PROVO — With information already out on most of BYU's non-conference men's basketball schedule, the only big news with Wednesday's release of BYU's entire schedule is which games are going to be nationally televised.
On that topic, the Cougars will have a game televised by CBS on Feb. 26 when they travel to San Diego State. Games against San Diego State (Jan. 26) at home and UNLV (Jan. 5) on the road will be televised by CBS-C. A game at New Mexico on Jan. 29 and a game at home against UNLV on Feb. 5 will be broadcast by Versus.
The big games on the non-conference slate are against Utah State, Arizona, UCLA, Hawaii, UTEP, Fresno State, Creighton and Vermont. The Cougars will host the Aggies on Nov. 17 at the Marriott Center. Games against Arizona and Hawaii will be played Dec. 4 and Dec. 11, respectively, at EnergySolutions Arena.
The UCLA game is part of the John Wooden Classic and is set for Dec. 18 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. The Cougars travel to Omaha, Neb. on Dec. 1 to take on Creighton in Round 2 of the Mountain West Conference/Missouri Valley Conference Challenge.
Former Cougar coach Steve Cleveland brings his Fresno State Bulldogs to the Marriott Center on Nov. 12. The game against UTEP will also be at the Marriott Center on Dec. 23. A game that's getting a lot of interest and is sure to be a big draw back East is when the Cougars travel to Glens Falls, N.Y., on Dec. 8 to take on Vermont in senior guard Jimmer Fredette's hometown.
Other notable non-conference games will be when the Cougars play two games in the South Padre Island Invitational on Thanksgiving weekend against either St. Mary's, Texas Tech or South Florida. The Cougars also travel to Ogden to face Weber State on Dec. 21.
The MWC wars begin shortly after the New Year in Las Vegas. The Cougars play Utah for the final time in the MWC at the Hunstman Center on Jan. 11, and will host the Utes for a final MWC game on Feb. 12 at the Marriott Center.
The Mountain West Conference Tournament is scheduled for March 9 to 12 with the No. 8 vs. No. 9 game and the quarterfinals to be broadcast on The Mtn., the semifinals on CBS C and the championship game on VERSUS. All of BYU's conference games that won't be televised by either CBS, CBS-C or Versus will be televised by the Mtn. Network.
The Cougars' nonconference schedule includes teams from 10 different leagues and seven teams that qualified for postseason play. Including conference foes, the Cougars will face 11 teams that qualified for postseason play — seven of which played in the NCAA Tournament.
Tipoff times and broadcast plans — including several games broadcast live by BYU TV — for several nonconference games will be announced at a later date.
e-mail: jimr@desnews.com