MBB Heads for West Texas Showdown at No. 13 Texas Tech
2/3/2025 3:14:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Bears enter winners of three of the last four in the series
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RV/RV BAYLOR BEARS (14-7, 6-4 Big 12) Location: Waco, Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF ) |
RV/RV BAYLOR (14-7, 6-4 Big 12) vs. 13/12 Texas Tech (17-4, 8-2 Big 12) Feb. 4, 2025 • 8:00 p.m. CT Lubbock, Texas • United Supermarkets Arena (15,098) LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast WATCH: ESPN2 Talent: Rich Hollenberg (pxp), King McClure (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 146 or on the SXM App Baylor Social Media:    |
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12/13 TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS (17-4, 8-2 Big 12) Location: Lubbock, Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Grant McCasland (Baylor, 1999) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
LUBBOCK, Texas – Scott Drew relates his Baylor team's injury situation to the way God reduced Gideon's Israelite army from 22,000 to just 300 in the battle against the Midianites.
But at least Gideon still had 300 men.
Going into Tuesday's 8 p.m. matchup against 13th-ranked Texas Tech (17-4, 8-2) at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, the Bears (14-7, 6-4) could be down to a six-man rotation if freshman VJ Edgecombe (14.9 ppg, 5.3 rebounds) isn't back from an ankle injury that forced him to miss the last 14 ½ minutes of Saturday's 81-70 comeback win over No. 11 Kansas.
"The great thing is, whoever we put out there, I know is going to play hard and try to make the Baylor family proud," said Drew, who lists Edgecombe's status as a game-time decision. "I just make sure (Baylor trainer Dave Snyder) knows his goal is not to have a better five (in the training room) than we have in the gym."
Redshirt junior guard Langston Love (6.5 ppg) has missed the last nine games with an ankle injury, while Duke transfer guard Jeremy Roach (11.9 ppg, 3.5 assists) has been out four games since suffering a concussion in the TCU game on Jan. 19, his second of the year.
"Again, we're hoping to have (Roach and Love) back sooner rather than later," Drew said. "Each day, you go out and see how things go, and then we go from there. But I know both those guys have been working really hard. Both of them were great on the bench, gave great advice, helped out their teammates. But I know they'd rather play than coach."
Even after Edgecombe went out at the 14:38 mark in the second half, Baylor was able to complete an unbelievable comeback with a familiar script. The Bears' 19-point halftime deficit matched the largest comeback in Big 12 history and marked the largest blown lead in Kansas basketball history.
"For us to come back and then go down 10 and come back again after VJ went out, that's why it was a Gideon story and why I thought it was a miracle," Drew said. "Kansas basketball has been around how long? To have the biggest comeback just shows you, it doesn't happen often against a Coach (Bill) Self team, for sure."
The pattern, though, is all too familiar. Baylor overcame an 18-point first-half deficit to knock off then-No. 22 St. John's, 99-98, in the Bahamas; came from 27 points down in the second half to get within single digits in an eventual 81-70 loss at Arizona; and fell in overtime at BYU, 93-89, after trailing by as many as 13.
"We just showed a lot of resilience," said Cal transfer Jalen Celestine, who matched a season high with four made 3-pointers in the win over Kansas. "Similar to the Arizona game, where we were down. But the Arizona game . . . I feel like we didn't believe we could come back until it was too late. This game, we believed from the get-go. Even if we're down, we know we're more than capable of coming back."
Redshirt junior forward Josh Ojianwuna (7.5 ppg, 6.8 rebounds) said "the whole team was bought in on believing."
"Even though we were down 21, we've still got this game," he said. "I feel like as long as everyone is on the same page on defense, a lot of good things happen. . . . If you guys look at it, nothing changed from the first half, it was the same defense that we were playing. I just feel like we all bought in and believed, like, 'Oh yeah, we can do this.'"
While Baylor is coming off its first real signature win, Tech is one of the hottest teams in the country, winning six in a row and eight of its last nine since a head-scratching 87-83 homecourt loss to UCF in the conference opener.
The Red Raiders pulled off an 82-81 upset on the road at sixth-ranked Houston on Saturday, despite losing 6-9 sophomore forward JT Toppin (15.4 ppg, 8.4 rebounds) when he was ejected for a flagrant 2 foul less than four minutes into the game. Head coach Grant McCasland, a former BU assistant (2011-16), was also ejected after getting two technicals for arguing the call.
"They're a couple seconds away from being undefeated and first place in the league," Drew said. "Grant's done an amazing job. We always knew he was a great coach, but he really has them playing at a high level. We all know how well Houston was playing prior to that game. Just shows you, not only is Tech good, but they're also deep. To lose JT Toppin, and then win there, is a pretty big statement."
Chance McMillian (15.4 ppg), who played for Scott's brother, Bryce Drew, at Grand Canyon, is shooting 45.5% from 3-point range and hit the game-winning free throw at Houston. Junior forward Darrion Williams is averaging a career-high 14.6 points per game, while point guard Elijah Hawkins checks in at 9.4 points per game and a team-high 5.9 assists and 1.7 steals.
Continuing a challenge stretch of three games in seven days, the Bears will host UCF (13-8, 4-6) at 1 p.m. Saturday and then travel to take on fifth-ranked Houston (17-4, 9-1) in an 8 p.m. "Big Monday" game at 8 p.m. at the Fertita Center.
Tuesday's game will be broadcast by ESPN2, with Rich Hollenberg and former Baylor standout King McClure calling the action.
Story lines
• Fresh off its biggest win of the season against No. 11 Kansas, Baylor heads to the Hub City for a Super Tuesday Showdown in search of another ranked win against former Baylor player and Scott Drew Assistant, Grant McCasland on ESPN2
• Drew split two meetings with McCasland last year, and is 2-4 against his former assistants
• Tuesday is the only regular-season meeting between these two teams, marking the first time since 1957 the Bears and Red Raiders will not play home-and-home
• This is the first meeting since February 16, 2019, where BU enters as the lower-ranked team
• The Bears have won seven of the last 10 meetings against Tech, including three of the last four
• In the last meeting, the Bears erased a 16-point second-half lead by the Red Raiders to lead by one with 7:25 to play, but Tech went on a 14-2 run, to go back in front by 10 and closed out the game
• Baylor has 70 conference wins over the last six seasons, second only to Kansas' 72, the next closest team in that span is Texas Tech with 54
• BU is 32-17 in Big 12 Road games since 2019-20, The best mark in the league in that span
• The last time out, Baylor won its fifth-straight game against the Kansas Jayhawks in dramatic fashion, 81-70
• Down by 19 at the break, BU erased the KU lead less than seven minutes into the second half, and matched the largest halftime comeback in Big 12 history
• In the process Baylor became the only team over the last 15 seasons to beat a ranked opponent by double-digits after trailing by 20+ points
• Drew is one of six active coaches with a national title, and now has wins over three of the other five (Calipari, Pitino and Self)
• Baylor freshmen VJ Edgecombe and Robert Wright have taken their games to the next level, averaging 22.2 and 14.8 points per game, respectively, over the last five games, and are the two highest-scoring freshmen in the league
• Wright was named the Big 12's Newcomer of the Week, after Edgecombe picked up co-honors last week, becoming the first Baylor duo to win newcomer of the week in consecutive weeks
• Against BYU, Wright and Edgecombe became the first BU true freshmen to each score 20 points in the same game since John Lucas III and Lawrence Roberts did it against UNT in December of 2001
• Edgecombe has seven 15+ point performances in Big 12 Play, and now ranks fifth in the conference in points per game in league play (18.1)
• Across his last five games, Edgecombe is averaging 22.2 points per game, shooting 50% from the field and 58% from three-point range
• With his 78th career double-double against the Jayhawks, Norchad Omier moved into a tie for 11th in NCAA history with three players including UCLA's Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), one more moves him into the top-10 all-time
• BU is 169-102 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 seventh in the Power-5 with 13.4 offensive rebounds per game
• Sitting at +2.9, BU is third in the Big 12 conference in turnover margin
• Baylor has had its full compliment of rotation players available for just four full games this season
