Baylor
Texas
No. 7/9 Lady Bears Host Texas Sunday on ESPN2
2/13/2021 9:48:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Baylor WBB looks for 9th-straight win over Texas
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#7/9 BAYLOR LADY BEARS (15-2, 10-1) Location: Waco, Texas Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Kim Mulkey (La. Tech, 1984) Roster | Stats | Game Notes |
#7/9 BAYLOR (15-2, 10-1) vs TEXAS (14-5, 8-4) February 14, 2021 | 4 PM (CT) Waco, Texas | Ferell Center (10,284)  WATCH: ESPN2Talent: Pam Ward (PBP), LaChina Robinson (Analyst) RADIO: 1660 AM/92.3 FM DIGITAL RADIO LINK: ESPN Central Texas Talent: Bruce Gietzen (PBP), Maggie Davis-Stinnett (Analyst) LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast Baylor Social Media:    ** Due to COVID-19, there will be no physical copies of stats, media almanacs, rosters, please use the following link for MEDIA RESOURCES ** |
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TEXAS LONGHORNS (14-5, 8-4) Location: Austin, Texas Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Vic Schaefer Roster | Stats | Game Notes |
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By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Kim Mulkey is very aware of the type defenses that first-year Texas head coach Vic Schaefer likes to run.
Nicknamed the "Secretary of Defense" during his run as Gary Blair's associate head coach at Texas A&M, Schaefer helped the Aggies upset Baylor, 58-46, in the Dallas Region final in 2011. And then in 2017, his Mississippi State team knocked off the Lady Bears, 94-85, in overtime in the Oklahoma City Region final.
"They'll press you full court, and you're not going to be able to make a simple, easy, lazy pass in the half court," said Mulkey, whose No. 7/9 Lady Bears (15-2, 10-1) will host Schaefer's Longhorns (14-5, 8-4) at 4 p.m. Sunday. "You're going to have to work to get open, you're going to have to pass the ball with some authority, and not be lazy with your passes. That's who he is. . . . His philosophy is pretty much just play hard-nosed, man-to-man defense."
In that sense, Mulkey and Schaefer are cut from the same cloth. She struggles to even say the four-letter word, Z-O-N-E.
"When you say gadget (defense), do you mean zone or triangle-and-two?" Mulkey said of Schaefer. "If he does, he may do it periodically, just to change something up. But that's not who he is."
Baylor and Texas are ranked first and third in the Big 12 in scoring defense, allowing 53.7 and 62.9 points, respectively. Where a lot of teams play a zone or sagging man-to-man defense against the Lady Bears, if Schaefer plays true to his identity, the Longhorns will play them straight up.
"We saw that with West Virginia and we've seen that with several teams in conference," Mulkey said of facing man-to-man defenses. "The difference in the man-to-man is picking you up in the full court. Get the ball in bounds, and you're fine. . . . They're going to really deny hard, you're going to have to just really execute. If we take of the basketball in the backcourt, we've seen man-to-man in the front court. So, it's just the pressure, just take care of the ball."
The focus of Baylor's defense will be on 6-5 junior center Charli Collier, who ranks among the national leaders with 22.3 points and 12.8 rebounds per game. Collier is a finalist for the Lisa Leslie Center Award along with 6-3 Baylor junior Queen Egbo (10.2 ppg, 7.3 rebounds) and joined 6-2 Baylor junior forward NaLyssa Smith (18.2 ppg, 10.2 rebounds) on the Midseason Team for the Naismith Trophy.
"She's what I consider a back-to-the-back basket type of body, but she also faces you up and wants to shoot the 3," Mulkey said of Collier, who is 11-of-32 from 3-point range. "One of the best things you better do is keep her off the offensive boards. She does a lot of rebounding on her own misses. She's a very, very good player, but we think we've got the players inside that can match up with her."
After getting matched by Kansas State on the offensive glass in a 64-52 win over the Wildcats, the Lady Bears went back to dominating the boards, grabbing as many offensive rebounds (18) as Texas Tech did total in an 82-50 rout of the Lady Raiders in Lubbock.
Smith had a monster double-double with 28 points and 13 rebounds, hitting 12-of-22 from the floor.
"NaLyssa Smith is just playing the best basketball she's played since she's been here," Mulkey said. "She's played a lot of basketball games for us and won a lot of basketball games. The difference is the focus is on her now. . . . She's a kid that we could get her 40 or 50 shots a game, but our team doesn't require that."
Smith actually averages only 13 shots per game. But, it's because the Lady Bears have a balanced attack and a deep roster with all 11 players averaging at least 3.5 points per game.
Coming off the bench, Stanford grad transfer DiJonai Carrington is second on the team with a 12.5-point average and has scored in double figures in each of the four games since returning from a COVID-19 pause.
"I think she's just picked up where she was starting to go before the pause," Mulkey said. "It's good to see, because your concern is you hit that pause, you can't be around your teammates, you can't be in the gym shooting, you can't do anything. Was she going to regress when she got back. But, she hasn't."
Senior guard DiDi Richards (7.8 ppg, 6.8 assists) left the game at Texas Tech midway through the third quarter after a hard fall to the floor, but "passed the concussion test with flying colors," Mulkey said, "which I'm not surprised. That kid's just one tough kid, and she's good to go."
Baylor got some help in its bid for an 11th-consecutive Big 12 championship with Oklahoma's 72-71 upset of No. 19/21 West Virginia on Saturday. The Mountaineers (16-3, 10-3), who will come to Waco for a 7 p.m. game Wednesday, are now a game behind the Lady Bears in the Big 12 standings and two back in the loss column.
"We want to win another Big 12 championship, that's the goal," said senior guard Moon Ursin, who's been averaging 11.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game. "We know it's been different this year. No team has been a dominant team, but we want to continue to be that dominant team, and we want people to fear the name Baylor and be afraid and respect us."
Sunday's game will be broadcast by ESPN2, with Pam Ward and LaChina Robinson calling the action.
BAYLOR'S WIN IN LUBBOCK KEEPS THE LADY BEARS' HALF-GAME LEAD IN THE BIG 12 STANDINGS INTACT
A win in Lubbock Wednesday didn't give Baylor (10-1) any more breathing room in the Big 12 standings with West Virginia still just half a game back at 10-2. NaLyssa Smith put up the most points she has ever had on the road with 28 points to go along with 13 rebounds, and DiJonai Carrington scored in double figures (12) off the bench for the fourth-straight game. Smith, a junior who has been named to the Naismith Trophy, Wooden Award and Wade Trophy midseason watch lists, has eight double-doubles in the last 10 games and nine on the season. Baylor improved to 241-1 under head coach Kim Mulkey when shooting 50 percent or higher from the field when the Lady Bears hit 36-of-70 shots from the floor. Texas Tech's 28.0 field goal percentage marked the fifth time in 11 conference games that Baylor has held a league opponent below the 30-percent threshold from the floor. The Lady Bears have been the NCAA's statistical champion in defensive field goal percentage for four-straight seasons and rank second in that category this season (.316).
BAYLOR LOOKS TO CONTINUE DOMINANCE OVER LONGHORNS WITH NEW FACE ON THE TEXAS SIDELINE
Baylor has eight-straight wins over Texas and has won 23 of the last 24 games in the series. Kim Mulkey is 34-11 (.755) vs. the Longhorns in her tenure, but Texas leads the all-time series 58-43. Proximity creates rivalry, and Baylor and Texas' arenas are just 101 miles apart. However, since Texas took five of six games in the series from 2008 to 2010, it's been all Baylor. Just one blemish in a rare loss at the Ferrell Center, Feb. 6, 2017, and Texas hasn't won since. However, the matchup turns a new page in the storied history with Vic Schaefer pacing the Texas sidelines as head coach for the first time in the 2020-21 series. Mississippi State defeated Baylor in the 2017 Elite 8, and that game marks the only time that Mulkey and Schaefer have squared off as head coaches. Despite just the one matchup, these coaches are familiar with each other from Schaefer's days as an assistant to Gary Blair at Arkansas and Texas A&M. Mulkey's teams carried a 22-5 record vs. the Blair/Schaefer combo at Arkansas and Texas A&M.
AP POLL RESEARCH SHOWS MULKEY AS ACTIVE LEADER IN TOTAL TOP 25 APPEARANCES AS PLAYER, ASSISTANT AND HEAD COACH
Longtime women's hoops guru Mel Greenberg put together a list of coaches and players' appearances in the AP Top 25 poll over the years and found that Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey is the NCAA's active leader in appearances at 663 from her time as a player and assistant at Louisiana Tech and her 21-year tenure as head coach at Baylor. She trails only Holly Warlick for most all-time appearances; Warlick played, assisted Pat Summitt and was head coach at Tennessee from 2012-2019.
RICHARDS, KNOWN FOR HER DEFENSE, QUIETLY MOVING UP BAYLOR'S ALL-TIME ASSISTS LIST
When most think of DiDi Richards, they think defense. After all, she was the National Defensive Player of the Year by both the WBCA and Naismith last season without having high steals or blocks numbers. Her reputation for on-ball defense and pestering the Big 12 and the nation's top perimeter players earned her the awards. But, many might not know that Richards is one of Baylor's all-time best passers. This season, she ranks first in the Big 12 in assists per game, which ranks 9th nationally. She ranks second in the league in total assists, and last season she was the Big 12 statistical champion, ranking 7th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio. Her 487 assists coming into Sunday's game ranks 5th all-time on the Baylor career assists list. With COVID-19 looming, Richards may not get to put up the numbers she normally would have, but she has a shot to leave Baylor at 3rd all-time in that category. Kristy Wallace collected 525 assists in her four years and ranks third. Richards has 7 Big 12 games left to play, a Big 12 Tournament and an NCAA Tournament. Her pace is 6.8 assists per game, and if she continues at that rate, she would pass Wallace in the next 8 games. Niya Johnson is Baylor's all-time leader with 988 and Odyssey Sims ranked second at 641.
COVID-19'S EFFECT ON THE LADY BEARS
All are having to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Lady Bears are no exception. Baylor lost four games scheduled for the Preseason WNIT in Waco in November, along with a Thanksgiving week game vs. Oregon in Las Vegas. Originally scheduled for Nov. 27, Baylor and Northwestern State's game was postponed due to COVID issues within the NWST program and was rescheduled for Dec. 18. Baylor lost its top-10 matchup with UConn Jan. 7 and postponed originally-scheduled Big 12 contests with K-State at home (Jan. 10) and at Kansas (Jan. 13).
Moon Ursin, lost her grandmother, Ruby Alexander, to the virus in April after a swift and brief battle with COVID. Kamaria McDaniel, a transfer from Penn State that is having to sit this season, lost her grandfather, Johnny Webster, Sr., in April as well. Kim Mulkey, Jordyn Oliver, DiJonai Carrington and Caitlin Bickle have all had to miss time due to COVID-19 protocols this season.
The Big 12 announced Thursday the re-scheduling of several league games affected by COVID-19, including Baylor hosting K-State Feb. 27 and finishing the regular season in Lawrence, March 6.
RICHARDS RETURNS TO FLOOR AFTER SPINAL INJURY, FEATURED ON ESPN'S SPORTSCENTER
Oct. 24, Moon Ursin and DiDi Richards collided in mid-air during a practice scrimmage, leaving Ursin with a concussion and Richards with a Spinal Cord Injury Without Radiographic Abnormality (SCIOWRA). Ursin returned to practice after clearing concussion protocol in mid-November while Richards' rehab began immediately after she briefly lost feeling below her knees. Richards was first confined to a walker to assist her in walking, but by mid-November she was completing individual drills and workouts with medical and strength & conditioning staff. Richards shocked doctors, team medical staff and coaches with the rate of her rehab. Thirty-eight days after the injury, she played 30 minutes off the bench at South Florida Dec. 1. She scored a bucket 13 seconds into her entry, and picked up where she left off last season by leading Baylor with seven assists. Dec. 6 in Fayetteville, Ark., she resumed her starting role, getting her first start at point guard and finished the contest with a game-high eight assists. She led the Big 12 in assists per game in 2019-20, ranked 13th in the nation and had the NCAA's sixth-best assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.9:1.
Her return to the floor sparked interest from ESPN with Mechelle Voepel writing a feature on her recovery, and Scott Van Pelt led off his Tuesday edition of SportsCenter, covering Richards' return with the "Best Thing I Saw Today" segment.
BAYLOR WINS 1,000TH WIN AS A PROGRAM; LADY BEARS BECOME 15TH PROGRAM IN D1 HISTORY TO REACH 1,000 VICTORIES
Baylor's win at South Florida Dec. 1 marked the program's 1,000th victory. Baylor became the 15th program in NCAA Division I history to reach 1,000 victories joining Tennessee, UConn, James Madison, Louisiana Tech, Stanford, Texas, SFA, Old Dominion, Ohio State, Maryland, Western Kentucky, Wisconsin-Green Bay, South Dakota State, and Notre Dame. Kim Mulkey has 606 of those wins as head coach for Baylor. At Louisiana Tech, she was either a player, assistant or associate head coach for 560 victories, which makes her a direct contributor to 1,106 wins between the two programs on the prestigious list.
