No. 9 MBB Hosts No. 8 Texas in a Top-10 Matinee Saturday
2/24/2023 10:59:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Bears enter with five-straight wins in Waco against Texas
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9/10 BAYLOR BEARS (20-8, 9-6 Big 12) Location: Waco, Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
8/8 Texas (22-6, 11-4) vs. 9/10 BAYLOR (20-8, 9-6) Feb. 25, 2023 • 1:00 p.m. CT Waco, Texas • The Ferrell Center (10,284) LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast WATCH: ESPN Talent: Dave O'Brien (pxp), Dick Vitale (analyst), Kris Budden (Sideline) LISTEN: Learfield/ ESPN 1660 AM / 92.3 FM in Central Texas and on the Varsity Network App. Talent: John Morris (PBP), Pat Nunley ESPN Radio: Pat O'Keefe (pxp), Bob Valvano (analyst) SIRIUS XM: Sirius 84, XM 84, Internet 84 Baylor Social Media:    |
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8/8 TEXAS LONGHORNS (22-6, 11-4 Big 12) Location: Austin, Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Rodney Terry (St. Edwards — 1990) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
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By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
There's no place like home to break a two-game losing streak.
After an 0-2 trip to the Sunflower State that derailed the ninth-ranked Baylor men's Big 12 title hopes, the Bears (20-8, 9-6) are back at home to host No. 8 Texas (22-6, 11-4) at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Ferrell Center in a featured ESPN top-10 matchup.
"The thing that helps the most is playing at home in front of your home crowd," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose team gave up halftime leads in losses at No. 3 Kansas and 14th-ranked Kansas State. "Hopefully (Saturday) we have a great turnout, and we play well and give our crowd a lot of opportunity to interject and motivate and affect the game."
Baylor has won its last six home games and is 13-2 this year at the Ferrell Center, with the only two losses coming back-to-back against TCU and K-State in the Bears' 0-3 start in league play.
The defensive struggles continued on the road swing through Kansas, with Baylor giving up 55 second-half points at Kansas and 44 in Tuesday's 75-66 loss at K-State. Drew said the Bears used four different defenses to try to stop the Wildcats' duo of Keyontae Johnson and Markquis Nowell.
"We haven't been great defensively," Drew said. "And sometimes, if you don't have a good fastball, you try a curve, knuckle, slider, whatever, to keep people off-balanced. Most teams in this league have two or three defenses they're going to use during the course of a game for a possession or after a timeout. . . . Defense is so much heart, desire, effort, energy, passion. And you feed off the crowd, too."
Not surprisingly, defense has been the focus in practice over the last few days, getting ready for a Texas team that has won two-straight and five of its last seven to move into a first-place tie with Kansas (23-5, 11-4).
After installing a new defense the day before the Kansas State game, "we were just tightening a couple of things up," junior guard LJ Cryer (14.9 ppg) said.
"Anybody who had confusion, we addressed it over the past few practices, so hopefully it looks a little bit cleaner" said Cryer, who has averaged 20 points per game in the last four outings. "Just a lot of communication and a lot of reps. The more we rep it, the more comfortable guys are going to be when we switch up the defenses. And it becomes second nature where you're supposed to be at on the floor."
In Baylor's first trip to the new Moody Center in Austin, the Longhorns pulled out a 76-71 win behind a 21-point performance off the bench from New Mexico State transfer Sir'Jabari Rice (12.1 ppg).
Freshman Keyonte George (16.9 ppg, 4.5 rebounds) scored five of his 17 points late, including a three-point play with 50.7 seconds left that made it a one-point game, but fifth-year senior guard Marcus Carr knocked down a tough pull-up jumper over Cryer in a closing 4-0 run.
"They've got a lot of experience, talented players who have been in college four, five, six years," Drew said of Texas. "Guys that have played in big games before. They're not rattled by big moments. Probably the biggest trend in college basketball is whoever has the oldest, most experienced team is probably having the best years. We've all kind of learned that with COVID now."
Baylor will have some much-needed experience on the floor that missed the first meeting with Texas. Coming off his first double-double of the year with 11 points and 12 rebounds, 6-8 senior forward Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua (6.0 ppg, 6.0 rebounds) will play his first game against the Longhorns since suffering a traumatic knee injury in last year's game at the Ferrell Center.
"I feel like in the Big 12, everybody knows everybody," Tchamwa Tchatchoua said. "Even though I didn't play the whole season last year, we know them, they know us. We know their plays, they know ours. It's all about who's going to play harder, who's going to execute better, who's going to make sure you run whatever you're running better. And then defensively, getting back in transition is really what it's going to be about."
Saturday's game is a national ESPN broadcast, with Dave O'Brien, legendary analyst Dick Vitale and sideline reporter Kris Budden calling the action. Pat O'Keefe and Bob Valvano are on the national ESPN radio call.
"Losing two in a row, we want to get that taste out of our moths," Drew said. "There's nothing better than getting a home win to change that. At the same time, I know Texas – as well as every other team in the Big 12 – doesn't like to lose, either. That's why we're all so good."
STORY LINES
• No. 9 Baylor puts its six-game home win streak on the line against No. 8 Texas in a Saturday matinee on ESPN.
• Saturday is the 261st series meeting – the most-played rivalry in Baylor history dating back 107 years.
• BU is 12-2 in its last 14 games vs. Texas since Feb. 20, 2016 (5-0 in Waco, 6-2 in Austin, 1-0 in KC).
• The Bears have won six of the last seven meetings in Waco with the last loss coming Feb. 1, 2016.
• Baylor is 22-9 vs. Texas since snapping a 24-game series losing streak at the 2009 Big 12 Championship.
• This is the fourth-straight meeting where both programs are ranked, the longest such streak in series history.
• BU has won six of the last seven series meetings when Texas was ranked.
• Baylor is 80-22 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.
• The Bears are aiming to avoid a series sweep at the hands of the Longhorns for the first time since 2014.
• In the last meeting in Waco, No. 3 BU won 80-63 against No. 20 Texas. In that game, all five BU starters scored in double-figures but the Bears lost Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua to a season-ending knee injury.
• BU is coming off an 75-65 loss to Kansas State where the Wildcats shot 58% in the second half.
• Against KSU, Tchamwa Tchatchoua recorded his first double-double in 392 days with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
• Keyonte George had a game-high 23 points against the Cats, setting a new program record for the most 20-point games by a freshman (12).
• George's 16.9 points per game rank third among freshman in Division I.
• Baylor's eight quad-one victories are the third most in the Big 12 and fourth most in the country.
• Baylor is 12-3 against top-10 ranked teams over the last 3 years, beating Nos. 5, 9, 6, 6, 10, 6, 1, 6, 8, 5, 8 an 9.
• Drew has won 20+ games in 14 of the last 16 years — the Bears had 3 seasons of 20+ wins prior to his arrival.
• BU has won 8+ Big 12 games in 12-straight seasons after winning 8+ just 3 times in the league's first 15 years.
• Baylor has double-digit Big 12 wins in 7 of the last 8 years and 9 of the last 13 seasons. BU didn't reach double-digit Big 12 wins in any of its first 13 years in the league.
• BU has won 75-straight when shooting a higher percentage than its opponent (last loss March 2, 2019 at K-State).
• The Bears are a nations-best 26-11 vs. AP top-25 teams over the last four years, with 16 of those wins coming away from home.
• At 25-9, 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.
• Baylor's 52-14 Big 12 record over the last four seasons is the best of any Power-5 team.
• BU is 163-95 in Big 12 play in 13 seasons since 2010 after going 59-149 in the league's first 13 seasons.
•Against TCU, BU trailed by 10 with 8:44 to play, overcoming a 10-point deficit 2nd-half deficit on the road for the first time in over three years (1/18/20, at OSU).
• Adam Flagler scored 16-straight second-half points against the Frogs to lift BU to its fourth Big 12 road win of the season (T-most in the conference).
• Flagler is second in the Big 12 (17th in the nation) in assist-turnover ratio (2.89).
