Baylor Basketball

Gameday Thread: No. 4-Seed Baylor WBB Hosts No. 5-Seed Ole Miss in Round of 32

No. 4-seed Baylor women’s basketball (28-7; 15-3 Big 12) host the No. 5-seed Ole Miss Rebels (21-10; 10-6 SEC) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line.
By Levi Caraway
March 21, 2025
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WACO, Texas – No. 4-seed Baylor women’s basketball (28-7; 15-3 Big 12) host the No. 5-seed Ole Miss Rebels (21-10; 10-6 SEC) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line. Tipoff from Foster Pavilion is set for 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 23. The game will be televised on ESPN.

  • Spread: Baylor -3.5
  • Total O/U: 135.5
  • Baylor Massey Rating: No. 12
    • Baylor NET Ranking: No. 15
  • Ole Miss Massey Rating: No. 20
    • Ole Miss Net Ranking: No. 11

Coaches

Baylor (Nicki Collen): 102-35 Record; 4 NCAA Tournaments; Sweet 16

Ole Miss (Yolett McPhee-McCuin): 208-152 Record; 5 NCAA Tournaments; Sweet 16

Baylor Starters

  • Guard Jada Walker (5’7, Sr.): 11 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 5.4 APG, 41% FG, 38% 3-PT, 75% FT
  • Guard Sarah Andrews (5’6, Sr.): 10.9 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 5 APG, 37% FG, 38% 3-PT, 52% FT
  • Forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs (6’1, Jr.): 14.3 PPG, 10.5 RPG, 2.3 APG, 54% FG, 73% FT
  • Forward Bella Fontleroy (6’0, Jr.): 9.2 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 38% FG, 32% 3-PT, 60% FT
  • Center Aaronette Vonleh (6’3, Sr.): 14.6 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 57% FG, 66% FT

Baylor Bench

  • Guard Yaya Felder (5’8, Sr.): 10.3 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 2.8 APG, 44% FG, 38% 3-PT, 74% FT
  • Guard Aliyah Matharu (5’7, Sr.): 7 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 39% FG, 35% 3-PT, 64% FT
  • Guard Waiata Jennings (5’9, Jr.): 2.1 PPG, 40% FG, 35% 3-PT, 100% FT
  • Forward Kyla Abraham (6’3, Jr.): 2.2 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 50% FG, 39% FT
  • Forward Kayla Nelms (6’1, Fr.): 2.4 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 42% FG, 19% 3-PT

*stats last updated on Thursday, March 20*

Ole Miss Starters

  • Guard Tameiya Sadler (5’7, Sr.): 6.8 PPG, 2.3 APG, 34% FG, 32% 3-PT, 76% FT
  • Guard Kennedy Todd-Williams (6’0, Sr.): 11.4 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 2.8 APG, 38% FG, 27% 3-PT, 81% FT
  • Guard Madison Scott (6’2, Sr.): 11.9 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 3.9 APG, 48% FG, 25% 3-PT, 73% FT
  • Forward Starr Jacobs (6’0, Sr.): 10.9 PPG, 6 RPG, 57% FG, 66% FT
  • Forward Christeen Iwuala (6’2, Jr.): 6.8 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 57% FG, 52% FT

Ole Miss Bench

  • Guard KK Deans (5’8, Sr.): 9.4 PPG, 2 RPG, 2.5 APG, 38% FG, 34% 3-PT, 87% FT
  • Guard Sira Thienou (6’0, Fr.): 10.8 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 2.1 APG, 50% 38% 3-PT, FG, 64% FT

*stats last updated on Thursday, March 20*

Ole Miss Notable Opponents

  • No. 3 USC (68-66 Loss)
  • No. 2 UConn (73-60 Loss)
  • North Carolina State (68-61 Loss)
  • No. 18 Alabama (84-78 Loss)
  • No. 7 Texas (61-58 Loss)
  • No. 23 Vanderbilt (76-61 Win)
  • No. 8 Kentucky (66-57 Win)
  • No. 6 South Carolina (75-59 Loss)
  • No. 7 LSU (85-77 Win)
68 Comments
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Nicki Collen NCAA Tournament Baylor vs. NCAA Tournament Basketball Baylor NCAA Tournament Ole Miss 2024
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Gameday Thread: No. 4-Seed Baylor WBB Hosts No. 5-Seed Ole Miss in Round of 32

11,962 Views | 68 Replies | Last: 8 mo ago by oldbear69
Big12Fan2024
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5:23p, 3/23/25
A battle of two pretty evenly matched teams. Play another game and it's still a toss up.

Offensively this team was good inside and off the dribble but similar to the men's team, we were not a very good outside shooting team with no real sharpshooter. Also the whole team has been prone to turnovers throughout the season. Hopefully Nicki can resolve the sharpshooter issue in the offseason through the portal and continue to work with the bigs on being turnover prone.
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True Grit
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In reply to 12au • 5:25p, 3/23/25
12au said:
oldbear69 said:
30 sec left.. and coming out of time out ur best play call is a yaya 3?
It was wide open. Good shot
Not the person I wanted to shoot it. We were only down two. Vonleh in the post every time down.
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True Grit
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In reply to Big12Fan2024 • 5:26p, 3/23/25
Big12Fan2024 said:
A battle of two pretty evenly matched teams. Play another game and it's still a toss up.

Offensively this team was good inside and off the dribble but similar to the men's team, we were not a very good outside shooting team with no real sharpshooter. Also the whole team has been prone to turnovers throughout the season. Hopefully Nicki can resolve the sharpshooter issue in the offseason through the portal and continue to work with the bigs on being turnover prone.
I agree... 21 TOs today. We needed a bigger game from Bella.
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12au
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In reply to True Grit • 5:26p, 3/23/25
True Grit said:
12au said:
oldbear69 said:
30 sec left.. and coming out of time out ur best play call is a yaya 3?
It was wide open. Good shot
Not the person I wanted to shoot it. We were only down two. Vonleh in the post every time down.
Not getting Vonleh touches in the second half was pretty rough. Would've been better to get her a look. But I still don't hate the shot
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Baylorkid
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In reply to Big12Fan2024 • 5:27p, 3/23/25
Haven't we looked to the portal the last 4 years to find shooters and we still haven't found one. It's really sad! The last great shooter we had percentage wise was juicy Landrum!
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12au
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In reply to True Grit • 5:28p, 3/23/25
True Grit said:
Big12Fan2024 said:
A battle of two pretty evenly matched teams. Play another game and it's still a toss up.

Offensively this team was good inside and off the dribble but similar to the men's team, we were not a very good outside shooting team with no real sharpshooter. Also the whole team has been prone to turnovers throughout the season. Hopefully Nicki can resolve the sharpshooter issue in the offseason through the portal and continue to work with the bigs on being turnover prone.
I agree... 21 TOs today. We needed a bigger game from Bella.
Those driving runners Bella takes really aren't good shots. She takes a lot of them when the offense bogs down.

I think Yaya being in foul trouble really hurt us. We needed her offense.
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Baylorkid
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In reply to 12au • 5:29p, 3/23/25
Just because you're open doesn't mean you shoot it! Vonleh has been our only offense this game and you should go to her first and if she doesn't have a good look, then you pass it out
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Wbbfan29
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5:30p, 3/23/25
I love Bella she was my favorite player starting the beginning of the season but this was a bad year for her. Especially the last few games.
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12au
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In reply to Wbbfan29 • 5:33p, 3/23/25
Wbbfan29 said:
I love Bella she was my favorite player starting the beginning of the season but this was a bad year for her. Especially the last few games.
She's been good defensively and on the boards. She was thrust into a bigger role on offense after the Buggs injury. Ideally she would just space the floor and make cuts to the rim--mostly play off ball, or maybe roll to the rim. I'm sure she'll improve in the offseason though
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Scottdye
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5:37p, 3/23/25
Agree one of my favorites. I think she must work on her mid range game. Once that starts to fall she will be a big threat on all aspects of the game. Love this team and my heart just hurts for the Sr's.
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Wbbfan29
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In reply to 12au • 5:40p, 3/23/25
I've said it all season.. she can be a mix match nightmare if she could drive and make her shots. Lately, she has just been throwing up a prayer. I think she pushes so much on defense that when she is on offensive she might be tired
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12au
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In reply to Wbbfan29 • 5:45p, 3/23/25
Wbbfan29 said:
I've said it all season.. she can be a mix match nightmare if she could drive and make her shots. Lately, she has just been throwing up a prayer. I think she pushes so much on defense that when she is on offensive she might be tried.
I would like the offense to have more intentionality. The shot selection in some of these games seems random. Maybe CNC should call more plays. She has talked about how it's harder to call plays when the offense is in front of the opponent's bench.

This has to be a solvable problem? I think in a men's game I saw a coach holding up a whiteboard to show players. Columbia WBB had Oregon football-like posters.
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oldbear69
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In reply to 12au • 5:46p, 3/23/25
12au said:
oldbear69 said:
30 sec left.. and coming out of time out ur best play call is a yaya 3?
It was wide open. Good shot


I think we had made 1 3 up until then .. and yes only down 2 ,, that's not the play u call out of a timeout ,, go inside and draw the foul,,, much better chance for 3 pts than YaYa,, .. geez where's our coaching ,,
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BearlyNose
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6:02p, 3/23/25
I believe you play like you practice, and when you don't practice your layups, you are not likely to make them - especially when the game is on the line and you are rattled. The lousy layup attempt (not only not placing the ball in the small rectangle, but completely missing the rim) was an example of not perfecting one's basic layup skills, and it hurt us this game, as well as other games throughout the year.

I would rather have had Jada shoot the layup as Jada was true on layup technique, and played with heart all year.
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hitmanmw
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6:26p, 3/23/25
21 turnovers is a joke.
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blackie
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In reply to BearlyNose • 6:31p, 3/23/25
BearlyNose said:
I believe you play like you practice, and when you don't practice your layups, you are not likely to make them - especially when the game is on the line and you are rattled. The lousy layup attempt (not only not placing the ball in the small rectangle, but completely missing the rim) was an example of not perfecting one's basic layup skills, and it hurt us this game, as well as other games throughout the year.

I would rather have had Jada shoot the layup as Jada was true on layup technique, and played with heart all year.
How on earth do you know whether or not they practice on layups in order to make such a statement? I saw Ole Miss miss quite a few layups. Do they practice them?

I see above in other thread responses the usual criticism on this play or that play, but in the end Ole Miss is the better team. Not by a lot, but is a better team. Had we won, I would feel we stole one. They had too much activity on the boards and around the basket that we could not match, especially since Buggs was under the minutes restriction. It didn't help that several of their offensive rebounds came right to them. We do need consistency on the 3-point line. That has killed us against TCU three times and in this game. Even a consistent 25% would be an improvement in these games against very good teams. We missed many where we had a wide open look. I had hoped Matharu would provide some of that this year. But it never really materialized. We really missed Jana this year in this area.

I suspect the hype about the Ole Miss defense was a factor early in the game where we had several bad truly unforced errors that cost us possessions. It may have gotten into their heads even when no defensive player was close. Just like when we lost to, I think, Oregon State in an elite 8 game several, several years ago where we were not ready for their type of offense, I don't think we had seen this level of defense displayed by Ole Miss during our conference schedule. Our conference schedule did not really prepare us and you can't duplicate that in practice. So I just tip my hat to Ole Miss. They deserved the win. I am just sorry our women didn't get what they had worked so hard for all year.

I'm sure that locker room was totally heart-broken. Despite out disappointment, it can't come close to matching that of the team and coaches.

I always hate to see the season end for two reasons. One is that I really like to watch the women play. The other is that for the next two weeks we will hear of and see other teams and we aren't a part of it. Really looking forward to see how we work the portal.
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FFA0329
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In reply to True Grit • 6:44p, 3/23/25
I LOVE Bella, but that was a very tough game from her. Really no one had a crazy good game today…….we needed our best game. We seemed tired and worn out. Ole Miss plays lots of people and had an easy game also on Friday. We did not have it easy at all on Friday.. It showed today. We were out of gas……..
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blackie
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In reply to FFA0329 • 6:55p, 3/23/25
FFA0329 said:
I LOVE Bella, but that was a very tough game from her. Really no one had a crazy good game today…….we needed our best game. We seemed tired and worn out. Ole Miss plays lots of people and had an easy game also on Friday. We did not have it easy at all on Friday.. It showed today. We were out of gas……..
Bella really hasn't been the same since she was injured, if not a few games before. I think it is easy not to realize the potential impact her injury and Buggs had on the effectiveness of the team. I think the women rallied around themselves to make up for their absences or limitations, but there is likely a limit on how long you can do that with players not playing the roles and minutes they had been playing all year before it catches up to you.

I think they played their guts out today. I think many of us thought the season was toast when Buggs was injured. And then Bella was set back a bit. To their credit they found a way, despite horrific shooting at times to gut it out and come within a possession or two of winning a Big XII and tournament championship and getting to Spokane.
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Bear3
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7:05p, 3/23/25
It was a fun season! We were undefeated in February, 2nd in Big 12 and got to championship game in Big 12 Tournament and hosted. We did all of this with our first player off bench (Jana) injured in 1st game, Madison hardly playing because of back, Bella's injury and our best player (Buggs) missing 7 games . This is pretty darn good if you ask me!

This season and team was better than last year. Yes we got to Sweet 16 last year but as someone said Virginia Tech was missing their star center and we took advantage of that. Doubt we would have won had she played.

Ole Miss is very good team. Our ladies played them close. I am sure they are heartbroken about loss. I feel so bad for them. They battled all season and never quit.I will miss the seniors but look forward to seeing next year's team. I have no doubt that Nicki will put another competitive team on the floor.
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BearlyNose
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In reply to blackie • 7:31p, 3/23/25
I know because I have watched the pre-game warm-ups all year, as well as several practice games, and in this player's case, her lack of basic layup skills were also noted all year. For reference, note that CaitlinClark (or even Jada Walker) makes her layups with the same practiced repetitive motion with the placement of the ball into small rectangle time after time, with equally repetitive results.
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Wbbfan29
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In reply to BearlyNose • 7:51p, 3/23/25
Just have missed this part. Which player missed the layup
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Delmar 2.0
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7:54p, 3/23/25
Sarah
I ain't quite as dumb as I seem
-- (P.C. 1974)
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greggor25
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9:36p, 3/23/25
Great season to the ladies but I will glad to get rid of Andrews.
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ctxbear
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9:43p, 3/23/25
Did we ever hear why Coach Tony wasn't there today?
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Bear3
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In reply to ctxbear • 10:25p, 3/23/25
I heard he was sick.
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LTBear19
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In reply to oldbear69 • 10:30p, 3/23/25
oldbear69 said:
12au said:
oldbear69 said:
30 sec left.. and coming out of time out ur best play call is a yaya 3?
It was wide open. Good shot


I think we had made 1 3 up until then .. and yes only down 2 ,, that's not the play u call out of a timeout ,, go inside and draw the foul,,, much better chance for 3 pts than YaYa,, .. geez where's our coaching ,,
Be careful Oldbear - If you dare criticize the coaching on this board, you'll face the wrath of the usual suspects.

But to answer your question, it was out to lunch these last few weeks.

Shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone on this board, however, since we saw this same song and dance play out in both TCU games this month.

In this particular instance, with 40 seconds left and down by 2, we had the following options to consider:

Felder, who had all of 2 points in the game.

Vonleh, who had gone 8-10.

Andrews and Walker, who were both at almost 50%.

Buggs, who was at exactly 50%.

The latter 4 players were all in double digits scoring, mind you.

Yet, with our season on the line, the coaching staff apparently felt that Felder was our best option.


One of CNC's apparent weaknesses is that she struggles with having a feel for the game (along with making adjustments).

Like a pitcher who doesn't have their best stuff - it was clear to everyone that Felder was never able to get in a rhythm, as she was saddled with foul trouble throughout the game.

So why even put her in that position to begin with, when any of the other 4 players were your best bets?

I'm sure our resident CNC fan club members will point the finger at everyone except her, but the reality is that she is now 0-2 at home in the NCAA's, and has only advanced to one Sweet 16 in her 4 years.

I think we can all agree that the Sweet 16 (assuming we didn't have any hardware in the trophy case) was the expectation going into the season. We didn't get there with the squad we had, and underachieved as a result. Plain and simple.

And that falls on the coach, for the most part.

If people start having doubts and begin questioning whether CNC has what it takes to get Baylor Women's Basketball back to being a consistent winner, I wouldn't blame them.
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SirBearALot
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11:40p, 3/23/25
Ole miss seemed taller and more athletic, it was a good ride, 2nd in league and big 12 tourney, many teams would want to have traded places with us.
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BearFan33
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7:52a, 3/24/25
Thanks for the hard work ladies.
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Bear2393
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In reply to SirBearALot • 9:01a, 3/24/25
SirBearALot said:
Ole miss seemed taller and more athletic, it was a good ride, 2nd in league and big 12 tourney, many teams would want to have traded places with us.


And Ole Miss finished tied for 6th in their conference.
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IowaBear
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In reply to Bear2393 • 9:09a, 3/24/25
This is what several on here tried to tell people. The Rebels record is misleading. That's a good ass team. Just in a conference that's absolutely loaded.
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Bear3
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In reply to Bear2393 • 9:38a, 3/24/25
And beat LSU by 8 and lost to Texas by only 3.in regular season.
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Bear2393
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In reply to IowaBear • 9:49a, 3/24/25
IowaBear said:
This is what several on here tried to tell people. The Rebels record is misleading. That's a good ass team. Just in a conference that's absolutely loaded.


For sure!
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oldbear69
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In reply to SirBearALot • 10:12a, 3/24/25
SirBearALot said:
Ole miss seemed taller and more athletic, it was a good ride, 2nd in league and big 12 tourney, many teams would want to have traded places with us.


And 3 losses to the frogs…
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