RIVALRY RENEWED
4/4/2026 12:24:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Bears facing former Big 12 foe Oklahoma in CBC Semifinal
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Conference rivals up until two years ago, when Oklahoma left the Big 12 for the SEC, the Sooners (20-15) and Baylor Bears (17-16) will meet in the series for the 72nd time at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.
Only this time, a spot in Sunday's College Basketball Crown championship will be on the line.
"It's nice the guys have a chance to make money out here," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, who is trying to add a CBC title to the 2013 NIT championship and the 2021 NCAA championship he won.
"But playing with Baylor, playing with their teammates . . . . the fact that everybody wanted to play, everyone's taken it seriously and done their part to make sure they were healthy and ready to go, as a coach, you feel great about that."
While Drew said Oklahoma "is a team that we're very familiar with," there are no players still around from the Bears' 79-62 win over the Sooners in their last meeting on Feb. 13, 2024. Baylor trails the all-time series, 46-25, but has won 10 of the last 11 games in the series.
"OU is very similar to us, from the standpoint that their second half of conference was tremendous," Drew said. "I think they won eight of 10, and they were one of the last teams out of the (NCAA) tournament, if not the last team. They're playing really good basketball. Anytime you can in eight out of 10 in any league, you're doing well."
OU won six of its last eight regular-season games and knocked off South Carolina and Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament before falling to 17th-ranked Arkansas, 82-79. In the Sooners' 90-86 overtime win over Colorado, former Miami and Kansas State guard Nigel Pack poured in 20 points.
"Nigel Pack grew up in the Big 12, at K-State, and then went to Miami and go to the Final Four with Norchad Ormier," Drew said of the 5-10 Pack, who is averaging a team-high 16.6 points per game. "We know a lot about him."
Saint Joseph's transfer Xzayvier Brown, who is averaging 15.3 points per game, played with current Baylor senior forward Dan Skillings Jr. at Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia.
"Dan knows him really well, thinks the world of him," Drew said.
While the Sooners won the tight OT matchup with a shorthanded Colorado team, Baylor dominated Minnesota from start to finish, winning going away, 67-48, on Wednesday night. Obi Agbim hit five 3-pointers and scored 17 points, while Tounde Yessoufou and Cameron Carr scored 19 and 16 points, respectively.
"Those guys are all more than capable of scoring 15 or 20," Drew said. "Defenses do a good job of making it hard on the other team's best scorers getting good looks. By this time of the season, I think everybody knows what each other's strengths are. And when you're playing for a chance to win a championship, in a single-elimination (tournament), those guys do a pretty good job coaching themselves."
Saturday's CBC semifinal will be broadcast by FOX, with Gus Johnson, Jim Jackson and Kristina Pink calling the action.
Baylor Bear Insider
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Conference rivals up until two years ago, when Oklahoma left the Big 12 for the SEC, the Sooners (20-15) and Baylor Bears (17-16) will meet in the series for the 72nd time at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.
Only this time, a spot in Sunday's College Basketball Crown championship will be on the line.
"It's nice the guys have a chance to make money out here," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, who is trying to add a CBC title to the 2013 NIT championship and the 2021 NCAA championship he won.
"But playing with Baylor, playing with their teammates . . . . the fact that everybody wanted to play, everyone's taken it seriously and done their part to make sure they were healthy and ready to go, as a coach, you feel great about that."
While Drew said Oklahoma "is a team that we're very familiar with," there are no players still around from the Bears' 79-62 win over the Sooners in their last meeting on Feb. 13, 2024. Baylor trails the all-time series, 46-25, but has won 10 of the last 11 games in the series.
"OU is very similar to us, from the standpoint that their second half of conference was tremendous," Drew said. "I think they won eight of 10, and they were one of the last teams out of the (NCAA) tournament, if not the last team. They're playing really good basketball. Anytime you can in eight out of 10 in any league, you're doing well."
OU won six of its last eight regular-season games and knocked off South Carolina and Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament before falling to 17th-ranked Arkansas, 82-79. In the Sooners' 90-86 overtime win over Colorado, former Miami and Kansas State guard Nigel Pack poured in 20 points.
"Nigel Pack grew up in the Big 12, at K-State, and then went to Miami and go to the Final Four with Norchad Ormier," Drew said of the 5-10 Pack, who is averaging a team-high 16.6 points per game. "We know a lot about him."
Saint Joseph's transfer Xzayvier Brown, who is averaging 15.3 points per game, played with current Baylor senior forward Dan Skillings Jr. at Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia.
"Dan knows him really well, thinks the world of him," Drew said.
While the Sooners won the tight OT matchup with a shorthanded Colorado team, Baylor dominated Minnesota from start to finish, winning going away, 67-48, on Wednesday night. Obi Agbim hit five 3-pointers and scored 17 points, while Tounde Yessoufou and Cameron Carr scored 19 and 16 points, respectively.
"Those guys are all more than capable of scoring 15 or 20," Drew said. "Defenses do a good job of making it hard on the other team's best scorers getting good looks. By this time of the season, I think everybody knows what each other's strengths are. And when you're playing for a chance to win a championship, in a single-elimination (tournament), those guys do a pretty good job coaching themselves."
Saturday's CBC semifinal will be broadcast by FOX, with Gus Johnson, Jim Jackson and Kristina Pink calling the action.
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