BAYLOR BEARS (10-5, 0-3 Big 12) Location: Waco, Texas  Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF)	WEST VIRGINIA (10-5, 0-3) vs. rv/rv BAYLOR (10-5, 0-3) Jan. 11, 2022 • 6:00 p.m. CT Morgantown, W.V. • WVU Coliseum (14,000)  LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast WATCH: ESPN+ Talent: James Westling (pxp), King McClure (analyst) LISTEN: Learfield/ ESPN 1660 AM / 92.3 FM in Central Texas and on the Varsity Network App. Talent: John Morris (PBP), Pat Nunley (Analyst) SIRIUS XM: Sirius 83, XM 83, Internet 375 Baylor Social Media:
	WEST VIRGINIA (10-5, 0-3 Big 12) Location: Morgantown, W.V. Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Bob Huggins (WVU — 1977) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF)

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            While Jalen Bridges is going back to the place where he spent his first two years of college, this isn't the West Virginia basketball team that he left at the end of the 2021-22 season.
            Baylor's 6-7 junior forward will only see a handful of familiar faces when the Bears (10-5, 0-3) face the Mountaineers (10-5, 0-3) at 6 p.m. CST Wednesday at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, with both teams still looking for their first conference win.
            "I feel like they're closer to a Bob Huggins team," said Bridges, who made 52 starts over the previous two seasons, averaging 7.1 points and 4.2 rebounds. "We were more like four out, one in, and they're back to his offense, playing tough, hard-nosed basketball. It's as close as you can get to a Bob Huggins basketball team."
            A West Virginia native who led Fairmont High School to four-consecutive state championship games, Bridges said "it's a bit of an advantage" that he still knows "all the actions, all the calls out."
            "But they're going to put in new things," he said. "They know what I do, they know what I'm capable of, and it's just going to be a dogfight, obviously."
            After a school-record 65-straight weeks in the Associated Press Top 25, the Bears fell out of this week's rankings. They had a pair of heartbreaking losses at home last week, falling to TCU, 88-87, on a shot with 4.0 seconds left and then getting beat 97-95 in overtime by Kansas State and longtime Baylor assistant coach Jerome Tang.
            "First and foremost, in one- or two-possession games, anything can happen," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "(Kansas State's Nowell Markquis) can shoot it from half court, Nowell can throw in a lefthanded bank shot. . . . The moral of the story is, have a two- or three-possession advantage so you can win those games. If not, you're going to win some, you're going to lose some. Since we've lost two in a row, we need to change those odds."
            Baylor's transition defense was much better in the loss to K-State, Drew said, "but across the board, we've got to keep getting better – better defensively, better taking care of the ball."
            "The players have had the right mindset," Drew said. "They've wanted to be coached, they've wanted to get better, they've wanted to improve. Our coaching staff has a saying that we can't be married to ideas. Maybe this team is better with this or that, and we're trying to change things up and find out what works for this group."
            Bridges said he gave the team a perspective from the other side, saying "everybody looks at Baylor like a top dog, so everybody's going to come out with their best punch."
            "We've got to be ready and punch first," he said.
            Against the Mountaineers, Drew said arguably the biggest key will be the battle of the boards. West Virginia is traditionally one of the top rebounding teams in the country, while Baylor is second in the league with 12.5 offensive rebounds per game.
            "Rebounding, first and foremost," Drew said. "The second thing – because we're always going to go with the and-one – is we've got to take care of the ball. You turn it over on the road, transition defense isn't the way to get wins."
            A transfer-dominated team, West Virginia is led by seniors Erik Stevenson (14.0 ppg) from South Carolina, Tre Mitchell (13.4 ppg, 5.4 rebounds) from Texas and Emmitt Matthews Jr. (10.7 ppg), who transferred back to West Virginia after one season at Washington.
            "I don't know if it's harder (to scout)," Drew said, "but it's harder to play against, from the standpoint that you go into a scout, you'd much rather see an 18-year-old than a 23-year-old. And the physicality, the experience, that stuff translates."
            One of the few holdovers from last year's team, 6-3 senior guard Kedrian Johnson (9.1 ppg) missed Saturday's 76-62 loss to Kansas in concussion protocol.
            Drew expects Johnson to be back, but said, "him being out really hurts them because he's such a great on-ball defender. And now, they go from two great on-ball defenders to just one."
            Wednesday's game will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with James Westling and former Baylor standout King McClure calling the action.


STORY LINES

• Baylor travels to West Virginia for a Wednesday night showdown on ESPN+.

• The Bears and Mountaineers meet for the 23rd time, the 22nd as Big 12 rivals.

• BU leads the all-time series 14-8 with a 6-4 mark in Morgantown.

• The Bears carry a three-game series winning streak into this game, its fourth-different winning streak of 3+ games in series history.

• A win would match the longest winning streak in the series by either team (BU from Feb 2014-Mar. 2015).

• This will be the seventh meeting, and first since 2014, where both teams enter this game unranked.

• After a school record 65-straight weeks in the AP Top 25, BU will be playing it's first game as an unranked team since March 23, 2019. The streak lasted a total of 1,161 days.

• The Bears are looking to avoid the first 0-4 start to conference play since 2005-2006.

• Baylor's 42-11 Big 12 record over the last 3+ seasons is the 2nd best of any Power-5 team (Kansas).

• BU is 156-92 in Big 12 play in 13 seasons since 2010 after going 59-149 in the league's first 13 seasons.

• The Bears are the second-best offense in the Big 12 (14th best in the nation) according to Ken Pom (114.9 Adj. Efficiency rating), averaging 80.9 points per game. 

• BU has won 71-straight when shooting a higher percentage than its opponent (last loss March 2, 2019 at K-State).

• Baylor is 24-8 against AP top 25 teams over the last four seasons, the nation's best mark against ranked teams. 15 of those wins came against top 25 teams away from home.

• Adam Flagler and Keyonte George were named to the Wooden Award Mid-season Top-25. BU is one of three schools with multiple players on the list (Kansas and North Carolina).

• George Has six 20-point games this season, the most by a BU freshman since Perry Jones III (2010-2011).

• George's 16.8 points per game rank second among freshman in NCAA Division I.

• Baylor is 45-7 vs. unranked teams over the last three seasons.

• BU held NWST to 48 points and improved to 44-1 under Drew when holding an opponent under 50 points (12/20).

• The Bears spent a school record 54-straight weeks top-10 ranked in the AP Poll (12/19/19 -12/5/22).

• Flagler, George and L.J. Cryer are all in the top-12 in the Big 12 in points per game, one of three schools to have multiple players and the only one to have three in the top-12.

• George scored a game-high 19 points to lift BU to a win over Washington St., its seventh-straight win over a Pac-12 foe (12/18).

• BU held the nation's best offense in Gonzaga, to a season-low 63 points in a 64-63 win in the inaugural Peacock Classic (12/2).

• Cryer set career highs in points (28), field goals (10), rebounds (4) and minutes (35) against No. 8 UCLA (11/20).

• Cryer's 23.5 points per game in Las Vegas earned his first-career Big 12 Player of the Week Award.

• 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.

• Drew has a winning percentage of .700 (372-158) since BU's first year with no scholarship restrictions in 2007-08.