Saturday, January 20
Waco, Texas
2 PM
Baylor
vs
UCF
No. 12 WBB Returns Home to Host UCF, No. 7 Kansas State
1/19/2024 11:16:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Monday’s nationally televised matchup against the Wildcats has been dubbed a White Out
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Not that Baylor coach Nicki Collen wanted her team to go through last week's back-to-back losses on the road at Kansas and Iowa State, the silver lining is "you get people's attention with a loss."
"(A) coaches' hardest job is to get players to do things that they don't want to do in order to get the results that they want to get," said Collen, whose 12th-ranked Bears (14-2, 3-2) will host last-place UCF (9-6, 0-2) at 2 p.m. Saturday at Foster Pavilion.
"Even really good players, to consistently get them to do the drills and the fundamentals that they don't love doing, because it does translate. It may not translate overnight, but over time, little by little, a little becomes a lot."
While Baylor certainly struggled offensively in the two games, averaging 64.5 points and shooting just 23.6% from 3-point range (13-of-55), the Bears' biggest issue was defending bigger post players.
In an 87-66 loss to Kansas, 6-6 center Taiyanna Jackson scored a career-high 27 points and grabbed 19 rebounds, hitting 9-of-12 from the floor. And then, in Saturday's 66-63 loss at Iowa State, 6-3 freshman Audi Crooks hit 10-of-16 from the field and scored a career-high-matching 23 points.
"Of course, we're a little undersized when it comes to certain post players," said 5-11 senior forward Aijha Blackwell, who fouled out after getting just six points and five rebounds in 14 minutes against the Cyclones, "but we're working on our quick moves, how to get around and just the help from the guards. We're working on a lot of that, so you're going to see it flow over into the game."
With a rotation of Blackwell, 6-0 grad forward Dre'Una Edwards, 6-1 sophomore Darianna Littlepage-Buggs and 6-3 transfer Madison Bartley from Belmont, the Bears have had a tough time against the likes of Jackson, Crooks, Utah's Alissa Pili and Oregon's Phillipina Kyei and Kennedy Basham. But TCU's 6-7 Sedona Prince was just 9-of-21 from the floor.
"Part of the best defense we have for them is to make them play defense against us," Collen said. "When it comes to Crooks, it wasn't her 23 points that was the difference in winning and losing. I thought it was our inability to make her less of a factor or more of a factor, however you look at it, when it comes to us on offense working against her and taking advantage of the mismatch that we had.
"I thought we did that against Sedona Prince. Yes, she had a lot of baskets and a lot of one-on-one and finished them. But we made her super-ineffective defensively by moving, cutting, playing behind her, playing around her and making TCU have four people guard five at times."
Defensively, Collen said the Bears have to "do a better job winning spots."
"And when we don't win the spot, understanding where they are on the floor," she said. "Do we need to be on top? Can we shove them off the block? What matchups can't we shove off the block? It's really no different than perimeter defense. Who is a straight downhill driver versus who's a shifty kid and how you move your feet and whether you open up or not."
Against UCF, it will be a different challenge. Transfer guard Kaitlin Peterson from Indiana, the Knights' only double-figure scorer, is third in the Big 12 and top-20 nationally with 20.4 points per game and scored a career-high 35 in a 64-63 loss at Cincinnati.
"Your goal with someone who scores a lot of points is they're probably going to get points, but can you make them inefficient?" Collen said.
Kentucky transfer point guard Jada Walker, who's averaging 9.1 points and 3.9 assists, said Peterson is extremely quick.
"Obviously, if we do our job to cut her off, cut off driving lanes, deny her the ball and just create havoc so she can't get going and she can't get it to her posts so they can get it going . . . just shutting down every aspect of their offense," Walker said.
Another potential matchup could be Blackwell facing her former Missouri teammate, 6-3 center Jayla Kelly, who is averaging 4.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.
"That's my best friend. She's been my friend for a long time now," Blackwell said of Kelly, who has season highs of 14 points versus Bethune-Cookman and nine rebounds against Florida Atlantic. "When we step on the floor together, it's going to be business, regardless. It's going to be game plan (and) putting the game first. That's my friend, but she knows when it comes to that, it's just that."
In a quick turnaround, Baylor will host seventh-ranked and league-leading Kansas State (17-1, 6-0) at 7:30 p.m. Monday in a nationally televised game on FS1. The Wildcats have won 11 in a row and host Kansas on Saturday, but lost 6-6 center Ayoka Lee (19.8 ppg, 8.2 rebounds) for at least four weeks following surgery on Friday to repair a fractured ankle.
Saturday's game will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with Kyle Youmans and former Baylor men's basketball coach Jim Haller calling the action.
WACO, Texas – The No. 12 Baylor women's basketball team returns to action at Foster Pavilion when it hosts UCF and No. 7 Kansas State on Saturday and Monday, respectively.
Saturday's contest against the Knights is set for 2 p.m. and is available for streaming via Big 12 Now on ESPN+. A live radio broadcast will be available online and locally on 104.9 FM, and live in-game updates will be provided via Twitterand live stats.
Monday's top-15 matchup with Kansas State is set to air nationally on FS1 at 7:30 p.m. and fans can tune into ESPN Central Texas(1660 AM/92.3 FM) for a live radio broadcast. Live in-game updates will also be provided via Twitter and live stats. Fans in attendance are encouraged to wear white as the game has been tabbed a 'White Out'.
STARTING FIVE
Saturday's meeting between the Bears and the Knights will be just the fourth all-time. Baylor holds a perfect 3-0 record in the all-time series with UCF and Saturday's game will be the first meeting in Waco. The last time the Bears and the Knights faced each other was in the opening round game of the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands on Nov. 27, 2008. Baylor came out on top, 79-67, and went on to beat Villanova at the event.
SCOUTING THE SERIES WITH KANSAS STATE
Baylor leads the all-time series against the Wildcats, 42-10, and the Bears are 19-1 at home. The Bears' only loss to Kansas State at home was a 65-53 loss on Feb. 8, 2003. The Bears have split the two-game series with the Wildcats the last two seasons but had won 36-straight games prior to the 2021-22 season.
To stay up to date on all things Baylor women's basketball, follow the team on its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorWBB.
Baylor Bear Insider
Not that Baylor coach Nicki Collen wanted her team to go through last week's back-to-back losses on the road at Kansas and Iowa State, the silver lining is "you get people's attention with a loss."
"(A) coaches' hardest job is to get players to do things that they don't want to do in order to get the results that they want to get," said Collen, whose 12th-ranked Bears (14-2, 3-2) will host last-place UCF (9-6, 0-2) at 2 p.m. Saturday at Foster Pavilion.
"Even really good players, to consistently get them to do the drills and the fundamentals that they don't love doing, because it does translate. It may not translate overnight, but over time, little by little, a little becomes a lot."
While Baylor certainly struggled offensively in the two games, averaging 64.5 points and shooting just 23.6% from 3-point range (13-of-55), the Bears' biggest issue was defending bigger post players.
In an 87-66 loss to Kansas, 6-6 center Taiyanna Jackson scored a career-high 27 points and grabbed 19 rebounds, hitting 9-of-12 from the floor. And then, in Saturday's 66-63 loss at Iowa State, 6-3 freshman Audi Crooks hit 10-of-16 from the field and scored a career-high-matching 23 points.
"Of course, we're a little undersized when it comes to certain post players," said 5-11 senior forward Aijha Blackwell, who fouled out after getting just six points and five rebounds in 14 minutes against the Cyclones, "but we're working on our quick moves, how to get around and just the help from the guards. We're working on a lot of that, so you're going to see it flow over into the game."
With a rotation of Blackwell, 6-0 grad forward Dre'Una Edwards, 6-1 sophomore Darianna Littlepage-Buggs and 6-3 transfer Madison Bartley from Belmont, the Bears have had a tough time against the likes of Jackson, Crooks, Utah's Alissa Pili and Oregon's Phillipina Kyei and Kennedy Basham. But TCU's 6-7 Sedona Prince was just 9-of-21 from the floor.
"Part of the best defense we have for them is to make them play defense against us," Collen said. "When it comes to Crooks, it wasn't her 23 points that was the difference in winning and losing. I thought it was our inability to make her less of a factor or more of a factor, however you look at it, when it comes to us on offense working against her and taking advantage of the mismatch that we had.
"I thought we did that against Sedona Prince. Yes, she had a lot of baskets and a lot of one-on-one and finished them. But we made her super-ineffective defensively by moving, cutting, playing behind her, playing around her and making TCU have four people guard five at times."
Defensively, Collen said the Bears have to "do a better job winning spots."
"And when we don't win the spot, understanding where they are on the floor," she said. "Do we need to be on top? Can we shove them off the block? What matchups can't we shove off the block? It's really no different than perimeter defense. Who is a straight downhill driver versus who's a shifty kid and how you move your feet and whether you open up or not."
Against UCF, it will be a different challenge. Transfer guard Kaitlin Peterson from Indiana, the Knights' only double-figure scorer, is third in the Big 12 and top-20 nationally with 20.4 points per game and scored a career-high 35 in a 64-63 loss at Cincinnati.
"Your goal with someone who scores a lot of points is they're probably going to get points, but can you make them inefficient?" Collen said.
Kentucky transfer point guard Jada Walker, who's averaging 9.1 points and 3.9 assists, said Peterson is extremely quick.
"Obviously, if we do our job to cut her off, cut off driving lanes, deny her the ball and just create havoc so she can't get going and she can't get it to her posts so they can get it going . . . just shutting down every aspect of their offense," Walker said.
Another potential matchup could be Blackwell facing her former Missouri teammate, 6-3 center Jayla Kelly, who is averaging 4.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.
"That's my best friend. She's been my friend for a long time now," Blackwell said of Kelly, who has season highs of 14 points versus Bethune-Cookman and nine rebounds against Florida Atlantic. "When we step on the floor together, it's going to be business, regardless. It's going to be game plan (and) putting the game first. That's my friend, but she knows when it comes to that, it's just that."
In a quick turnaround, Baylor will host seventh-ranked and league-leading Kansas State (17-1, 6-0) at 7:30 p.m. Monday in a nationally televised game on FS1. The Wildcats have won 11 in a row and host Kansas on Saturday, but lost 6-6 center Ayoka Lee (19.8 ppg, 8.2 rebounds) for at least four weeks following surgery on Friday to repair a fractured ankle.
Saturday's game will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with Kyle Youmans and former Baylor men's basketball coach Jim Haller calling the action.
WACO, Texas – The No. 12 Baylor women's basketball team returns to action at Foster Pavilion when it hosts UCF and No. 7 Kansas State on Saturday and Monday, respectively.
Saturday's contest against the Knights is set for 2 p.m. and is available for streaming via Big 12 Now on ESPN+. A live radio broadcast will be available online and locally on 104.9 FM, and live in-game updates will be provided via Twitterand live stats.
Monday's top-15 matchup with Kansas State is set to air nationally on FS1 at 7:30 p.m. and fans can tune into ESPN Central Texas(1660 AM/92.3 FM) for a live radio broadcast. Live in-game updates will also be provided via Twitter and live stats. Fans in attendance are encouraged to wear white as the game has been tabbed a 'White Out'.
STARTING FIVE
- Baylor is a perfect 9-0 at home this season with two wins in the brand-new Foster Pavilion after picking up wins over then-No. 23 TCU (Jan. 3) and Houston (Jan. 6).
- Baylor's two opponents - UCF and Kansas State - in the three-day stretch will be its only meetings against the two programs during the regular season this year.
- Sarah Andrews has 208 career 3-pointers and needs 51 more to break Odyssey Sim's record of 258. The senior guard has hit at least two from range in 14 of 16 games this year.
- Baylor is one of four teams in the country, joining Kansas, Mississippi State and Louisville, with five 1,000-point scorers on its roster. Yaya Felder is the latest member of the 1,000-point club after recording the final point in BU's 87-58 win over Houston on Jan. 6.
- Monday's nationally televised game on FS1 marks the fourth of the season for the Bears and first of three-straight contests set to be aired on the big screen. Baylor's game at Oklahoma State (Jan. 28) and home contest against Texas (Feb. 1) will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks.
Saturday's meeting between the Bears and the Knights will be just the fourth all-time. Baylor holds a perfect 3-0 record in the all-time series with UCF and Saturday's game will be the first meeting in Waco. The last time the Bears and the Knights faced each other was in the opening round game of the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands on Nov. 27, 2008. Baylor came out on top, 79-67, and went on to beat Villanova at the event.
SCOUTING THE SERIES WITH KANSAS STATE
Baylor leads the all-time series against the Wildcats, 42-10, and the Bears are 19-1 at home. The Bears' only loss to Kansas State at home was a 65-53 loss on Feb. 8, 2003. The Bears have split the two-game series with the Wildcats the last two seasons but had won 36-straight games prior to the 2021-22 season.
To stay up to date on all things Baylor women's basketball, follow the team on its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorWBB.
- BaylorBears.com -
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