Dallas ? A preseason trip to Maui or Alaska?

Forget about it.

An outing in the Coaches Vs. Cancer or Guardians Classic, or a marquee nonconference clash against Kentucky or Duke?

No way, baby.

Baylor’s basketball team this year will open the season – yes, open the 2005-06 season – Jan. 11 at Texas Tech.

The team has been leveled with NCAA sanctions for violations committed in the Dave Bliss era – sanctions that forbid the Bears from playing one, single, nonconference clash.

It’s an unprecedented situation, but not one that has overwhelmed ever-enthusiastic third-year BU coach Scott Drew, who turns 35 today.

“My dad said, ‘You are going to be one of the few coaches that are undefeated come January,'” Drew said, cracking up reporters at Thursday’s Big 12 Conference Media Day session at the Harvey Hotel.

The son of Valparaiso coach Homer Drew, Scott has been able to keep his sense of humor in preparing to drag his squad through a three-month preseason.

“I didn’t think I was going to go bald at an early age, but the last two years have sped that process up,” Drew quipped.

“Our strength of schedule … I’d be shocked if it was not in the top 10 in the country. I don’t know if it’ll be No. 1, but we didn’t shy away from playing anybody this year,” he added, referring to his all-conference slate.

On a serious note, Drew expressed thanks to coaches like his dad, Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Roy Williams (North Carolina) and Tom Izzo (Michigan State), all of whom he called for advice on how to prepare his team for the much delayed, much abbreviated season.

It’s a season Baylor could still make something out of. The team is eligible for the Big 12 Tournament and NCAA or NIT play.

“The coaching fraternity is a unique situation. Everybody does sympathize,” said Drew, who said the greatest advice he received was to “not burn your guys out.”

Thus, he will hold plenty of individual workouts, not just rigorous practices that involve contact.

He’ll also hold some 5-on-5 scrimmages before the BU fans – “one of the Baylor teams is going to win, so that’s good” – he said.

He’ll also bring in some former BU players for some practice situations and lighten things up by having a current Bear serve as coach for the day and run practice.

“We’ve explored every option,” Drew said. “I know as November and December approach and other teams are playing games it’s going to be difficult on our players, but at the same time our staff has tried to focus more this three months of practice that we have been given into development with a young team.”

Drew has brought in five new freshmen, combining to form a class ranked 11th in the country by rivals.com.

He also returns double-digit scorers in Aaron Bruce (18.2 ppg last year), junior Tim Bush (12.7) and senior Tommy Swanson (11.9).

All three of those players were at Media Day on Thursday.

Not one complained about the wacky season ahead.

“We have no control over what happened so we are just at the moment focused on coming together as a team,” Bruce said. “We’ll be working on the individual aspects that will make us a great team in the Big 12.”

“The next few months will be hard,” he added, “but I do not see it as a negative.”

“I see it as an extended summer,” Swanson noted, “time for individual work and bringing it all together.”

“It’s an opportunity to work on things you didn’t improve on over the summer. I think with so many freshmen it will be fun. It’s been great so far,” Bush noted.

One of Baylor’s competitors in the league, OU coach Kelvin Sampson, shook his head when asked about the Bears’ situation Thursday.

“Thirteen weeks of practice? You think we’ve had a problem with transfers (losing four players the past year)? Whoa … they (Sooners) wouldn’t make it to Halloween,” Sampson quipped. “Terrell just fainted (thinking about it),” he added of senior Terrell Everett.