No. 18 MBB Travels to Orlando to face UCF
1/30/2024 12:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Bears and Knights are meeting for the first time
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18/18 BAYLOR BEARS (14-5, 3-3 Big 12) Location: Waco, Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
18/18 BAYLOR (14-5, 3-3 Big 12) vs. UCF (12-7, 3-4 Big 12) Jan. 31, 2024 • 6:00 p.m. CT Orlando, Florida • Addition Financial Arena (10,763) LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast WATCH: ESPN+ Talent: Drew Fellios(pxp), BJ Taylor (analyst) LISTEN: Baylor Sports Media Network via ESPN 1660 AM / 92.3 FM in Central Texas and worldwide at centexsportsfan.com Talent: John Morris (PBP), Pat Nunley (Analyst) SIRIUS XM: SiriusXM 84 or on the SXM App Baylor Social Media:    |
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UCF (12-7, 3-4 Big 12) Location: Orlando, Fla Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Johnny Dawkins (Duke, 1986) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Caleb Lohner knows the 18th-ranked Baylor Bears are close.
They are a buzzer beater and two overtime losses – nine total points – from being undefeated in league play and atop the Big 12 standings.
"Not too many teams lose three games like that," Lohner said of the Bears (14-5, 3-3) losing three in a row to Kansas State (68-64, OT), Texas (75-73) and TCU (105-102, 3-OT). "When you lose games that close, you really have to nit-pick and critique, because I think we are so close to being the best version of ourselves. I think our best basketball is still to be played."
Carroll Dawson was the coach and Gerald Ford was in the White House the last time Baylor lost three-straight games by four points or less. During non-conference play in 1975, the Bears lost to North Texas, Davidson and VCU by a total of seven points.
"Coaches all know, you get blown out, you get (mad)," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose team goes back on the road to face conference newcomer UCF (12-7, 3-4) at 6 p.m. CST Wednesday at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Fla., "but it's easier to get over from the standpoint of, there's not coaching.
"Thirty-point loss, you played like crud, it's just move on. When it's a close one, then you're breaking down, analyzing, squeezing everything that could have happened. Those are the ones that keep coaches up more than not."
No doubt, Drew has had some sleepless nights since that first overtime loss at Kansas State two weeks ago. That was followed by Texas guard Tyrese Hunter's buzzer-beating layup in a two-point road loss to the Longhorns in Austin and then Saturday's triple-overtime loss to TCU, when Jameer Nelson Jr. had a putback on his own miss with 10 seconds left.
"What's great about sports is in life, everybody faces adversity," Drew said. "And how you face adversity in sports prepares you for how you face adversity in life. And it's a great opportunity for us to show that we're not going to break, we're not going to fold. We're just going to double down and work that much harder, trust that much more in our culture, what we do and how we do it."
Against TCU, Baylor had some great individual performances. Freshman 7-footer Yves Missi had a career-high 25 points, Langston Love recorded his first-career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds and Toledo transfer RayJ Dennis had his seventh-career double-double and first at BU with 24 points and 10 assists.
"Physically, he's a freak," Lohner said of Missi, who's averaging 10.3 points, 6.2 boards and 1.6 blocks. "Yves is an incredible player with a huge upside. I think he just maximized some of his skills. He got to the basket quite a few times, finished through contact super well. Which, from the beginning of the year till now, he's finishing way better. He's continuing to grow, and he will continue to be the player that he's going to be."
Dennis, who scored in double figures for the 14th time this season, missed a jumper at the end of the second overtime and then tried to drive inside and draw a foul at the end of the game only to see his shot blocked by 6-11 TCU center RayJ Dennis.
"We trust RayJ 100%, 110%, knowing that he's got the years backing up playing college basketball," freshman guard Miro Little said of Dennis, who is second on the team with a 13.3-point scoring average and second in the Big 12 with 6.6 assists per game. "He's got a lot of experience and he knows how to make the right play. RayJ helps a lot, making the right reads and finding the open man."
UCF, which already has wins over Kansas, Texas and West Virginia, is coming off a 68-57 loss on the road at Cincinnati. The Knights are led by Ball State transfer Jaylin Sellers, a 6-4 junior guard who is fourth in the Big 12 with 17.2 points per game.
Drew said UCF "makes it hard to get anything easy."
"Eighth-best defense in the nation, lot of experience, lot of seniors, a lot of old guys that have been to two, three schools," Drew said. "They understand, they can change, they mix their defenses up really well. Do a lot of things that make you feel uncomfortable. Especially on the road, that's hard."
Looking to avoid their first four-game losing streak in five years, the Bears are 3-0 this season when facing a program for the first time and have already knocked off two of the league's four newcomers – BYU and Cincinnati.
Wednesday's game will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with Drew Fellios and former UCF All-American BJ Taylor calling the action.
Story lines
• No. 18 Baylor travels to Orlando for its first-ever meeting with UCF in its final game on ESPN+ this season.
• The Bears are 3-0 this season when facing an opponent for the first time in program history.
• With a win, Baylor would improve to 3-0 on the season against the newest Big 12 additions.
• BU is coming off a third-straight loss in a triple-overtime thriller against TCU (105-102).
• The Bears have lost three-straight games by four points or less for the first time since 1975.
• BU's three overtime games are its most in a season since 2013-14, and has not played three overtimes games in regular-season conference play since 1994.
• Baylor is looking to avoid its first four-game losing streak since 2018-2019.
• The Bears are sixth in the nation in 3-point FG% (40.0) and offensive efficiency (121.3), while leading the Big 12 in points per game (85.1).
• Baylor is 68-51 in Big 12 road games since 2012, second-best in the league behind only Kansas (74-47).
• Baylor's 309-122 record since 2011-12 trails only Kansas (349-90) among Big 12 teams.
• BU's 57-21 Big 12 record over the last five seasons is the second best record of any power-conference team during that span.
• The Bears have now been ranked in the top-10 for a fifth-straight year, one of just four programs (Duke, Gonzaga and Kansas) to accomplish that feat.
• Ranked in the AP Top-25 for 22-straight weeks, BU is riding the nation's eighth-longest active streak and the third-longest in the Big 12 (Houston 76, Kansas 55).
• Last time out, Baylor played its longest game in 16 years in a triple overtime thriller against TCU before eventually falling 105-102.
• Yves Missi scored a team and career-best 25 points to go along with his 9 rebounds.
• RayJ Dennis notched his second double-double of the season, with 24 points and 10 assists, while Langston Love scored in double figures for a sixth-straight game (11) and grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds.
• Love is averaging 13.7 points per game in Big 12 play, most in the league among bench players.
• BU has had six players win Big 12 Sixth-Man of the Year, no other conference school has more than two.
• Dennis ranks second in the Big 12 in assists per game (6.6), with the Bears getting 15.2 points per game from Ja'Kobe Walter to lead the offense, the most among Big 12 Conference freshmen.
• 15.2 points per game would rank as the fourth-most by a freshman in program history.
• Five different players have led the Bears in scoring in six Big 12 games. (Dennis, Walter, Love, Bridges and Missi).
• Baylor is 90-16 vs. unranked teams over the last five seasons (.849%).
• Baylor has built leads of 10+ points in 63 of 88 games since the start of the 2021 NCAA Tournament (59-4 record).
• BU has won 89-straight when shooting a higher percentage than its opponent (last loss March 2, 2019 at K-State).
• Baylor is playing its 362nd game as a ranked team under Scott Drew — Baylor was ranked in just two of 2,197 games over the program's 97 seasons prior to Drew.
