2012-13 HBU Basketball Schedule
HOUSTON – Houston Baptist will open the 2012-13 season in Hawai'i and faces two Southeastern Conference teams and a Pac-12 Conference opponent, as head coach
Ron Cottrell released the Huskies' upcoming basketball schedule Monday.
HBU competes in the Rainbow Classic, opening the season against Arkansas-Pine Bluff Nov. 9, followed by Maryland-Eastern Shore on Nov. 11. The Huskies conclude the tournament by facing host Hawai'i Nov. 13 at 3 a.m., which will be televised nationally on ESPN as part of the network's annual College Hoops Tipoff Marathon. The telecast marks HBU's first appearance on the network's flagship station in any sport.
“We're excited to announce this schedule, which is very challenging, especially for our young team,” Cottrell said. “We're honored to be playing in the Rainbow Classic to begin the season, and the added exposure of playing on ESPN will further advance our basketball program.”
After returning to the mainland, HBU has back-to-back home games against Dallas Christian on Nov. 17 and Pepperdine Nov. 20., followed by back-to-back road games at Eastern Illinois Nov. 24 and at cross-town rival Rice Dec. 1.
HBU faces a challenging non-conference road schedule the rest of the way, traveling to UT-Arlington Dec. 13 and Pac-12 foe Oregon Dec. 22 before Christmas break. The Oregon game will be televised on the Pac-12 Network. The Huskies hit the road to face SEC opponents LSU Dec. 28 and Texas A&M Jan. 4, and also have out-of-conference road games against UMKC, Sam Houston State and New Orleans.
“Facing Oregon from the Pac-12 and LSU and Texas A&M from the SEC, in addition to several other high-quality opponents, we have tough road games that will help our young men grow and be challenged,” Cottrell said.
The Huskies' remaining non-conference home games in 2012 are against Sam Houston State, Arlington Baptist and a New Year's Eve afternoon game against Army. When the calendar turns, HBU has non-conference home games against Ecclesia, UMKC and New Orleans.
“We also have solid teams coming to Houston, and we look forward to having one of our service academies come play us on New Year's Eve afternoon,” Cottrell said. “We feel we have a good balance of home and road games, which will help us get ready for Great West Conference competition, compete for the regular-season title and, ultimately, the postseason championship.”
The Great West Conference plays a home-and-home format, so HBU will face Utah Valley, Chicago State, NJIT and UT-Pan American twice each. The Great West Conference Tournament returns to Chicago for the second-straight season.
The Huskies will host Hillsdale in a preseason exhibition game as part of homecoming weekend Nov. 3 at 7:05 p.m. at Sharp Gym.
