Aug. 29, 2002
WACO, Texas - The Baylor Lady Bear basketball team will open its 2002-03 season by hosting the Women's Sports Foundation Tournament. The tournament will kick off a 12-game non-conference schedule which features eight home games.
Baylor will host Alcorn State, Princeton and Southwest Texas State on Nov. 22-23 in the Women's Sports Foundation Tournament. The Lady Bears will entertain Texas Southern before heading to Montana and Louisiana for the Thanksgiving break. In Montana State's GranTree Thanksgiving Classic, Baylor will face San Jose State and Montana State, Northern Illinois will also participate in the Classic. Then it's straight to Hammond, La. to play Southeastern Louisiana.
To complete the non-conference portion of their schedule, the Lady Bears will play five of those six games in the friendly confines of the Ferrell Center. On Dec. 5 Arkansas-Pine Bluff travels to Waco. The Lady Bears will then take a break for final exams before hosting Grambling (Dec. 14) and Texas-Pan American (Dec. 16). Baylor's last road trip before Big 12 play begins will be on Dec. 19 at UCLA. Homestands with Mercer (Dec. 28) and North Texas (Dec. 30) mark an end to non-conference action.
On Wed., Jan. 8, the Lady Bears jump into 2003 and the second phase of their season, Big 12 Conference play. The Big 12 Conference saw seven teams make last year's NCAA Tournament (Baylor, Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech) for the second straight year. The Big 12 led the nation with all seven of its teams earning top four seeds and hosting NCAA subregionals.
Baylor will face South Division opponents Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech twice and will play North Division members Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri and Nebraska once. North division opponents playing in the Ferrell Center will be Missouri (Jan. 8), Iowa State (Feb. 1) and Kansas State (Feb. 8).
"The youth of our team is obvious," said Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson. "Having only one senior, it is important to have a non-conference schedule that will allow us the opportunity to grow and gain confidence before we begin the difficult task of competing in the Big 12. Also, we felt it was necessary to play as many home games as we could, this schedule provides that," she added.
The Big 12 Tournament will move from Kansas City, Mo., to Dallas, Texas this year and will tip off on March 11 at Reunion Arena.
All game times and dates are tentative and subject to change. The Big 12 Conference is expected to release the selections for the Fox Sports Net and ESPN television games in early September.
Click here to view the entire 2002-03 schedule.
