Men's Basketball Hits Road to Face TCU
1/9/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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No. 21 Baylor (11-3, 0-2) vs. TCU (13-2, 0-2) |
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STORY LINES
• Saturday is the 176th series meeting, and BU?leads 94-81, including a 5-0 mark as Big 12 opponents.
• Baylor's 5 wins against TCU as Big 12 opponents have been by an average of 20.8 points.
• Baylor moved to No. 21 in Monday's AP?Top 25 and remained No. 22 in the coaches' poll. The Bears have been ranked in eight straight seasons, joining Kansas as the only Big 12 schools to make that claim.
• Baylor is 27-4 against in-state opponents since 2011-12 and 41-8 against Lone Star State teams since 2009-10.
• Baylor was the only Division I team to hold all non-conference opponents to 66 or fewer points this season.
• Baylor's defense has held teams to an average of 13 points below their season scoring averages.
• Prior to allowing a season-high 73 points at Oklahoma last?Saturday, Baylor's 12 straight games holding opponents to 66 or fewer points was its longest such streak since 1950.
• Baylor ranks 13th nationally in scoring defense (56.1) after allowing only 785 points over its first 14 games.
• Baylor has held opponents under 30 first-half points in 11 of 14 games this season, including 8 times at 25 or fewer.
• Baylor is 18th nationally in 3-point FG defense at 27.8% and 40th in FG?percentage defense at 38.4%.
• Baylor also ranks 8th nationally in rebounding margin (+10.4) and 35th in points-per-possession defense (0.90)
• Baylor and Louisville are the nation's only teams ranked by the AP in football and men's and women's basketball.
• Johnathan Motley has led Baylor in scoring in 4 of the last 6 games and is averaging 15.0 ppg, 6.7 rpg and 3.2 bpg in his last 6 games. He averaged 6.6 ppg, 3.8 rpg and 0.6 bpg in the previous 8 games.
• Baylor is 71-6 when leading at the half over the last four seasons -- 10-2 this season, 18-2 in 2013-14, 17-1 in 2012-13 and 26-1 in 2011-12. BU is 174-30 when leading at the half during the entire Drew era.
• BU?has won 38% of its games (19-31) when tied or trailing at half since 2011-12, including 1-1 this season.
• Baylor is 181-84 (24 wins per season) over the last eight seasons and has made six postseason appearances?(NCAA Tournament -- 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014; NIT -- 2009, 2013) with six 20-win seasons.
• Baylor is coming off a 2014 NCAA Sweet 16 appearance, which made Drew the youngest of 11 coaches nationally to take his current team to three Sweet 16s in the last five years.
• BU has six 20-win seasons in the last 7 years. BU had only three 20-win seasons prior to Drew's arrival.
• Baylor's 5 NBA?Draft picks in the last 3 years ranks 5th nationally behind Kentucky, Duke,?Kansas and Syracuse.
• Baylor is one of only 12 schools nationally to play in the Sweet 16 in three of the last five seasons.
• All 31 of Baylor's regular-season games will be televised this season, including 22 games on the ESPN?family of networks. The TCU game will be Baylor's 118th consecutive televised contest.
• Baylor has the nation's second-best postseason winning percentage over the last six years (17-4; .810).
• Baylor finished undefeated in December for the 6th time in the last 8 years (accomplished just twice prior; `96, `00)
• Baylor is 14-3 in overtime games under Drew, including a 3-0 mark last season.
• Drew is coaching his 369th game at Baylor (215-153). His .584 winning percentage is best in BU history among coaches with 60+ games, and his teams have a .683 winning percentage (181-84) since 2007-08.
• Baylor is 27-10 in postseason tournaments (conference, national) over the last six seasons.
• Baylor has more Big 12 wins in the last 7+ seasons (62-58) than its first 11 years in the league combined (45-131).
• Drew is tied with Kansas' Bill Self as the second-longest tenured head coach in the Big 12 Conference. Drew, who is in his 12th season at Baylor, is second only to Texas' Rick Barnes (17th season at UT).
• Baylor has the Big 12's 2nd-longest active streak with at least one 3-point FG made in 746 consecutive games.
• Baylor has 22 games on ESPN networks this season, giving BU 106 ESPN appearances in the last seven seasons.
SERIES HISTORY
• Saturday's game marks the 176th meeting in the series with TCU. Baylor leads the all-time series, 94-81, which dates back to a 37-6 Baylor win in Waco on Dec. 18, 1908.
• Baylor has won the five series meetings since TCU?joined the Big 12 by an average of 20.8 points per game.
• TCU will pass Rice (176) as Baylor's 3rd-most played rival, trailing only Texas (242) and Texas A&M (206).
HALFTIME ADJUSTMENTS
• Baylor has won 92% of its games when leading at the half since 2011-12. The Bears are 71-6 when leading through the first 20 minutes in that stretch (10-2 this season, 18-2 in 2013-14, 17-1 in 2012-13 and 26-1 in 2011-12).
• BU has won 38% of games in which its been tied or trailing at the half since 2011-12, going 19-31 in those.
• BU has led at halftime in 77 of 127 games over the last four seasons. With wins in 71 of those 77 games, and victories in 19 of 50 games it has trailed or been tied at the half, Baylor is 90-37 since 2011-12.
A WIN WOULD ...
• Give Baylor a 12-3 start to the season for the sixth time in the last eight years.
• Give Baylor a 24-6 record over its last 30 games dating back to Feb. 12, 2014.
• Make Baylor 42-49 in January games under Drew, including a 34-25 mark since the 2007-08 season.
• Give Baylor a 91-37 record since the start of the 2011-12 season.
• Make Baylor 182-84 since the start of the 2007-08 season, good for a .684 winning percentage.
• Improve Baylor's record to 95-81 all-time against TCU, including a 6-0 mark as Big 12 opponents.
• Prevent Baylor from starting Big 12 play 0-3 for the first time since the 2005-06 season, when the Bears did not play a non-conference schedule and lost their first six Big 12 games.
BEST DEFENSIVE TEAM OF DREW ERA
• Baylor?was the only Division I team to hold every non-conference opponent to 66 or fewer points this season.
• BU's 12 straight games holding opponents to 66 or fewer points was its longest such streak since 1950.
• Baylor's current 56.1 points per game allowed is 7.9 points better than the Bears' best defensive season of the Scott Drew era (2010-11, 64.0 ppg allowed). The last time BU held opponents below 64 ppg was 1985-86 (61.2).
• Baylor has held 11 of 14 opponents under 30 first-half points, including 8 times at 25 or fewer first-half points.
• For the first time since 2009-10, Baylor has held four Division I opponents below 50 points.
• Baylor held Memphis to 15 points in the 2nd half, tying the fewest allowed in any half of the Drew era.
HOLDING TEAMS UNDER SCORING AVERAGE BY 13 PPG
• Through 14 games, Baylor opponents are averaging 13 fewer points than their season averages against the Bears.
• Baylor?has held 13 of 14 opponents under their season scoring average, including 10 of 14 at least 10 points below.
BAYLOR AND LOUISVILLE ONLY TEAMS RANKED IN FB, MBB AND WBB
• Baylor and Louisville are the nation's only schools ranked by the AP in football and men's and women's basketball.
• Baylor football is ranked No. 4, men's basketball is No. 21 and women's basketball is No. 5.
• Baylor, Duke, Louisville and Michigan State were the only teams to finish the 2013-14 academic year ranked in the final AP polls for all three sports.
BALANCED SCORING ATTACK
• Baylor has benefited from a balanced scoring attack that has seen eight different players combine to score in double figures 38 times through the first 14 games.
• BU?has had six different players lead the team in scoring -- Johnathan?Motley four times, Royce O'Neale three times, Taurean Prince three times, Kenny Chery twice, Rico?Gathers twice and Deng Deng once.
• Prince leads the team with 11.7 points per game, while five other players average between 8.3 and 10.2 ppg.
BEST IN TEXAS
• Baylor is 27-4 against in-state opponents since the start of the 2011-12 season, including a 4-0 mark this season. The losses in that stretch came at Texas in 2013 and 2014, at Texas Tech in 2014 and home vs. Texas in 2014.
• Since 2009-10, BU is 41-8 against Lone Star State teams after going 10-27 vs. in-state teams in Scott Drew's first six seasons at Baylor. (4-0 in 2014-15, 6-3 in 13-14, 7-1 in 12-13, 10-0 in 11-12, 5-3 in 10-11, 9-1 in 09-10).
MOTLEY TAKING GAME TO NEW LEVEL
• Redshirt freshman Johnathan Motley has taken his game to a new level over the last six games.
• He's averaging 15.0 ppg, 6.7 rpg and 3.2 bpg over the last six, up from 6.6 ppg, 3.8 rpg and 0.6 bpg over his first eight collegiate games.
• After going scoreless in back-to-back games, Motley has led the team in scoring in four of the last six games.
CHERY BACK AT FULL STRENGTH
• Kenny Chery is back at full strength after missing 5 starts with plantar fasciitis (came off bench once).
• Chery has 30 assists and 11 turnovers in 5 games since returning to the starting lineup. He had 14 assists and 16 turnovers in 5 games before taking the time to rest and recover.
• Chery posted 25 points against Kansas on?Wednesday, the most by a Baylor player this season and the most by any Big 12 Conference player in a league game this year.
PRINCE LEADS TEAM IN SCORING AS 6TH MAN
• Taurean Prince entered the season averaging 5.2 points in 11.2 minutes over 62 games played in two seasons, but he is leading the team in scoring at 11.7 points per game in 24.6 minutes per game.
• Prince has scored in double figures in 9 of 13 games played this season after never going more than two straight games scoring in double figures in his first two seasons.
• Prince has played 25+ minutes in 8 games this season after doing so in just 2 games over his first two seasons.
• Prince has also led or tied for the team lead in scoring three times this season, equaling the number of times he led the team in scoring over his first two seasons.
O'NEALE DOES IT ALL
• During his four years of Division I basketball, Royce O'Neale has 1,072 points, 680 rebounds, 332 assists, 134 steals and 37 blocks in 115 games played.
• Including his two seasons at Denver, O'Neale has 24 career games played touching all five stat categories (points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks).
• Last season, O'Neale became the first player in program history to post 200+ rebounds and 100+ assists in the same season. He ranked second on the team with 110 assists and fourth with 205 rebounds in 2013-14.
• O'Neale currently ranks 14th in the Big 12 in rebounding (6.2) and 10th in assists (3.3), placing him with Iowa State's Bryce Dejean-Jones as the only Big 12 Conference players in the top 15 in both categories.
FREEMAN LEADS BAYLOR BENCH
• Redshirt freshman Al Freeman has led Baylor in bench scoring in seven of the last 10 games.
• Freeman has posted double figure scoring off the bench in three of the last six games. He had a career-high 13 points in 22 minutes vs. Norfolk?State and posted 10 points against both Texas A&M and New Mexico State.
• Freeman averages 18.6 minutes per game, most of any Baylor player with fewer than five starts.
GATHERS FILLING BIG SHOES
• Rico?Gathers spent his first two seasons at Baylor backing up big men Cory Jefferson and Isaiah Austin, but with those players gone to the professional ranks, he's stepped into the starting lineup as a junior.
• Gathers is averaging nearly a double-double with 9.6 points and 10.9 rebounds per game.
• Gathers leads the Big 12 and ranks 8th nationally in total rebounding (10.9), and he's 2nd nationally with 5.2 offensive rebounds per game.
• Gathers also leads the Big 12 with 6 double-doubles this season and 26 career double-digit rebound games, and he's 2nd among active Big 12 players with 13 career double-doubles.
• In his 17 career starts, Gathers is averaging 10.4 points and 10.8 rebounds per game.
MEDFORD RAN SHOW WITH CHERY OUT
• Baylor starting point guard Kenny Chery missed 5 starts with a foot injury, allowing Lester Medford to slide from his starting shooting guard position to the starting point guard role.
• Medford posted 30 assists and 7 turnovers in his 5 starts at point guard. Despite since returning to his shooting guard spot, he still ranks 6th in the Big 12 with 3.8 assists per game and 2nd with a 2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio.
DREW IS PROGRAM'S ALL-TIME WINS LEADER
• Scott Drew holds Baylor's school record with 215 career wins as head coach.
• Drew became the all-time wins leader by defeating Texas on March 14, 2014 for his 202nd Baylor victory, passing Bill Henderson (201 wins; 1941-43 and 1945-61) for the all-time wins mark.
• Drew's .584 winning percentage is the best ever by a Baylor coach with 60+ games at the helm.
ONE OF TWO BIG 12 TEAMS RANKED EIGHT STRAIGHT SEASONS
• Baylor joins Kansas as the only Big 12 Conference schools to be ranked in each of the last eight seasons. The Bears were unranked in the preseason for the first time since 2009-10, but cracked the rankings at No. 22 on Dec. 22.
• Baylor has been ranked for at least three weeks in each of the last seven seasons (2008-09 through 2014-15).
DREW AMONG NATION'S ELITE
• Head coach Scott Drew is the youngest of 11 coaches nationally to take his current program to three Sweet 16 appearances in the last five seasons.
• Drew (44) is joined by Arizona's Sean Miller (46), Ohio State's Thad Matta (47), Florida's Billy Donovan (49), Kansas' Bill Self (52), Kentucky's John Calipari (55), Michigan State's Tom Izzo (59), Louisville's Rick Pitino (62), Wisconsin's Bo Ryan (67), Duke's Mike Krzyzewski (67) and Syracuse's Jim Boeheim (70).
UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS
• Baylor has enjoyed unprecedented success over the last seven-plus seasons under 12th-year head coach Scott Drew. Since the start of the 2007-08 season, Baylor is 181-84 (24 wins per season) and has made six postseason appearances?(NCAA -- 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014; NIT?-- 2009, 2013) and posted six 20-win seasons.
• Prior to 2007-08, Baylor won only 135 games in the first 11 seasons of the Big 12 era (12.3 wins per season).
• Baylor has made 13 postseason appearances (six under Drew) and won 20+ games just nine times (six under Drew) in the program's first 108 seasons.
BAYLOR BASKETBALL ON THE RADIO
• Baylor basketball is aired live via the Baylor-IMG College Radio Network on ESPN?Central Texas and flagship station 1660AM ESPN Radio (KRZI) in Waco and worldwide on Sirius XM Radio and the TuneIn Radio App. All games are broadcast by the "Voice of the Bears" John Morris and former Baylor basketball standout Pat Nunley. Morris is in his 27th year doing Baylor broadcasts, while Nunley is in his 32nd season as color analyst.
• The radio call from all of Baylor's games can be heard live on the Internet at www.BaylorBears.com.
UP NEXT
• Baylor returns home to host No. 17 Iowa State at 8 p.m. CT?Wednesday on ESPNU.
• Fans are encouraged to wear white for the Iowa State game, and 5,000 white t-shirts will be distributed.
