In scheduling for the coming University of Washington basketball season, it’s been all about the Bs so far — Big Ten conference games that are pending and set meetings with BYU and now Baylor.
On Monday, the Huskies revealed they will host the latter, the Big 12’s Bears, in what’s being promoted as the inaugural Seattle Holiday Classic at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday, December 19.
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The event actually is a doubleheader with Seattle University and Washington State, two rival teams reportedly dropping from the UW schedule, facing each other at the downtown arena.
“It’s a great opportunity for our program to play a high-level, resume-building non-conference game against an elite opponent in Baylor, and to do it in a world-class venue like Climate Pledge Arena right here in our own backyard,” UW coach Danny Sprinkle said in a release. “We’re looking forward to competing in front of Husky fans and being part of what we hope becomes a great basketball tradition in Seattle.”
The game also is a return match, with the Huskies and Baylor meeting for the second time in 12 months. They played in Waco, Texas, early last season, with the Bears taking a 78-69 victory.
This UW team already is scheduled to open the Maui Invitational against BYU on Monday, November 23, in Hawaii, the first basketball meeting between these schools in 14 years.
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The rest of the UW’s non-conference slate will be released at a later date.
From last year’s Huskies-Bears match-up, each team returns just two players who appeared in a game held on a Sunday and broadcast nationally by ESPN.
Guard Wesley Yates III and forward Lathan Sommerville started what was the UW’s third game of last season for a 16-17 team.
Yates finished with 8 points while suffering through a 3-for-15 shooting effort and Sommerville, in drawing one of his seven season starts, had 7 points and 2 rebounds.
For a 17-17 Baylor team, coach Scott Drew welcomes back 6-foot-9 Caden Powell, a Waco product who finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds against the Huskies, and guard Isaac Williams IV, who likewise had 12 points and hails from Oklahoma City.
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These teams have met six times, with each winning three games.
Their first meeting came in the 1948 NCAA Tournament and the Bears edged the UW 64-62 in Kansas City.
Baylor played two games at the UW in 1955 and lost 71-62 and 80-68.
In November 2019, the Huskies upset a 16th-ranked Bears team 67-64 in Anchorage Alaska.
A year later during the COVID season, Baylor routed the UW 86-52 in Las Vegas.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/washington as UW-Baylor Basketball Game Is Part Of Climate Pledge Event.
