By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
Baylor’s basketball program has accomplished a lot over the years under Scott Drew.
What it hasn’t done is cut down nets. A program that was in position to win the Big 12 regular season title in 2019-20 let it get away when it lost three of its last five.
The No. 2 Bears (18-0, 10-0) earn a second chance at 7:00 p.m. Saturday in the Allen Fieldhouse (ESPN). A win at No. 17 Kansas (17-8, 11-6) gives Baylor its first Big 12 regular season championship in school history.
“I know we're still just excited to be back playing coming off a three-week pause, excited about getting back to playing how we were before that,’’ Drew said. “And at the same time, always great atmosphere in Kansas. And if it's 10 percent, 15 percent, 20 percent, 25 percent, one thing I've learned is it doesn't matter how few the crowd, they do still impact the game.’’
For the Bears, they broke the curse of “The Phog” last January when they won, 67-55, and led wire-to-wire when they beat the Jayhawks in Jan. 18 in Waco, 77-69.
This is actually the first of four attempts they will have to win the title. Kansas is followed by at West Virginia on Tuesday and then home to Oklahoma State Thursday and home to Texas Tech on March 7.
Both teams are coming off rough performances on Tuesday. The Bears earned the best start in school history when they came from a 17-point deficit to beat Iowa State, 77-72. Kansas blew a double-digit lead in the second half at Texas and lost in overtime, 75-72. It snapped a 5-game winning streak.
What Drew is hoping for is that the team he saw for the first 17 games looks nothing like the team that was on the floor against the Cyclones. A three-week pause from COVID-19 concerns halted the momentum.
“You've got to do what you've got to do,’’ Drew said. “Until you get your rotations back and get things back to normal, it's every man basically has got to do whatever they're called to do. And I know our guys were winded, were tired, and really persevered and fought through it.”
At one point Kansas’ season had been going so poorly, the Jayhawks fell out of the Top 25. They had dropped five of seven. But the resurgence came because they became a more consistent scoring team. In the last six games, KU has averaged nearly 73 points per game. Center David McCormack has been hot scoring in double figures in nine of the last 10 games.
Baylor is obviously hoping to pick up where it left before the pause from a shooting perspective. Despite an 8-25 performance from the arc against Iowa State, the Bears still lead the nation in 3-point shooting (43.2). A key for them will be getting their transition game from their defense going again. They only had 13 fast break points Tuesday. A majority of that came in the closing minutes.
But this team found a way to rally from the big deficit. It handled that “first”. That’s a product of where the players came from and where they want to go.
“It has a lot to do with where we came from,’ senior guard MaCio Teague said. “I had one offer, Davion [Mitchell] came from not playing at Auburn, Jared [Butler] had to transfer, and [Adam Flagler] came from Presbyterian, and Jon [Thcamwa Tchatchoua] didn’t play much at UNLV. We’ve got a group of guys that were overlooked.
“To get to this point we had to keep working through the obstacles that were thrown in front of us in life. I feel like we just persevere through anything and fight through anything. When we were down 17 with 12 minutes to go in the first half, nobody in the huddle was thinking like ‘Dang, we might lose this game.’ Even if we were down by 15 with 10 minutes to go in the second half, I don’t think we would have been thinking we’re going to lose the game.”
Notable:
Tchamwa Tcatchoua’s status for the game won’t be known until one hour before tipoff. JTT, Justin Turner and Mark Paterson were not available for Iowa State because of COVID-19 protocols…based on the way the Big 12 season is finishing, Kansas will be the only program to be able to play all 18 scheduled league conference games…should Baylor be able to play these final four regular season games, they will have played eight league road games and only six league home games...Butler's 5 Career Games vs. Kansas: 23.2 ppg, 4.8 apg, 4.2 rpg, 48% 3FGs (21-44), 2.18 A-T ratio
Publisher
Baylor’s basketball program has accomplished a lot over the years under Scott Drew.
What it hasn’t done is cut down nets. A program that was in position to win the Big 12 regular season title in 2019-20 let it get away when it lost three of its last five.
The No. 2 Bears (18-0, 10-0) earn a second chance at 7:00 p.m. Saturday in the Allen Fieldhouse (ESPN). A win at No. 17 Kansas (17-8, 11-6) gives Baylor its first Big 12 regular season championship in school history.
“I know we're still just excited to be back playing coming off a three-week pause, excited about getting back to playing how we were before that,’’ Drew said. “And at the same time, always great atmosphere in Kansas. And if it's 10 percent, 15 percent, 20 percent, 25 percent, one thing I've learned is it doesn't matter how few the crowd, they do still impact the game.’’
For the Bears, they broke the curse of “The Phog” last January when they won, 67-55, and led wire-to-wire when they beat the Jayhawks in Jan. 18 in Waco, 77-69.
This is actually the first of four attempts they will have to win the title. Kansas is followed by at West Virginia on Tuesday and then home to Oklahoma State Thursday and home to Texas Tech on March 7.
Both teams are coming off rough performances on Tuesday. The Bears earned the best start in school history when they came from a 17-point deficit to beat Iowa State, 77-72. Kansas blew a double-digit lead in the second half at Texas and lost in overtime, 75-72. It snapped a 5-game winning streak.
What Drew is hoping for is that the team he saw for the first 17 games looks nothing like the team that was on the floor against the Cyclones. A three-week pause from COVID-19 concerns halted the momentum.
“You've got to do what you've got to do,’’ Drew said. “Until you get your rotations back and get things back to normal, it's every man basically has got to do whatever they're called to do. And I know our guys were winded, were tired, and really persevered and fought through it.”
At one point Kansas’ season had been going so poorly, the Jayhawks fell out of the Top 25. They had dropped five of seven. But the resurgence came because they became a more consistent scoring team. In the last six games, KU has averaged nearly 73 points per game. Center David McCormack has been hot scoring in double figures in nine of the last 10 games.
Baylor is obviously hoping to pick up where it left before the pause from a shooting perspective. Despite an 8-25 performance from the arc against Iowa State, the Bears still lead the nation in 3-point shooting (43.2). A key for them will be getting their transition game from their defense going again. They only had 13 fast break points Tuesday. A majority of that came in the closing minutes.
But this team found a way to rally from the big deficit. It handled that “first”. That’s a product of where the players came from and where they want to go.
“It has a lot to do with where we came from,’ senior guard MaCio Teague said. “I had one offer, Davion [Mitchell] came from not playing at Auburn, Jared [Butler] had to transfer, and [Adam Flagler] came from Presbyterian, and Jon [Thcamwa Tchatchoua] didn’t play much at UNLV. We’ve got a group of guys that were overlooked.
“To get to this point we had to keep working through the obstacles that were thrown in front of us in life. I feel like we just persevere through anything and fight through anything. When we were down 17 with 12 minutes to go in the first half, nobody in the huddle was thinking like ‘Dang, we might lose this game.’ Even if we were down by 15 with 10 minutes to go in the second half, I don’t think we would have been thinking we’re going to lose the game.”
Notable:
Tchamwa Tcatchoua’s status for the game won’t be known until one hour before tipoff. JTT, Justin Turner and Mark Paterson were not available for Iowa State because of COVID-19 protocols…based on the way the Big 12 season is finishing, Kansas will be the only program to be able to play all 18 scheduled league conference games…should Baylor be able to play these final four regular season games, they will have played eight league road games and only six league home games...Butler's 5 Career Games vs. Kansas: 23.2 ppg, 4.8 apg, 4.2 rpg, 48% 3FGs (21-44), 2.18 A-T ratio
