Texas Basketball: Highly anticipated Big 12 opener vs. BU pushed back

Texas basketball will have to wait a little more than one week longer to open up their Big 12 slate now that the matchup with Baylor is postponed.

Hopes that No. 13 ranked Texas basketball and head coach Shaka Smart could get the shot to pull off a huge upset of the No. 2 ranked Baylor Bears on the road in Waco on Dec. 13 in the Big 12 opener were dashed on Dec. 12. Texas and Baylor reportedly will have to wait until a later date to play their originally scheduled Dec. 13 Big 12 opener.

Baylor has now had four games either postponed or cancelled entirely in the last two weeks due to novel coronavirus related issues. One of those games that was postponed was the mammoth battle between No. 1 and No. 2, originally scheduled for Dec. 5 against the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

Texas is not the only game in the upcoming week that Baylor had to push back. Baylor was supposed to face Tarleton State on Dec. 15, but that game will be pushed too, or maybe canceled entirely, depending on how the schedule shakes out.

Baylor currently holds a record of 4-1, while the Longhorns boast a record of 5-1. The last game that Texas played in resulted in a comfortable 74-53 win at home at the Frank Erwin Center over the Texas State Bobcats back on Dec. 9. Meanwhile, Baylor’s last game they played in resulted in a 83-52 drubbing of Stephen F. Austin on Dec. 9.

There’s no set date for when the Texas-Baylor game will be rescheduled. The de facto next game up for the Longhorns will come against the Sam Houston State Bearkats at home at the Erwin Center on Dec. 16. And then the de facto Big 12 opener now for the Longhorns will come against superstar freshman point guard Cade Cunningham and the Oklahoma State Cowboys at home on Dec. 20.

This will now be two games in Big 12 play in a row for the Longhorns against Oklahoma State at the Erwin Center. The last time these two teams met came back in early March, in the de facto regular season finale.

Smart’s Longhorns are doing well so far this season. But they will now have to wait another eight days to tip off the Big 12 slate. It is tough, given the momentum that the Longhorns built up on the hardwood of late, to have to wait more time to face Baylor.