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14/12 BAYLOR BEARS (17-6, 6-4 Big 12)
Location: Waco, Texas
Conference/Affiliation: Big 12
Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993)
Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
OKLAHOMA (12-11, 2-8) vs. 14/12 BAYLOR (17-6, 6-4)
Feb. 8, 2023 • 8:00 p.m. CT
Waco, Texas • The Ferrell Center (10,284)
LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast
WATCH: ESPNU
Talent: Mark Neely (pxp), Lance Blanks (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 83, XM 83, Internet 83
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OKLAHOMA SOONERS (12-11, 2-8 Big 12)
Location: Norman, Okla.
Conference/Affiliation: Big 12
Head Coach: Porter Moser (Creighton — 1990)
Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Just a year ago, Baylor basketball lost Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua for the last month of the season with a devastating knee injury and played 13 of its last 14 games with guard LJ Cryer out with a foot injury.
Now, the 14th-ranked Bears (17-6, 6-4) will be as close to full strength as they've been since early January 2022 when they face Oklahoma (12-11, 2-8) at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Ferrell Center in an ESPNU broadcast.
Tchamwa Tchatchoua made an emotional return to the court in Saturday's 89-62 blowout of Texas Tech, hitting two 3-pointers and scoring eight points with four rebounds in 14 minutes in his first game back in 357 days.
"Definitely exciting to have him back," Baylor coach Scott Drew said of Tchamwa Tchatchoua. "Normally, you lose players rather than get players at this time of the year. We thought it'd be another year before we had Jon. Again, it's a miracle."
Everyday Jon's timely return coincides with a matchup against a physical Oklahoma frontline of 6-10 senior center Tanner Groves (9.7 ppg, 7.0 rebounds), 6-9 freshman forward Jacob Groves (7.4 ppg) and 6-6 senior forward Jalen Hill (10.1 ppg, 5.8 rebounds).
"When you've got seniors that have been in college four or five or six years, they know how to play physical and not get fouls called, for the most part," Drew said. "When you've got the Groves brothers and Hill, that's as physical a front line as you'll see out there. We have to do a good job doing our work early and making sure we're good on the glass."
The Bears have won seven of their last eight and had one of their most efficient games of the season in the blowout win over Tech, shooting 54% overall and 10-of-24 from outside the arc. That included Tchamwa Tchatchoua knocking down his only two 3-point attempts and going 3-for-4 overall.
"He brings a whole other dynamic team to the team," said Cryer, who is averaging 14.3 points per game. "I'm just excited to see how it looks moving forward, honestly."
Drew said Tchamwa Tchatchoua's minutes will increase "as he gets in better game shape and gets more reps with the rotation guys."
"I think a lot of it will be seeing how his body feels," Drew said. "But I know he feels great now, and we'll see how things progress. This is unchartered waters for all of us. But the good thing is we have five, six weeks till the end of the season to figure things out, and the Big 12 tournament and hopefully the NCAA tournament, where you get a chance to be at your best."
At the bottom of the Big 12 standings after an 0-3 start in league play, Baylor has steadily climbed the ladder and could move into a tie for second Wednesday night with a win over Oklahoma and an Iowa State loss at West Virginia.
"I never doubted the team, honestly," Cryer said. "I knew there were a lot of things we had to work on, that's basically it. You can never get too high or too low in this league. We knew we would pull it together at some point. We just had to keep fighting and not give up."
The Sooners have been something of an enigma in Porter Moser's second season in Norman, opening the season with a loss to Sam Houston and getting blown out by West Virginia, 93-61, just seven days after stunning second-ranked Alabama, 93-69.
"That's college basketball nowadays, the parity," Drew said. "That's why the Big 12 is so good is because top to bottom everybody's capable. . . . A couple games ago, Oklahoma might have been the hottest team in the country when they beat Alabama. So, you've got to control what you can control and worry about yourselves and making sure you're doing things right."
OU is led by 6-2 senior guard Grant Sherfield (16.9 ppg), who scored 30 in the win over Alabama. The Mountain West Conference Newcomer of the Year in 2021 at Nevada after transferring from Wichita State, Sherfield leads the Big 12 in 3-point shooting percentage at 42.6.
"He's a guy that can really get hot," Drew said. "All the great players don't have great nights every night, but they're all capable to have great nights any time. (West Virginia's Erik) Stevenson goes for 34 (against OU). What's tough is you play good defense, and they can still get 30. You do everything you can do to make sure one of those nights isn't one of those special nights."
Wednesday's game will be broadcast by ESPNU, with Mark Neely and Lance Blanks calling the action.
STORY LINES
• No. 14/12 Baylor completes two-game home stand hosting the Oklahoma Sooners at 8 p.m. CT on ESPNU.
• BU is aiming to win its 10th-straight regular-season meeting with the Sooners.
• Baylor is 18-11 since snapping a 30-game Sooner win streak in 2009.
• This is the 70th series meeting between the two, with Baylor winning 11 of the last 13 meetings.
• The Bears have won six-straight games against OU in Waco.
• In the last meeting, Jalen Bridges and Adam Flagler hit clutch three-pointers in the final 1:30 to go from trailing by two, to leading by four and eventually seal the road win in Norman.
• The Bears had a season-high 30 second-chance points against the Sooners (1/21), the most since they had 32 against Washington State on 12/23/2010.
• Last time out, Baylor had its best assist-turnover ratio of the season (3.25), scoring 89 points, its most against Tech since 2002.
• The Bears shot a season-high .583 from the field, its 41st-straight win when shooting 50% of higher.
• BU has won 74-straight when shooting a higher percentage than its opponent (last loss March 2, 2019 at K-State).
• Baylor is 50-7 vs. unranked teams over the last three seasons.
• Baylor is 51-5 in home games over the last four seasons.
• Baylor's 48-12 Big 12 record over the last four seasons is the best of any Power-5 team.
• 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's seven quad-one wins are tied for the third-most in the nation.
• Keyonte George's 17.2 points per game rank third among freshman in Division I.
• 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 46.6 ppg. (NC State)
• George Has nine 20-point games this season are tied for the most by a BU freshman since Aaron Bruce had nine in 2004-2005.
• 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.
• 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 22 of the latest NCAA Net rankings.
• The Bears are the third-best offense in the nation (best in the conference) according to Ken Pom (120.9 Adj. Efficiency rating), averaging 78.5 points per game.
• With a KenPom experience rating of 1.72, the Bears are the second-youngest team in the Big 12.
• Eleven of Baylor's 12 starting point guards during the Scott Drew era have earned All-Big 12 recognition.
• Baylor's starting point guard has earned All-Big 12 recognition in 17 of 18 seasons since 2004-05.
