Baylor Basketball: 2021-22 season preview and outlook for Bears

Schedule

As has been tradition with Baylor’s schedule recently, the Bears’ non-conference period is divided by a handful of games that, barring a disaster, should be easy victories for Baylor – and a few genuine challenges that could trip up a Baylor squad that does not have the steady, proven foundation of last year’s roster.

The Bears will enjoy the luxury of having nearly all of their non-conference games in Waco, including their first potential challenge on November 20th against a Stanford squad that should be middle-of-the-pack in the Pac-12.  Baylor will attempt to replicate another potential win against another middling Pac-12 team four days later in Arizona State in the opening round of the Battle 4 Atlantis.

The Battle 4 Atlantic tournament – which stretches from November 24th to 26th – will be the earliest that the Bears should genuinely be tested.  Pending their results against the Sun Devils, Baylor will tackle either a Syracuse team that features one of the best shooters in the country in Buddy Boeheim – or a VCU squad that may have the best freshman in the Atlantic 10, and will be out to prove much after being robbed of an NCAA Tournament appearance due to COVID-19.

That is all without mentioning the other spectrum of the tournament, where either Michigan State, Loyola-Chicago, Auburn, or UConn awaits – and all four should pose a threat to Baylor.  All of these confrontations will culminate in a a pair of mid-December duels which could feature three top-15 teams – the first of which will come against Big East favorites Villanova in the Big East-Big 12 Battle, followed by a clash at Oregon less than a week later.

The new year will bring the adrenaline of the Big 12, which is coming off one of the greatest regular seasons in conference history and, despite having a lackluster opening weekend in the NCAA Tournament, obviously features the national champions in the Bears.  Baylor’s opening stretch should yield easy victories over Iowa State and TCU, as well as an Oklahoma team that will feature a completely new identity under Porter Moser.

What comes afterwards will be a gauntlet, however – Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and West Virginia are all squads that could fluctuate around the top 35 all season, and the end of January will feature an extremely dangerous road game at Alabama as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge.  February will see Baylor take on Kansas and Texas – with both teams expected to rank among the upper echelons of college basketball – twice, before the Big 12 Tournament rolls around in March.