Baylor
Louisiana-Lafayette
No. 2 MBB Opens 2020-21 Campaign in Vegas
11/27/2020 4:28:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Bears slated to face Louisiana on Saturday
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2/1 BAYLOR BEARS (0-0, 0-0) Location: Waco, Texas Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
BAYLOR (0-0) vs. LOUISIANA (0-0) Nov. 28, 2020 • 7 p.m. CT Las Vegas, Nev. • T-Mobile Arena (20,000) LIVE STATS: baylorstats.com WATCH: FloHoops Talent: Tony Cordasco (pxp), TBD (analyst) LISTEN: Baylor-IMG College | ESPN Central Texas Talent: Pat Nunley (pxp), David Kaye (analyst) Baylor Social Media:    |
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LOUISIANA (0-0, 0-0) Location: Lafayette, La. Head Coach: Bob Marlin (Mississippi State, 1981) Roster | Stats (PDF) | Game Notes (PDF) |
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By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
After seeing Baylor's first three games canceled, preseason All-American guard Jared Butler felt like he was hanging out at the gym, anxiously waiting for a pick-up game and "trying to find somebody to play."
"It's been extremely chaotic, kind of a day-by-day basis," Butler said. "We've just been trying to find games to play."
Thanks to the relentlessness of coach Scott Drew, who was isolated in his house after testing positive for COVID-19, the top-ranked Bears will play their first game in 272 days when they face the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns at 7 p.m. CST Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
"The worst thing in the world you can do is give Scott time and isolate him (where you) can't district him, and he's got a phone and a computer. His brain is just going," said associate head coach Jerome Tang, who will be the acting head coach for Baylor's games against Louisiana on Saturday and Washington at 5 p.m. Sunday.
"He was relentless. If he needed to get 64 teams together to start the season, he would have got that done. Lots of questions, lots of phone calls, lots of text messages, lots of figuring out people's schedules to see who needs a game. Just a whole bunch of stuff, everybody pulling together, because we wanted our guys to be able to compete this weekend."
Still quarantined, Drew will miss the games this weekend, but is expected to join the team in Indianapolis for a pair of top-10 games against No. 8 Illinois (3-0) on Wednesday and No. 2/1 Gonzaga (2-0) next Saturday, Dec. 5, at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
"He's never experienced any (COVID) symptoms at all," Tang said of Drew. "His wife and kids are experiencing the symptoms of having Scott Drew at the house all the time. I think they're all a lot happier now, because that part's been put to rest, and now Coach can just eat and rest and relax and do what he needs to do to get back to us in a few days."
Tang, who has been part of Drew's staff for the last 17 years, was 2-0 as the interim head coach in 2013 when the Bears opened Big 12 play with wins over Texas and Texas Tech.
"In a sense, they're the same person – same morals, same attitude, same passion for the game," Butler said of Drew and Tang. "Coach Tang is someone we're super comfortable with, somebody that's super comfortable with Baylor in general. I think we've been able to adjust and he's done a good job of adjusting and keeping the confidence of the team and not making it seem like a let-off."
Instead of opening the season with top-20 matchups against No. 18 Arizona State and No. 3 Villanova at the Empire Classic in Connecticut, Baylor is starting with games against Louisiana (14-19) and Washington (15-17) teams coming off losing seasons.
Picked third in the Sun Belt coaches' preseason poll, Louisiana returns Freshman of the Year Mylik Wilson (11.5 ppg, 5.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists), senior guard Cedric Wilson (14.4 ppg) and 6-9 senior forward Dou Gueye (8.7 ppg, 6.2 rebounds).
"Coach (Bob) Marlin has been doing this for a long time," Tang said of Marlin, who is 413-274 as a Division I head coach and 188-143 in 10 years at Louisiana. "His teams always play hard and share the ball, and they can really score in transition."
Marlin came to Louisiana in 2010 after leading Sam Houston State to a 25-win season that ended with a 68-59 loss to a third-seeded Baylor in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Bearkats kept it close with a triangle-and-two defense until the Bears pulled away with a late 13-4 run.
"You always expect his teams are going to be prepared, and they're going to throw something at you that maybe you didn't think about," Tang said.
A native of Reserve, La., Butler will see some familiar faces on a Ragin' Cajuns roster that includes five players from Louisiana.
"I played against some of them, some of them I just know from high school basketball," Butler said, "so I'm definitely going to recognize some faces. And there's going to be some guys that are like, 'Oh, what's up?' I'm looking forward to that, but they're a pretty good team, a team that can score the ball at a high level in transition."
Tang said one of the tests for Baylor this weekend will be "how interested we are in playing defense." Led by Mark Vital and Davion Mitchell, the Bears ranked among the best defenses in the country, giving up just 60.1 points per game and holding teams to a 39.7 field goal percentage.
"Watching the games that have been played so far, the offensive production is way up," said Tang, referencing Gonzaga's 102-90 win over Kansas. "I'm sure that a lot of coaches right now are really upset with how their defense looked and feel like they could play better.
"Is that because we spent all the offseason doing individual work with guys, and not collective work, which is what you need to build a good defensive team? Or, are guys just not in tune and had enough time yet to face somebody else? That's the thing for me personally, I want to see how connected we are defensively."
Baylor returns four starters from a 26-4 team that was a projected No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season. On March 12, the Bears were in Kansas City for the Big 12 tournament waiting to play Kansas State when the season ended. Now, 8 ½ months later, they're in Las Vegas once again waiting to play a game.
"It's a lot of intense emotions, to be honest," Butler said. "When somebody says, 'Oh, y'all are not playing,' it's kind of like a big shock to your body. I'm hoping that I don't lose all of that. I hope we play, go all the way through, and it will be fun getting back out there playing with the guys."
STORY LINES
• No. 2/1 Baylor opens the season Saturday vs. Louisiana-Lafayette at Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena.
• Baylor is No. 1 in the preseason coaches' poll and No. 2 in the AP Top 25 – both highest preseason rankings in program history. This is the 7th time Baylor has been ranked No. 1 nationally.
• Baylor has been in the Preseason AP Top 25 in 8 of 11 seasons since its first preseason ranking in 2010-11.
• Baylor is facing ULL for the 11th time and is 7-3 in the all-time series, including 1-0 in the Drew era.
• Baylor is 2-0 against Bob Marlin coached teams under Drew, defeating SHSU in 2010 and ULL in 2013.
• Baylor returns four All-Big 12 players from a 2019-20 team which went 26-4 and spent five weeks ranked No. 1 nationally. The Bears finished last season ranked No. 4 in the coaches poll (No. 5 in AP).
• BU will be without 2020 Big 12 Coach of the Year Scott Drew, who is in the middle of a 10-day isolation period after testing positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 20. Drew will rejoin the team in Indianapolis.
• Associate head coach Jerome Tang will serve as acting head coach. Tang has been on Drew's staff for all 18 years at Baylor, and he previously served as interim head coach for 2 games in 2012-13 (2-0).
• Baylor is on a school-record streak of 12 straight weeks top-5 ranked (previously 6 straight in 2017).
• BU led by at least 5 points in every game last season and built a double-digit lead in 24 of 30 games.
• Baylor's streak of 21 consecutive AP polls ranked is 3rd-longest in program history (all since 2010).
• Baylor's defense forced 15+ turnovers in 18 of 30 games last season.
• Among BU returners is Jared Butler, who is the first preseason AP All-American in program history.
• BU also welcomes back MaCio Teague, an all-conference pick in all 3 of his collegiate seasons.
• BU returns two players who were semifinalists for the 2020 Naismith Defensive Player of the Year. Mark Vital was 1 of 4 finalists, while Davion Mitchell joined Vital among the 10 semifinalists.
• Baylor is playing its 242nd 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 239 of 421 games.
• BU finished ranked top-10 nationally in offensive rebounding pct (No. 8) for a 7th consecutive year.
• Baylor has won 20+ games in 11 of the last 13 years. The Bears reached the 20-win mark only 3 times in 101 seasons prior to 2008. BU is averaging 24 wins per season since 2008.
• Head coach Scott Drew is in his 18th season in Waco and is BU's all-time wins leader (342-211).
• 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.
• BU has advanced to 8 consecutibve postseasons, tied as the nation's 10th-longest active streak.
• The Bears have now been ranked in every AP Top 25 spot except No. 8 during the 17-year Drew era.
• BU is 10-2 all-time as a No. 1-ranked team, including 9-1 in 5 weeks as No. 1 last season.
• BU was picked to win the Big 12 in the league's preseason coaches' poll for the first time.
• Baylor signed the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history (No. 4) earlier this month. BU inked 5-star Kendall Brown, 4-star Langston Love and 4-star Jeremy Sochon for the 2021-22 season.
• Baylor has posted a 71-11 mark in November and December games since 2013.
QUICK HITS
• Baylor's 23-game winning streak last season was the longest ever by a Big 12 team (previously 22 by 1996-97 KU).
• BU's 13-game conference winning streak was the longest in school history (previously 11 in 1946 SWC).
• Baylor has won 20+ games in 11 of the last 13 seasons after recording only three 20-win seasons in the previous 100 years of Baylor Basketball (1946, 1948, 1988).
• Baylor is 51-5 when leading at halftime over the last 3 seasons since 2017-18 (21-2 last season).
• Baylor has won 89% of its games when leading at the half since 2011-12 (169-21).
• BU is 114-23 since 2015-16 when leading at any point in the 2nd half of a game (26-3 last season).
• Baylor is 217-97 over the last 9 seasons, averaging 24 wins per season since 2012.
• Baylor's 217 wins since 2011-12 are second-most in the Big 12 behind only Kansas (264).
• Baylor is 308-144 since 2007-08, the first year Drew's staff had a full allotment of scholarships.
• BU returns 8 players with at least 30 games of DI experience, including a pair of sophomore transfers who will join the rotation after sitting out last season – Adam Flagler and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua.
• Eight of Baylor's players either have used or are currently using a redshirt year. Four after transferring to BU – Flagler, Mitchell, Tchamwa Tchatchoua and Teague, and three as freshmen — Moffatt, Turner, Vital and Dainja.
• Nine of Baylor's 10 starting point guards under Drew have earned All-Big recognition (15 of last 16 seasons).
• Baylor is 1 of 14 teams nationally to appear in every postseason since 2012 (6 NCAAs, 2 NITs).
• Baylor has the nation's 10th-longest active streak with at least one 3-point FG made in 933 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 is 6-1 all-time in Big 12/SEC Challenges, the best record of any team in either league. Combined with a 3-1 mark in the Big 12/Pac-10 Series and 1-0 in the Big 12/Big East Battle, Baylor is 10-2 in conference challenges.
• 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).
FOUR ALL-BIG 12 PLAYERS RETURN
• All five Baylor starters were named to 2020 All-Big 12 teams, making BU the first team in the league's 24-year history with five players on All-Big 12 teams, and four of those players are back for the 2020-21 season.
• Jared Butler became Baylor's first underclassman named first-team All-Conference since Terry Teagle in 1980, and he was named a consensus third-team All-American.
• MaCio Teague has been all-conference in all three of his previous seasons. He was a first-team All-Big South honoree while at UNC Asheville in 2017 and 2018 and earned second-team All-Big 12 honors in 2020.
• Mark Vital and Davion Mitchell are back after earning third-team All-Big 12 and Big 12 All-Defensive Team honors.
