Joe Golding will face off against his predecessor to open the ACU men’s basketball season.

Golding and the Wildcats will take on Division I Baylor University on Nov. 1 in Waco for an exhibition match beginning the 2011-12 schedule.

“I think its a great opportunity for our kids to play a big 12 school,” Golding said. “It’s a great environment, under the big lights.”

Adding intrigue to the contest, former ACU head coach Grant McCasland will be on the oppositie sideline coaching his alma mater. ACU hired McCasland in April to rebuild a basketball program that sat at the bottom of the Lone Star Conference for two seasons. But three months later  McCasland left his spot to take a job at Baylor as an assistant coach.

“Grant really helped get it done,” Golding said. “Grant was behind the deal 100%. He wanted to leave ACU in good shape when he left.”

The match will be Golding’s first game as the head coach of the purple and white. It will also be the first time the Wildcats have played Baylor in 39 years. The Wildcats lost that game by a mere three points and actually beat the Bears in 1957. This year’s match will be the fifth time the two schools have played, and Baylor holds a 3-1 advantage.

“I’m really looking forward to the opportunity,” senior Ben Warton said. “They have been a perennial NCAA tournament team over the years, so it will be a really good test to see where we are as a team and see how we can work the new guys in.”

The regular season for the Wildcats will start Nov. 11-12 when they host the ACU Tip-off Classic. Other schools competing will be LSC rival Angelo State, East Central University of Oklahoma and Truman State.

Including those two home games, the ‘Cats will play 16 games in Moody Coliseum this year. ACU will meet usual foes Texas-Permian Basin and Dallas Baptist in another couple of other home non-conference games.

The conference schedule will look a bit different after the changes to the LSC. With all but one of the Oklahoma schools in the conference gone, the Lone Star Conference will go back to being one division and the ‘Cats will see the nine other LSC teams both on the road and at home. Although it might look different, the Lone Star Conference remains one of the toughest conferences in the nation.

I am not feeling any pressure, we just got to get in here and do some work,” Golding said. “We know what it takes. We just need to find the players. People don’t realize this league is tough, you know?”

Most of the talent of the conference came from the state of Texas, and conference powerhouses such as Midwestern State and Tarleton State remain in the conference.

“The LSC is a really strong league so playing a team like Baylor is going to be a great way to prepare us for the conference schedule grind,” Warton said.

Golding echoed his player’s statement.

“I think the conference is going to be tough. It’s back to the old guard. We have got to win the home games and steal some on the road.”