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Gameday Thread: No. 13 Baylor Takes On No. 11 Tennessee in Baha Mar Championship

November 22, 2024
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No. 13 Baylor (4-1) takes on No. 11 Tennessee (5-0) in the championship game of the Baha Mar Championship Friday, Nov. 22 at 8:30 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.

KenPom Prediction: Tennessee 74, Baylor 71

Torvik Prediction: Tennessee 72, Baylor 70

Haslametrics: Tennessee 76, Baylor 73


Coaches

  • Tennessee: Rick Barnes (70) 811-415 (207-101 at Tennessee); 28 NCAAs; 9 Sweet 16s; 4 Elite 8s;  Final Four
  • Baylor: Scott Drew (54); 469-254 overall (439-243 at Baylor); 12 NCAAs; 5 Sweet 16s; 3 Elite 8s; FF; 1 National Championship
  • Head to Head: 19-9 Barnes (9-6 Drew in last 15)

Tennessee Starters

  • Guard: Zakai Zeigler (SR) 5-9 172 lbs; 13 ppg; 3 reb; 7 asst; 46% FG; 37% 3pt; 80% FT
  • Guard: Jamai Mashack (SR) 6-4 202 lbs; 8 ppg; 4 reb; 3 st; 47% FG; 40% 3pt; 78% FT
  • Guard: Chaz Lanier (SR) 6-5 207 lbs; 16 ppg; 47% FG; 50% 3pt; 83% FT
  • Forward: Igor Milicic (SR) 6-10 225 lbs; 14 ppg; 7 reb; 3 asst; 64% FG; 42% 3pt; 82% FT 
  • Forward: Felix Okpara (JR) 6-11 235 lbs; 8 ppg; 6 reb; 2 blks; 57% FG; 58% FT

Tennessee Bench

  • Guard: Jordan Gainey (SR) 6-4 190 lbs; 10 ppg; 4 reb; 2 st; 52% FG; 31% 3pt; 87% FT
  • Forward: Darlinstone Dunbar (SR) 6-6 220 lbs; 4 ppg; 3 reb; 67% FG

Baylor Starters

  • Guard: Jeremy Roach (SR) 6-2 180 lbs; 14 ppg; 4 asst; 45% FG; 42% 3pt; 69% FT
  • Guard: Jayden Nunn (SR) 6-4 190 lbs; 13 ppg; 4 reb; 2 st; 47% FG; 47% 3pt; 57% FT
  • Guard: VJ Edgecombe (FR) 6-5 190 lbs; 11 ppg; 7 reb; 4 asst; 2 st; 34% FG; 23% 3pt; 71% FT
  • Forward: Norchad Omier (SR) 6-7 245 lbs; 15 ppg; 10 reb; 57% FG; 13% 3pt; 64% FT
  • Forward: Josh Ojianwuna (JR) 6-10 255 lbs; 7 ppg; 5 reb; 2 st; 80% FG; 68% FT

Baylor Bench

  • Guard: Langston Love (JR) 6-5 215 lbs; 11 ppg; 3 reb; 47% FG; 48% 3p; 78% FT (2023-24 stats)
  • Forward: Jalen Celestine (SR) 6-7 215 lbs; 10 ppg; 3 reb; 45% FG; 45% 3pt; 100% FT
  • Guard: Rob Wright (FR) 6-1 180 lbs; 12 ppg; 5 asst; 47% FG; 54% 3pt; 83% FT
Discussion from...

Gameday Thread: No. 13 Baylor Takes On No. 11 Tennessee in Baha Mar Championship

8,561 Views | 138 Replies | Last: 1 hr ago by Crawfoso1973
Jorkel
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IowaBear said:

It's hard to find positives with 2 ass beating of this proportion this early and another coming in 2 weeks vs UCONN. It's gonna be one of those seasons where we win a few shootouts against ok/good teams and get absolutely wrecked by the elite teams


Oh we are going to have shoutouts with all the middle of the pack teams in the big 12. Each good good to great team is going to blow us out of the water.
Guitarbiscuit
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If we can close to within 10 or 15, I'll call it a moral victory.
Quinton
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I had UConn penciled as a loss. If they play like this they lose by 50. Hurley isn't worried about all the other stuff. He wants to kill you.
Big12Fan2024
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IowaBear said:

I said it last night. But it really does feel like the staff goes into each game hoping to outgun the opponent. They sure as **** don't go in thinking defense is gonna win them the game.
Yep. We're basically streaky. Shot 14% from 3 against Gonzaga, 29% vs. Arkansas, shooting 23% tonight. But shot 50% vs. St. John's. So we'll be fine the nights we're on. Otherwise, could get run out of the gym by any legit team.
IvanBear
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It's hard to watch because we all know these are coach and program level problems not just this group of guys. We've got to hope a bad season (maybe this one) will make Drew make some tough decisions for the first time in years.
IowaBear
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Will we though? We shot as you said 50% from 3 and squeaked out a miracle vs a SJ team who finishes 6th in the B12. We're going to constantly be I. Tight games (when we're not getting blown out) because there's zero ability to string 3,4,5 stops together. It's 1 easy bucket after the next.
Big12Fan2024
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Perfect examples of streaky shooting -- Nunn and Celestine.

Nunn had a great shooting game against Arkansas but has disappeared for the other big games (sorry Tarleton and Sam Houston don't count) He and Celestine are a combined 1-13 tonight.
BearFan33
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We cant mount a comeback when you can't throw it in the ocean
BearFan33
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Go back into omier
Johnny Bear
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For one thing, if I was playing us, I would instruct my team to let Edgecombe shoot as many threes as he wants to shoot - Just be sure to box out and get ready for the rebound.
IowaBear
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Yup sag off of him. He's a certified bricklayer. We're really good at recruiting 5 stars capable of laying bricks. George and Walter I believe weee both south of 40% from the field at BU
Big12Fan2024
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I would just hide the women and children when we go to Storrs. Our slow reaction on D to ball movement combined with UConn's incredibly fast ball movement is gonna result in a lot of wide open shots for them. If they're hitting them then we will likely have another Gonzaga game or game like this on our hands.
BearFan33
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Down 21
Little of 8 min left. Time to start a run

VJ is healthy and showing off his athleticism
ImABearToo
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Cut it to 10 quickly, who knows what could happen. Easier said than done.
Big12Fan2024
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IowaBear said:

Will we though? We shot as you said 50% from 3 and squeaked out a miracle vs a SJ team who finishes 6th in the B12. We're going to constantly be I. Tight games (when we're not getting blown out) because there's zero ability to string 3,4,5 stops together. It's 1 easy bucket after the next.
The part that worries me is that we have unintentionally gamed the system. People think this is an efficient offensive team because of the stats when in fact we've gamed the stats by what we did with Sam Houston and Tarleton and that won't hold up against someone like Tennessee, KU, ISU, UH, etc.

This is not a great shooting team. It's a streaky shooting team. And we've been marred down in really poor offensive first halves in 3 of our 4 real games.
BearFan33
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That was a charge
historian
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That was a charge!!
IowaBear
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That's been the problem for multiple years. Incredibly streaky shooting with minimal consistency. I just don't see us beating any of the conferences top dawgs barring a complete 180. Granted you never count Drew out.
BearFan33
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Down 17 with 5:20 left

We've played a lot better in the second half
IowaBear
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Gonna win the 2nd half. Gotta question how much effort Tenn put in this half though considering they were up damm near 30 at the break
Big12Fan2024
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IowaBear said:

That's been the problem for multiple years. Incredibly streaky shooting with minimal consistency. I just don't see us beating any of the conferences top dawgs barring a complete 180. Granted you never count Drew out.
KU, Iowa St and UH are all a notch way above everyone else in the conference.

Arizona (who got pummeled for the 2nd time like we have), Cincy, Tech, K State, BYU, Arizona St and we are probably a tier (maybe I'm skipping someone)

and then there's everyone else (Utah, UCF, Colorado, TCU, WVU, Ok State)


Drew's teams usually improve through the season so we can try to finish near the top of our tier. This team just has too many fundamental holes to get to the 1st tier. We may upset one of the top tier on a hot shooting night, but that's about it. No productive depth and no D are bad combinations.
Quinton
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Big12Fan2024 said:

I would just hide the women and children when we go to Storrs. Our slow reaction on D to ball movement combined with UConn's incredibly fast ball movement is gonna result in a lot of wide open shots for them. If they're hitting them then we will likely have another Gonzaga game or game like this on our hands.


We're fortunate they aren't as talented this year. Still likely mauling. Only way to salvage this ooc would be a miracle performance at UConn. Their sets are so clean and they're the best passing team in the country so unlikely
Big12Fan2024
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We had 2 assists and 10 TOs at halftime.

We now have 10 assists and 12 TOs.

I don't understand why we are getting so marred down in the 1st half and then the 2nd half coming to life other than Drew has always been good at halftime recoveries. We just have to figure how to get off to a good start kinda like we did against Arkansas.
Quinton
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Vj at least showing a little frustration and fire. You're going to get mauled going inside, embrace it,
Stefano DiMera
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ON TO THE PRIVATEERS!
Big12Fan2024
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Gonzaga, St. Johns and Tennessee have all shot 40%+ from 3 against us. Somehow that has to change when we start playing Big 12 opponents.

I wish I could convince myself fatigue explained a large part of tonight, but most of the errors are the same things exhibited in other games where fatigue wasn't involved.
Johnny Bear
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Pretty bad when you win the second half by 12 and you still lose by 15.
Big12Fan2024
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Let's leave with at least one positive - it was VJ's best offensive showing on the stat line. That's something to build on. And Drew's teams never quit. We've just gotta figure out how to not fall into such large holes in the first half of games.
IvanBear
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I don't buy this we were tired. We're a bad defensive team and our offense is based on throwing up prayers and hoping omier rebounds.
Killing Floor
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I think a lesson we can apply is that you can go down 14 points in the opening half but 27 is too many to overcome.

Maybe it's as simple as that. Don't give up the ship before halftime.
Let’s Go!
Big12Fan2024
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After listening to Drew it sounds like significant changes are coming to the starting lineup, playing minutes and overall strategy as it should be. There are a couple of guys who need to be low minute role players only or purely situational guys. This is unfortunately a year when the starters have to all play 30+ minutes.

Drew was fair to everyone and gave all of them an opportunity to show what they have through 6 games which is roughly 20% of our season already.
Crawfoso1973
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Big12Fan2024 said:

After listening to Drew it sounds like significant changes are coming to the starting lineup, playing minutes and overall strategy as it should be. There are a couple of guys who need to be low minute role players only or purely situational guys. This is unfortunately a year when the starters have to all play 30+ minutes.

Drew was fair to everyone and gave all of them an opportunity to show what they have through 6 games which is roughly 20% of our season already.
What did he say? Since we have only 8 guys who can play, I don't see how any of them could lose significant minutes.
Crawfoso1973
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IvanBear said:

I don't buy this we were tired. We're a bad defensive team and our offense is based on throwing up prayers and hoping omier rebounds.
If you have ever played a sport you will know fatigue is a real thing. All of these things can be true at the same time. We were clearly exhausted playing a 7.5 man rotation 24 hours after an emotional double-overtime game. At the same time, we are a bad defensive team. But our physical and emotional exhaustion made us look much worse than we are.
 
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