Baylor
Villanova
No. 1 MBB Readies for Sweet 16 Matchup vs. No. 5 Villanova
3/25/2021 8:53:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Bears in their fifth Sweet 16 since 2010
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No. 1 BAYLOR BEARS (24-2, 13-1) Location: Waco, Texas Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
BAYLOR (24-2, 13-1) vs. VILLANOVA (18-6, 11-4) March 27, 2021 • 4:15p.m. CT Indianapolis, Ind. • Hinkle Fieldhouse (9,100) LIVE STATS: statbroadcast.com/ncaa WATCH: CBS and March Madness App Talent: Brian Anderson (pxp), Jim Jackson (analyst), Allie LaForce (reporter) LISTEN: Baylor Sports Network | ESPN Central Texas Talent: John Morris (pxp) and Pat Nunley (analyst) Baylor Social Media:    |
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No. 5 VILLANOVA WILDCATS (18-6, 11-4) Location: Villanova, Pa. Head Coach: Jay Wright (Bucknell, 1983) Roster | Stats (PDF) | Game Notes (PDF) |
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By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
MaCio Teague believes that an 87-78 win over Villanova in last year's Myrtle Beach Invitational championship game was "definitely a turning point" in a Baylor season that was eventually cut short by COVID-19.
"Winning that tournament, the three games in a row after we had just lost to Washington, I feel like that got our season rolling at a really high rate," he said.
Sixteen months later, top-seeded Baylor (24-2) will face fifth-seeded and 18th-ranked Villanova (18-6) in a Sweet 16 matchup in the South Region at 4:15 p.m. Saturday at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The Bears are trying to get back to the Elite Eight for the first time in nine years against a Villanova team that won the 2016 and 2018 national championships.
"Coach (Jay) Wright has a great culture," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "They're extremely disciplined. . . They play the right way, they share the ball. Defensively, they're rock-solid. You know you have to beat them, they're not going to beat themselves."
To that point, the Wildcats lead the nation with just 8.8 turnovers per game. They were a top-10 team and potential No. 2 seed until senior point guard Collin Gillespie (14.0 ppg, 4.6) suffered a season-ending knee injury (torn MCL) in a March 3 game against Creighton.
Villanova lost its next two, including a 72-71 loss to Georgetown in the Big East quarterfinals, before double-digit wins against Winthrop (73-63) and North Texas (84-61) in the NCAA Tournament.
"There's probably never been one guy since we've been here who has had such an impact on a team in that year," Wright said of Gillespie. "Collin is our leader on the court, off the court, he played in the national championship game in 2018. It was devasting in how bad we felt for him. We were all just so comfortable in him leading the way for us in everything we did."
Sophomore guard Chris Arcidiacono has stepped into the starting lineup for the last three games, but most of the ball-handling duties have been split between 6-4 sophomore guard Justin Moore (12.8 ppg, 3.0 assists) and 6-9 sophomore forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (16.0 ppg, 8.3 rebounds), a third-team All-American and first-team All-Big East pick.
Robinson-Earl, who has averaged 20 points, 8.5 rebounds and 6.0 assists in the two tournament games, had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds in last year's game against Baylor.
"We saw him a year ago and thought he was a great player then," Drew said. "He's even better now. There's a reason he's going to be in the NBA at some point, when he chooses to go there. Guys with his size, athleticism and skill set don't come around often."
Two years ago, when Baylor lost sophomore forward Tristan Clark to a knee injury, "it took us two or three games to figure out what we were going to do," Drew said.
"Great teams always adapt, and Villanova is a great team," Drew said. "They have a great coach. You knew they were going to figure it out."
Bouncing back from a loss at the Big 12 tournament, Baylor opened the NCAA Tournament with a 79-55 first-round blowout of Hartford and then rolled over ninth-seeded Wisconsin, 76-63, to make its fifth Sweet 16 over the last 12 years.
Junior guard Jared Butler (16.9 ppg, 4.8 assists), a Wade Trophy finalist and first-team All-American, leads a talented Baylor backcourt that includes Teague (16.1 ppg, 4.1 rebounds) and Davion Mitchell (14.1 ppg, 5.4 assists), a finalist for Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year.
"Similar to the guards that Villanova has had, guys that really work hard, they're team-oriented guys, they have a great chemistry and love for each other," Drew said. "They're trying to make plays for each other instead of trying to get theirs. Iron sharpens iron. Each day in practice, we get better because we compete against each other."
The Bears also have a deep bench and an effective inside rotation with 6-10 junior Flo Thamba and 6-9 sophomore Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua, who average a combined 10.0 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.
"Everybody gives us a lot of credit, but we shoot a high percentage at the rim because of those guys," Teague said. "Those guys do a tremendous amount of things that go unnoticed on the stat sheet. A person watching the game might say, these guards are really good, but actually our bigs make us really good as well. They carve out space for us in the lane."
The Baylor-Villanova winner advances to Monday's South region final against either third-seeded Arkansas (24-6) or 15th-seeded Oral Roberts (15-10), which is led by former Baylor assistant coach Paul Mills.
"We've got some young guys going up against some veteran studs," Wright said of Baylor's backcourt veterans. "It's not just their talent but their basketball IQ is outstanding. That's what happens when guys stay in college for a few years. They really learn the game. This is a really intelligent team as well as talented. But young guys like going up against the best, and they're going to get their shot."
Saturday's game will be broadcast by CBS, with Brian Anderson, Jim Jackson and Allie LaForce calling the action.
STORY LINES
• Baylor is playing in its 5th Sweet 16 since 2010 – 1 of 13 programs to achieve that feat.
• Baylor is 16-14 in 13 all-time NCAA Championships, including a 13-8 record in the Scott Drew era.
• Baylor is appearing in the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time in the last seven tournaments.
• With the win vs. Wisconsin, Baylor now has a 5-1 record in NCAA Tournament Second Round games.
• BU has won its first-round game in three straight NCAA Tournaments (2017, 2019, 2021).
• BU is appearing in the NCAA postseason for a school-record 9th consecutive season (7 NCAA, 2 NIT).
• Baylor's streak of 9 consecutive postseasons is tied as the nation's 7th-longest active streak.
• Baylor is making its 10th NCAA Tournament appearance in the modern tournament era. BU's first three NCAA Tournament appearances in 1946, 1948 and 1950 were in an eight-team, unseeded bracket.
• Baylor has played 13 of its 26 games (11-2) vs. nine different NCAA Tournament teams this season.
• Baylor won the Big 12 for the first time and claimed its first conference title since 1950.
• The conference title is the 6th in program history and the 4th outright title (1932, 1946, 1948, 2021).
• BU and Villanova are meeting for the 2nd time – the first was an 87-78 Baylor win on Nov. 24, 2019.
• Baylor is 11-1 against Big East teams during the Scott Drew era (7-0 neutral, 4-0 home, 0-1 road).
• Baylor is 36-21 in postseason tournaments (conference, national) over the last 13 seasons.
• Baylor is 7-2 vs. AP Top 25 teams this season, including 4-0 against AP Top 10 teams.
• BU leads the nation in 3-point percentage (.415) and is top-10 nationally in scoring margin (3rd, +18.0), scoring (4th, 83.8), effective FG% (3rd, 56.9), defensive turnover pct. (3rd, 24.7), offensive rebound pct. (6th, 36.7), turnover margin (3rd, +5.5), steals (8th, 9.1) and turnovers forced (9th, 17.5).
• BU has led by at least 10 points in 23 of 26 games this year (6 of 9 games since the pause).
• Baylor has led by at least 4 points in all 56 games over the last 2 seasons (double-digit leads in 47 of 56).
• Baylor's current .415 team 3FG% is the 7th-best mark by any team in the Big 12's 25-year history.
• Baylor is guaranteed to finish with its fewest losses since going 13-0 in 1911-12.
• Jared Butler (Bob Cousy PG Award), MaCio Teague (Jerry West SG Award) and Davion Mitchell (Naismith Defensive Player of the Year) are all national award finalists.
• Butler is AP Big 12 Player of the Year, Baylor's first conference POY since David Wesley (1992 SWC).
• Butler is the first unanimous 1st Team All-American in program history, while Mitchell (3rd Team Sporting News & AP) and Teague (3rd Team NCAA.com) also picked up All-America honors.
• Mitchell (coaches) and Mark Vital (The Athletic) earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year honors.
• For a second-straight year, BU has 60% of the Big 12 All-Defensive Team (Vital, Mitchell and Butler).
• Butler leads the Big 12 in 3-point percentage (.415) and steals (2.1), ranks 2nd in 3-pointers made (2.5/game), 3rd in assists (4.8), 3rd in scoring (16.9), 4th in FG% (.479) and 5th in ast-to ratio (1.62).
• Scott Drew earned AP and coaches' Big 12 Coach of the Year for a second-consecutive season.
• Five Baylor players are shooting at least 40% on 3FGs and averaging at least one 3FG made per game: Mitchell (46%), Butler (42%), Teague (40%), Mayer (42%) and Flagler (40%).
FIRST CONFERENCE TITLE IN 71 YEARS
• Baylor won its first conference championship in 71 seasons (1950 Southwest Conference).
• Baylor has won six league titles in programs history, four of them outright – 1932 (10-2), 1946 (11-1), 1948 (11-1), 1949 (9-3), 1950 (8-4) and 2021 (13-1). The 1949 and 1950 titles were co-championships.
• Baylor's best previous Big 12 finish was outright 2nd-place last season. BU also tied for 2nd in 2010 and 2017.
• Baylor's 15 Big 12 wins last season were the most ever by a team that didn't claim the Big 12 title.
QUICK HITS
• A win would give Baylor its 3rd Elite 8 Appearance in program history, all since 2010 (2010, 2012).
• Baylor has been top-5 ranked for 28-straight weeks. BU was top-5 for 12 weeks all-time prior to this streak.
• BU's streak of 36-straight AP pols ranked is the nation's 3rd-longest active streak and longest in BU history.
• Baylor joins Kansas as the only Power-5 schools to win 18+ games every year since 2008.
• Baylor is 50-6 since MaCio Teague and Davion Mitchell became eligible at the start of 2019-20.
• Mark Vital holds the BU record for career Big 12 wins at 45-22. The previous record was A.J. Walton's 39.
• Baylor became the first team since UNLV in 1990-91 to win its first 17 games by 8+ points.
• Baylor joins Duke, Gonzaga and Kansas as the only programs ranked No. 1 in 3 of the last 5 seasons.
• Head coach Scott Drew is in his 18th season in Waco and is BU's all-time wins leader (366-215).
• Baylor is 25-1 at home over the last 2 seasons, with the lone loss by 3 points to Kansas on 2/22/20.
• Baylor is 14-3 in Big 12 road games over the last 2 seasons (rest of league is 59-99 in B12 road games).
• Baylor's 18-game winning streak 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 won double-digit Big 12 games for the 8th time (2010, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021).
• Baylor is 72-5 when leading at halftime over the last 4 seasons (42-2 over last 2 seasons, 21-0 this season).
• Baylor has won 90% of its games when leading at the half since 2011-12 (190-21).
• BU is 50-4 when leading at any point in the 2nd half of a game over the last 2 seasons (138-23 last 6 seasons).
• Baylor has won 20+ games in 12 of the last 14 seasons after recording only three 20-win seasons in the previous 100 years of Baylor Basketball (1946, 1948, 1988).
• Baylor is 241-99 over the last 10 seasons, averaging 24 wins per season since 2011-12.
• Baylor's 241 wins since 2011-12 are second-most in the Big 12 behind only Kansas (284).
• Baylor is 332-146 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 (16 of last 17 seasons).
• Baylor is 1 of 10 teams nationally to appear in every postseason since 2012 (7 NCAAs, 2 NITs).
• Baylor has the nation's 10th-longest active streak with at least one 3-point FG made in 958 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
• Saturday is the second series meeting between Baylor and Villanova, all at neutral sites.
• Baylor won 87-78 in the only prior meeting in last season's Myrtle Beach Invitational title game on Nov. 24, 2019.
