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Baylor Basketball

Gameday Thread: No. 25 Baylor Travels to Face No. 2 Iowa State

January 2, 2025
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No. 25 Baylor (9-3, 1-0) travels to take on No. 2 Iowa State (11-1, 1-0) on Saturday, Jan. 4 at 1 p.m. CST. The game will be televised on CBS.  

Predictions

KenPom:  Iowa State 83, Baylor 74

Torvik:  Iowa State 81, Baylor 74

Evan Miyakawa:  Iowa State 81, Baylor 72

Haslemetrics:  Iowa State 80, Baylor 74

Coaches

Iowa State:  TJ Otzleberger (47) 180-99 (81-36 at ISU); 4 NCAAs; 2 Sweet 16s

Baylor:  Scott Drew (54); 475-258 overall (455-247 at Baylor); 12 NCAAs; 5 Sweet 16s; 3 Elite 8s; FF; 1 National Championship

Head to Head: 4-3 Otzleberger

Iowa State Starters

  • Guard: Tamin Lipsey (Jr.) 6-1 200 lbs; 10 ppg; 2 reb; 4 asst; 2 st; 48% FG; 28% 3pt; 72% FT
  • Guard: Keshon Gilbert (Sr.) 6-4 200 lbs; 16 ppg; 3 reb; 5 asst; 55% FG; 29% 3pt; 77% FT
  • Forward: Joshua Jefferson (Jr.) 6-9 240 lbs; 12 ppg; 8 reb; 54% FG; 22% 3pt; 81% FT
  • Forward: Milan Momcilovic (So.) 6-8 220 lbs; 11 ppg; 4 reb; 47% FG; 44% 3pt; 79% FT
  • Forward: Dishon Jackson (Sr.) 6-11 275 lbs; 11 ppg; 5 reb; 65% FG; 78% FT

Iowa State Bench

  • Guard: Curtis Jones (Sr.) 6-4 190 lbs; 16 ppg; 4 reb; 3 asst; 44% FG; 38% pt; 83% FT
  • Forward: Brandton Chatfield (Sr.) 6-10 260 lbs; 4 ppg; 4 reb; 63% FG; 58% FT
  • Forward: Nate Heise (Sr.) 6-5 215 lbs; 5 ppg; 50% FG; 37% 3pt; 100% FT

Baylor Starters

  • Guard: Jeremy Roach (Sr.) 6-2 180 lbs; 13 ppg; 4 asst; 45% FG; 36% 3pt; 72% FT
  • Guard: Jayden Nunn (Sr.) 6-4 190 lbs; 12 ppg; 3 reb; 43% FG; 49% 3pt; 58% FT
  • Guard: VJ Edgecombe (Fr.) 6-5 190 lbs; 12 ppg; 6 reb; 3 asst; 3 st; 42% FG; 30% 3pt 69% FT
  • Forward: Norchad Omier (Sr.) 6-7 245 lbs; 16 ppg; 11 reb; 2 steals; 62% FG; 24% 3pt; 73% FT
  • Forward: Josh Ojianwuna (Jr.) 6-10 255 lbs; 8 ppg; 6 reb; 76% FG; 64% FT

Baylor Bench

  • Guard: Langston Love (Jr.) 6-5 215 lbs; 7 ppg; 3 reb; 36% FG; 29% 3pt; 75% FT 
  • Forward: Jalen Celestine (Sr.) 6-7 215 lbs; 8 ppg; 3 reb; 39% FG; 38% 3pt; 100% FT
  • Guard: Rob Wright (Fr.) 6-1 180 lbs; 13 ppg; 5 asst; 51% FG; 46% 3pt; 79% FT
Discussion from...

Gameday Thread: No. 25 Baylor Travels to Face No. 2 Iowa State

14,118 Views | 178 Replies | Last: 1 day ago by TWD 1974
Guitarbiscuit
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In reply to Crawfoso1973 • 7:02p, 1/4/25
Crawfoso1973 said:
Edge playing great D and is our only plus defender on a team that desperately needs it. Terrific rebounder and passer. The talk of benching him and other criticism of him is laughable.

There comes a time where you need to score more than 4 points. Defense is important, but you gotta have more than 4 points and 4 assists. He's not a quality starter right now. When he can hit a mid ranger jumper, then i'll change my mind.
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Quinton
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In reply to Guitarbiscuit • 7:18p, 1/4/25
Guitarbiscuit said:
Crawfoso1973 said:
Edge playing great D and is our only plus defender on a team that desperately needs it. Terrific rebounder and passer. The talk of benching him and other criticism of him is laughable.

There comes a time where you need to score more than 4 points. Defense is important, but you gotta have more than 4 points and 4 assists. He's not a quality starter right now. When he can hit a mid ranger jumper, then i'll change my mind.
I would agree in general. We will need 10-12 from him outside of junk time at the very least.

But this team is so poor defensively, VJ has already passed them all in that very important area. We give up 90+ without him today. Just for the disruption and teams actually respecting their defender, its worth him being on the court. I wouldn't be shocked if this team gets to top 50 on D mostly bc VJ is so disruptive and has covered for other guys mistakes.

We knew his shot wasn't great.. but his finishing needs to improve dramatically I can agree with that. Our guards overall have no ability to break down the defense outside of Rob and occationally Roach. Our change of direction and start/stop ability is non-existent. Staff issue with the mismatch in talent.
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TWD 1974
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In reply to IowaBear • 2:06p, 1/5/25
IowaBear said:
The answer is no, we don't have a GM. The biggest issue is Drew & Staff keep constructing rosters that are almost completely turned over yearly.
Just look at what will have to replace this off season… Omier, Roach, Nunn, VJ. We should also kindly ask Langston to transfer. And there's no guarantee we hang onto Rob Wright. We're virtually starting from scratch yet again next season
I think the GM question has a point. Acquisition of talent and managing NIL budgets is not something Coaches signed up for. The lack of bench talent on this team is a sign to me we ran out of money after Omier for the second tier portal transfers. We ended up replacing Bridges (a tremendous loss from last year) with Celestine, who along with Nunn are largely invisible against better defensive teams.
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