BYU Men's Basketball Schedule Announced for 1999-2000 Season

PROVO, Utah - The BYU Athletic Media Relations Department announced today the 1999-2000 schedule for the BYU men's basketball team.

Playing a potential 12 games against seven teams that earned post-season tournament berths last year, BYU enters Steve Cleveland's third year at the helm of the Cougars with the goal of qualifying for a post-season berth.

"From this point forward, our goal will always be to qualify for post-season play," said BYU coach Steve Cleveland, whose rebuilding efforts have steadily improved the Cougars in his first two seasons. "We play several conference champions this year and teams with post-season experience. We will see some teams that were on our schedule last year, including a rematch with nationally ranked Arizona."

In addition to Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Weber State all earned berths to last year's NCAA Tournament while Colorado State, UNLV and Wyoming played in last year's NIT. Arizona finished the year ranked No. 10 with a 22-7 record, including an overtime win over BYU. Weber State won the Big Sky Conference and posted a 25-8 record, including a three-point win over the Cougars, on its way to a NCAA berth and tournament upset of North Carolina. South Carolina State and UC Santa Barbara finished the regular season on top of the MEAC and Big West conferences, respectively, last year.

BYU will play 14 games and two exhibitions in the Marriott Center and will travel from Florida to California for 13 road contests.

"We will be tested early with six of our non-conference games on the road," Cleveland said. "Our conference season will be exciting. I think the fans will enjoy seeing Mountain West Conference teams like UNLV, Wyoming and Colorado State coming to the Marriott Center on a yearly basis."

After two exhibition games in mid November, the Cougars officially open the 1999-2000 season at home against UC Riverside on Nov. 20 and Southern Utah on Nov. 24. After traveling for rematches against Arizona and Denver in early December, the Cougars return to Provo for four home games, sandwiching the Cougar Classic between dates with second Pac-10 foe Arizona State and MEAC champion South Carolina State. The Cougars will try to win their third straight Cougar Classic, opening with Texas Southern before facing either Western Oregon or the Harold Arceneaux-led Weber State Wildcats.

BYU travels cross country to end the year playing South Alabama (Dec. 21), Florida International (Dec. 23) and UC Santa Barbara (Dec. 29) before a rematch with Cleveland's alma mater UC Irvine in the Marriott Center (Jan. 5). BYU finishes its non-conference schedule in Logan against Utah State on Jan. 8. Last year the Cougars beat the Aggies 61-59 in the Marriott Center.

BYU's Mountain West season begins at UNLV on Jan. 10 and ends with home contests against Air Force and San Diego State the first week of March. The Cougars will face rival Utah on an ESPN Regional telecast Jan. 15 in the Marriott Center and will play the Utes in the Huntsman Center Feb. 12.

Playing the toughest schedule in the conference last year, BYU qualified for the WAC Tournament for the second consecutive year and won its first WAC Tournament game since 1994 with the 90-74 upset of TCU. This year Cleveland and the Cougars look to return to Las Vegas for the inaugural Mountain West Tournament March 8-11 while striving to achieve their goal of earning a post-season tournament bid.

BYU MEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE
1999-2000 SEASON
Date		Opponent/Event			Location
			
Wed, Nov 10     Worldwide (Exhibition)       Provo, Utah
Tues, Nov 16    E.A. Sports (Exhibition)     Provo, Utah
Sat, Nov 20     UC Riverside                 Provo, Utah
Wed, Nov 24     Southern Utah University     Provo, Utah
Wed, Dec 1      at Arizona                   Tucson, Ariz.
Sat, Dec 4      at Denver                    Denver, Colo.
Tues, Dec 7     Arizona State University     Provo, Utah
Fri, Dec, 10 -  Cougar Classic               Provo, Utah
   Sat, Dec 11          Texas Southern 
                        Weber State 
                        Western Oregon 
Sat, Dec 18     South Carolina State         Provo, Utah
Tues, Dec 21    at South Alabama             Mobile, Ala.
Thurs, Dec 23   at Florida International     Miami, Fla.
Wed, Dec 29     at UC Santa Barbara          Santa Barbara, Calif.
Wed, Jan 5      UC Irvine                    Provo, Utah
Sat., Jan 8     at Utah State                Logan, Utah
Mon, Jan 10     at UNLV                      Las Vegas, Nev.
Sat, Jan 15     Utah                         Provo, Utah (ESPN Regional)
Thurs, Jan 20   Wyoming                      Provo, Utah
Sat, Jan 22     Colorado State               Provo, Utah
Thurs, Jan 27   at Air Force                 Colorado Springs, Colo.
Sat, Jan 29     at New Mexico                Albuquerque, N.M.
Thurs, Feb 3    at San Diego State           San Diego, Calif.
Sat, Feb 12     at Utah                      Salt Lake City, Utah
Thurs, Feb 17   New Mexico                   Provo, Utah
Sat, Feb 19     UNLV                         Provo, Utah
Thurs, Feb 24   at Colorado State            Fort Collins, Colo.
Sat, Feb 26     at Wyoming                   Laramie, Wyo.
Thurs, Mar 2    Air Force                    Provo, Utah
Sat, Mar 4      San Diego State              Provo, Utah
Mar. 8-11       Mountain West Tournament     Las Vegas, Nev.