14/12 BAYLOR BEARS (18-6, 7-4 Big 12) Location: Waco, Texas  Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF)	17/19 TCU (17-7, 6-5) vs. 14/12 BAYLOR (18-6, 7-4) Feb. 11, 2023 • 3:00 p.m. CT Waco, Texas • The Ferrell Center (10,284)  LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast WATCH: ESPN2 Talent: Mark Neely (pxp), Fran Fraschilla (analyst) LISTEN: Learfield/ ESPN 1660 AM / 92.3 FM in Central Texas and on the Varsity Network App. Talent: John Morris (PBP), Pat Nunley SIRIUS XM: Sirius 84, XM 84, Internet 84 Baylor Social Media:
	17/19 TCU HORNED FROGS (17-7, 6-5 Big 12) 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
            Arguably the hottest team in the Big 12, the 14^th-ranked Baylor Bears (18-6, 7-4) go back on the road to face No. 17 TCU (17-7, 6-5) at 3 p.m. Saturday at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth.
            On the flip side, the Horned Frogs have dropped three of their last four after losing junior guard Mike Miles Jr. (18.1 ppg) with a hyperextended knee four minutes into a Big 12/SEC matchup at Mississippi State. His status for Saturday's game is still unclear.
            "First, no matter if Mike plays or not, they're a very talented team," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose team has won eight of its last nine after an 0-3 start in league play.
 "If you're a top-25 team, it's more than one player. (Damion) Baugh carries the load when Mike's not there. He's as fast as any player, 94 feet, in the Big 12, and does a tremendous job getting in transition. Emanuel Miller and Chuck O'Bannon, those guys have been there since TCU was founded. Eddie Lampkin is a junior, he's played a lot. It's a veteran crew."
            Baugh and Miller are both averaging 13.0 points per game, while 6-7 sophomore forward JaKobe Coles averages 8.3 points off the bench. Baylor and TCU are 1-2 in the league in offensive rebounds with 12.5 and 11.4 per game, respectively.
            "I think part of it is because they have a lot of size when you look at the 2 and 3 and even the 4 position," said Baylor senior forward Flo Thamba, who is averaging 5.3 points and 5.1 rebounds. "I guess they pride themselves on offensive rebounding, and we've tried to make huge strides on our own in defensive rebounding, too."
            In that 0-3 start, Baylor lost to the Horned Frogs, 88-87, on Jan. 4 at the Ferrell Center, when freshman Keyonte George missed a driving layup after O'Bannon hit a baseline jumper with four seconds left. George scored a then-career-high 27 points, while Miles led the Horned Frogs with 33 points.
            "Especially the last few seconds," said Drew, when asked if that game left a sour taste in his mouth. "There were a lot of things we did well and a lot of things we did poor. That's what's great about the Big 12 is you're going to play everyone twice. So, they're going to make adjustments, they're going to be better. We're going to make adjustments and hopefully be better. For us, it's a good chance to see how far we've come."
            Baylor has injury concerns of its own. Junior guard LJ Cryer (14.0 ppg) sat the second half of Tuesday's 82-72 win over Oklahoma with a lower-leg injury and will be a "game-time decision" on whether he plays Saturday.
            "Praying that he's fine and is able to go," Drew said of Cryer. "At the same time, it always takes a team to win, and you've got to have a next-man up mentality. Our guys did a great job in the second half against OU with him being out."
            The Bears got a huge lift in back-to-back home wins over Texas Tech and Oklahoma with the return of 6-8 senior forward Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua, who suffered a season-ending knee injury last February. He hit two 3-pointers and scored eight points in his first game action in 357 days and then knocked down a pair of late 3-pointers against the Sooners.
            "The real phenomenal thing about Jon is he's getting basically game reps in right now, which is really hard to do, especially when everyone's had a non-conference," Drew said. "What he's been able to give us is truly amazing too, because it's really hard to come in in the middle of conference and help a team after he hadn't played all year."
            Climbing into a four-way tie for second in the league with Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State, Baylor is just a game behind No. 5 Texas (19-5, 8-3). The Longhorns have one of the easier schedules remaining, but still has to go to Baylor on Feb. 25 in a game that is already a sellout.
            The Baylor-TCU game will be broadcast by ESPN2, with Mark Neely and Fran Fraschilla calling the action.
           

STORY LINES

• No. 14/12 Baylor heads to No. 17/19 TCU for a Saturday matinee, one game back of the Big 12 Conference lead.

• Saturday is the 192nd series meeting – BU leads 105-86, including a 43-43 mark in Fort Worth.

• BU is 16-5 against the Frogs as Big 12 rivals.

• This is the second-straight meeting with both teams ranked. It had never happened in the previous 190 meetings.

• TCU escaped Waco with an 88-87 victory in the last meeting, snapping BU's 3-game series win streak.

• Mike Miles scored a career-high 33 points, erasing a 17-point deficit to secure the win in Waco.

• Last time out Baylor beat Oklahoma 82-72 with Adam Flagler and Keyonte George both eclipsing the 20-point mark. It marked the sixth time this season BU had multiple players score 20 points.

• George recorded his 10th 20-point game, the most by a BU freshman since Lawrence Roberts (11) in 2001-02.

• George's 17.5 points per game rank second among freshman in Division I.

• George and Flagler were named to the Jerry West Top-10 and the Naismith Midseason team this week.

• The BU duo made the Bears one of two teams in the nation with multiple members on the Naismith Midseason Team.

• Flagler leads the Big 12 (11th in the nation) in assist-turnover ratio (3.03).

• With a win over Oklahoma Flo Thamba tied Matthew Mayer for the most Big 12 wins in program history (52).

• With one more game played, Thamba will join A.J. Walton and Rico Gathers for the most games played in program history (141).

• Against Tech, BU shot a season-high .583 from the field, its 41st-straight win when shooting 50% of higher.

• Baylor's 49-12 Big 12 record over the last four seasons is the best of any Power-5 team.

• At 24-7, BU has the best Big 12 road record over the last four seasons, and is one of just three teams with a .500+ road record in the conference during that span.

• BU is 161-93 in Big 12 play in 13 seasons since 2010 after going 59-149 in the league's first 13 seasons.

• The Bears are 25-9 vs. AP top-25 teams over the last four years, with 15 of those wins coming away from home.

• Baylor is 79-22 against in-state opponents since the start of the 2011-12 season, and the Bears have

advanced deeper into postseason play than any of Texas' 23 Division I teams in five of the last nine seasons.

• Baylor's seven quad-one wins are tied for the fourth-most in the nation (7-6).

• Baylor's starting guard trio of George, Flagler and LJ Cryer ranks as the second-highest scoring back court trio in the Power Six at 46.9 ppg. (NC State)

• After a one-week absence from the AP Top 25 in January, the Bears are back in the top 25 and have now been ranked in 69 of the last 70 AP Polls.

• All six of BU's losses have come against teams currently ranked in the top 17 of the AP poll, and in the top 24 of the latest NCAA Net rankings.

• The Bears are the best offense in the nation (best in the conference) according to Ken Pom (121.9 Adj. Efficiency rating), averaging 79.0 points per game. 

• BU has won 8+ Big 12 games in 11-straight seasons after winning 8+ just 3 times in the league's first 15 years.

• With a KenPom experience rating of 1.72, the Bears are the second-youngest team in the Big 12.