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#8/8 BAYLOR BEARS (18-3, 6-2)
Location: Waco, Texas
Conference/Affiliation: Big 12
Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993)
Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
WEST VIRGINIA (13-7, 2-5) vs. #8/8 BAYLOR (18-3, 6-2)
Jan. 31, 2022 • 8:00 p.m. CT
Waco, Texas • Ferrell Center (10,248)
LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast
WATCH: ESPN
Talent: Jon Sciambi (pxp), Fran Fraschilla (analyst), Kris Budden (reporter)
LISTEN: Learfield / 1660 AM & 92.3 FM in Central Texas
Talent: John Morris (PBP), Pat Nunley (Analyst)
SIRIUS XM: Sirius 84, XM, 84, Internet 84
Baylor Social Media:    |
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WEST VIRGINIA MOUNTAINEERS (13-7, 2-5)
Location: Morgantown, WV.
Conference/Affiliation: Big 12
Head Coach: Bob Huggins
(West Virginia, 1977)
Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
For the second time in two weeks, eighth-ranked Baylor (18-3, 6-2) will play West Virginia (13-7, 2-5) trying to bounce back from a loss.
Last time, the Bears defeated the Mountaineers, 77-68, after back-to-back home losses to Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. After losing its first non-conference game in 813 days, falling 87-78 at Alabama, Baylor returns home to host West Virginia at 8 p.m. Monday at the Ferrell Center in a "Big Monday" broadcast on ESPN.
"I thought we were really focused and locked-in," Baylor coach Scott Drew said of that Jan. 18 game in Morgantown. "Matt (Mayer) and LJ (Cryer) really made a lot of shots, and the offense did a good job getting them those looks."
With senior point guard James Akinjo and freshman forward Jeremy Sochan both out with injuries, Cryer and Mayer combined to hit 10 3-pointers and scored a career-high 25 and 20 points, respectively, in Baylor's fifth win in the last six games of the series.
In what's been a revolving door, Cryer sat out the loss to Alabama after aggravating the right foot he broke prior to the season. The sophomore guard is Baylor's leading scorer at 13.9 points per game and has had five 20-point games this season.
"We've had so many people out, from James to Jeremy to now LJ," Drew said. "You need to develop a rhythm and a chemistry, and obviously it's hard plugging guys in. . . . It's been challenging, to say the least, and hopefully we can get to some kind of rhythm where we can know who's playing when, what we're doing and how they're doing it."
After missing two of the previous three games with a tailbone injury, Akinjo (12.9 ppg, 5.7 assists) returned to play 32 minutes in Saturday's Big 12/SEC Challenge at Alabama. He had eight points and seven assists, but also turned it over six times and missed nine of 13 shots.
Over the last 12 minutes, when the Bears overcame a 15-point deficit to pull within four, Akinjo made four of his last six shots and assisted on four other buckets.
"I thought he got into a much better rhythm and was much more aggressive, looked a lot more like himself," Drew said. "I thought the last 10 minutes, when we made that run, that was the James that we had seen before the injury. And hopefully, going forward, we can get everybody firing on all cylinders."
Sochan, who had missed four games with an ankle injury, had arguably his best game of the year with 17 points, eight rebounds and two steals against Alabama. For the season, the 6-9 freshman is averaging 8.3 points and 5.8 rebounds.
"I think with LJ, we missed his presence and his shot," Sochan said. "But, I think with the flow, my teammates trusted me, they found me. They gave it to me, and I was confident enough and was able to get points."
Including a 77-68 loss to Arkansas on Saturday, West Virginia has dropped five in a row and sits in ninth place in the Big 12 standings. Senior guards Taz Sherman and Sean McNeil lead the Mountaineers, averaging 18.3 and 13.3 points, respectively, and combined for 35 points in the first game against Baylor.
"Coach (Bob) Huggins is a Hall of Fame coach, so we've got to be ready to go and we've got to exactly what we did last time in terms of limiting some of their key guys from getting hot," Drew said. "Because when they do, it's hard to stop them."
The "Big Monday" game will be broadcast by ESPN, with Jon Sciambi, Fran Fraschilla and Kris Budden calling the action.
This is also the sixth Immortal Ten Game, which remembers the January 22 train-bus crash that killed 10 Baylor students in the travel party for a men's basketball game at Texas. Baylor players will wear the last names of the Immortal Ten on the backs of their jerseys, including Jack Castellaw, James Clyde "Abe" Kelley and William Winchester.
On June 22, 2007, a life-sized monument was erected on campus in the new Traditions Square to honor the Immortal Ten. Baylor is 4-1 in the previous Immortal Ten Games, including a 74-64 win over Texas on Jan. 17, 2017, which recognized the 90th anniversary of the tragedy.
STORY LINES
• No. 4 Baylor looks to bounce back from its first non-conference loss in 813 days when it hosts West Virginia for the 95th-anniversary Immortal Ten Game at 8 p.m. CT Monday on ESPN.
• Baylor is 13-8 all-time against West Virginia, including a 5-1 mark over the last 4 seasons (2-0 in Waco).
• BU is looking to sweep the home-and-home with WVU for a 4th time (2013, 2015, 2019).
• The Bears won 77-68 when facing WVU in Morgantown on Jan. 18. James Akinjo and Jeremy Sochan missed the game with injuries, but LJ Cryer (25) and Matthew Mayer (20) both scored career-highs.
• Baylor's 18-3 record is its lowest winning percentage through 21 games since 2018-19. BU was 20-1 in 2020 & 2021. The Bears are a combined 58-5 through their first 21 games over the last 3 seasons.
• BU is 33-2 vs. unranked teams over the last 2 seasons (+22.1 avg margin) with all wins by 5+ points.
• Baylor is coming off an 87-78 loss at Alabama on Saturday. BU's allowed 1.26 points-per-possession, its worst since March 14, 2019 vs. Iowa State (1.31 PPP), including 22-of-28 on 2-point field goals.
• BU looks to start 7-2 or better in Big 12 play for a 3rd-straight season (once in first 23 seasons – 2012).
• Jeremy Sochan had career-highs of 17 points and 32 minutes and added 8 rebounds at Alabama. The Bears also got a full game from James Akinjo (32 minutes) for the first time since his Jan. 11 injury.
• BU is playing its 299th game as a ranked team under Drew – BU was ranked in 2 of 2,197 games over the program's 97 seasons prior to Drew. Since January 2010, BU has been ranked in 284 of 421 games.
• Baylor has been No. 1 ranked in 4 of the last 6 seasons (Gonzaga, Duke and Kansas are only others).
• Baylor's 34-6 Big 12 conference record over the last 3 seasons is the best of any Power-5 team.
• Baylor's 46-5 record over the last 2 seasons is the nation's best among Power-5 teams, and the Bears' 72-9 record over the last 3 seasons is 2nd-best nationally, trailing only Gonzaga (79-5).
• BU is 15-0 this season when winning points off turnovers and 14-0 when winning points in the paint.
• Baylor is the nation's only team ranked top-40 in scoring offense (30th) and scoring defense (20th).
• Baylor ranks top-25 nationally in scoring margin (5th, +18.0), assists (11th, 17.2), steals (12th, 9.6), rebounding margin (21st, +7.2), turnovers forced (19th, 17.2), turnover margin (23rd, +4.0),
offensive rebound percentage (5th, 37.7) FG% (25th, .481) and effective FG% (18th, .552).
• Over the last 3 seasons, Baylor is 61-3 when leading at the half and 72-5 when taking a 2nd-half lead.
• BU has forced 10+ turnovers in 29-straight games, including 12+ TOs in 20 of 21 games this season.
• BU is 21-2 in home games over the last 2 seasons, with an average scoring margin of +24.8.
• Baylor is 35-3 at home over the last 3 seasons, with two losses by 3 points against ranked teams.
• Baylor is on a school-record streak of 41-straight weeks top-10 ranked (top-5 ranked in 38 of those).
• BU is on a school-record streak of 49-straight weeks ranked in the AP Top 25 (previous record was 25). It's the nation's 3rd-longest active streak behind Gonzaga (107) and Villanova (52).
• Baylor has been ranked in all 25 spots in the AP Top 25 at some point in the last 7 years.
• BU has defeated 3 currently top-25 ranked teams this season – No. 10 Michigan State (75-58 in Battle 4 Atlantis title game), No. 14 Villanova (57-36 in Waco) and No. 23 Iowa State (77-72 in Ames).
QUICK HITS
• Baylor has built leads of 11+ points in 25 of 27 games since the start of the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
• BU has built double-digit leads in 70 of 81 games over the last 3 seasons (46 of 51 last 2 seasons).
• Baylor is 4-0 in Big 12 road games this season, while the rest of the league is a combined 12-22.
• For a second-straight season, Baylor was one of the nation's final two undefeated teams.
• BU went 305 days between losses, the longest in program history (March 12, 2021 – Jan. 11, 2022).
• BU had a 36-game non-conference winning streak with 813 days between losses (Nov. 8, 2019 – Jan. 29, 2022).
• BU went 1,038 days without consecutive losses before dropping back-to-back games Jan. 11 and Jan. 15.
• Baylor became the first program to start consecutive seasons 15-0 since Syracuse in 2010-11 and 2011-12.
• Head coach Scott Drew is in his 19th season at Baylor with a school-record 388 career victories, including a 17-8 mark in NCAA Tournaments, which is the 7th-best mark among active coaches.
• BU ranks 5th nationally in KenPom's offensive rebound pct (37.7), its 8th-straight year ranked top-10.
• Baylor and Kansas are the only Power-5 schools to win 18+ games every year since 2008.
• Baylor's streak of 9 consecutive postseasons is tied as the nation's 7th-longest active streak.
• 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 91-6 when leading at halftime over the last 5 seasons (61-3 over last 3 seasons, 24-0 last season).
• Baylor has won 90% of its games when leading at the half since 2011-12 (208-22).
• BU is 72-5 when leading at any point in the 2nd half of a game over the last 3 seasons.
• Baylor is 263-102 over the last 10+ seasons, averaging 24.5 wins per season since 2011-12.
• Baylor's 263 wins since 2011-12 are second-most in the Big 12 behind only Kansas (302).
• Baylor is 354-149 since 2007-08, the first year Drew's staff had a full allotment of scholarships.
• Five of Baylor's players have used or are currently using a redshirt year. Two after transferring to BU (Flagler, Tchamwa Tchatchoua), one before transferring (Bonner) and two as freshmen — Turner and Langston Love.
• 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 9th-longest active streak with at least one 3-point FG made in 983 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).
• Baylor has won 8 tournament titles under Drew – 2007 Paradise Jam, 2011 Las Vegas Classic, 2013 NIT, 2016 & 2021 Battle 4 Atlantis, 2017 Hall of Fame Classic, 2019 Myrtle Beach Invitational and 2021 NCAA Championship.
NOTABLE STREAKS
• Baylor has taken a lead in 107-consecutive games (last wire-to-wire loss Dec. 1, 2018 at Wichita State).
• BU has won 58-straight when shooting a higher percentage than its opponent (last loss March 2, 2019 at K-State).
• Baylor has won 35-straight games when shooting 50% or higher (last loss March 18, 2018 vs. Mississippi State).
• Baylor has won 34-straight games when scoring 80+ points (last loss Jan. 5, 2019 vs. TCU).
• Baylor has had at least 3 players make 3-pointers in 24-consecutive games (last on March 27, 2021 vs. Villanova).
• Baylor has made 3+ 3-pointers in 110-consecutive games (last on Nov. 23, 2018 vs. Ole Miss).
• Baylor has won 9-consecutive games against AP Top-10 ranked opponents (last loss Feb. 22, 2020 vs. Kansas).
• Baylor has won 9-consecutive neutral-site games – (last loss Nov. 8, 2019 vs. Washington in Alaska).
• Baylor has won 21-consecutive non-conference home games (last loss Dec. 18, 2018 vs. SFA).
For the full version of Baylor's game notes, click here. For the full version of West Virginia's game notes, click here.
