#3/4 BAYLOR BEARS (25-5, 13-4) Location: Waco, Texas  Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF)	nr/rv IOWA STATE (20-10, 7-10) vs. #3/4 BAYLOR (25-5, 13-4) March 5, 2022 • 5:00 p.m. CT Waco, Texas • Ferrell Center (10,248)  LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast WATCH: ESPN2 Talent: Rich Hollenberg (pxp), Chris Spatola (analyst) LISTEN: Learfield / 1660 AM & 92.3 FM in Central Texas Talent: John Morris (pxp), Pat Nunley (Analyst) SIRIUS XM: Sirius 83, XM, 83, Internet 83 Baylor Social Media:
	nr/rv IOWA STATE CYCLONES (20-10, 7-10) Location: Ames, Iowa Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: T.J. Otzelberger (Wisc.-Whitewater, 2001) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF)

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider 
            Baylor coach Scott Drew would like nothing better than to send out Flo Thamba, Matthew Mayer and James Akinjo with a Senior Day to remember, cutting down the nets for a second-straight Big 12 regular-season championship. 
            To do that, though, the third-ranked Bears (25-5, 13-4) have to beat Iowa State (20-10, 7-10) in Saturday's 5 p.m. regular-season finale at the Ferrell Center. Baylor also has a chance to win it outright if sixth-ranked Kansas (24-6, 13-4) loses to No. 21 Texas (21-9, 10-7) in a game that will end right before the BU-Iowa State game tips off. 
            "The guys know what's at stake," said Drew, whose team has won four-straight and six of its last seven games. "The more you dwell on that, the less you're doing to really take care of business . . . controlling what we can control. If you focus on the party, you don't get there. 
            "We're going to focus on what we need to do to be successful on each and every play and putting guys in the best position to be successful. If you do that long enough, the celebrations take care of themselves."
            Although they have the option to return because of the COVID year granted by the NCAA, this could be the final home game for fourth-year seniors Thamba and Mayer, who were key parts of last year's Big 12 and national championship team. 
            "It would be great, for me and my buddy Matt, to celebrate," said the 6-10 Thamba, who has averaged 11.2 points and 8.3 rebounds in the last six games since junior Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first half of an 80-63 win over Texas. "When me and Matt came in, we could have never imagined talking about when are careers are done at Baylor, we would have a national championship and (potentially two Big 12 titles). It's kind of surreal to come into a program that hadn't had that in a long time."
            Or ever. 
            Last year was the first national championship in Baylor history, the first Big 12 title in the 25-year history of the league and the first conference championship in 51 years. 
            "I'm super excited that we've battled back after some tough losses and put ourselves into this situation," said Mayer, who's averaging 9.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. "Hopefully, Kansas loses and we take care of this one and get the championship."
            When they came in as freshmen in a 2018 class that included All-American guard Jared Butler, a rookie with the Utah Jazz, "we were a little bit of outcasts," Thamba said. 
            "When you watch film, Flo is somebody that has gotten so much bigger, stronger, more mature," Drew said. "His game has improved each and every year. And he's someone that's worked extremely hard. He's represented us very well off the court. Unfortunately, his parents aren't going to get here in time for the game. But, I think they will be able to see him next week (at the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City), which will be really cool."
            Originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Thamba grew up in South Africa and also lived in England and France before emigrating to the U.S. in 2014, playing high school basketball at Mountain Mission School in Grundy, Va.
            While his parents won't arrive until next week, Flo's sister, Emma, is in town and will be there for Saturday's game. 
            "It's been tough, it's been some years," he said. "Me and my sister were talking last night, and the last time we saw each other was 10 years ago. That was a long time ago. It's definitely going to be good."
            After averaging less than five points per game and limited minutes his first two seasons, the 6-9 Mayer was one of the first players off the bench for last year's national championship team, averaging 8.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game. 
            "My freshman year, I came in shooting every shot the second I touched the ball," Mayer said. "It's kind of funny to everybody, but in high school I was too scared to shoot the ball. So, that was me trying to break out of my shell."
            Drew said Mayer has "physically really matured and gotten so much better on the defensive end and rebounding-wise."
            "And then offensively, he's so much more efficient, and somebody that's matured throughout the years," Drew said. "I know without him and Flo, we wouldn't have had the success we've had in the last four years."
            Akinjo, who spent his first three years at Georgetown and Arizona, is averaging 13.1 points and a Big 12-leading 5.8 assists per game. In Monday's 68-61 road win over Texas, he knocked down two 3-pointers and 5-of-6 from the line, sharing team-high scoring honors with Adam Flager at 19 points apiece. 
            "When you lose guards like Davion (Mitchell), Jared and MaCio (Teague), you have to have someone who can step in right away and help with that," Drew said, "that's an experienced player, a tough player, a winner. And James checks all those boxes. I think he's really learned a lot from our players and really wanted to be coached, wanted to improve. He had great coaches before . . . but credit him for continuing to improve and wanting to grow and get better."
            Iowa State, a top-10 team when Baylor opened conference play with a 77-72 win in Ames on Jan. 1, reeled off four-straight wins before a 53-36 home-court loss to Oklahoma State on Wednesday. Winless in the Big 12 and 2-22 last year, the Cyclones have already made an 18-game improvement under first-year head coach T.J. Otzelberger and are a No. 8 seed for the NCAA Tournament in Joe Lunardi's latest bracket projections. 
            "T.J.'s done a tremendous job with them; biggest turnaround in college basketball this year," Drew said. "They play extremely hard. He's brought in some talented players that have bought into his system, and the returning guys have done what he's asked."
            Saturday's game will be an ESPN2 broadcast, with Rich Hollenberg and Chris Spatola calling the action. 
 



STORY LINES

•No. 3 Baylor takes on Iowa State at 5 p.m. CT Saturday for Senior Night at the Ferrell Center.

•Baylor can clinch at least a share of their 2nd-straight conference title with a win. It would be the 7thconference title in program history (1932, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950, 2021, 2022).

•BU honors seniors James Akinjo, Matthew Mayer, Flo Thamba and Mitchell Paul in a pregame ceremony.

•Saturday is the 44th series meeting, and the home team is 30-8 in the series in campus-site games.

•Baylor is 13-3 against Iowa State since 2015 and 19-13 vs. ISU during the 19-year Scott Drew era.

•Baylor is 16-2 at home against Iowa State, with the only losses in 2000 and 2013.

•BU has won 8-straight home games against Iowa State, including 4 times against ranked ISU teams.

•Baylor has won each of the last two series meetings by a score of 77-72.

•No. 1 BU won a matchup of undefeated teams against No. 8 Iowa State on New Years Day in Ames.The Bears never trailed in the game and got 29 bench points (13-Cryer, 12-Sochan, 4-Tchatchoua).

• In the last meeting in Waco, BU played for the first time in 21 days (COVID pause). The Bears fell behind 32-15, cut the deficit to 37-32 at the half and took their first lead with 4:26 left.

•Baylor was No. 5 overall (top 2-seed) in the latest NCAA Top 16 bracket overall announced Feb. 19.

•Baylor is No. 4 in the NET rankings and leads the nation with 12 Quadrant 1 wins (12-4).

•With BU ranked No. 3 for Saturday's game, half (308) of 616 games under Scott Drew will have been asa ranked team, a remarkable feat considering BU was unranked for the first 122 games of Drew's tenure.

•Six of Baylor's rotation players have been injured this season – Tchamwa Tchatchoua and Langston Loveare out for the year, while Akinjo, Flagler, Sochan and Cryer have all missed multiple Big 12 games.

• BU is coming off a 68-61 win at No. 21 Texas on Monday and an 80-70 win over No. 5 Kansas on Saturday.

•Akinjo (15) and Flagler (16) combined to score 31 second-half points to overcome a 30-27 halftimedeficit. Akinjo led BU in points (19), rebounds (career-high 8), assists (7), steals (2) and minutes (38).

•Baylor is 22-6 against ranked teams over the last 3 seasons, including a 13-4 mark away from home.

•Baylor finished 7-2 in Big 12 road games this season, two games better than all other teams.

• Baylor is 21-5 in Big 12 road games over the last 3 seasons (rest of league is 83-151 in B12 road games).

•BU is 25-2 in home games over the last 2 seasons, with an average scoring margin of +22.7.

•Baylor is 39-3 at home over the last 3 seasons, with two losses by 3 points against ranked teams.

•Baylor has won 13+ conference games in 3-straight seasons after never doing so prior to 2019-20.

•Baylor's 41-8 Big 12 record over the last 3 seasons is the best of any Power-5 team.

•Baylor's 53-7 record over the last 2 seasons is the nation's best among Power-5 teams, and the Bears'79-11 record over the last 3 seasons is 2nd-best nationally, trailing only Gonzaga (86-7).

•Baylor has reached the 25-win milestone in each of the last 3 seasons and in 7 of the last 13 years.Prior to that, BU reached 25 wins just once in the program's first 103 years (25-5 in 1945-46).

•BU ranks 7th nationally in KenPom's offensive rebound pct (36.5), its 9th-straight year ranked top-10.

•BU is 18-0 this season when winning points in the paint and 17-1 when committing fewer turnovers.

SEEKING FIRST CONFERENCE TITLE IN 71 YEARS

• BU needs one more win to clinch its second-consecutive conference championship.

• Baylor won its first conference title in 71 years a season ago. It was the Bears' first since the 1950 SWC.

• Baylor has won six league titles in program history, the first five in the Southwest Conference – 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 Big 12 finish before 2021 was outright 2nd-place in 2020. BU also tied for 2nd in 2010 and 2017.

• Baylor's 15 Big 12 wins in 2020 were the most ever by a team that didn't claim the Big 12 title.

QUICK HITS

• Over the last 3 seasons, Baylor is 63-4 when leading at the half and 79-6 when taking a 2nd-half lead.

• Baylor is on a school-record streak of 46-straight weeks top-10 ranked (top-5 ranked in 39 of those).

• BU is on a school-record streak of 54-straight weeks ranked in the AP Top 25 (previous record was 25). It's the nation's 3rd-longest active streak behind Gonzaga (112) and Villanova (57).

• Baylor has been ranked in all 10 spots in the AP Top 10 within the last 11 months (18 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 31 of 36 games since the start of the 2021 NCAA Tournament (31-5 record).

• BU has built double-digit leads in 76 of 90 games over the last 3 seasons (52 of 60 last 2 seasons).

• Head coach Scott Drew is in his 19th season at Baylor with a school-record 395 career victories.

• 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 93-7 when leading at halftime over the last 5 seasons (63-4 over last 3 seasons, 24-0 last season).

• Baylor has won 90% of its games when leading at the half since 2011-12 (211-23).

• Baylor is 270-104 over the last 11 seasons, averaging 24.5 wins per season since 2011-12.

• Baylor's 270 wins since 2011-12 are second-most in the Big 12 behind only Kansas (309).

• Baylor is 361-151 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 992 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.

For a full version of Baylor's game notes, click here. For full version of Iowa State's game notes, click here.