WBB Opens NCAA Tournament with Alabama Saturday

Saturday, March 18

Storrs, Conn.

Approx. 4:30 PM

Baylor

Alabama

Tickets

Tip-off with Iowa State at Big 12 Championship

WBB Opens NCAA Tournament with Alabama Saturday

3/17/2023 7:04:00 AM | Women's Basketball

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The Bears and the Crimson Tide will square off at 4:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            STORRS, Conn. – As a top-four seed, Baylor women's basketball made a habit of playing the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament in the cozy confines of the Ferrell Center.
            For this Baylor team, though, playing away from the Ferrell Center might be the best thing that could have happened.
The seventh-seeded Bears (19-12), who beat four ranked teams on the road and another on a neutral site, open the NCAA Tournament with a first-round matchup against 10^th-seeded Alabama (20-10) at approximately 4:30 p.m. CT Saturday at UConn's Gampel Pavilion.
            "I think we're better on the road because we know we need to be 10 points better," said junior guard Sarah Andrews, who is averaging 15.0 points and 4.3 assists per game. "It's a different crowd. We want to send more people home mad that we beat them. We feed off that type of energy. It is just us against anybody else in the gym."
            Baylor assistant coach Tony Greene even admits that he likes coaching the Bears "when we play away because it's a different type of locked-in," senior guard Jaden Owens (7.9 ppg, 5.7 assists) said.
            "We haven't really put our finger on why," said Owens, who scored 15 points in a 74-63 loss to Iowa State at last week's Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City. "You would think we would always play our best at home, but I don't know, it's something about when we're away. (Coach Greene) talks about how when he's in the huddle and he's talking to us, how zoned in and locked in we are.
            "Nobody real expects us to do great, if we're going to be honest. So, I think it's kind of us together. And then if we're together, we can take on anything."
            Second-year head coach Nicki Collen says she teaches the team that it's not a switch you can turn off and on, "but I do think there's a different focus, there's a different energy, a different level of working together, of communicating better because the crowd is louder and we're communicating earlier on defense."
            While the first-ever meeting between Baylor and Alabama will come in a neutral-site arena, a potential second-round matchup against second-seeded and sixth-ranked UConn (29-5) will be a completely different story. The Huskies, who play 15^th-seeded Vermont (25-6) at 2 p.m. CT Saturday, have lost just five home games in the last decade and have been to 14-straight Final Fours.
            "For us, it's about preparing to win that first game, and that's the only thing we'll be focused on," Collen said. "Hopefully, we can get to the point where we can talk about that environment. . . . Quite frankly, we're going to look at it as, to play UConn, we're going to have to play well and survive."
            The challenge will be facing an Alabama team that lights it up from distance, knocking down 267 3-pointers and shooting 38.0% from outside the arc. Three players have hit at least 56 treys, led by Illinois transfer Aaliyah Nye with 72 3-pointers made and top 10 nationally with a 44.7 shooting percentage from deep.
            "It's not good enough with kids like Nye to be there on the catch," Collen said. "You've got to have a hand up on the catch and you've got to be outside the 3-point line, because she's an analytic wonder. . . . Nye is as good as anyone in the country making 3's, but she hasn't made a 3 off the bounce. So, it's being there on the catch, not giving her the catch-and-shoot 3, and understanding personnel-wise who does what, where and when."
            The Crimson Tide are led by 5-9 guard Brittany Davis, a first-team All-SEC pick who leads the team in scoring (17.3 ppg), rebounds (7.1) and steals (1.8).
            Outside of Davis, it's a balanced attack overall with Nye (9.4 ppg), 5-6 senior guard Hannah Barber (8.0 ppg, 2.8 assists), 6-4 senior center Jada Rice (6.5 ppg, 5.4 rebounds) and 6-0 junior guard Sarah Ashlee Barker (6.8 ppg, 4.9 rebounds).
            "You certainly don't want to see her get 30," Collen said of Davis, who scored a career-high 33 points in a road win at Missouri. "She's going to take enough shots, so she's probably going to get double figures. They pretty much play small ball the entire time. So, at times you're mismatched and vice versa. But I think any of those players, they can all go get double figures. You have to sit down and guard them and make them play through your chest. That's going to be the key."
            On the flip side, 'Bama has to contend with a better-balanced Baylor attack led by Andrews. She earned National Player of the Week honors earlier in the year when she scored 30 and 27 points, respectively, and hit a combined eight 3-pointers in road wins over Oklahoma and Kansas.
            Senior forward Caitlin Bickle (12.1 ppg, 7.1 rebounds), Big 12 Freshman of the Year Dariana Littlepage-Buggs (11.0 ppg, 9.4 rebounds) and senior guard Ja'Mee Asberry (10.8 ppg) also average double-digit points, while freshman forward Bella Fontleroy and Owens average 8.7 and 7.9, respectively.
            "First and foremost, I think it's really important that we defend their ball-screen action," said Alabama head coach Kristy Curry, who has led three different teams to the NCAA Tournament. "They're really dynamic with their European ball screen and the things that they do. Secondly, we've got to get back in transition and limit their looks at the rim. You've got to protect the rim against Baylor to have success."
            Saturday's game will be broadcast by ESPN2, with Beth Mowins and former Emory University head coach Christy Thomaskutty calling the action.


STORRS, Conn. – The Baylor women's basketball team begins its 19th-consecutive NCAA Tournament run on Saturday when it faces Alabama in the opening round at Gampel Pavilion.

Tip-off between the No. 7-seeded Bears (19-12) and the 10th-seeded Crimson Tide (20-10) is set for approximately 4:30 p.m. CT, or 30 minutes following the conclusion of the UConn/Vermont game, which is slated to begin at 2 p.m. CT.

The game airs nationally on ESPN2, with Beth Mowins and Christy Thomaskutty on the call. A live radio broadcast is also available for fans on the Varsity Network App or locally on 104.9 FM. Additionally, live in-game updates will be provided via Twitter or live stats.

TOURNEY TIME
Baylor is making its 19th-consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, which is the fifth-longest active streak in the country behind Tennessee (41), Stanford (35), UConn (34) and Notre Dame (27), and 21st appearance overall. The Bears are 54-17 in the Big Dance and have made 15 trips to the Sweet 16.

BU's meeting with Alabama will be the first in program history. On the other side of the bracket in Storrs, it would be the first-ever meeting with Vermont if the two programs meet each other in the second round. Opening-round host UConn holds the slim 5-4 advantage in the all-time series with the Bears, last edging Baylor, 69-67, in the 2021 Elite Eight.

SCOUTING ALABAMA AND THE SERIES
Alabama enters the weekend with a 20-10 ledger and is making its second NCAA Tournament appearance in three years. Alabama is 17-11 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, and the Crimson Tide's deepest run came in 1994 with the team advancing to the Final Four.

Brittany Davis leads the team at 17.3 points per game. The graduate student has reached double figures in all but two games and has 10 20-plus point performances on the year. Davis was placed on the All-SEC First Team, while Hannah Barber was named the SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year.

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