Baylor Basketball’s Postseason Plans Revealed
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College Basketball Crown
Baylor Basketball has elected to join seven other teams in Las Vegas for the College Basketball Crown tournament beginning April 1st.
Scott Drew has decided that missing the dance in 2026 will not be the final headline for his team as the Bears are set to face off against the Minnesota Golden Gophers early next month.
The field is set for 2026! 👑
— College Basketball Crown (@CBBCrown) March 16, 2026
Tickets available via @vividseats
now. pic.twitter.com/R61yF7mqOo
This is the second year of the College Basketball Crown tournament, and Baylor will be looking to join the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the winners' circle, who won the 16-team bracket in 2025.
How did the Bears get here?
Obviously, this is not where the Bears wanted to be at the beginning of the season; there will be high hopes every season for Baylor as long as Scott Drew is at the helm, but the 2026 season seemed to slip through the cracks.
Even with the high-scoring tandem of Tounde Yessoufou and Cameron Carr, the Bears could not find the signature wins needed to return to the NCAA tournament for the 8th straight season.
Why compete in the Crown?
Looking back at this season, one would be hard-pressed to find a win that Baylor basketball can truly hang their hat on. Scott Drew is not the type of coach to roll over and punt to the next season.
He wants to give every opportunity for seniors like Dan Skillings, Michael Rataj, and Caden Powell to leave their collegiate careers on a good note.
If Baylor's Big 12 tournament hopes weren't squashed by ASU last week, the Bears may not have elected to join the bracket.
Baylor lost games they should have won, and that feeling often breeds a desire for revenge; they will have another chance to string together some wins in early April.
This tournament will also give more opportunity to the two stars to improve their NBA draft stock against respectable opponents.
How are the Bears' chances?
Back to the tournament itself, Baylor has got to be one of the favorites in this pool of teams. They have already defeated three of the teams that will be in the bracket: West Virginia, Creighton, and Colorado.
Oklahoma, a potential second-round draw for the Bears, is an opponent that cannot be sneezed at, beating teams like tournament teams like Vanderbilt and Texas A&M on their way to 11th place in the SEC.
Stanford and West Virginia, on the other side of the bracket, are also strong squads after missing the dance.
The Bears did not finish where they wanted this season, but they aren't done, and they have every chance to leave the valley with a trophy.
Bennett is an undergrad student at Baylor University, studying journalism on the sports track. He is from the DFW area and grew up playing and watching sports, which inspired him to pursue sports writing.
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