Alabama basketball to face Baylor in January

We already had news that Alabama would face a Gonzaga team that just came within one game of an unbeaten season, and we now know that the Tide will also play the team that handed them that title game loss.

This was kind of assumed since Alabama and Baylor are the defending conference champions and the challenge generally matches similar seeds from the previous year. Still, this fills out a murderous schedule that includes not only both national title game participants but also Final Four team Houston, who will be making up a trip to Tuscaloosa that they had to cancel last year, along with Memphis. The Tide will also participate in the Orlando invitational with Kansas, Dayton, Miami and Rick Pitino’s Iona squad among others.

If this doesn’t end up as the most difficult slate in the country, it will be close.

Roll Tide.