Women's Basketball releases 2006-07 schedule
UT Athletics is currently taking new orders for Women's Basketball season tickets to home games. You may call the Texas Athletics Ticket Office (512-471-3333 or 800-982-BEVO, or Texas Box Office charge-by-phone at 512-477-6060) to place an order, or come in person to the UT Athletics Ticket Office (Bellmont Hall lobby, Monday - Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. CT). In October, tickets for the NCAA women's basketball first-second round games, taking place in Austin on March 17 and 19, 2007, will go on sale to the general public. AUSTIN, Texas -- The 2006-07 University of Texas women's basketball schedule, announced on Friday, features nine opponents who advanced to the 2006 NCAA Championships, and four games on FSN (FOX Sports Net) national TV. The Longhorns' 2006-07 schedule features a total of two exhibitions and 30 regular season games, with 18 games played in Austin at UT's Frank Erwin Center and 12 played on the road or at a neutral site. After two early November exhibition games, head coach Jody Conradt's squad opens the regular season with nine of its first 11 games at home. Additionally, the Longhorns will host the 2007 NCAA Championship First and Second Rounds at the Erwin Center on Saturday and Monday, March 17 and 19. UT is one of eight pre-determined sites for NCAA first and second round play. The Longhorns, in addition to facing the always-demanding Big 12 Conference slate of games, will meet a number of traditional top ranked opponents, including Tennessee, Duke, Purdue and New Mexico. Duke was the 2006 NCAA runnerup, while Tennessee advanced to the final eight and Purdue to the Sweet 16 a year ago. Texas faces Duke and Tennessee in back-to-back contests, traveling to Durham, NC on Sunday, Dec. 10 (noon Central game) before hosting Tennessee on Sunday, Dec. 17 in a 12:30 p.m. contest on FSN. Purdue travels to Austin on Sunday, Jan. 7 for a 2 p.m. contest. Along with Purdue, Big 12 opponent Baylor and Oklahoma were Final 16 teams last March. The other 2006 NCAA participants on UT's schedule are New Mexico, Texas A&M, Missouri and Southern. Texas visits New Mexico, a NCAA second-round team last year, on Friday, Nov. 17. A&M, Missouri and Southern were all first-round participants in 2006. The four FSN nationally-televised games include the Dec. 10th matchup with Tennessee, the Texas A&M game on Sunday, Jan. 21 (State Farm Lone Star Showdown, 2 p.m.), both in Austin; the Kansas State game (Sat., Feb. 3, 4:30 p.m.) in Manhattan, Kan.; and the Big 12 contest against Texas Tech in Austin on Saturday, Feb. 24 (3 p.m.). Texas' full TV schedule and the entire TV schedule of the Big 12 Conference have not yet been finalized; the complete TV schedule for ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU and FOX Sports Southwest coverage and game times will be announced at a later date. The Longhorns graduated four seniors from the 2005-06 squad which went 13-15 overall. "Once again, we have put together a very challenging and demanding schedule," noted Conradt, who starts her 38th year overall as head coach and who ranks second in all-time women's college victories with a record of 882-293. "Our team is youth-oriented, with three upperclassmen and 11 underclassmen. The non-Big 12 portion of our schedule is geared heavily to home games, and we think this will be of special interest to our fans. Our players have responded well in the off-season and are working very hard, and with last year's disappointments and injuries behind us, we are ready to bring exciting basketball to the Erwin Center. We are pleased to be hosting a season-opening tournament, the Basketball Travelers Classic. We hope this will build great momentum for our team and for our fans. As always, we want to be tested early and often and we are looking to challenge ourselves with top non-conference opponents to start the season. This year's schedule is no exception, as we play at Duke on December 10, then turn around and host Tennessee in Austin a week later. We also will play Purdue in early January. We also have a great opportunity in that the NCAA has chosen UT and Austin as one of the host sites for first-and-second round competition in March." Texas opens its regular season slate of games by hosting the four-team, three-day Basketball Travelers Classic from Sunday through Tuesday, Nov. 12-14. Teams participating in the round-robin event include Texas State, Louisiana-Lafayette and Maryland-Eastern Shore. Texas plays Maryland-Eastern Shore in the Sunday season opener (Nov. 12, 6:30 p.m.) before meeting Louisiana-Lafayette on Monday (Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m.) and closing out the tourney against the Bobcats of Texas State (Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.). The rest of November and December finds the Longhorns home for six of their eight games in this span, including the Tennessee game on Dec. 17. The two away games are against nationally-recognized New Mexico (Friday, Nov. 17, 8 p.m.) and against Duke (Sun., Dec. 10). Texas will close out the December schedule with an away tournament, as the Longhorns travel to San Diego for the Surf 'N Slam Hoop Classic (Thursday and Saturday, Dec. 28 and 30). This four-team tourney features Texas, host San Diego, Holy Cross and Oregon State. During Big 12 competition, the Longhorns will face South Division opponents Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Texas Tech twice (in a home-and-home format) and will play each opponent from the North Division once. Highlighting the Big 12 slate are home-and-home games with Baylor (Wed., Jan. 24 at Austin; Sun., Feb. 18 at Waco); Oklahoma (Wed., Jan. 31 at Austin; Mon., Feb. 12 at OU); Texas Tech (Sat., Jan. 27 at Lubbock; Sat., Feb. 24 in Austin); and Texas A&M (Sun., Jan. 21, in Austin; Wed., Feb. 28 at College Station). North Division foes who will visit Austin are: Nebraska (Wed., Jan. 3) in the Big 12 opener for both squads, Colorado (Sat., Jan. 13) and Kansas (Sat., Feb. 10). Following the regular season finale at Texas A&M, the Longhorns will travel to Oklahoma City for the 2007 Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Championship which takes place at Cox Convention Center. This will be the first year that Oklahoma City serves as the annual Big 12 tourney site.
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