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Baylor Basketball

MBB: Bears open 2016-2017 season against Oral Roberts

November 11, 2016
17,831

The Baylor men's basketball team will open the 2016-2017 season against the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles. ORU finished last season with a 14-17 record while the Bears finished 22-12.

  • Friday is the 6th series meeting. Baylor has won the five previous meetings by an average of 14.4 points.
  • BU has won 10 consecutive season openers by an average of 30.5 points. Drew is 12-1 in openers.
  • BU did not receive any preseason poll votes for the first time since 2009-10.
  • Baylor returns six letterwinners from last season's 22-12 NCAA Tournament team.
  • Seven Bears have not yet played at Baylor, but four of those practiced with the team last season.
  • Baylor has just one senior on the roster, but BU has five players in their fourth years of college basketball.
  • Baylor is one of 13 teams to be nationally ranked in each of the last nine seasons entering 2016-17.
  • The Bears are coming off a school-record third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.
  • Head coach Scott Drew enters his 14th season at Baylor as the school's all-time wins leader (250).

Key Returners

Al Freeman - Junior - Guard
Last Season: 11.3 ppg, 3.4 rebounds, 85.3% FTs

Johnathan Motley - Junior - Forward
Last Season: 11.2 ppg, 5.1 rebounds, 1.1 blocks

Ishmail Wainright - Senior - Forward

Last Season: 5.9 ppg, 4.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 40.6% 3FG

Newcomers to Watch

Manu Lecomte - Junior - Guard
Background: Miami transfer who averaged 7.9 ppg and 1.8 assist while shooting 45.6% from 3-point range

Jo Lual-Acuil - Junior - Forward

Background: The 7-foot-0 Australian sat out the 2015-2016 season after transferring from Neosho College where he averaged 20.1 points, 11.2 rebounds and 4.7 blocks in 30 games

MBB: Bears open 2016-2017 season against Oral Roberts

17,597 Views | 47 Replies | Last: 8 yr ago by bularry
Hambone
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first I had heard that Vital was for sure redshirting. nice to be able to redshirt a national top 75ish guy, and will be great for both Vital and Baylor. we all figured Jolly was, and that was confirmed as well. all he has to do is see what has happened with Mitchell and emulate it, and Vital has Motley to mentor him about the process as well. great stuff for the program.
bularry
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Good win
goldtexan
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1. Lecomte is for real. Great to have him in the fold. Excellent PG.

2. Acuil looks solid. Could be a strong contribution.

3. Freeman and Linsey were good and as expected. Maston was below par.

4. I am encouraged.
greatdivide
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0 turnovers for Manu. Impressive for game 1. I'm betting his shot falls better in the future.
1outawayBear
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Crowd was pathetic. Goodness I felt bad for our players. Some new concessions the girl liked but overall good experience and game
riflebear
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Future opponents struggling tonight.

FGCU loses
Ole Miss squeaks one out by 3 over UTM
#7 Xavier wins by 3 over Lehigh. I think one of their best players is still suspended.
#12 Michigan St. loses to #10 Arizona by 2.

VCU wins by 15

Big 12 undefeated tonight. KU w/ a tough one vs Indiana right now.
forza orsi
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Hambone said:

BUnityBears said:

What is up with McClure and motley? Are they not playing? Sorry if I missed somewhere....
Motley is serving a 1 game suspension for playing in a summer league game too far away from his home.

King is playing, hasn't done anything tonight tho

31-17 BU @ 6:45
According to coaching staff, he has a high ankle sprain from Sunday's scrimmage and wouldn't play tonight even if not suspended. Progress is good and they're hoping he's ready for Oregon on Tuesday. We'll definitely need him.
riflebear
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#18 UCONN loses at home to Wagner by 9. Ouch.

jimdue
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I do not want to get too up or down on a team based on one game but based on one game a few observations.

Our new PG is a huge upgrade over the last few years.

I think our rebounding and interior defense could get exposed big time against tougher competition.

It is absolutely essential that Motley brings it every night on both ends of the floor.

This will be the most guard oriented team since the Dugat and Jerrels era.
boxster
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Missed the game, thanks for the game thread, especially Hambone...great comments
forza orsi
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Lots of things to be pleased with tonight. Joe Acuil played better than I expected. He had 12 points, 9 boards, and 4 blocks, and was 2-3 on 3 pointers. I hope his 2-6 FT shooting was an aberration. Manu is very confident out there. His shooting was off, but I'll take 10 assists and ZERO turnovers from the point any time. Maston made some good plays here and there, looked very good with his mid-range jumper, and picked up 9 boards in 23 minutes. Ish was 6-6 from the line and had lots of good creative passes with zero turnovers. Lindsey looked very smooth on his buckets in transition and was steady everywhere. Chuck Mitchell isn't big, but is really athletic and hit his threes. I thought we were going to see him with a big throwdown dunk there at the end, but there was a little too much traffic. Freeman looked great shooting the ball.

Rough edges on a couple of spots, but for an opening game with no Motley, I though they did very well.
gaet
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My last video of manu during that game




bularry
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Early in the season we always seem to defend too high, leaving the interior vulnerable
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