Texas basketball plans to open 2024-25 season in Las Vegas against Ohio State

Texas basketball will be leaving for Las Vegas to open the 2024-25 season against Ohio State pending a final agreement, a Texas source confirmed to the American-Statesman on Monday.

The game will be played Nov. 4 at the T-Mobile Center, which is the home of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights.

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According to the source, the game will be broadcast by Turner Sports.

The Longhorns already know they will play in the 2024 Legends Classic at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Nov. 21-22 along with Syracuse, Saint Joseph’s and Texas Tech. Semifinal pairings and television coverage in that event will be announced at a later date. They also know that they will compete in an 18-game conference schedule in their first season in the SEC.

But Texas coach Rodney Terry also wants to bolster his team’s nonconference home schedule based on comments he made this past season. The Longhorns' nonconference slate didn’t include any home games against a marquee opponent at Moody Center much to the dismay of some season-ticket holders as well as the analysts who use strength of schedule to help rate teams on a national basis.

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“I always say you play the nonconference schedule to get you ready for conference play,” Terry said in January. “Obviously, we would love to start a really good home-and-home series, and we will find a really good home-and-home series at Texas because we can.

“But we also love playing neutral and playing big-boy games on the road and in great venues. Playing the UConn game in New York (in 2023), I mean, it's like playing Kansas in Kansas City, you know? You can't put a price tag on those type of nonconference games. But at Texas, we're going to have a marquee game or two at home, always. This year, we weren't able to have one of those. But moving forward, we will always have a great home-and-home series.”

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As far as facing the Big Ten’s Buckeyes, Texas last played Ohio State in a nonconference matchup in Hawaii in November 2022 that Ohio State won 80-73. The two teams split a pair of home-and-home games in the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons.

Ohio State traditionally boasts a strong program but has missed the NCAA Tournament in each of the past two seasons. The school replaced head coach Chris Holtmann with Jake Diebler earlier this spring after going 22-14 -overall and 9-11 in the Big Ten.