By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
Just some observations from this one at the Ferrell Center as the Bears reach 20 wins.
>Thought the Bears were better offensively and Scott Drew spoke to that. And it’s possible to write this even though they’re coming off scoring 94 at West Virginia. The ball movement and making the extra pass was better. They were so balanced in the scoring led by Jared Butler’s 22, Matthew Mayer and MaCio Teague each with 19 and Davion Mitchell with 12. They shot 50.9 percent for the game and 40.9 percent from 3-point range.
>Baylor capitalizing on opposing team’s turnovers is getting there. The Bears had 26 points off 18 OSU miscues. That was the one thing that was missing from the three previous games. But playing opportunistic is what this team thrives on. I think it also helped that OSU made some really dumb passes that helped.
>As we all know Mayer can be the wild horse. He talked about a postgame discussion he had with Drew about playing just five minutes at Kansas and giving himself a chance to deliver more on the floor. Drew was willing to do that. The payoff has been huge with Mayer scoring 18 and 19 points in each of these last two games.
"After the Kansas game I had a real talk with Coach Drew about playing time, because I played about five minutes, including garbage time. I laid everything on the table that I wanted to say. He really listened to me, and he left me in (despite) some mistakes in the West Virginia game. I really appreciated that. He let me play (through mistakes) today.''
>Mayer then spoke about a pretty major confrontation with Associate Head Coach Jerome Tang before the Kansas State game. Mayer’s honesty was pretty interesting. But he called that moment a turnaround for him and his season.
>I think the thing we continue to learn about Mayer as he’s playing and doing more postgame interviews is that he’s the most talented player on the floor. Harnessing, though, and getting it all to come together is another thing. That’s been the challenge and frustration over the year for this coaching staff. Maybe the situation with Tang did flip a switch for good. These two games are definitely the best he’s ever strung together while at Baylor. It’s really up to Mayer on how good he wants to be and what he’s willing to do to get there. And these two games have been very important because there’s really been nothing else off the bench between Adam Flagler and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua since Kansas.
>Have to watch the potential No. 1 pick in Cade Cunningham and just appreciate how good he is. Cunningham scored 20 of his 24 in the second half and kept the Cowboys in it. Hopefully, his ankle injury isn’t serious. This is an Oklahoma State team that’s just getting better and better. Hopefully, they’re appeal will be lessened by the NCAA or a decision won’t be made in time before next week’s Big 12 tournament. This team deserves to be seen nationally.
>Butler thinks they’re about 75 percent to where they were before they hit the pause. But the big thing about this team is that it nearly always finds an answer when it gets pushed by the opponent. And it’s not just a basket answer, it’s a series of two or three. That’s what makes them a mentally tough squad.
>Sunday is senior day when the Bears close out the regular season against Texas Tech (3:00 p.m., ESPN). They’re going to honor Mark Vital, Teague and Tristan Clark.
Publisher
Just some observations from this one at the Ferrell Center as the Bears reach 20 wins.
>Thought the Bears were better offensively and Scott Drew spoke to that. And it’s possible to write this even though they’re coming off scoring 94 at West Virginia. The ball movement and making the extra pass was better. They were so balanced in the scoring led by Jared Butler’s 22, Matthew Mayer and MaCio Teague each with 19 and Davion Mitchell with 12. They shot 50.9 percent for the game and 40.9 percent from 3-point range.
>Baylor capitalizing on opposing team’s turnovers is getting there. The Bears had 26 points off 18 OSU miscues. That was the one thing that was missing from the three previous games. But playing opportunistic is what this team thrives on. I think it also helped that OSU made some really dumb passes that helped.
>As we all know Mayer can be the wild horse. He talked about a postgame discussion he had with Drew about playing just five minutes at Kansas and giving himself a chance to deliver more on the floor. Drew was willing to do that. The payoff has been huge with Mayer scoring 18 and 19 points in each of these last two games.
"After the Kansas game I had a real talk with Coach Drew about playing time, because I played about five minutes, including garbage time. I laid everything on the table that I wanted to say. He really listened to me, and he left me in (despite) some mistakes in the West Virginia game. I really appreciated that. He let me play (through mistakes) today.''
>Mayer then spoke about a pretty major confrontation with Associate Head Coach Jerome Tang before the Kansas State game. Mayer’s honesty was pretty interesting. But he called that moment a turnaround for him and his season.
>I think the thing we continue to learn about Mayer as he’s playing and doing more postgame interviews is that he’s the most talented player on the floor. Harnessing, though, and getting it all to come together is another thing. That’s been the challenge and frustration over the year for this coaching staff. Maybe the situation with Tang did flip a switch for good. These two games are definitely the best he’s ever strung together while at Baylor. It’s really up to Mayer on how good he wants to be and what he’s willing to do to get there. And these two games have been very important because there’s really been nothing else off the bench between Adam Flagler and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua since Kansas.
>Have to watch the potential No. 1 pick in Cade Cunningham and just appreciate how good he is. Cunningham scored 20 of his 24 in the second half and kept the Cowboys in it. Hopefully, his ankle injury isn’t serious. This is an Oklahoma State team that’s just getting better and better. Hopefully, they’re appeal will be lessened by the NCAA or a decision won’t be made in time before next week’s Big 12 tournament. This team deserves to be seen nationally.
>Butler thinks they’re about 75 percent to where they were before they hit the pause. But the big thing about this team is that it nearly always finds an answer when it gets pushed by the opponent. And it’s not just a basket answer, it’s a series of two or three. That’s what makes them a mentally tough squad.
>Sunday is senior day when the Bears close out the regular season against Texas Tech (3:00 p.m., ESPN). They’re going to honor Mark Vital, Teague and Tristan Clark.
- Baylor earned its 12th Big 12 win of the season, assuring the Bears of finishing with both the most wins and fewest losses in the league.
- Baylor is now a nation’s-best 12-2 against AP Top 25 teams over the last 2 seasons, including 6-1 this season.
- Baylor improved to a Big 12-best 27-4 in conference play over the last 2 seasons.
- Baylor is now 10-0 at home this season – the Bears will go for their first undefeated season at home since 1947-48 on Sunday.
- Baylor’s 20-1 start matches the 2019-20 season for the best 21-game record in program history.
- Baylor reached the 20-win mark for the 12th time in the last 14 seasons. The Bears had three 20-win seasons in the 100 previous years of Baylor Basketball. BU is 24-1 at home over the last 2 seasons, with the only loss to No. 3 Kansas by 3 points on Feb. 22, 2020.
- Baylor swept the season series against Oklahoma State for the 7th time in the last 10 seasons after never doing so before that.
- Baylor has now led by at least 4 points in all 51 games since the start of the 2019-20 season.
- Baylor has built double-digit leads in 19 of 21 games this season (2 of 4 since 21-day layoff).
- Baylor improved to 46-5 since MaCio Teague and Davion Mitchell joined the starting lineup at the start of the 2019-20 season.
- Matthew Mayer tied his career-high with 19 points, and he’s averaging 18.5 points over the last 2 games.
- Teague had 19 points and tied his season-high with 5 assists.
- Jared Butler (22 points) had his 8th 20-point game of the season (7th in Big 12 play) and his 18th career 20-point game.
- Mark Vital won his 83rd career game, taking over sole possession of 9th in program history. He extended his school record with a 44th career Big 12 win.
- Mayer and Butler won their 37th career Big 12 games, tied for 3rd-most in program history.
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