So the opening 3-game get-to-know each other opening stretch follows the script pretty well.
Bears never pushed as you can imagine. The finished shooting nearly 53 percent. Weren't great from the arc (10-31). But they also forced 24 UNC turnovers, took 14 more shots (70-56) and placed five in double figures.
LJ Cryer game-high 20 but was 4-9 from 3-point range. Jalen Bridges really off to a good start with 15 points. He seems to be fitting in nicely in this rotation (Matthew who?). Keyonte George with 12 points (1-6 3) but had a good floor game with 7 boards and six assists. This team had 24 assists for 37 baskets. That's good.
Now, it's out to Las Vegas for the Continental Tire Main Event for a tilt with No. 16 Virginia (2-0) 6:00 pm Friday at T-Mobile Arena (ESPN2).
STORY LINES
• No. 5/6 Baylor hosts The University of Northern Colorado at 7 pm CT on Monday in the first meeting between the two squads since 1941.
• Monday marks the 2nd all-time meeting between this pair of Bears, with BU holding a 1-0 series advantage. In their last meeting Northern Colorado was known as Colorado State College of Education, at Greeley.
• Scott Drew is now just 1 win away from 400 wins at Baylor. He would become one of just 10 active coaches, and one of two in the Big 12 (Bill Self) with 400+ wins at their current school.
• In his 20th season at BU, Drew is coming off Big 12 Coach of the Year honors for a 3rd-straight season, joining Gene Keady (Purdue, 94-96) and Jay Wright (Villanova, 14-16) as the only high-major coaches to accomplish the feat.
• Drew's nephew Caleb Shaw is a freshman guard on the UNC roster. In two games this season, Shaw has played 47 minutes, averaging 13.0 points and 5.5 rebounds in two contests.
• The Bears are coming off an 87-70 win over Norfolk State where they shot 38 three-pointers, the second-most in the Scott Drew era and the fifth-most in school history.
• Keyonte George scored 23 points to lead the Bears, setting a career high for a second-straight game.
• George's 23 points were the most be a BU freshman since Jared Butler scored 31 at Kansas on 3/9/19.
• The 64-point win was BU's third-largest in program history, and 117 points were 1 shy of a Ferrell Center record.
• Baylor is 14-1 all time against teams from the Big Sky Conference.
• Baylor has been in the Preseason AP Top 25 in 10 of 13 seasons since its first preseason ranking in 2010-11.
• Baylor is 40-3 in non-conference games over the last three seasons.
• The Bears are 57-9 over the last 2-plus seasons, the nation's best record by a Power-5 team.
• Baylor is 83-13 over the last 3-plus seasons, the nation's 2nd-best record by a Power-5 team (Kansas).
• Baylor's streak of 10-consecutive postseason appearances is tied as the nation's 6th-longest active streak.
• BU won a school-record 26 regular-season games and finished with its 2nd-most conference wins (14) last season.
• Baylor is playing its 622nd game of the 20-year Drew era – more than half (313) have been as a ranked team, a remarkable feat considering BU was unranked for the first 122 games of Drew's rebuild.
Bears never pushed as you can imagine. The finished shooting nearly 53 percent. Weren't great from the arc (10-31). But they also forced 24 UNC turnovers, took 14 more shots (70-56) and placed five in double figures.
LJ Cryer game-high 20 but was 4-9 from 3-point range. Jalen Bridges really off to a good start with 15 points. He seems to be fitting in nicely in this rotation (Matthew who?). Keyonte George with 12 points (1-6 3) but had a good floor game with 7 boards and six assists. This team had 24 assists for 37 baskets. That's good.
Now, it's out to Las Vegas for the Continental Tire Main Event for a tilt with No. 16 Virginia (2-0) 6:00 pm Friday at T-Mobile Arena (ESPN2).
STORY LINES
• No. 5/6 Baylor hosts The University of Northern Colorado at 7 pm CT on Monday in the first meeting between the two squads since 1941.
• Monday marks the 2nd all-time meeting between this pair of Bears, with BU holding a 1-0 series advantage. In their last meeting Northern Colorado was known as Colorado State College of Education, at Greeley.
• Scott Drew is now just 1 win away from 400 wins at Baylor. He would become one of just 10 active coaches, and one of two in the Big 12 (Bill Self) with 400+ wins at their current school.
• In his 20th season at BU, Drew is coming off Big 12 Coach of the Year honors for a 3rd-straight season, joining Gene Keady (Purdue, 94-96) and Jay Wright (Villanova, 14-16) as the only high-major coaches to accomplish the feat.
• Drew's nephew Caleb Shaw is a freshman guard on the UNC roster. In two games this season, Shaw has played 47 minutes, averaging 13.0 points and 5.5 rebounds in two contests.
• The Bears are coming off an 87-70 win over Norfolk State where they shot 38 three-pointers, the second-most in the Scott Drew era and the fifth-most in school history.
• Keyonte George scored 23 points to lead the Bears, setting a career high for a second-straight game.
• George's 23 points were the most be a BU freshman since Jared Butler scored 31 at Kansas on 3/9/19.
• The 64-point win was BU's third-largest in program history, and 117 points were 1 shy of a Ferrell Center record.
• Baylor is 14-1 all time against teams from the Big Sky Conference.
• Baylor has been in the Preseason AP Top 25 in 10 of 13 seasons since its first preseason ranking in 2010-11.
• Baylor is 40-3 in non-conference games over the last three seasons.
• The Bears are 57-9 over the last 2-plus seasons, the nation's best record by a Power-5 team.
• Baylor is 83-13 over the last 3-plus seasons, the nation's 2nd-best record by a Power-5 team (Kansas).
• Baylor's streak of 10-consecutive postseason appearances is tied as the nation's 6th-longest active streak.
• BU won a school-record 26 regular-season games and finished with its 2nd-most conference wins (14) last season.
• Baylor is playing its 622nd game of the 20-year Drew era – more than half (313) have been as a ranked team, a remarkable feat considering BU was unranked for the first 122 games of Drew's rebuild.
