RV/RV BAYLOR BEARS (13-7, 5-4 Big 12) Location: Waco, Texas  Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF )	11/11 KANSAS (15-5, 6-3 Big 12) vs. RV/RV BAYLOR (13-7, 5-4 Big 12)  Feb. 1, 2024 • 3:00 p.m. CT Waco, Texas • Foster Pavilion (7,500)  LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast WATCH: ESPN Talent: Jon Sciambi (pxp), Fran Fraschilla (analyst), Kris Budden (Reporter) 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 81 or on the SXM App Baylor Social Media:
	11/11 Kansas Jayhawks (15-5, 6-3 Big 12) Location: Lawrence, Kan. Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Bill Self (Oklahoma St., 1985) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF)

Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
WACO, Texas – For a Baylor team that's trying to survive with a seven-man rotation that includes three freshmen, the "sixth man" of a home crowd will be more important than ever when the Bears welcome 11^th-ranked Kansas Saturday afternoon for a nationally televised game at Foster Pavilion.
 
"They are the sixth man on the court with us," said Miami transfer Norchad Omier, who is averaging a team-best 15.3 points and 10.1 rebounds going into Saturday's 3 p.m. game. "They've been doing a great job all season. Just come out and do the same thing. We are really thankful for them."
 
Baylor (13-7, 5-4) is 9-1 at home this season and 17-3 at the 7,500-capacity Foster Pavilion since it opened last January. That includes an 82-74 win last March over Kansas (15-5, 6-3), which has lost four-straight in Waco.
 
"Anytime you get a home Big 12 win, it's because you play well and you limit your mistakes," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. "Normally. Home crowds give you an advantage with the energy and excitement. We've had great crowd support at home, and we've been able to be successful. Hopefully, we give the crowd a lot to cheer for, and we can feed off that momentum."
 
The Bears split two games on their tour of Utah, completing a season series sweep of the Utah Utes, 76-61, before falling 93-89 in overtime at BYU on Tuesday.
 
Baylor rallied from a 13-point deficit to force overtime, with freshman Robert O. Wright III (12.5 ppg, 4.8 assists) scoring 14 of his 22 points in the last 5 ½ minutes of regulation and hitting a pair of free throws with 4.3 seconds left.
 
"If I'm being honest, I didn't see anything, really, but me and the basket," Wright said. "To that point, I was really locked in. I think they said that was my 14^th (point) in a row, those two free throws. I was just flowing and rolling, so it didn't even feel like nothing."
 
With Duke transfer Jeremy Roach missing the last three games in concussion protocol and redshirt junior guard Langston Love out eight games with a recurring ankle injury, the Bears have had to rely even more on the fab freshman duo of Wright and VJ Edgecombe (14.9 ppg, 5.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists).
 
"This time of the year, you don't really have freshmen anymore," Drew said. "But really proud of how they've adjusted to the speed, the physicality, the toughness, defensive schemes. We go against, night in and night out, the best college basketball has to offer, the best coaches.
 
"If there's a weakness, they find it. For our guys to do what they've done and improve throughout the year as they have, it's a true testament to their hard work and how they take their craft seriously. VJ has played four different positions for us. And you don't do that without putting in a lot of time and effort."
 
Edgecombe, who ranks third in conference-only games with an 18.6-point average, has improved dramatically in his 3-point shooting. After shooting 28.6% from outside the arc in the 11 non-conference games, he has hit at a Big 12-best 47.9% clip in league games, knocking down 23-of-48.
 
The 6-4 freshman guard has been at his best over the last three games, averaging 26.3 points per game and shooting 13-of-18 from 3-point range. Against BYU, he scored a game-high 28 points, hitting 6-of-8 from distance while adding five assists, four rebounds and one block.
 
"They don't care (that they're freshman), I'm going to be honest, they just go," Omier said. "Rob, VJ, playing on the road, against a crowd like that, the poise they have, they're old guys to me now. They've proved so much to me. Now, they're right up there with me."
 
Kansas, which had already lost two games at Allen Fieldhouse before holding off another challenge from UCF, 91-87, has had injury issues of its own. But senior forward KJ Adams (8.4 ppg, 4.6 rebounds) returned to the lineup on Tuesday after sitting out the previous three games with a separated shoulder, and fifth-year senior guard Dajuan Harris played in 159 consecutive games before sitting out the UCF game with an ankle injury.
 
"They were ranked No. 1 (in the preseason polls) for a reason," Drew said. "Great Hall of Fame coach, great players. Like all of us, they've gone through some adjusting and figuring things out. But at the end of the day, whenever you play a Bill Self-coached team, you've got to beat them. They're not going to beat themselves."
 
This is a matchup of two of the six active coaches who have won national championships. Drew already has wins over Arkansas' John Calipari and Rick Pitino of St. John's, while losing to Dan Hurley of two-time defending national champion UConn.
 
Saturday's game is also part of the Suits and Sneakers Week (Jan. 27-Feb. 2) sponsored by Coaches vs. Cancer and the American Cancer Society, encouraging cancer screening and helping to bring awareness to the fight against cancer.
 
Drew will wear a pair of colorful sneakers that were decorated by Remi Wissinger, a local 4-year-old cancer survivor who also got the chance to interact with Baylor's players during Friday's practice.
 
"It definitely motivates us a lot," Wright said of Remi coming to Friday's practice, "because we're battling, we're facing a tough team, but she has gone through something way stronger. Just knowing that God has different plans for everybody, and we've got to stay strong together."
 
A national ESPN broadcast, the game will have Jon Sciambi, Fran Fraschilla and Kris Budden calling the action.


Story lines

• Baylor returns home to host No. 11 Kansas in their only regular-season meeting at 3 p.m. on ESPN

• BU is riding a four-game win streak in Waco against the Jayhawks, and has split the season series with KU in five straight, and six of the last seven years

• Baylor is one of two teams in the country with six wins over Kansas since 2018

• The Bears and Jayhawks are two of just four teams to win a game in five-straight NCAA Tournaments

• BU and KU are two of the four programs that have been ranked in the top-10 for six-straight years

• Baylor has 69 conference wins over the last six seasons, second only to Kansas' 72, the next closest team in that span is Texas Tech with 53

• The Bears are 8-2 in their last 10 home games against top-15 teams (4-1 vs. Kansas)

• In that last meeting, The Bears defended home court, led by RayJ Dennis' 19 points and 10 assists

• Scott Drew and Bill Self are two of the seven active coaches with 450+ wins at their current institution

• Drew and Self are two of the six active coaches with a national title, and Self will be the fourth of those championship coaches Drew has faced this season 

• Drew and the Bears have wins against John Calipari & Rick Pitino, with the only loss coming to Dan Hurley in Dec.

• Last time out, Baylor had five players log 35-plus minutes in an overtime loss at BYU

• The Bears shot 50% from the field, marking just the third time in the last 110 games BU has lost when shooting 50% or higher from the field, with two of those losses coming to BYU in Provo the last two yrs

• Baylor had it's streak of 65-straight wins when shooting 50% or better snapped, dating back to March of 2018

• Freshmen VJ Edgecombe and Robert Wright combined for 50 points in the game, including the team's final 25 in the second half and overtime

• Edgecombe went for a game-high 28, his third-straight game of 20-plus points, the most by a BU freshman since Keyonte George strung together 3-straight 20-plus point games (January of 2023)

• Wright scored Baylor's final 14-points in the second half to lift BU to overtime with a game-high +10 +/- rating

• Wright and Edgecombe are the first BU true freshmen to each score 20 points in the same game since John Lucas III and Lawrence Roberts did it against North Texas in December of 2001 

• Edgecombe has seven 15+ point performances in Big 12 Play, and now ranks third in the conference in points per game in league play (18.6) 

• Across his last five games, Edgecombe is averaging 22.2 points per game, shooting 52% from the field and 49% from three-point range 

• For his efforts last week, Edgecombe was named the Big 12 co-Newcomer of the week, BU's second weekly-award winner after Norchad Omier was the Big 12 Player of the Week in November

• With his next double-double, Omier will move into a tie for 11th in NCAA history with three players including UCLA's Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), two more earn him a tie for 10th all-time

• BU is 168-102 in Big 12 play in 15 seasons since 2010 after going 59-149 in the league's first 13 seasons

• Five of Baylor's seven losses have come against teams that have been ranked in the top-10 at some point this season, while Gonzaga, Tennessee, UConn and Iowa State have been ranked in the top 3

• The Bears lead the conference and rank fifth in the Power-5 with 13.5 offensive rebounds per game 

• Sitting at +3.2, BU is third in the Big 12 and 15th in the Power-5 in turnover margin