GAUNTLET OR OPPORTUNITY?

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

WACO, Texas – Much like one man's trash is another's treasure, Baylor coach Scott Drew sees the gauntlet of facing three-straight ranked teams as "great opportunities."

Sandwiched between a 72-69 loss on the road to seventh-ranked Iowa State and Saturday's neutral-site matchup against No. 24/23 Louisville at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Drew's Bears (13-10, 3-8) will face 22^nd-ranked BYU (17-6, 5-5) at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Foster Pavilion.

"I think all the Big 12 is a gauntlet, regardless if there's a number in front of the team or not," Drew said. "Why our conference is always ranked so high is not because of one, two, three or four teams, it's the top to bottom that makes it so competitive and makes it so hard. These are great opportunities. You come to college to play in games like this."

Baylor, which has a NET ranking of No. 46, already has top-100 wins over Washington, Creighton, San Diego State, Oklahoma State, Colorado and West Virginia.

"We're extremely hungry," said sophomore guard Isaac Williams IV (9.3 ppg, 2.6 assists). "We still think we're in it. We're trying to win every game . . . and I don't think anybody's lost their hunger for it."

After a back-and-forth first half against Iowa State, the Bears found themselves down by 15 with under three minutes to play. But they outscored the Cyclones, 14-2, down the stretch and made it a one-possession game with 1.2 seconds left on 3-pointers by Obi Agbim, Cameron Carr and Tounde Yessoufou.

"As a coach, you're always proud that you compete for 40 minutes and you're never out of the fight," Drew said. "In basketball, things can change so quick. We pressed, because that's really what got us back in it. We've pressed throughout the year. Normally, if it worked all the time, we'd press all the time. But with a short bench, we don't have the luxury for that."

Agbim, who's averaged 15.8 points over the last five games after a slow start in conference play, said you have to "eliminate the most mistakes you can" in a close game like Saturday's against the Cyclones.

"A lot of the mistakes that we made, if we would have eliminated them, we would have had a better chance to win the game at the end. But those early mistakes cost us at the end. I feel like fought to the end, so credit to the team for fighting."

A preseason top-10 team, BYU was ranked in the top 15 until a stretch that has seen the Cougars lose four in a row and five of their last six. Four of those losses came against ranked foes Arizona, Kansas, Texas Tech and Houston, but they also lost a 99-92 shootout on the road at Oklahoma State.

Much like the Bears' "Big Three" of Agbim (11.6 ppg, 3.4 assists), Yessoufou (17.7 ppg, 5.7 rebounds) and Carr (19.6 ppg, 5.8 rebounds), BYU leans heavily on its trio of 6-9 freshman forward AJ Dybantsa (24.0 ppg, 6.3 rebounds), 6-5 senior guard Richie Saunders (19.0 ppg, 5.9 rebounds) and 6-1 sophomore point guard Rob Wright (17.3 ppg, 5.0 assists), who transferred from Baylor.

"Arguably, the first or second pick in the (NBA mock) draft all year long," Drew said of Dybantsa, the reigning Big 12 Newcomer of the Week. "Obviously, we know Rob's a great player and was really successful and did a great job for us here. And Richie Saunders is another person a lot of people think will be drafted. That's the great thing about Waco, you get to see pros and high-level basketball."

Tuesday's game will be broadcast by ESPN 2, with Mike Monaco and Miles Simon calling the action.

GAUNTLET OR OPPORTUNITY?

Players Mentioned

Obi Agbim

Cameron Carr

Isaac Williams IV

Tounde Yessoufou

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