Baylor
UConn
No. 15 MBB Set for Big 12-Big East Battle at No. 25 UCONN
12/3/2024 9:09:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Scott Drew Carries a 15-3 mark against the Big East at BU
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15/16 BAYLOR BEARS (5-2, 0-0 Big 12) Location: Waco, Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF ) |
15/16 BAYLOR (5-2, 0-0 Big 12) vs. No. 25/rv UCONN (5-3, 0-0 Big East) Dec. 4, 2024 • 5:30 p.m. CT Storrs, Conn. • Gampel Pavilion (10,167) LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast WATCH: FS1 and the Fox Sports App Talent: Brandon Gaudin (pxp), Bill Raftery (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 198 or on the SXM App Baylor Social Media:    |
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No. 25/rv UCONN HUSKIES (5-3, 0-0 Big East) Location: Storrs, Conn Conference/Affiliation: Big East Head Coach: Dan Hurley (Seton Hall, 1996) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Before the season, Baylor vs. UConn looked like one of the biggest marquee games in college basketball, a matchup of two of the last three national championship teams.
Even just nine days ago, two-time defending national champion UConn (5-3) was ranked No. 2 and still undefeated going into the Maui Invitational in Lahaina, Hawaii. But that was before the Huskies dropped three games in three days, losing to Dayton, 85-67, in the tournament's seventh-place game, and then dropping 23 spots to 25th in the Associated Press poll.
And while the game might have lost some of its luster, it is still Baylor's fifth top-25 matchup to date, with the 15th-ranked Bears (5-2) playing No. 25 UConn at 5:30 p.m. CT Wednesday at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut.
"They're still back-to-back national champions," said redshirt junior guard Langston Love, who scored his first points of the year with seven in 27 minutes in last Wednesday's 91-60 rout of New Orleans. "You can't take that game lightly. And they're going to be hungry, especially with that coach (Dan Hurley) they've got. They're going to be hungry."
The Huskies are expected to be without 6-8 redshirt junior forward Alex Karaban (15.9 ppg, 4.7 rebounds), their leading scorer and a starter on both the national championship teams. He suffered a concussion in the loss to Dayton and did not play in Saturday's bounce-back 99-45 win over Maryland-Eastern Shore, when six players scored in double figures.
"You see a team that has a lot of different weapons, people that can score 25, 30 points and make it look easy," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "It's always harder to game plan against a team that has multiple guys that can do that, versus a team that only has one or two. There's a reason they were ranked second in the nation. And they're a team that's never going to beat themselves, because they're too well-coached and disciplined."
Much like Baylor, which had senior guard Jayden Nunn (12.9 ppg) as the only returning starter from a 24-11 team, UConn is still building its chemistry with a lot of new players.
"As they continue to get rhythm and chemistry, just like our team, you can finetune things and work on things that you can't maybe see in practice, that only become exposed in games," Drew said. "Because it's the only time you can get game experience to figure things out. So, I would imagine their team like our team, will continue to get better throughout the year."
The Bears had plenty exposed in a season-opening 101-63 loss at Gonzaga and the 77-62 loss to Tennessee in the Baha Mar Championship 12 days ago in the Bahamas. They also got off to a slow start before coming back to beat St. John's, 99-98, in double-overtime on Jeremy Roach's buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
"The good thing is, at the end of the UConn game, that's five teams, great programs, Hall of Fame coaches," Drew said, "and you'll know any area that you're deficient in, because it's exposed."
Love said the Bears are "right where we want to be."
"It's not ever good to be peaking this early, especially with all these new pieces," he said. "If we were peaking this early, I'd almost be scared: How much better can we be? Are they going to figure us out? But we can get a lot better in a lot of areas, so I feel like we'll peak at the right time."
Miami transfer Norchad Omier (15.9 ppg, 10.4 rebounds) leads the way with five double-doubles in his first seven games in a Baylor uniform. Duke transfer Roach checks in with 13.3 points and 4.7 assists per game, while freshmen Robert Wright and VJ Edgecombe are averaging 11.9 and 11.0 points, respectively.
Nunn, who hit six of his first seven 3-point attempts and scored a season-high 23 points against New Orleans, said he knows it's his night "just seeing those first couple of shots, three or four shots going in in a row."
"Just trying to keep it consistent, staying with the routine, staying working out," he said. "Don't get too big-headed. Everybody has good games, everybody has bad games. It's all part of the plan, part of the game. Just sticking to the routine and keep working on it, for sure."
Drew, who has already defeated a pair of national championship coaches in Arkansas' John Calipari and Rick Pitino of St. John's, is 3-1 in the Big 12-Big East Battle, 15-3 versus Big East teams and a Big 12-best 14-4 in conference challenges.
"These are games you live for as a kid," Love said. "I used to watch when Kentucky was playing those big games, watching when Baylor was playing those big games. I watched all the big games when I was coming up as a kid. It's kind of surreal to be the one the kids growing up are watching now. Just being here, we don't take it for granted."
Baylor returns for four-straight games at home, including the Big 12 opener versus Utah on New Year's Eve.
Wednesday's game will be broadcast by FS1, with Brandon Gaudin and former college coach Bill Raftery calling the action.
Story lines
• No. 15 Baylor faces off with the No. 25 UConn Huskies in the Big 12-Big East Battle, pitting two of the last three national champions against each other in a 5:30 p.m. CT tip-off on FS1
• Scott Drew is seeking his 450th career win at Baylor, facing Dan Hurley in a matchup of the two youngest active coaches to win a national championship
• Drew is one of six active coaches who have won a national title, beating two of the other five already this season (Calipari & Pitino). Wednesday's meeting is one of two more scheduled meetings with an active champion (Hurley and Self).
• Hailing from basketball families, the Drews are the second winningest father-son combination in NCAA history, compiling 1,371 wins between Scott, Bryce and Homer, trailing only the Iba family (1,624) for the most by a family in NCAA history.
• The Drew brothers (Scott and Bryce) have a combined 731 coaching wins, while the Hurley's (dan and Bobby) have 501
• The Bears are 15-3 against the Big East in the Drew Era
• Baylor is a Big 12 best 14-4 in conference challenges, including 3-1 in Big 12-Big East Battle
• BU is 34-18 against ranked teams over the last six seasons, best among power-conference teams in that span, and second-best among all teams
• Over the last six seasons the Bears are 133-37, the second-best record among power-conference teams for the duration of that span
• Baylor is one of five programs to be ranked inside the top-10 in each of the last six seasons
• The Bears are playing a fifth ranked team in eight games this season, marking the first time BU has played five ranked teams before January
• Entering this week the Bears are one of just five power-conference teams with a top-20 strength of schedule according to KenPom
• Baylor was ranked 22nd in the initial NET rankings release this week, the sixth-straight year they have been a top-25 team in the initial NET
• The Bears are led by Miami transfer, Norchad Omier, The NCAA's active leader in career rebounds (1,388), double-doubles (73) and rebound average (10.9), while sitting 11th in career points (1,934)
• Omier is the first player since Terry Black to have five double-doubles in his first seven games at Baylor
• The senior is 66 points and 112 rebounds from becoming the 14th player in NCAA history with 2,000 points and 1,500 rebounds
• Omier and Duke transfer Jeremy Roach, each bring Final Four experience to a Baylor roster that is replacing nine lettermen and four of its five starters from a season ago.
• Roach ranks second on the team in points per game (13.3), while leading the Bears in assists per game (4.7)
• Against St. John's, Roach hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer, which was the first by a Baylor Bear since Lester Medford beat Texas Tech at the gun in 2016
• VJ Edgecombe is Baylor's 4th-straight Preseason Big 12 Freshman of the Year. BU and KU are the only teams in league history to have the preseason conference freshman of the year in 4-straight seasons
