyson Jolly, along with freshman forward Tristan Clark (San Antonio, Texas) and sophomore transfer forward Leonard Allen (Round Rock, Texas).
The Bears also return junior forward Jonathan Davis, and they add a pair of players who will sit out the 2017-18 season as redshirts in transfers Mario Kegler (Mississippi State) and Freddie Gillespie (Carleton).
Head coach Scott Drew is back for his 15th season with the Bears, and he enters the season three wins shy of 300 for his career. Associate head coach Jerome Tang returns for his 15th season on the Baylor bench, while assistant coach Alvin Brooks III enters his second season at Baylor, and John Jakus is in his first year as a Baylor assistant coach.
