Baylor
Gonzaga
MBB Challenges Gonzaga in NCAA Second Round
3/22/2019 10:02:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Bears and Bulldogs tip off at 6:10 p.m. CT on TBS
 |
||
 |
BAYLOR BEARS (20-13) Location: Waco, Texas Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993) Roster | Stats | Game Notes |
BAYLOR (20-13) vs. GONZAGA (20-13) March 23, 2019 • 6:10 p.m. CT Salt Lake City, Utah • Vivint Smart Home Arena (18,284) NCAA TOURNAMENT BRACKET: 2019 Interactive Bracket GAME DAY CENTRAL: Tournament Information LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast WATCH: TBS | March Madness App Talent: Andrew Catalon (pxp), Steve Lappas (analyst), Lisa Byington (reporter) LISTEN: Baylor-IMG College | ESPN Central Texas KZRI 1660 AM Talent: John Morris (pxp), Pat Nunley (analyst) Baylor Social Media:    |
 |
GONZAGA BULLDOGS (31-3) Location: Spokane, Wash. Conference: WCC Head Coach: Mark Few (Oregon, 1987) Roster | Stats | Game Notes |
|
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
That giddiness Scott Drew was feeling after his ninth-seeded Baylor Bears opened the NCAA Tournament with an exhilarating 78-69 win over Syracuse Thursday night quickly turned to a deep concern as he poured over game film of top-seeded Gonzaga (31-3).
"The more film you watch of Gonzaga, the more worried you get," said Drew, whose Bears (20-13) will face the Zags at 6:10 p.m. CDT Saturday in a round of 32 matchup at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah.
"As a head coach, you don't watch a lot of other basketball games during the year. You're so busy watching your team and your opponents that you don't get a chance to watch a lot of other games. So, watching them last night, you go from being in a great mood to, 'Oh, crud!'''
Blocking Baylor's path to a fifth Sweet 16 in the last decade is a Gonzaga team that leads the nation in scoring offense (88.8 points per game), field goal percentage (53.2) and scoring margin (24.2).
Rui Hachimura, a 6-8 junior forward, is a first-team All-American and Naismith Trophy finalist who is averaging 20.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Although he was playing a much smaller role as a freshman, Hachimura is also one of four players left over from Gonzaga's 2017 team that lost to North Carolina, 71-65, in the national championship game.
"Someone asked me if I could describe his game, I said, 'Yeah, he's like a lot of guys I see playing in the NBA,''' Drew said of Hachimura, who had 21 points and eight boards in Gonzaga's 87-49 first-round win over Farleigh Dickinson. "With his size, his power, his skill, he's a real tough matchup."
The problem is he's not alone. Three other players are averaging double-digit points – 6-8 junior forward Brandon Clarke (16.4 ppg, 8.4 rebounds, 3.1 blocks), 6-5 sophomore guard Zach Norvell Jr. (15.3 ppg) and 6-3 senior point guard Josh Perkins (10.8 ppg, 6.4 assists).
"If they just had one guy, they wouldn't be the No. 1 offense in the country," Drew said. "Besides their multiple weapons, besides Coach (Mark) Few being a tremendous coach, and they have a great basketball history and culture, they all have experience, a lot of international experience, a lot of older guys. And that really makes things easier, especially come March."
If nothing else, Baylor should have a good scouting report of the Zags. Second-year assistant coach John Jakus was Gonzaga's director of basketball operations for that Final Four run in 2017, while graduate assistant Rem Bakamus was a walk-on guard for that team.
"They've already talked to the (Gonzaga) staff and made sure they didn't change any of their play calls," Drew said. "The key right now would be to make sure we don't try to do too much, because when you know someone really well the tendency is to overload. Gonzaga plays so fast that we want to make sure our guys are playing and not thinking."
Baylor, making its 11thpostseason appearance in the last 12 years, has had to overcome season-ending injuries to 6-9 sophomore center Tristan Clark and senior guard Jake Lindsey. On top of that, senior guards Makai Mason and King McClure have been limited the last month with foot and knee injuries, respectively.
But, in Thursday's win over Syracuse, the Bears hit an NCAA Tournament program-record 16 3-pointers to get through to the second round for the fifth time in the last 10 years. Mason, battling through a toe injury, hit four first-half 3-pointers and finished with a team-high 22 points, the most since his 40-point outburst against TCU.
"It seemed like someone stepped up every time," Mason said. "We made the extra pass and had pretty open shots, especially when we got it in the high post."
The Bears go into Saturday's game undersized and potentially overmatched, but sophomore forward Mario Kegler said he will "go to work with this team against anybody any day. I feel like we're going to give them a run for their money."
Few, who is 566-121 in 20 seasons at Gonzaga, said Drew is "vastly underrated as a basketball coach" for what he's done not only this season but throughout his career at Baylor.
"I was always impressed with what they ran, what they did, and they always had a purpose and some real depth to what they were doing offensively and defensively," he said. "When you watch this team, the thing that stands out to me is just how tough they are. They're physically tough, they battle you every possession on both ends. They're the best, or very close to the best, offensive rebounding team in college basketball. . . . And when they're making threes like they were last night, they are really dangerous."
Saturday's game will be broadcast by TBS, with Andrew Catalon, former UMass head coach Steve Lappas and Lisa Byington calling the action.
STORY LINES
• Baylor faces Gonzaga in the 2019 NCAA Tournament second round Saturday on TBS from Salt Lake City.
• Baylor is making its 5th second round appearance since 2010 — BU is 4-0 in second round games.
• Baylor is 14-13 in 12 all-time NCAA Tournament trips, including 11-7 in the Scott Drew era.
• BU's previous NCAAT games vs. No. 1 seeds were in Elite Eights – 2010 vs. Duke & 2012 vs. Kentucky.
• Drew has led Baylor to two Elite Eights (2010, 2012) and four Sweet 16s (2010, 2012, 2014, 2017).
• BU is 2-4 vs. higher-seeded NCAAT teams – wins vs. No. 3 Creighton (2014) and No. 8 Syracuse (2019) and losses vs. No. 6 Purdue (2008), No. 1 Duke (2010), No. 1 Kentucky (2012) and No. 2 Wisconsin (2014).
• Baylor made 16 3-pointers in Thursday's win over Syracuse, tied for 5th-most in NCAAT history.
• Five BU players made multiple 3-pointers vs. Syracuse, led by Mason and Butler with 4 apiece.
• BU held Syracuse to 2-14 (14%) shooting over the final 9 minutes after allowing 19-37 (51%) prior.
• Baylor is on a school-record streak of eight consecutive postseason appearances. BU is 1 of 14 programs nationally to appear in every postseason since 2012, and the Bears are 14-6 in those games.
• Baylor is one of 16 teams nationally to make four or more Sweet 16 appearances since 2010.
• Baylor is 33-19 in postseason tournaments (conference, national) over the last 11 seasons.
• BU has 20+ wins in 10 of its last 12 seasons. BU had only three 20-win seasons prior to 2008.
• BU is 2nd nationally in offensive rebounding pct. (38.1), its 6th straight year in the nation's top 10.
• Four BU players earned All-Big 12 — Mason (2nd), Butler (HM), Kegler (HM) and Vital (HM).
• BU has been out-rebounded just once in its last 25 games (+7.4 avg. rebounding margin) in that span.
• Baylor finished 4th in the Big 12 standings after being picked 9th in the preseason coaches poll.
• Baylor returned 3 letterwinners from last year's team, the nation's fewest among Power-5 teams.
• In Big 12 play, BU led the league in offensive efficiency (109.2), assists (14.4/gm), 3-point pct. (.373), 3-pointers made (8.9/gm), rebounding (37.9/gm) and rebounding margin (+6.5/gm).
• Makai Mason has been limited in the last 12 games with a toe injury, King McClure has missed 5 games with a knee injury, Tristan Clark has missed 19 games, and Jake Lindsey has missed the entire season.
• All told, those 4 projected starters have missed 63 total games, including 42 in Big 12 play.
• McClure (2016-17) and Mason (2017) are Baylor's only active players with prior NCAAT experience.
• Jared Butler joined the starting lineup with Clark out and is averaging 12.9 ppg and 3.5 apg in 19 starts.
• Butler is shooting 41% on 3FGs (49-119) in those 19 starts and has made a 3-pointer in 18 of 19 games.
• Butler leads the team with 13.9 ppg in the last 10 games, including 31 at Kansas and 14 vs. Syracuse.
• Mario Kegler has led BU in scoring in 4 of its last 7 games, averaging 14.6 ppg, 6.4 rpg in that span.
• Kegler is averaging 13.5 points and 6.2 rebounds over his last 10 games, while shooting 45% on 3FGs.
• Devonte Bandoo is averaging 11.9 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 1.5 apg in 28.4 mpg over the last 11 games.
• Freddie Gillespie has averaged 6.4 ppg, 5.1 rpg and 1.3 bpg in 20.2 mpg in 19 games since Clark's injury.
• Mark Vital's last 7 games: 9.3 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 2.4 apg and 1.4 bpg in 30.9 mpg; 68% FTs (23-of-34).
• Mason is averaging 16.5 points, 4.3 assists and shooting 45% on 3FGs (13-29) in his last 4 games.
QUICK HITS
• Baylor has won 19+ games in 8 straight seasons and has 10 seasons of 20+ wins in the last 12 years.
• Scott Drew is in his 16th season in Waco and is the Bears' all-time wins leader (316-208).
• Drew is coaching his 525th game at Baylor (316-208). His .603 winning percentage is best in BU history among coaches with 40+ games, and his teams have a .670 winning percentage since 2007-08 (282-139).
• Baylor is 34-38 in Big 12 road games since 2012, second-best in the league behind only Kansas (44-24).
• Baylor is 1 of 14 teams nationally to appear in every postseason since 2012 (6 NCAAs, 2 NITs).
• Baylor is 30-3 when leading at halftime over the last two seasons (15-3 this season).
• BU is 88-20 since 2015-16 when leading at any point in the 2nd half of a game (20-5 this season).
• BU is 99-77 in Big 12 play in 10 seasons since 2010 after going 59-149 in the league's first 13 seasons.
• BU recorded double-digit Big 12 wins for the 4th time in the last 5 seasons and 6th time in 10 years.
• BU has won 8+ Big 12 games in 8 straight seasons after winning 8+ just 3 times in the league's first 15 years.
• Baylor is one of nine teams to be nationally ranked in each of the last 11 seasons dating back to 2007-08 – Baylor, Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan State, Notre Dame and North Carolina.
• BU is 41-71 against AP Top 25 teams since 2007-08 after going 0-27 in Drew's first 4 rebuilding seasons.
• Baylor defeated 7 top-10 teams in the last 3 seasons, including a 6-3 mark vs. top-10 teams in Waco.
• Baylor is 12-22 against AP Top 10 teams since March 2012. BU started the Drew era 1-26 vs. top-10.
• Baylor has won 89% of its games when leading at the half since 2011-12 (149-19).
• Baylor is 191-92 over the last 7 seasons, averaging 24.4 wins per season since 2012.
• Baylor's 191 wins since 2011-12 are second-most in the Big 12 behind only Kansas (236).
• Baylor is 282-139 since 2007-08, the first year Drew's staff had a full allotment of scholarships.
• Baylor beat Alabama to move to 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 902 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).
SERIES HISTORY
• Saturday is the fifth series meeting between Baylor and Gonzaga.
• Baylor is 0-4 vs. Gonzaga, including an 0-2 mark at neutral sites and an 0-2 record in Spokane
• BU last faced Gonzaga on Dec. 28, 2012, a 94-87 loss to the No. 13-ranked Zags in Spokane.
BAYLOR VS. 2019 NCAA TOURNAMENT FIELD
• Baylor is 8-7 this season against nine different teams that are part of the 2019 NCAA Tournament field.
• BU has played No. 3 Texas Tech (1-1), No. 4 Kansas (0-2), No. 4 Kansas State (0-2), No. 6 Iowa State (2-1), No. 8 Ole Miss (0-1), No. 8 Syracuse (1-0), No. 9 Oklahoma (2-0), No. 12 Oregon (1-0) and No. 16 Prairie View A&M (1-0).
• BU is 1-5 against teams with top-4 seeds and 7-2 against teams seeded No. 5 or lower.
• All told, BU is 11-10 against 2019 postseason teams — 8-7 vs. NCAA and 3-3 vs. NIT.
NATION'S SIXTH-BEST POSTSEASON RECORD
• Baylor's 21-8 postseason record over the past 11 seasons is the nation's sixth-best among teams with at least four NCAA Tournament berths since 2009 (through March 21, 2019).
• The only teams with better postseason winning percentages than Baylor's .714 are North Carolina (.800), Connecticut (.783), Kentucky (.769), Duke (.758) and Villanova (.750).
• The Bears' 21 postseason wins in that span are tied for seventh-most, trailing only North Carolina (32), Kentucky (30), Kansas (26), Duke (25), Michigan State (23) and Florida (22).
• Baylor went 4-1 in the 2009 NIT, 3-1 on its way to NCAA Tournament Elite Eight berths in 2010 and 2012, 5-0 to claim the 2013 NIT title, 2-1 on its way to Sweet 16 berths in 2014 and 2017 and 1-1 in the 2018 NIT.
FIRST TIME AS NO. 9 SEED
• Baylor is a No. 9 seed for the first time in nine NCAA Tournament appearances during the modern era.
• The only time BU was a lower seed was 2008, when BU was No. 11 and lost in the first round to No. 6 Purdue.
• BU is 2-4 in NCAA Tournament games as the lower seed, though three of those four losses were to top-2 seeds.
PERFECT RECORD IN SECOND ROUND
• Baylor is 4-0 in NCAA Tournament second round games since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
• The Bears have won their second-round game to advance to the Sweet 16 four times since 2010.
• BU is 1-0 in second round games as the lower seed and 3-0 in second round games as the higher seed.
TWO BEARS WITH PREVIOUS NCAA TOURNAMENT EXPERIENCE
• Baylor has only two active players with previous NCAA Tournament experience.
• King McClure played four total NCAA Tournaments games during Baylor's 2016 and 2017 appearances. He played in wins against New Mexico State and USC in 2017 and in losses to Yale in 2016 and South Carolina in 2017.
• Makai Mason played two games for Yale during its 2016 NCAA Tournament run (W vs. Baylor, L vs. Duke).
• Mark Vital (2 games), McClure (2 games) and Obim Okeke (1 game) played for Baylor in the 2018 NIT.
• Flo Thamba, Devonte Bandoo, Mario Kegler, Jared Butler, Matthew Mayer and Freddie Gillespie all made their postseason and NCAA Tournament debuts in Baylor's win over Syracuse.
DREW IN NCAA TOURNAMENTS
• Head coach Scott Drew has an 11-7 record over eight NCAA Tournament appearances.
• Drew has guided Baylor to eight NCAA Tournaments in the last 12 seasons. Prior to Drew's arrival, Baylor had been to only four NCAA Tournaments, including just once in the 53 seasons preceding his arrival in 2003-04.
• Drew was a major factor in Valparaiso's six NCAA appearances (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002) while an assistant on his father Homer's staff.
• In 2008, Drew guided Baylor to its first NCAA Championship appearance in 20 seasons (since 1988) and just its second appearance in 58 seasons since going to the eight-team tournament in 1950.
BAYLOR IN NCAA TOURNAMENTS
• Baylor has 13 NCAA Tournament appearances, and the Bears have lost to the eventual national champion four times (1946, 1948, 2010 and 2012).
• Baylor's 1946 team lost to Oklahoma A&M in the regional semifinals in Kansas City, Mo.
• Baylor's 1948 squad lost to Kentucky in the national title game at New York's Madison Square Garden,
• Baylor's 2010 team lost to Duke in the Elite Eight at Houston's Reliant Stadium.
• Baylor's 2012 team lost to Kentucky in the Elite Eight at Atlanta's Georgia Dome.
• Baylor's first eight NCAA bids all came in even-numbered years —1946, 1948, 1950, 1988, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. The Bears have earned NCAA berths in five of the last six years (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019).
• Baylor played in three tournaments in a five-year span between 1946-1950 under head coach Bill Henderson, including Final Four appearances in 1948 and 1950.
A WIN WOULD ...
• Be Scott Drew's 317th win at Baylor and the 337th of his Division I coaching career.
• Make Drew 5-0 all-time in NCAA Tournament second-round games.
• Give Baylor's its 5th NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in the last 10 years.
• Be Baylor's first win over a No. 1 seed at the NCAA Tournament (losses to Duke in 2010 and Kentucky in 2012).
• Improve Baylor's all-time NCAA Tournament record to 15-13, including 12-7 in the Drew era.
• Improve Baylor's record to 34-19 in postseason tournaments (conference, national) over the last 11 seasons.
• Be Baylor's first win against Gonzaga, improving the Bears to 1-4 all-time against the Zags.
BAYLOR 20-WIN SEASONS
• With the win over Syracuse, Baylor notched the 13th 20-win season in program history.
• In the program's first 101 seasons, Baylor posted 20+ wins just three times — 1945-46, 1947-48 and 1987-88.
• In the last 12 seasons, Baylor has 10 20-win campaigns.
TWENTY-THREE WINS VS. RANKED TEAMS IN LAST FIVE SEASONS
• Baylor has gone 23-31 against ranked teams since the start of the 2014-15 season.
• BU is 3-4 vs. ranked opponents this season with wins vs. No. 8 Texas Tech, vs. No. 20 Iowa State and at No. 19 Iowa State, and losses to No. 7 Kansas, at No. 15 Texas Tech, at No. 16 Kansas State and at No. 13 Kansas.
• BU is 41-71 against AP-ranked teams since 2007-08 after going 0-27 in Drew's first four rebuilding seasons.
• Baylor has won multiple games vs. AP Top 25 teams in each of the last 12 seasons.
• BU has knocked off seven AP top-10 teams in the last 3 seasons (7-7 vs. AP Top 10).
UP NEXT
• The winner of the Baylor vs. Gonzaga game will advance to the Sweet 16 to face the winner of No. 4 Florida State and No. 12 Murray State. That game will be played Thursday, March 28 in Anaheim, Calif.
• Tipoff times and TV networks for Sweet 16 games will be determined after Saturday's second round games.
