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3/3 BAYLOR BEARS (18-1, 10-1)
Location: Waco, Texas
Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993)
Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF)
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BAYLOR (18-1, 10-1) at WEST VIRGINIA (17-6, 10-4)
March 2, 2021 • 4 p.m. CT
Morgantown, W. Va. • WVU Coliseum (14,000)
LIVE STATS: baylorstats.com
WATCH: ESPN
Talent: Bob Wischusen (pxp), Fran Fraschilla (analyst)
LISTEN: Baylor Sports Network | ESPN Central Texas
Talent: John Morris (pxp) and Pat Nunley (analyst)
Baylor Social Media:    |
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6/5 WEST VIRGINIA MOUNTAINEERS (17-6, 10-4)
Location: Morgantown, W. Va.
Head Coach: Bob Huggins (West Virginia, 1977)
Roster | Stats (PDF) | Game Notes (PDF) |
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Third-ranked Baylor prides itself on being the toughest team on the floor every night.
But, after getting outrebounded 48-28 in a 71-58 loss at No. 17 Kansas that ended a program-record 18-0 start, that will be tested again by a No. 6 West Virginia team (17-6, 10-4) that stands in the way of the Bears (18-1, 10-1) winning their first conference championship in 71 years.
"They have a team that can score in bunches," Baylor coach Scott Drew said of the Mountaineers, who have won three in a row and six of their last seven to climb up the Big 12 standings and national polls. "At the same time, with having that offensive efficiency, they've gotten better defensively. And they've maintained what Coach (Bob) Huggins always does, and that's having a team that's great on the glass."
West Virginia and Baylor are both ranked in the top 25 nationally and actually 1-2 in the Big 12 in offensive rebounds, averaging 13.5 and 12.7, respectively.
"We're definitely focusing on boxing out and going for loose balls and all those types of things," said sophomore guard Adam Flagler, who's averaging 10.5 points per game off the bench, "because that makes or breaks a game. . . . (Against Kansas), they definitely out-toughed us on a lot of plays. We're big on being the toughest out there, and we weren't in that game."
In their second game back from a three-week COVID quarantine, the Bears also struggled on offense, shooting just 34.8 percent overall and 6-of-26 from 3-point range. Still the national leader in 3-point shooting percentage at 42.08, and 10th with 10.3 made treys per game, Baylor is just 14-of-51 from outside the arc in the last two games.
"Whenever you're out of a rhythm, things don't come as easy," Drew said. "And then, when you have competitive guys, they want to fix it themselves, and sometimes you press and try to do too much. Again, the more you're together, the more you're in rhythm, the easier it is for everybody. As we get that rhythm back, we'll be much more fluid, we'll take better shots, easier shots, we'll create shots better for each other."
Huggins, whose team went through a two-week COVID pause in January, said he "can't imagine what (Baylor) went through with (21) days."
"I know our guys would have gone absolutely crazy. They would have been trying to sneak into the practice facility or they'd go out on a playground and shoot. It would drive them insane to not touch a ball for that long."
The only Big 12 player averaging a double-double, 6-10 junior forward Derek Culver leads the Mountaineers with 15.0 points and a league-best 10.1 rebounds per game. What makes Culver so difficult to defend is his versatility, Drew said.
"He can score from 15 feet, he can score driving it to the cup, he can score with his back to the basket, he's very good on the glass," Drew said. "So, you've got to be good, and defensively you've got to be prepared to guard him in a variety of spots – the elbows, the blocks."
Baylor counters with the frontline duo of 6-10 junior Flo Thamba (4.0 ppg, 4.5 rebounds) and 6-8 sophomore Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua (7.5 ppg, 6.0 rebounds). While Tchamwa Tchatchoua sat out last week's 77-72 win over Iowa State and played just 11 minutes at Kansas, Thamba had a nine-point first half against Kansas, hitting 4-of-4 from the field.
"Jon and Flo are two guys that are elite screeners and really embrace their role as finishers and getting their teammates open and then doing a great job on the defensive end," Drew said. "Everyone on the team appreciates and values and understands their importance to the team."
The runner-up behind Kansas in last year's Big 12 race, the Bears are trying to win their first Big 12 title in the 25-year history of the league and first conference championship since Bill Henderson's team won the Southwest Conference title in 1950 and made their second Final Four in three years.
"That was never our goal, to go undefeated," Flagler said. "It would have been great, obviously, but our goals are still set and we still have the opportunity to chase them and accomplish them. So, it's definitely kind of brush off our back and everything, but we're excited to play West Virginia and continue on."
Tuesday's game will be broadcast by ESPN, with Bob Wischusen and Fran Fraschilla calling the action.
Before heading to the Big 12 Championship that begins next Wednesday in Kansas City, Baylor will host No. 17 Oklahoma State (16-6, 9-6) at 6 p.m. Thursday and 18th-ranked Texas Tech (15-8, 7-7) at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Ferrell Center.
"Sometimes, it takes a little time (to get back your groove)," Drew said. "We're trying to rush that up and Cliff Notes version it as much as we can. Unfortunately, you're not given much practice time to work on things, so most of the stuff happens live in games."
STORY LINES
• No. 2 Baylor can clinch its first conference title since 1950 with a win Tuesday at West Virginia.
• Baylor is playing its 3rd game in 8 days since returning from a stretch of 18 days without practice.
• The Bears' 18-1 start ties the best 19-game record in program history (2019-20).
• BU is 3-0 vs. top-10 teams with wins at home (KU), on the road (UT) and at a neutral site (Illinois).
• Tuesday is the 20th series meeting, all in the last 10 seasons. Baylor is 11-8 all-time vs. WVU.
• Baylor has won 3 of the last 4 games vs. WVU, with the lone loss in last season's final game at WVU.
• Saturday's loss at KU was the first time Baylor trailed inside the final 4 minutes of a game this season.
• BU scored a season-low 58 points Saturday at Kansas, 9 points fewer than any other game.
• BU held its first 9 Big 12 opponents below 70 points before allowing 72 and 71 in the last 2 games.
• BU is 10-2 vs. AP Top 25 teams the last 2 seasons, the nation's best record vs. ranked teams.
• BU leads the nation in 3-point percentage (.421) and is top-6 nationally in scoring margin (2nd, +21.2), scoring (5th, 84.9), effective FG% (3rd, 57.6), steals (6th, 9.4), turnover margin (2nd, +6.3), turnovers forced (6th, 18.2), defensive turnover pct. (3rd, 25.7) and offensive rebound pct. (5th, 36.9).
• BU has faced a double-digit deficit in consecutive games after not doing so in any of its first 17 games.
• Baylor became the first team since UNLV in 1990-91 to win its first 17 games by 8+ points, but the Bears haven't led by more than 5 points since returning from the 21-day pause.
• BU has led by at least 10 points in 17 of 19 games this year (last 2 games largest leads were 4 & 5).
• Baylor has led by at least 4 points in all 49 games over the last 2 seasons (double-digit leads in 41 of 49).
• Baylor's 25-4 record in Big 12 play over the last 2 seasons is the league's best record in that span.
• BU is 13-3 in Big 12 road games over the last 2 seasons (rest of league is 55-92 in B12 road games).
• Jared Butler (Cousy Award finalist), MaCio Teague (West Award finalist), Davion Mitchell & Mark Vital (Naismith Defensive POY Semifinalists) were all recognized as national award candidates last week.
• Mitchell's Last 5 Games: 18.6 ppg, 4.6 apg, 3.8 A-T ratio (23a/6t), shooting 55% on 3FGs (17-31).
• Butler leads the Big 12 in 3-pointers made (2.3/game), 3-point percentage (.434) and steals (2.3), ranks 3rd in assists (4.9), 5th in scoring (16.4) and 5th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.82).
• Teague leads the 5 West Award finalists in career ppg, assists, steals, 3-pointers, FTM and FT%.
• Vital holds the BU record for career Big 12 wins at 42-22. The previous record was A.J. Walton's 39.
• Five Baylor players are shooting at least 41% on 3FGs and averaging at least one 3FG made per game: Mitchell (47%), Butler (43%), Mayer (45%), Flagler (43%) and Cryer (41%).
• Baylor is 44-5 since Teague and Mitchell became eligible at the start of 2019-20.
• Baylor is 47-41 in Big 12 road games over the last 10 seasons, second-best behind Kansas (58-32).
• Baylor has been top-5 ranked for 26-straight weeks. BU was top-5 for 12 weeks all-time prior to this streak.
• BU's streak of 35-straight AP polls ranked is the nation's 3rd-longest active streak and longest in BU history.
• Baylor joins Duke, Gonzaga and Kansas as the only programs ranked No. 1 in 3 of the last 5 seasons.
• BU is 1 of 5 Power-5 schools (Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Michigan St.) to win 18+ every year since 2008.
QUICK HITS
• Three members of the BU bench average 7.5+ ppg – Flagler (10.5), Mayer (7.5) and Tchatchoua (7.5).
• BU's bench is out-scoring opposing benches 31-15 on average and has scored 33+ points in 11 games.
• Head coach Scott Drew is in his 18th season in Waco and is BU's all-time wins leader (360-214).
• Baylor's 18-game winning tied the 4th-longest in the Big 12's 25-year history. The Bears set the record with 23 straight last season, while Kansas had the 2nd and 3rd-longest streaks – 22 in 1997 and 20 in 2008.
• Baylor signed the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history (No. 4) in November. BU inked 5-star Kendall Brown, 4-star Langston Love and 4-star Jeremy Sochan for the 2021-22 season.
• Baylor has won double-digit Big 12 games for the 8th time (2010, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021).
• Baylor is 66-5 when leading at halftime over the last 4 seasons (36-2 over last 2 seasons, 15-0 this season).
• Baylor has won 90% of its games when leading at the half since 2011-12 (184-21).
• BU is 132-23 since 2015-16 when leading at any point in the 2nd half of a game (44-3 last 2 seasons).
• 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 235-98 over the last 10 seasons, averaging 24 wins per season since 2011-12.
• Baylor's 235 wins since 2011-12 are second-most in the Big 12 behind only Kansas (282).
• Baylor is 326-145 since 2007-08, the first year Drew's staff had a full allotment of scholarships.
• 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 four as freshmen — Moffatt, Turner, Vital and Dainja.
• Ten of Baylor's 11 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 951 straight games — the last time Baylor failed to make a 3-pointer was more than 30 years ago, on Feb. 21, 1990 vs. Texas Tech (0-8).
SERIES HISTORY
• Tuesday is the 20th all-time series meeting, all of which have been played since 2011.
• Baylor won seven of the first eight series meetings, but the Bears are 4-7 vs. WVU since then.
• BU leads the series 11-8, including a 5-3 mark in Waco. BU won its first 3 trips to Morgantown, then lost the next 3 visits before getting back on track with an 85-73 win at WVU last season.
