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No. 18 MBB to Host Top-20 Showdown vs. No. 12 Arizona

Saturday is the fourth all-time matchup of ranked non-conference teams in Waco

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Men's Basketball 12/6/2019 9:45:00 AM
MBB Header
26239 18/16 BAYLOR BEARS (6-1)
Location: Waco, Texas  
Conference: Big 12
Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993)
Roster | Stats | Game Notes
BAYLOR (6-1) vs. ARIZONA (9-0)
Dec. 7, 2019 • 11 a.m. CT
Waco, Texas • Ferrell Center (10,284)

LIVE STATS: www.baylorstats.com
WATCH: ESPNU and ESPN app
Talent: Rich Hollenberg (pxp), Jimmy Dykes (analyst)
LISTEN: Baylor-IMG College | ESPN Central Texas
Talent: Pat Nunley (pxp), David Kaye (analyst)
Baylor Social Media: auto twitter icon instagram png Facebook PNG
Arizona 12/11 ARIZONA (9-0)
Location: Tucson, Ariz.
Conference: Pac-12
Head Coach: Sean Miller (Pittsburgh, 1992)
Roster | Stats | Game Notes

 STORY LINES
• No. 18 Baylor hosts No. 12 Arizona at the Ferrell Center for the first time since Dec. 8, 1997.
• The game is on ESPNU with Rich Hollenberg and Jimmy Dykes calling the action.
• BU and UA are meeting for the 10th time. The Bears won 58-49 in Tucson on Dec. 15 last season.
• Baylor became the first team to hold Arizona below 50 points since Feb. 26, 2011. The Bears snapped UA's 52-game home winning streak and out-rebounded the Wildcats 51-19 (19-5 offensive boards).
Mark Vital had 17 rebounds, more than the 14 by all Arizona players combined (UA had 5 team rebs.)
• Saturday is BU's 9th non-conference home game vs. a ranked team in program history (5th-highest ranked).
• Saturday is the 4th all-time matchup of ranked non-conference teams in Waco – No. 25 BU vs. No. 16 Vanderbilt (2015), No. 9 BU vs. No. 7 Xavier (2016) and No. 16 BU vs. No. 8 Wichita State (2017).
• 30 NBA Scouts from 22 different teams have requested credentials to Saturday's game.• Arizona allows the nation's fewest steals by pct. (4.9), while BU's defense ranks 19th in steals (13.0).
• Baylor leads the Big 12 and ranks 7th among Power-5 teams (25th overall) in 3-point shooting (.396).
• Baylor's defense has forced 15+ turnovers in 6 of 7 games after doing so in 7 of 34 games last year.
• BU ranks 19th nationally in turnover margin (+5.6) and 20th nationally in defensive turnover pct. (24.5).
• Baylor is 11-5 against Pac-12 opponents during the Drew era — 1-0 vs. Arizona, 4-0 vs. Arizona State, 2-1 vs. Colorado, 2-1 vs. Oregon, 1-0 vs. USC, 1-2 vs. Washington State and 0-1 vs. Washington.
• BU won its third tournament title in 4 years by beating Villanova to win the Myrtle Beach Invitational.
• Baylor is 1 of 6 Power-5 programs to win 18+ games in each of the last 12 seasons since 2008, joining Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State and North Carolina.
Jared Butler's 134.8 KenPom offensive rating leads the nation among players with a 24%+ usage rate.
• Baylor is 42-11 in games against non-Big 12 teams over the last 4 seasons since 2016-17.
• BU is the only school with FB, MBB, WBB & VB all ranked. Those teams are a combined 50-4 this year.
• BU is No. 18 in the most recent AP Top 25 and has been ranked in all 5 AP polls this season.
• Head coach Scott Drew is in his 17th season in Waco and is BU's all-time wins leader (322-210).
• Drew is coaching his 533rd game at Baylor (322-210). His .605 winning percentage is best in BU history among coaches with 40+ games, and his teams have a .671 winning percentage since 2007-08 (288-141).
• Baylor is playing its 219th game as a ranked team under Drew – BU was ranked in 2 of 2197 games over the program's 97 seasons prior to Drew. Since 2008-09, BU has been ranked in 216 of 398 games.
• Baylor is coming off its 10th 20-win season in the last 12 years. The Bears were a No. 9 seed in the 2019 NCAA Tournament, where they knocked off Syracuse before falling to No. 1 seed Gonzaga.
• Baylor has been in the Preseason AP Top 25 in 7 of 10 seasons since its first preseason ranking in 2010-11.
• BU was picked 2nd in the Big 12 Preseason Coaches Poll, tying the highest in program history (2012-13). The Bears were picked 9th in last year's poll, but overcame a multitude of injuries to finish in 4th place.
• BU has advanced to the postseason in 8 straight seasons, tied as the nation's 10th-longest active streak. 
• Baylor is 101-8 in non-conference home games since 2007-08, including 62-4 since December 2012.

QUICK HITS 
• BU returned 8 letterwinners from last season, including 5 players who made at least 7 starts – Mark Vital (34), Jared Butler (21), Tristan Clark (14), Freddie Gillespie (11) and Devonte Bandoo (7). 
• Baylor returned 9 players with at least 26 games of Division I experience, including a pair of transfers who are now starters after sitting out last season – Davion Mitchell and MaCio Teague
• Eight of Baylor's 14 players either have used or are currently using a redshirt year. Five after transferring to BU – Flagler, Gillespie, Mitchell, Tchamwa Tchatchoua and Teague, and three as freshmen — Moffatt, Turner and Vital. 
• Eight of Baylor's nine starting point guards under Drew have earned All-Big recognition (14 of last 15 seasons). 
• BU is 42-72 against AP-ranked teams since 2007-08 after going 0-27 in Drew's first 4 rebuilding seasons. 
• Baylor is 12-23 against AP Top 10 teams since March 2012. BU started the Drew era 1-26 vs. top-10. 
• Baylor has defeated 7 top-10 teams in the last 3 seasons, including a 6-3 mark vs. top-10 teams in Waco. 
• Baylor is 33-4 when leading at halftime over the last 3 seasons since 2017-18. 
• Baylor has won 88% of its games when leading at the half since 2011-12 (151-20). 
• Baylor has won 20+ games in 10 of the last 12 seasons after recording only three 20-win seasons in the previous 100 years of Baylor Basketball (1946, 1948, 1988). 
• The Bears are one of 11 programs nationally (1 of 6 in Power-5) to win 18+ games in every year since 2008. 
• Baylor is 1 of 14 teams nationally to appear in every postseason since 2012 (6 NCAAs, 2 NITs). 
• BU is 94-21 since 2015-16 when leading at any point in the 2nd half of a game (6-1 this season). 
• Baylor is 197-94 over the last 9 seasons, averaging 24 wins per season since 2012. 
• Baylor's 197 wins since 2011-12 are second-most in the Big 12 behind only Kansas (242). 
• Baylor is 288-141 since 2007-08, the first year Drew's staff had a full allotment of scholarships. 
• Baylor is 5-1 all-time in Big 12/SEC Challenges, the best record of any team in either league. 
• Baylor has the nation's 11th-longest active streak with at least one 3-point FG made in 910 straight games — the last time Baylor failed to make a 3-pointer was more than 29 years ago, on Feb. 21, 1990 vs. Texas Tech (0-8). 
• BU has recorded double-digit non-conference wins in 11 of the last 12 seasons (all except 2012-13). 
• Baylor has won 6 tournament titles under Drew (2007 Paradise Jam, 2011 Las Vegas Classic, 2013 NIT, 2016 Battle 4 Atlantis, 2017 Hall of Fame Classic and 2019 Myrtle Beach Invitational). 

SERIES HISTORY 
• Saturday's game is the 10th series meeting between Baylor and Arizona and the first in Waco since Dec. 8, 1997. 
• Arizona leads the series 5-4, including a 1-1 mark in Waco (1970 BU win, 1997 UA win). 
• Baylor's wins in the series were in Dallas on consecutive days on March 12-13, 1948, in Waco on Dec. 11, 1970, and in Tucson on Dec. 15 last season. Arizona won in 1947, 1949, 1969, 1993 and 1997. 
• Saturday is the first time Baylor has been ranked when facing Arizona and the third time UA has been ranked vs. BU. 

LAST TIME VS. ARIZONA 
• Baylor snapped Arizona's 52-game home winning streak with a 58-49 win in Tucson on Dec. 15 last season. 
• The Bears became the first team to hold Arizona below 50 points since Feb. 26, 2011. 
• BU had a 16.5% win probability when trailing 26-20 early in the 2nd half, but out-scored UA 38-23 the rest of the way. 
• Baylor won despite committing 20 turnovers and turning Arizona's 10 turnovers into only 2 points. 
• BU out-rebounded UA 51-19, including 19-5 on the offensive glass, and BU had a 19-2 edge in 2nd-chance points. 
• The Bears shot just 27.6% (8-29) in the first half, but came back at 63.6% (14-22) in the 2nd half. 
Mark Vital had 17 rebounds, more than the 14 rebounds grabbed by Arizona players (UA also had 5 team rebounds). 
Makai Mason had a game-high 22 points, while Brandon Randolph was UA's only double-figure scorer with 15. 

NON-CONFERENCE MEETING OF RANKED TEAMS 
• Saturday is the 4th time in the last 5 seasons a non-conference matchup of ranked teams has been played at the Ferrell Center during the first week of December. 
• No. 25 Baylor defeated No. 16 Vanderbilt, 69-67, on Dec. 6, 2015. 
• No. 9 Baylor defeated No. 7 Xavier, 76-61, on Dec. 3, 2016. 
• No. 16 Baylor lost to No. 8 Wichita State, 69-62, on Dec. 2, 2017. 
• Saturday is the 9th time a ranked non-conference opponent has visited Waco – No. 12 Arizona (2019), No. 8 Wichita State (2017), No. 7 Xavier (2016), No. 16 Vanderbilt (2015), No. 6 Washington State (2007), No. 21 Purdue (2004), No. 6 Arizona (1997), No. 20 Oklahoma State (1958) and No. 14 Wyoming (1951). 
• BU is 3-5 all-time in non-conference home games against ranked opponents (2-3 in Drew era). 

KENPOM STATS HIGHLIGHT MATCHUP OF ELITE OFFENSIVE PLAYERS 
Jared Butler's 134.8 KenPom offensive rating leads the nation among players with a 24%+ usage rate, while Arizona's Zeke Nnaji (125.5) and Nico Mannion (123.9) rank 7th and 9th, respectively, on that same list. 
• KenPom Offensive Rating (ORtg): A measure of personal offensive efficiency developed by Dean Oliver. The formula is very complicated, but accurate. For a detailed explanation, buy Basketball on Paper. 
• KenPom Percentage of Possessions Used (%Poss): A measure of personal possessions used while the player is on the court. Simply assigns credit or blame to a player when his actions end a possession, either by making a shot, missing a shot that isn't rebounded by the offense, or committing a turnover. 

DREW'S CREW VS. THE PAC-12 CONFERENCE 
Scott Drew has posted an 11-5 record against Pac-12 teams while at Baylor, including wins in 4 of the last 5 meetings. The Bears won both games against Pac-12 teams last year – 58-49 at Arizona and 57-47 vs. Oregon. 
• BU has faced 7 Pac-12 teams under Drew: Arizona (1-0), Arizona State (4-0), Colorado (2-1), Oregon (2-1), USC (1-0), Washington State (1-2) and Washington (0-1). BU is 4-1 in home games, 4-3 at neutral sites and 3-1 in road games. 
• Baylor's wins were vs. No. 14 Arizona State (2008-09), at Washington State (2008-09), at Arizona State (2009-10), home vs. Arizona State (2010-11), vs. Colorado (2011-12), home vs. Arizona State (2012-13), vs. Colorado (2013-14), home vs. No. 4 Oregon (2016-17), vs. USC (2016-17), at Arizona (2018-19) and home vs. Oregon (2018-19). 
• Baylor's losses against Pac-12 teams under Drew were at home vs. No. 6 Washington State (2007-08), vs. Washington State (2010-11), vs. Colorado (2012-13), at No. 25 Oregon (2015-16) and vs. Washington (2019-20). 

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Players Mentioned

Makai Mason

#10 Makai Mason

G
6' 1"
Redshirt Senior
TR
Devonte Bandoo

#2 Devonte Bandoo

G
6' 3"
Senior
1L
Jared Butler

#12 Jared Butler

G
6' 3"
Sophomore
1L
Tristan Clark

#25 Tristan Clark

F
6' 10"
Junior
2L
Freddie Gillespie

#33 Freddie Gillespie

F
6' 9"
Redshirt Senior
1L
Davion Mitchell

#45 Davion Mitchell

G
6' 2"
Redshirt Sophomore
SQ
MaCio Teague

#31 MaCio Teague

G
6' 3"
Redshirt Junior
SQ
Mark Vital

#11 Mark Vital

G/F
6' 5"
Redshirt Junior
2L

Players Mentioned

Makai Mason

#10 Makai Mason

6' 1"
Redshirt Senior
TR
G
Devonte Bandoo

#2 Devonte Bandoo

6' 3"
Senior
1L
G
Jared Butler

#12 Jared Butler

6' 3"
Sophomore
1L
G
Tristan Clark

#25 Tristan Clark

6' 10"
Junior
2L
F
Freddie Gillespie

#33 Freddie Gillespie

6' 9"
Redshirt Senior
1L
F
Davion Mitchell

#45 Davion Mitchell

6' 2"
Redshirt Sophomore
SQ
G
MaCio Teague

#31 MaCio Teague

6' 3"
Redshirt Junior
SQ
G
Mark Vital

#11 Mark Vital

6' 5"
Redshirt Junior
2L
G/F