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#7/8 BAYLOR BEARS (21-5, 9-4)
Location: Waco, Texas
Conference/Affiliation: Big 12
Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993)
Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
NR/RV TCU (16-7, 5-6) vs. #7/8 BAYLOR (21-5, 9-4)
Feb. 19, 2022 • 11:00 a.m. CT
Waco, Texas • Ferrell Center (10,248)
LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast
WATCH: ESPN
Talent: Chuckie Kempf (pxp), Tim Welsh (analyst)
LISTEN: Learfield / 1660 AM & 92.3 FM in Central Texas
Talent: John Morris (PBP), Pat Nunley (Analyst)
SIRIUS XM: Sirius 83, XM, 83, Internet 83
Baylor Social Media:    |
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NR/RV TCU HORNED FROGS (16-7, 5-6)
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Conference/Affiliation: Big 12
Head Coach: Jamie Dixon
(TCU, 1987)
Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
These days, Scott Drew has to laugh to keep from crying.
After losing junior forward Jonathan Tchatchoua to a season-ending knee injury last Saturday, the seventh-ranked Baylor Bears (21-5, 9-4) struggled in the second half of an 83-73 loss on the road at No. 1 Texas Tech.
The next day, walk-on senior guard Mitchell Paul had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance after dislocating his ankle playing one-on-one basketball with one of the graduate assistants. If you're keeping count, that's seven players off the 15-man roster that have gone through injuries.
"Langston Love said we need to have a séance or something," Drew said of the 6-5 freshman guard who suffered an ACL injury before the season.
"The good thing is, the last time we played TCU was the last time we had a full team," Drew said of the Bears' 76-64 win over the Horned Frogs on Jan. 8. "Our guys are used to having different people step in and play different positions. Hopefully, that helps, because we've had a lot of change in the last couple weeks."
Other than Love, who's been out all season, Baylor had its full complement of players when they played the Horned Frogs (16-7, 5-6) 42 days ago.
In the 10 games since then, the Bears have been without senior point guard James Akinjo (13.3 ppg, 5.7 assists), junior guard Adam Flagler (13.0 ppg), sophomore guard LJ Cryer (13.5 ppg) and freshman forward Jeremy Sochan (8.1 ppg, 6.2 rebounds) at different times.
Tied for second in the Big 12 with Texas Tech, and 1 ½ games behind sixth-ranked Kansas (21-4, 10-2), Baylor will host TCU at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Ferrell Center.
"I think we trust all our guys," said 6-9 senior guard/forward Matthew Mayer (9.4 ppg, 4.6 rebounds), "and everybody tries to step up when they get on the court. We're going to play hard and do what we've got to do."
Even without Tchamwa Tchatchoua, the Bears were back to an eight-man rotation for Wednesday's game in Lubbock, when Cryer hit two 3-pointers and played 15 minutes after missing the previous five games with a foot injury.
"Honestly, it's after you finish a game, analyzing how he feels that day, the next day. Can you do more? Do you have to do less? Is he not able to go?" Drew said of Cryer, who was on a minutes' restriction in the game at Tech. "I'll find out in 10 minutes if he can practice. That's how I think it will be from here, maybe the rest of the year."
Akinjo (18), Flagler (14) and Mayer (13) scored in double figures in the loss to Tech, with Sochan just missing a double-double with eight points and 10 rebounds.
With what he says is "almost a new team," Drew said it will take time to adjust to not having Tchamwa Tchatchoua on the floor. Senior forward Flo Thamba is playing more minutes, and Sochan is playing the "5" in smaller lineups.
"I think it's very similar to, when you have a different running back or quarterback or a key player out, you have to adjust a little bit what you do," Drew said. "If Jeremy plays the 5, he provides a lot of different opportunities, skill set-wise, because he's basically a big guard out there."
After getting beat on the boards by the Red Raiders (41-30) and giving up 21 second-chance points, Baylor faces a TCU team that is first in the conference and seventh nationally in offensive rebounds (13.7 per game) and 13th in the country in total rebounds (40.4). Eddie Lampkin, a 6-11 freshman, is averaging 6.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
"A lot of size, strength, athleticism," Drew said. "They have a top-5 offensive rebounder in the country in the big fella, Eddie. At the end of the day, we've been one of the best rebounding teams in the country. And with Jon being out now, he was the 31st-best defensive rebounder in the nation, everybody's got to pick it up and has got to do a better job."
Saturday's game will be broadcast by ESPN2, with Chuckie Kempf and Tim Welsh calling the action.
STORY LINES
• No. 7 Baylor returns home looking to finish a season-sweep of TCU at 11 a.m. CT Saturday on ESPN2.
• Saturday is the 190th series meeting – BU leads 104-85, including a 56-39 mark in Waco.
• Baylor is 15-4 against TCU as Big 12 rivals. The Bears won the first 11 Big 12 series meetings.
• BU is 7-1 against TCU in Waco as Big 12 rivals, with an average scoring margin of +17.8. All seven of Baylor's home wins against TCU have been by 11+ points, with the lone loss in overtime in 2018.
• Baylor won 76-64 when the teams met in Fort Worth on Jan. 8. TCU led 44-36 with 18 minutes left, but Baylor went on a 17-0 run over the next 5 minutes and kept the lead for the final 16 minutes.
• BU shot 53% from the field, including 47% on 3FGs, led by Adam Flagler (22) and James Akinjo (20).
• Baylor shot 61% in the 2nd half (17-of-28), including 67% from 3-point range (8-of-12).
• Jeremy Sochan suffered an ankle sprain in the first half of that game and missed the next 4 games.
• Baylor is No. 6 in the NET rankings and leads the nation with 9 Quad 1 wins (9-4).
• Six of Baylor's rotation players have dealt with injuries this season – Langston Love and Tchamwa Tchatchoua are out for the year, while Akinjo, Flagler, Sochan and Cryer have all missed time.
• BU is 35-2 vs. unranked teams over the last 2 seasons (+21.4 avg margin) with all wins by 4+ points.
• BU is 23-2 in home games over the last 2 seasons, with an average scoring margin of +23.7.
• Baylor is 37-3 at home over the last 3 seasons, with two losses by 3 points against ranked teams.
• BU needs a win to reach double-digit Big 12 wins for the 7th time in the last 8 seasons. BU had two seasons with double-digit Big 12 wins in the league's previous 18 seasons (2010 & 2012).
• There were 8 seasons with 10+ conference wins in the first 103 years of Baylor Basketball (1907-2009) before BU reached that mark in 8 of the last 12 years (2010, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021).
• Baylor has reached the 20-win milestone for a 13th time in the last 15 seasons. Prior to that, BU recorded only three 20-win seasons in the first 100 years of Baylor Basketball (1946, 1948, 1988).
• BU is playing its 304th 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 289 of 426 games.
• Baylor's 37-8 Big 12 Conference record over the last 3 seasons is the best of any Power-5 team.
• Baylor's 49-7 record over the last 2 seasons is the nation's best among Power-5 teams, and the Bears' 75-11 record over the last 3 seasons is 2nd-best nationally, trailing only Gonzaga (83-5).
• BU is 17-0 this season when winning points in the paint and 15-1 when committing fewer turnovers.
• Baylor is the only High Major team ranked top-50 in scoring offense (41st) and scoring defense (30th).
• Baylor ranks top-25 nationally in scoring margin (7th, +14.7), steals (12th, 9.3), assists (19th, 16.4), offensive rebounds (13th, 13.2), turnovers forced (18th, 16.6) and turnover margin (25th, +3.5).
• BU ranks 4th nationally in KenPom's offensive rebound pct (37.6), its 8th-straight year ranked top-10.
• Over the last 3 seasons, Baylor is 62-4 when leading at the half and 75-6 when taking a 2nd-half lead.
• BU has forced 10+ turnovers in 34-straight games, including 12+ TOs in 24 of 26 games this season.
• Baylor is on a school-record streak of 44-straight weeks top-10 ranked (top-5 ranked in 38 of those).
QUICK HITS
• Baylor has been ranked in all 10 spots in the AP Top 10 within the last 11 months (16 total weekly polls).
• Baylor has been ranked in all 25 spots in the AP Top 25 at some point in the last 7 years.
• Baylor has been No. 1 ranked in 4 of the last 6 seasons (Gonzaga, Duke and Kansas are only others).
• Baylor and Kansas are the only Power-5 schools to win 18+ games every year since 2008.
• Baylor has built leads of 10+ points in 28 of 32 games since the start of the 2021 NCAA Tournament (26-5 record).
• BU has built double-digit leads in 73 of 86 games over the last 3 seasons (49 of 56 last 2 seasons).
• Head coach Scott Drew is in his 19th season at Baylor with a school-record 391 career victories, including a 17-8 mark in NCAA Tournaments, which is the 7th-best mark among active coaches.
• Drew has swept AP and coaches' Big 12 Coach of the Year honors each of the last two seasons.
• 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.
• Baylor's streak of 9 consecutive postseasons is tied as the nation's 7th-longest active streak.
• Baylor is 92-7 when leading at halftime over the last 5 seasons (62-4 over last 3 seasons, 24-0 last season).
• Baylor has won 90% of its games when leading at the half since 2011-12 (210-23).
• BU is 75-6 when leading at any point in the 2nd half of a game over the last 3 seasons.
• Baylor is 266-104 over the last 11 seasons, averaging 24.5 wins per season since 2011-12.
• Baylor's 266 wins since 2011-12 are second-most in the Big 12 behind only Kansas (306).
• Baylor is 357-151 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 988 straight games — the last time Baylor failed to make a 3-pointer was nearly 32 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 112-consecutive games (last wire-to-wire loss Dec. 1, 2018 at Wichita State).
• BU has won 60-straight when shooting a higher percentage than its opponent (last loss March 2, 2019 at K-State).
• Baylor has won 20-straight games when winning points in the paint (last loss March 12, 2021 vs. Oklahoma St.).
• Baylor has won 36-straight games when shooting 50% or higher (last loss March 18, 2018 vs. Mississippi State).
• Baylor has won 36-straight games when scoring 80+ points (last loss Jan. 5, 2019 vs. TCU).
• Baylor has had at least 3 players make 3-pointers in 29-consecutive games (last on March 27, 2021 vs. Villanova).
• Baylor has made 3 or more 3-pointers in 115-consecutive games (last on Nov. 23, 2018 vs. Ole Miss).
• 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 full version of Baylor's game notes, click here.
