Baylor
McNeese State
No. 7 MBB Readies to Host McNeese in Wednesday Matinee
11/22/2022 12:47:00 PM | Men's Basketball
BU to Celebrate Scott Drew's 400th win prior to the game
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BAYLOR BEARS (4-1) Location: Waco, Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
McNEESE (2-3) vs. 7/7 BAYLOR (2-0) November 23, 2022 • 3:00 p.m. CT Waco, Texas • The Ferrell Center (10,284) LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast WATCH: ESPN+ Talent: John Morris (pxp), King McClure (analyst) LISTEN: Learfield/ ESPN 1660 AM / 92.3 FM in Central Texas and on the Varsity Network App. Talent: Dave Rosselli (PBP), Pat Nunley (Analyst) SIRIUS XM: Sirius 199, XM 199, Internet 953 Baylor Social Media:    |
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MCNEESE COWBOYS (2-3) Location: Lake Charles, La. Conference/Affiliation: Southland Head Coach: John Aiken (Southern Maine, 2008) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
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By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear insider
Whether it's a rough 10-minute stretch in a loss to Virginia or Baylor's 11th win its last 12 matchups with top-10 teams, coach Scott Drew sees every game as a "teachable moment."
Coming off a Las Vegas split that included Sunday's 80-75 win over then-No. 8 UCLA, the seventh-ranked Bears (4-1) will host the McNeese Cowboys (2-3) at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Ferrell Center.
"There's a lot of good and a lot of bad early in the year," Drew said. "It's how you process and improve on it. This team, so far this year, every area where we found a concern (we've addressed it). Early on, it was rebounding, and the guys addressed it. Defensively, in the last game we were a lot better on the ball and more active and a lot less blow-bys. Hopefully, we can continue to improve on those areas."
In an 86-79 first-round loss to eventual tournament champion Virginia, the issue was not playing the full 40 minutes. The Bears were outscored 30-5 in the first 10 minutes of the second half and were never able to get it all back.
"In those 10 minutes, five minutes or however much it was, it was crucial," said 6-10 senior forward Flo Thamba, "because as much as you can try and fight back, it's still too much to come back from. But, from the locker room side of things, obviously guys are disappointed. But just being a leader, I had to kind of uplift them and tell them we have a lot of games left, and we've got to look forward to those."
While highly touted freshman Keyonte George struggled against UCLA, turning it over four times and shooting 0-for-6 from 3-point range, veteran guards LJ Cryer and Adam Flagler seemed to have settled into their roles as the Bears' most consistent scoring threats.
Named the Big 12 Player of the Week, Cryer scored a career-high 28 points in the win over UCLA after getting 19 points and four assists in the opening-round loss to Virginia. For the two-game Vegas swing, he was 18-of-30 from the floor, 7-of-13 from 3-point range and remained spotless from the free throw line (8-for-8).
"LJ has worked really hard on his game," Drew said. "Obviously, it was hard last year with the injuries he battled. But really excited for him and the growth that he's shown. He's not just (a 3-point shooter), he's getting to the cup and his float game, but he's also rebounding and defending better than he's done. And that's equally important, if not more important, to winning."
The Bears have quality depth at every position, with 6-10 freshman Josh Ojianwuna (5.8 ppg, 4.4 rebounds) rotating with Thamba; BYU transfer Caleb Lohner (7.2 ppg, 5.8 rebounds) spelling a struggling Jalen Bridges at the other forward; and Dale Bonner and Langston Love providing a punch off the bench.
Lohner had nine first-half points against UCLA, while Bonner hit a 3-pointer and was 6-for-7 from the free throw line.
"You're going to have injuries, you're going to have illness, guys are going to have off nights," Drew said. "How you win is to have guys who can pick up and make up when guys aren't playing as well. The one thing you can't control is whether the ball goes in or not. What we can control is the shots we can get, when we take them, how we take them and what we take. But, when they're off, it's great to have that depth and balance, and someone is on that night."
Interestingly enough, McNeese's five starters are from five different states. Forwards Christian Shumate (12.8 ppg, 10.6 rebounds) and Malachi Rhodes are from Chicago, Ill., and Atlanta, Ga., respectively, while guards Tre English (10.6 ppg), Zach Scott (8.6 ppg) and Johnathan Massie (10.2 ppg) hail from Maryland, Florida and Texas.
McNeese has had wins against against Champion Christian and Lamar sandwiched around losses to Tulane, Western Carolina and Lindenwood.
"I feel like (the college game) is more physical," Ojianwuna said. "Playing in high school, I didn't go up against big guys who looked like Flo and. I needed to actually put in a lot of work not only on the court but get stronger in the weight room with Charlie (Melton)."
Story Lines
• No. 7/7 Baylor returns home to host the McNeese State Cowboys at the Ferrell Center in the first meeting between the two schools since Nov. 14, 2014.
• Fresh off a win against No. 8 UCLA in the Continental Tire Main Event (11/20), BU is now 11-1 in its last 12 games against AP Top-10 teams.
• LJ Cryer set career highs in points (28), field goals (10), rebounds (4) and minutes (35) against UCLA (11/20).
• Cryer's 23.5 points per game in Las Vegas earned his first-career Big 12 Player of the Week Award.
• Baylor is 23-7 against AP top 25 teams over the last four seasons, including a14-5 mark against top 25 teams away from home.
• Baylor has had at least one player score 20+ points in seven-straight games.
• Adam Flagler has three 20-point games in that stretch, followed by Cryer (2), Keyonte George (2) and Jalen Bridges (1).
• With a 95-62 win over Northern Colorado (11/14), Scott Drew became one of 10 active coaches with 400 wins at his current institution.
• BU will celebrate Drew's 400th win at Baylor with a pregame ceremony on Wednesday against McNeese.
• Drew has a winning percentage of .700 (366-154) since BU's first year with no scholarship restrictions in 2007-08.
• In his 20th season at BU, Drew is coming off Big 12 Coach of the Year honors for a 3rd-straight season, joining Gene Keady (Purdue, 94-96) and Jay Wright (Villanova, 14-16) as the only high-major coaches to accomplish the feat.
• Baylor is 75-4 in its last 79 non-conference home games dating back to Dec. 12, 2012.
• Baylor is 140-16 in non-conference home games in the Drew era, including 112-8 since 2007-08.
• Baylor is 56-8 in home games against unranked opponents (including Big 12 play) since 2016-17.
• Baylor is 41-4 vs. unranked teams over the last three seasons.
• With a 117-53 win in the season opener against Mississippi Valley State (11/7), BU notched the third-largest margin of victory in program history, and 117 points were 1 shy of a Ferrell Center record.
• In an 87-70 win over Norfolk State, BU shot 38 three-pointers, the second-most in the Scott Drew era and the fifth-most in school history.
• Flagler notched his third-career double double to lift BU to a 95-62 win over UNC, to improve to 3-0 (11/14).
• Baylor has been in the Preseason AP Top 25 in 10 of 13 seasons since its first preseason ranking in 2010-11.
• The Bears are 60-10 over the last three seasons, the nation's best record by a Power-5 team.
• Baylor is 85-14 over the last four seasons, the nation's best winning percentage among Power-5 teams.
• BU won a school-record 26 regular-season games and finished with its 2nd-most conference wins (14) last season.
• Baylor is playing its 625th game of the 20-year Drew era – more than half (316) have been as a ranked team, a remarkable feat considering BU was unranked for the first 122 games of Drew's rebuild.
•BU was ranked in two of 2,197 games over the program's 97 seasons prior to Drew. Since January 2010, BU has been ranked in 301 of 438 games.
Click here for Big 12 Game Notes.
