By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
All you need to know about Baylor vs. Creighton in the Round of 32 Sunday in Denver is that the quality of offense may be more than worth the price of admission.
The efficiency that both the South Region’s No. 3 Bears (23-10) and the No. 6 Blue Jays (22-12) present is the following:
Baylor averages 77.4 points, shoots 37 percent from deep and offers four players – Adam Flagler (15.6), Keyonte George (15.6), LJ Cryer (14.5) and Jalen Bridges (10.2) – who score in double figures.
Creighton averages 76.7 points, shoots 36 percent from deep and offers five players – Ryan Kalkbrenner (15.9), Trey Alexander (13.7), Baylor Scheierman (12.7), Arthur Kaluma (11.9) and Ryan Nembhard (11.9) – who score in double figures.
The winner advances to the Sweet 16 Friday in Louisville to face No. 15 Princeton at the KFC YUM! Center. Princeton advanced Saturday when it defeated Missouri, 78-63.
There’s the irony of one Baylor facing the other Baylor.
“Love his name,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said. “Hopefully, this Baylor does better than that Baylor tomorrow.”
While Baylor’s defense had issues in the first half Friday against UC-Sant Barbara, it turned everything around in the second half, limiting the Gauchos to just 30 percent shooting and 20 points. It also kept UCSB out of the block.
But the Blue Jays present a different challenge in the low post with Creighton 7-1 center Kalkbrenner. Averaging 15.7 for the season, he went off in the 72-63 win over North Carolina State with 31 points on 11-14 shooting. That offset Creighton going just 3-20 from long distance.
"They do a great job getting (Kalkbrenner) the ball," Drew said. "They can shoot it, which spaces the floor. And like any good team, they got two or three things, so if you collapse on them, they can hit the 3; if you stay out, they hurt you inside."
Of course, the Bears experience of Flagler and Cryer coupled with the one-and-done George. Flagler hit a jumper in the closing seconds of the first half Friday that seemed to settle this team. Then he and Cryer took control in the final 10 minutes.
Efficient guard play will make the difference in any tournament run.
"It's gonna be a challenge for us just to be able to guard all three of them and kind of contain all three of them," Alexander said, "but ... we just got to play the way that we play and play our brand of basketball, and they have to guard us as well."
Should this come down to a free throw shooting contest, flip a coin. Both are really good. Baylor is 74.9. Creighton is 76.7.
STORY LINES
• No. 3 seed Baylor takes on No. 6 seed Creighton on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on TBS at 5:10 p.m. MT.
• BU is appearing in the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time in the last nine tournaments.
• The Bears are 22-15 in 14 NCAA Championship appearances and 19-9 under Scott Drew.
• Drew is one of two active coaches to have won an NCAA Title and an NIT Title (John Calipari). He is the only active coach to have won both at the same school.
• Baylor is one of just four teams to be a three-seed or higher in each of the last three NCAA Tournaments.
• BU is 9-5 all time when playing as a No. 3 seed.
• The Bears are appearing in the NCAA postseason for a school-record 11th-consecutive time (9 NCAA, 2 NIT).
• Baylor is 42-24 in postseason tournaments (conference, national) over the last 15 seasons.
• BU and Creighton will be meeting for the sixth time, and a second time in the NCAA Tournament.
• Baylor has won the last two meetings against the Jays including an 85-55 win over the Jays in the Second round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament .
• The Bears played 19 of 33 (.575%) games this season against teams in the NCAA Tournament field.
• Baylor is 9-10 against the 2023 NCAA Tournament field – No. 1 seed Kansas (1-1), No. 2 seed Marquette (0-1), No. 2 seed UCLA (1-0), No. 2 seed Texas (1-1), No. 3 seed Gonzaga (1-0), No. 3 seed Kansas Stats (0-2), No. 4 seed Virginia (0-1), No. 6 Seed Iowa State (0-3), No. 6 seed TCU (1-1), No. 8 seed Arkansas (1-0), No. 9 seed West Virginia (2-0) and No. 14 seed UC Santa Barbara (1-0).
• BU is 4-2 all time in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Last time out BU shot a season-high .549 to down UC Santa Barbara 74-56 in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Adam Flagler had a game-high 18 points becoming BU’s all-time leading scorer in NCAA Tournament games.
• Baylor won its fifth-straight first-round game and improved to 8-4 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Baylor is 1 of 10 teams to appear in eight of the last nine tournaments, joining Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, North Carolina, Purdue, Villanova and Virginia.
• BU has won 18 of its last 19 neutral-site games against non-conference opponents (only loss in that span was vs. Virginia 11/18/22).
• All nine of BU’s losses have come against teams currently ranked in the top 30 of the latest NCAA Net rankings.
• The Bears are 13-3 in the last 16 games against AP Top-10 teams, beating Nos. 5, 9, 6, 6, 10, 6, 1, 6, 8, 5, 8, 9 and 8.
• With 499 points, George is just 10 points from Baylor’s freshman record of 509 held by Aaron Bruce.
• In the Big 12 Tournament, George set Baylor’s freshman record for made-threes in a season (77).
• George was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, BU’s first since Quincy Miller in 2012.
• BU is the only Power-Six team to have a guard trio each averaging more than 14.5 points per game.
• BU’s 11 quad-one wins are the fourth-most in the nation.
Publisher
All you need to know about Baylor vs. Creighton in the Round of 32 Sunday in Denver is that the quality of offense may be more than worth the price of admission.
The efficiency that both the South Region’s No. 3 Bears (23-10) and the No. 6 Blue Jays (22-12) present is the following:
Baylor averages 77.4 points, shoots 37 percent from deep and offers four players – Adam Flagler (15.6), Keyonte George (15.6), LJ Cryer (14.5) and Jalen Bridges (10.2) – who score in double figures.
Creighton averages 76.7 points, shoots 36 percent from deep and offers five players – Ryan Kalkbrenner (15.9), Trey Alexander (13.7), Baylor Scheierman (12.7), Arthur Kaluma (11.9) and Ryan Nembhard (11.9) – who score in double figures.
The winner advances to the Sweet 16 Friday in Louisville to face No. 15 Princeton at the KFC YUM! Center. Princeton advanced Saturday when it defeated Missouri, 78-63.
There’s the irony of one Baylor facing the other Baylor.
“Love his name,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said. “Hopefully, this Baylor does better than that Baylor tomorrow.”
While Baylor’s defense had issues in the first half Friday against UC-Sant Barbara, it turned everything around in the second half, limiting the Gauchos to just 30 percent shooting and 20 points. It also kept UCSB out of the block.
But the Blue Jays present a different challenge in the low post with Creighton 7-1 center Kalkbrenner. Averaging 15.7 for the season, he went off in the 72-63 win over North Carolina State with 31 points on 11-14 shooting. That offset Creighton going just 3-20 from long distance.
"They do a great job getting (Kalkbrenner) the ball," Drew said. "They can shoot it, which spaces the floor. And like any good team, they got two or three things, so if you collapse on them, they can hit the 3; if you stay out, they hurt you inside."
Of course, the Bears experience of Flagler and Cryer coupled with the one-and-done George. Flagler hit a jumper in the closing seconds of the first half Friday that seemed to settle this team. Then he and Cryer took control in the final 10 minutes.
Efficient guard play will make the difference in any tournament run.
"It's gonna be a challenge for us just to be able to guard all three of them and kind of contain all three of them," Alexander said, "but ... we just got to play the way that we play and play our brand of basketball, and they have to guard us as well."
Should this come down to a free throw shooting contest, flip a coin. Both are really good. Baylor is 74.9. Creighton is 76.7.
STORY LINES
• No. 3 seed Baylor takes on No. 6 seed Creighton on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on TBS at 5:10 p.m. MT.
• BU is appearing in the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time in the last nine tournaments.
• The Bears are 22-15 in 14 NCAA Championship appearances and 19-9 under Scott Drew.
• Drew is one of two active coaches to have won an NCAA Title and an NIT Title (John Calipari). He is the only active coach to have won both at the same school.
• Baylor is one of just four teams to be a three-seed or higher in each of the last three NCAA Tournaments.
• BU is 9-5 all time when playing as a No. 3 seed.
• The Bears are appearing in the NCAA postseason for a school-record 11th-consecutive time (9 NCAA, 2 NIT).
• Baylor is 42-24 in postseason tournaments (conference, national) over the last 15 seasons.
• BU and Creighton will be meeting for the sixth time, and a second time in the NCAA Tournament.
• Baylor has won the last two meetings against the Jays including an 85-55 win over the Jays in the Second round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament .
• The Bears played 19 of 33 (.575%) games this season against teams in the NCAA Tournament field.
• Baylor is 9-10 against the 2023 NCAA Tournament field – No. 1 seed Kansas (1-1), No. 2 seed Marquette (0-1), No. 2 seed UCLA (1-0), No. 2 seed Texas (1-1), No. 3 seed Gonzaga (1-0), No. 3 seed Kansas Stats (0-2), No. 4 seed Virginia (0-1), No. 6 Seed Iowa State (0-3), No. 6 seed TCU (1-1), No. 8 seed Arkansas (1-0), No. 9 seed West Virginia (2-0) and No. 14 seed UC Santa Barbara (1-0).
• BU is 4-2 all time in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Last time out BU shot a season-high .549 to down UC Santa Barbara 74-56 in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Adam Flagler had a game-high 18 points becoming BU’s all-time leading scorer in NCAA Tournament games.
• Baylor won its fifth-straight first-round game and improved to 8-4 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Baylor is 1 of 10 teams to appear in eight of the last nine tournaments, joining Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, North Carolina, Purdue, Villanova and Virginia.
• BU has won 18 of its last 19 neutral-site games against non-conference opponents (only loss in that span was vs. Virginia 11/18/22).
• All nine of BU’s losses have come against teams currently ranked in the top 30 of the latest NCAA Net rankings.
• The Bears are 13-3 in the last 16 games against AP Top-10 teams, beating Nos. 5, 9, 6, 6, 10, 6, 1, 6, 8, 5, 8, 9 and 8.
• With 499 points, George is just 10 points from Baylor’s freshman record of 509 held by Aaron Bruce.
• In the Big 12 Tournament, George set Baylor’s freshman record for made-threes in a season (77).
• George was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, BU’s first since Quincy Miller in 2012.
• BU is the only Power-Six team to have a guard trio each averaging more than 14.5 points per game.
• BU’s 11 quad-one wins are the fourth-most in the nation.
