#2/2 BAYLOR LADY BEARS (28-1, 17-0) Location: Waco, Texas Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Kim Mulkey (La. Tech, 1984) Roster | Stats | Game Notes	#2/2 BAYLOR (28-1, 17-0) AT IOWA STATE (17-11, 9-8) March 8, 2020 | NOON (CT) Ames, Iowa | Hilton Coliseum (14,384) LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast RADIO: 1660 AM/92.3 FM WATCH: Fox Sports App Talent: Ron Thulin (PBP), Brenda VanLengen (Analyst) LISTEN: Tune In Talent: Bruce Gietzen (PBP), Maggie Davis-Stinnett (Color) Baylor Social Media:
	IOWA STATE (17-11, 9-8) Location: Ames, Iowa Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Bill Fennelly Roster | Stats | Game Notes

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            For most teams, for most coaches, winning a 10^th-consecutive conference championship would be enough. 
            Not Kim Mulkey and the No. 2-ranked Baylor Lady Bears (28-1, 17-0), who close the regular season at 12 p.m. Saturday at Iowa State (17-11, 9-8), trying to finish off their third-straight 18-0 slate in Big 12 play. Baylor had the title in hand two weeks ago and holds a five-game lead on second-place TCU (22-7, 13-5).
            "You always have to have goals when you play," Mulkey said. "A lot of teams would be content, and we are content to have another Big 12 title. But, the goal is to win that next basketball game. The goal is, 'Let's try to go undefeated now.' And then when you get to the conference tournament, try to win those as well."
            Even for the Lady Bears, who have won 58-consecutive conference games overall and 44 in a row, this perfect streak is rarified air. 
Only UConn's seven-straight perfect records in the American Athletic Conference would be longer. And among major conferences, a three-year run would tie Tennessee (1992-95, SEC), UConn (2008-11, Big East) and Stanford (2009-12, Pac-12) for the longest ever. 
            "I always preach: don't take it for granted and don't think it's easy," Mulkey said. "I just believe in that because I was a part of something like this at Louisiana Tech. You better enjoy it while it's happening, it doesn't last forever. We want it to last until we can't play or coach anymore. But, you'll always hear me say, 'Don't take it for granted.'''
            Junior guard DiDi Richards, who has never lost a conference regular-season or tournament game in her three years, said Mulkey and the coaching staff "do a great job of preparing us for games like this."
            "Every game, we have a detailed scouting report," said Richards, who is averaging 8.0 points, 5.7 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game. "It's just being able to follow the scouting report and take it to the court."
            Despite losing 6-3 junior forward Kristin Scott (14.2 ppg, 6.9 rebounds) to a probable season-ending back injury, Iowa State has won its last two games and has had a solid second half of league play with a 5-3 mark. The Cyclones are a 10 seed in the Fort Wayne regional in Charlie Crème's latest bracketology that was released Saturday. 
            Sophomore forward Ashley Joens is averaging a double-double, leading the league with 20.7 points per game and ranked fourth in rebounding at 11.0 per game. 
            "That doesn't change anything on what we do," Mulkey said of Scott's injury. "It may change a little bit on personnel."
            Iowa State leads the Big 12 and ranks 16^th nationally, hitting 8.5 made 3-pointers per game. Joens is one of five Cyclones who have hit at least 35 3-pointers. 
            "You never know with those teams if theyr'e going to get hot early on or what," Richards said. "It's just knowing when to get your feet outside the 3-point line or dare them to shoot it. That's kind of what we hope they don't do."
            The top seed for next week's Big 12 Championship in Kansas City, Baylor will play in the quarterfinals at 1:30 p.m. Friday against the winner of an opening-round game between the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds. 
            "Why don't the winners of the conferences, if they know they're sitting pretty, why don't we have an elective where we choose not to play them," said Mulkey, whose team should be the No. 1 seed for the Dallas Regional when NCAA Tournament selections are announced a week from Monday. 
            "I understand the value of the conference tournaments, because a lot of teams are Cinderellas, and that's their only way to get (to the NCAA Tournament). And then some of them are wanting to get a higher seed. . . . I have to think that people like (Kansas men's coach) Bill Self and (Baylor men's coach Scott Drew) and myself and different people, we're like, "Gosh, I wish we could just skip it and go straight to the NCAA Tournament.'''
 
 

---

BAYLOR LOOKING TO JOIN ELITE COMPANY WITH THIRD-STRAIGHT PERFECT CONFERENCE SEASON

   If Baylor can close out the season Sunday with a win, it will mark the third-straight year that the Lady Bears have run the table with an 18-0 mark heading into the conference tournament. Only UConn's seven-straight perfect seasons in the American Athletic Conference is a longer streak in the NCAA history than Baylor, and among major conferences, it would tie the Lady Bears with Tennessee (1992-1995, SEC), UConn (2008-2011, Big East), and Stanford (2009-2012, Pac-12).

   If the Lady Bears were to beat the Cyclones Sunday it would mark the seventh time in Big 12 history that a team has had a perfect conference record in the regular season with Baylor achieving the feat five times. Oklahoma went 16-0 in 2006 and Nebraska won all 16 games in 2010. The Lady Bears have had perfect runs in 2012, 2013, 2018 and 2019 thus far.

 

BAYLOR LADY BEARS WIN 11TH BIG 12 REGULAR SEASON TITLE OUTRIGHT, 10TH STRAIGHT

   Following Baylor's win over K-State Feb. 29, the Baylor Lady Bears celebrated their 11th overall and 10th-straight Big 12 regular season championship. BU head coach Kim Mulkey and seniors Lauren Cox & Juicy Landrum all interviewed live on ESPN+ and on the public address system to celebrate the event before Mulkey invited the crowd of nearly 7,000 down to the floor to celebrate. For Cox and Landrum, it was their fourth-straight title while graduate transfers Te'a Cooper & Erin DeGrate along with true freshman Jordyn Oliver cut their first piece of the net. Between regular season, Big 12 tournament titles, NCAA regional titles and NCAA championships, Mulkey cut down her 28th net for Baylor University and the women's basketball program Saturday.

   The Lady Bears' 10th consecutive regular season conference title is the longest active streak in the nation, and since the 1999-2000 season Baylor's 11 conference titles are tied for seventh most in the NCAA. The Lady Bears now have extended their Big 12 record to 21 conference championships between regular season and tournament titles, all under Kim Mulkey.

 

LADY BEARS STILL IN POSITION FOR NO. 1 SEED AT DALLAS REGIONAL, NCAA COMMITTEE REVEALS

     In the final reveal before Selection Monday March 16, the NCAA Women's Basketball Selection Committee revealed its final Top 16 projections of the season with Baylor as a No. 1 seed and headed just 100 miles north to the Dallas Regional. South Carolina, Oregon and Maryland joined the Lady Bears as No. 1 seeds, and if the season ended Monday, Baylor would have been joined in Dallas by Stanford, Mississippi State and Iowa.

 

WE'RE GOING STREAKING: BAYLOR HAS SEVERAL STREAKS ON THE LINE VS. IOWA STATE

    Baylor won its 58th-straight Big 12 game in the regular season Thursday, which is the sixth-longest

conference-win streak in NCAA history. Baylor's road streak in the regular season vs. Big 12 opponents is at 44 games, which is the third-longest streak in NCAA history. Overall, Baylor will be going for its 19^th-straight road victory, which would be the 12^th-best road win streak in NCAA history. The Lady Bears will be going for their 11^th-straight win over the Cyclones.

 

400 WINS AT THE FERRELL CENTER

   Baylor's win at the Ferrell Center Feb. 29 over K-State was the program's 400th victory in the friendly confines of Waco, and with just 97 losses at home, it has proved to be one of the toughest places in women's college basketball for a visitor to come away with a win. After the Lady Bears' home win over Texas Thursday, Baylor has 56-straight home wins since 2017 has made the Ferrell Center a great place to call home. With plans for a new basketball arena looming, the Ferrell Center has seen many great moments in the history of Baylor women's basketball.

 

LADY BEARS RANK NO. 1 IN THE NATION IN SIX STATISTICAL CATEGORIES       

   The 28-1 Lady Bears rank in the top 10 nationally in 16 categories through games played through March 5. Baylor ranks No. 1 in the nation in six categories: Assists (648), Assists Per Game (22.3), Field Goal Percentage (.504), Field Goal Percentage Defense (.309), and Scoring Margin (31.3) and Three-Point Field Goal Percentage (.393).

   In addition, Baylor ranks in the top five in five additional categories (full list on page 5).

   DiDi Richards ranks 5th nationally in assists-to-turnover ratio (3.02:1) while also cracking the Top 25 in assists per game at 14th (5.7) and assists at 13th (158). Juicy Landrum is back in the Top 25 after a brief absence in the assists-to-turnover ratio, ranking 11th nationally and third in the Big 12 with a 2.60:1 mark. NaLyssa Smith ranks 12th in the nation and first in the Big 12 in field goal percentage with a .592 shooting mark.

 

MULKEY REACHES HISTORIC MILESTONE AT TEXAS TECH

   Baylor's win at Texas Tech Feb. 18 gave 20th-year head coach Kim Mulkey her 600th victory, and she became the fastest NCAA Division I coach, man or woman, to accomplish the feat. Her milestone along with the Baylor men's 23-game Big 12-win streak (record) led off the 10 p.m. ESPN SportsCenter Tuesday night. While not a complete list, Mulkey beat Adolph Rupp (704 games), Geno Auriemma (716), Jerry Tarkanian (720), Pat Summitt (734), Roy Williams (739), John Wooden (755) and Dean Smith (773) to the punch. Were Baylor to fall to Texas Tech, the Lady Bears would need pull out just one win in the following three games for Mulkey to still achieve the feat. In addition to reaching the milestone in the fewest amount of games, Mulkey would also reach 600 in her 20th season, two seasons faster than the next coach on the list, Auriemma, who achieved 600 in his 22nd season at UConn. SEE PAGE 7 FOR FULL LIST

 

MULKEY NAMED A NAISMITH MEMORIAL BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME FINALIST FOR THE SECOND TIME

   Feb. 14, Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey learned that she was a finalist in the coach category for the 2020 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class. Mulkey was also a finalist in 2018 in the coach category, and she was also nominated as a player. Mulkey joined Rudy Tomjanovich, Barbara Stevens, Tamika Catchings, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and Eddie Sutton as the eight finalists this year. A finalist needs 18 of 24 votes from the committee to be inducted into the 2020 class, which will be announced April 4 at 10 a.m. on ESPN from the NCAA Men's Final Four in Atlanta. Enshrinement festivities will take place in Springfield, Mo., Aug. 28-30.

 

THREE LADY BEARS NAMED FINALISTS FOR WBCA 'STARTING FIVE' AWARDS; COX & MULKEY UP FOR NATIONAL AWARDS

   Te'a Cooper, Lauren Cox and Queen Egbo have all be selected as finalists in their respective positions for the Naismith Hall of Fame/WBCA Starting Five Awards. Cooper was named a finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Award that honors the nation's top point guard Monday, for the third-straight year Cox was named a finalist for the Katrina McClain Award for nation's top power forward Thursday, and Egbo earned a spot on Friday's Lisa Leslie Award top 10 for the nation's top center.

   All three awards named 10 finalists this week and will narrow the list to the "Final Five" in March.

   Tuesday, Cox was named among 10 semifinalists for the Citizen Naismith Trophy, which honors the nation's top women's college basketball player while Mulkey was among 10 semifinalists for the Naismith National Coach of the Year, announced Wednesday. A full list of Baylor's honors this year is on page 5.

 

50/50 – BAYLOR'S MAGIC NUMBER OFFENSIVELY & DEFENSIVELY

   Kim Mulkey coached teams at Baylor 236-1 when shooting 50 percent or better from the field, while just 16 times in 19-plus seasons has an opponent shot 50 percent or better against the Lady Bears defense. Baylor's only loss when shooting 50 percent or better came vs. Mississippi State in the 2017 Elite 8.

 

COX & RICHARDS NAMED AMONG 10 SEMI-FINALISTS FOR NAISMITH DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

   Lauren Cox is the 2-time Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, and DiDi Richards' reputation for her on-ball defense earned her First-Team All-Big 12 honors last year. This year, those performances have carried over to national recognition as the pair made the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year semi-finalists, which includes just 10 players.

   Cox has missed time due to injury, but is still averaging 2.6 blocks and 1.2 steals per game while opponent's offensive scouting reports are scrambled when they face the Cox-led Lady Bears. Richards' steal numbers are up to 1.9 per game, she's added 23 blocks this season and still draws assignments for each opponent's top perimeter player throughout the season.