No. 21 Men's Hoops Hosts Texas Southern
12/13/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
ESPN2 / WatchESPN | Radio | | Twitter | Arena Info
Game Notes: Baylor | Texas Southern
Talent: Jon Sciambi (pxp), Fran Fraschilla (analyst)
Radio: Baylor IMG Sports Network / ESPN Central Texas
Talent: David Kaye (pxp), David Kaye (analyst)
Satellite Radio: Sirius 145, XM 199, Internet 953
Live Stats/In-Game Home: BaylorBears.com
Twitter: @BaylorMBB | #SicTSU
BAYLOR
7-2, 0-0 Big 12Ranking: 21st - AP, 21st - Coaches
Last Game: Dec. 9, 2017 - win vs. Randall, 105-82
Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993)
Career Record: 304-193 (16th season)
BU Record: 284-182 (15th season)
vs. Texas Southern: 7-0
TEXAS SOUTHERN
0-9, 0-0 SWACRanking: NR - AP, NR - Coaches
Last Game: Dec. 11, 2017 - loss at Oregon, 74-68
Head Coach: Mike Davis (Thomas Edison State, 2000)
Career Record: 336-230 (18th season)
TSU Record: 99-78 (6th season)
vs. Baylor: 0-3
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
You can't judge a book by its cover, and you shouldn't judge the Texas Southern basketball team by its record (0-9).
Coach Mike Davis' Tigers haven't played a home game in November or December in the last three seasons. This year's team has played a "Who's Who of college basketball" with an impressive cross country tour that includes stops at Gonzaga, Washington State, Ohio State, Syracuse, Kansas, Clemson and Oregon.
Texas Southern, which plays No. 21 Baylor (7-2) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Ferrell Center, had double-digit halftime leads at Washington State and Toledo, trailed Ohio State by two with under seven minutes left and took Oregon down to the wire.
"It's tough to win road games when they travel as much as they do against the competition they're playing," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose team has won two in a row since back-to-back losses to Xavier and Wichita State - both now ranked in the top 10. "They try to play as many top-25 opponents as possible. That's why they've gone to the (NCAA) tournament the last three or four years in a row."
Davis has made 13 postseason appearances in 17 years as a coach (Indiana, UAB and Texas Southern), leading Texas Southern to three NCAA tournament berths in the last four years.
"People take them for granted, because you look at their record and it says 0-9," said junior guard King McClure, one of five Baylor players averaging double figures (11.3). "Then you look at the people they've played and say, `Dang, they've played some pretty good teams.' . . . We can't take anybody for granted, because they'll come out and punch us right in the mouth if we're not ready and don't bring our `A' game."
Drew said the easiest way to get his players' attention is by turning on the game film, "and right away you can identify talent." They have four double-figure scorers, led by reigning SWAC Freshman of the Year Demontrae Jefferson, a 5-7 guard who is averaging 22.0 points and 3.7 assists.
"They have a lot of athleticism, speed and quickness," Drew said. "We showed them clips of some of the players against us last year. They know they have a lot of talented players, and they know a lot of those players because of AAU and they've played them before."
Last year, Baylor got out to a double-digit lead in the first nine minutes and cruised to an 89-63 win behind double-doubles by Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. and Johnathan Motley.
"The biggest thing is growing from game to game," said Lual-Acuil, who is averaging 13.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. "Our defense wasn't great against Randall (in Saturday's 105-82 win at Ford Hood). So, going into this game, we have to be locked-in defensively and definitely have to leave with a better feeling than we did in the Randall game. It was a win, but we didn't play great."
Randall blistered the nets against Baylor's defense, hitting 10 3-pointers and shooting over 55 percent in the second half.
But, the Bears used only six scholarship players in the game, with senior point guard Manu Lecomte out with a sore thumb and redshirt freshman forward Mark Vital bothered by a hamstring injury. Drew said it will be a game time decision on Vital, but Manu "should be good to go."
Lecomte leads the team and ranks seventh in the Big 12 in scoring at 16.6 points per game. Senior forward Nuni Omot had career highs with six 3-pointers and 30 points against Randall and is averaging 10.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists.
"Nuni is somebody who had shown more of that in practice than in games," Drew said. "It's good to see him do it in a game, and hopefully that gives him confidence in carrying out the rest of the year."
With semester finals over, "there's no school, just basketball," Drew said. "So, they shouldn't complain if we have long practices, right?"
"I'm so glad they're over," McClure said, "and I can just focus on basketball now. This semester was for real. It was probably one of the hardest semesters of my life."
Baylor will wrap up its pre-conference schedule with three games in the next seven days, playing Savannah State on Sunday and Southern next Wednesday, before opening league play at No. 24 Texas Tech (8-1) on Dec. 29.
STORY LINES
- No. 21 Baylor faces Texas Southern at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Ferrell Center and on ESPN2.
- Baylor and TSU meet for the 11th time. Baylor is 10-0 in the series with a +18.6 average scoring margin.
- BU looks to start 8-2 or better for a 5th straight year and 10th time in the last 11 seasons -- all except 2012-13.
- Baylor is 22-3 in games against non-Big 12 teams since the start of the 2016-17 season -- the only losses are in the 2017 Sweet 16 vs. South Carolina, at No. 21 Xavier and vs. No. 8 Wichita State.
- BU has won 45 consecutive non-conference home games against unranked opponents.
- Baylor's last non-conference home loss to an unranked team was Dec. 4, 2012, 74-70 to Northwestern.
- Baylor has won 32 straight regular season non-conference games vs. unranked teams.
- Baylor has knocked off 18 ranked teams over the last 3+ seasons (18-19 vs. ranked opponents).
- Baylor's offense ranks 2nd nationally with a 4.9 steal pct., allowing steals on only 4.9% of possessions.
- BU is playing short-handed with an injury to Terry Maston leaving the Bears with 8 available scholarship players, including Mark Vital, who is day-to-day with a hamstring strain.
- BU has gone at least 8-players deep in 268 consecutive games dating back to Feb. 13, 2010.
- BU went 2-2 in one of the nation's toughest 4-game non-conference stretches. The Bears defeated Wisconsin and Creighton on a neutral court and lost at No. 21 Xavier and vs. No. 8 Wichita State.
- Baylor has posted a combined 134-28 record in November and December games during the Drew era, including a 52-6 mark in November and December games since 2013.
- BU has won 25 consecutive December games against unranked opponents dating back to 2013. The Bears' only December losses in that span were at No. 24 Texas A&M (2015) and vs. No. 8 Wichita State (2017).
- Baylor has 16 games on its 2017-18 schedule against teams in the top 30 of the latest AP poll.
- Manu Lecomte ranks 7th in the Big 12 in scoring (16.6), 2nd in FT pct. (.946) and t-4th in 3FGM (26).
- Jake Lindsey ranks 7th nationally and 2nd in the Big 12 with a 5.0 assist-to-turnover ratio (35a/7to).
- Nuni Omot is coming off a 30-point outburst on Saturday vs. Randall, doubling his previous career high.
- Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. ranks 2nd in the Big 12 in both rebounds per game (10.1) and double-doubles (5).
- Tyson Jolly went 995 days between his final HS game and first college game on Dec. 2. He played 24 minutes and posted 10 assists and 8 rebounds in his third collegiate game on Saturday vs. Randall.
- BU is ranked No. 21 in the latest AP Top 25, marking a school record with 23 consecutive polls ranked.
- Baylor is 51-9 against in-state opponents since the start of the 2011-12 season.
- Baylor is 159-66 over the last 6+ seasons, averaging 25.3 wins per season since 2012.
- Baylor's 159 wins since 2011-12 are second-most in the Big 12 behind only Kansas (186).
- Baylor is 250-113 since 2007-08, the first year Drew's staff had a full allotment of scholarships.
- Baylor has been ranked for 207 of 466 games under Drew (ranked for just 2 games prior to Drew).
- Drew is coaching his 467th game at Baylor (284-182). His .609 winning percentage is best in BU history among coaches with 40+ games, and his teams have a .689 winning percentage since 2007-08.
- BU is 56-9 over the past 2+ seasons when taking the lead at any point in the 2nd half of a game.
