McNeese Basketball Announces 2025 Southland Conference Season Schedule

(KHLA - Lake Charles, Louisiana) - The McNeese Cowboys men's basketball team has released their Southland Conference schedule for the upcoming season.

The Bayou Bandits are coming off of two back-to-back appearances in the NCAA basketball tournament in March, however, Willy The Kid is gone, and a new coaching regime is in Chuck Vegas hoping to rekindle the magic of years past in the Legacy Center.

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New coach Bill Armstrong is familiar to some, having spent time on Will Wade's coaching staff at LSU. The word on the street is that Armstrong is an excellent recruiter and teaching guru. He's Wade's hand-picked successor to keep the momentum going and keep the winning ways intact for the McNeese men's basketball program.

Armstrong has been an assistant coach at several high-level major college programs and head coach at Link Academy High. Link is a high school team ran like a college program; they play games all across the country and have facilities that most colleges only dream of.

The Bayou Bandits were 28-7 last season with only one loss in conference play.

The Pokes will kick off conference play on December 1st with an away game with Incarnate Word. Their first home conference game will be December 5th in the Legacy Center against hated conference rival, the Northwestern State Demons.

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The Southland Conference Basketball Tournament will return to McNeese from March 8–11.

McNeese has a 58-11 total record over the last two championship seasons, which includes a 33-1 home record and a 36-2 conference record.

The Cowboys' non-conference schedule, which includes three games at the 2025 Cayman Islands Classic on November 23–25 against George Washington, Murray State, and Middle Tennessee State, is almost complete.