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Baylor Basketball

No. 1 Baylor (24-1; 13-0) vs No. 3 KU (23-3; 12-1) Preview & Game Thread

February 19, 2020
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#1 Baylor (24-1;13-0) hosts #3 Kansas (23-3; 12-1) Saturday February 22 at 11am CST.  The game will be televised on ESPN.  

KenPom/NET Rankings

Kansas:  1 overall; 11 offensive efficiency; 2 defensive efficiency; 4 NET

Baylor:  2 overall; 22 offensive efficiency; 3 defensive efficiency; 2 NET

Prediction:  Baylor 64 Kansas 63


Coaches

Kansas:  Bill Self (57); 695- 214 (496-109 at KU) 21 NCAAs; 13 Sweet 16; 10 Elite 8; 3 Final 4; 1 NC

Baylor:  Scott Drew (49); 362-220 overall (342-209 at Baylor); 8 NCAAs; 4 Sweet 16s; 2 Elite 8s


Kansas Starters

PG:  Devon Dotson (SO) 6-2 185 lbs; 18 ppg; 4 asst; 4 asst; 2 st; 47% FG; 31% 3pt; 81% FT

SG:  Isaiah Moss (SR) 6-5 210 lbs; 8 ppg; 2 reb; 41% FG; 37% 3pt; 89% FT

SF:  Ochai Agbaji (SO); 6-5 210 lbs; 10 ppg; 4 reb; 3 asst; 43% FG; 35% 3pt; 65% FT

PF:  Marcus Garrett (JR) 6-5 195 lbs; 10 ppg; 5 reb; 5 asst; 2 st; 46% FG; 35% 3pt; 63% FT

C:  Udoka Azubuike (SR) 7-0 270 lbs; 13 ppg; 10 reb; 3 blks; 73% FG; 43% FT

Kansas Bench

F:  David McCormack (FR); 6-10 265 lbs; 7 ppg; 4 reb; 55% FG; 82% FT

G:  Christian Braun (FR) 6-6 205 lbs; 5 ppg; 3 reb; 42% FG; 44% 3pt; 71% FT

F:  Tristan Enaruna (FR) 6-8 200 lbs; 3 ppg; 2 reb; 35% FG; 25% 3pt; 50% FT


Baylor Starters

PG:  Davion Mitchell (R-SO) 6-2 195 lbs; 10 ppg; 3 reb; 4 asst; 2 st; 42% FG; 32% 3pt; 67% FT

SG:  Jared Butler (SO) 6-3 185 lbs; 16 ppg; 3 reb; 3 asst; 2 st; 42% FG; 38% 3pt; 80% FT

SF:  Macio Teague (JR) 6-3 195 lbs; 14 ppg; 5 reb; 2 asst; 41% FG; 36% 3pt; 83% FT

PF:  Mark Vital (JR) 6-5 230 lbs; 6 ppg; 6 reb; 2 asst; 2 steals; 1 blk; 46% FG; 44% FT

C:  Freddie Gillespie (SR) 6-9 245 lbs; 10 ppg; 9 reb; 2 blk; 55% FG; 71% FT

Baylor Bench

G:  Devonte Bandoo (SR) 6-3 195 lbs; 8 ppg; 4 reb; 2 asst; 39% FG; 38% 3pt; 70% FT

F:  Matt Mayer (SO) 6-9 210 lbs; 4 ppg; 2 reb; 38% FG; 39% 3pt; 70% FT

F:  Tristan Clark (JR) 6-10 250 lbs; 4 ppg; 3 reb; 1 blk; 47% FG; 65% FT


This article is sponsored by Centex Bookkeeping.

Discussion from...

No. 1 Baylor (24-1; 13-0) vs No. 3 KU (23-3; 12-1) Preview & Game Thread

30,384 Views | 278 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by boognish_bear
Timbear
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Just think, only 2 losses by a total of 6 points to highly ranked teams. The Bears are doing great.
Jack Bauer
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BYU up 5 against Zags with 6 mins. This is a really entertaining game
boognish_bear
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fubar
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Jack Bauer said:

BYU up 5 against Zags with 6 mins. This is a really entertaining game
BYU now up nine, and it ought to get a couple points added for the mascot. Did you see that?
BUbackerinET
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Fun watching this - Haas is a player. Now BYU up 9 85-76
BUbackerinET
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Now 11, 3:00 left - looks like Zags going down
fubar
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It's over, Zags going down. Big XII will be 1/2 on Monday. It might be unanimous.
fubar
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Marauding Mormons in 3 ... 2... 1 ...
boognish_bear
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I'll be curious to see what order BU, KU, Zags, Dayton, Duke, and SDSU end up in after this weekend.

Not sure how KU would move past us when we split the series (and we beat them more handily than they did us) and have one less loss than them....but I don't claim to understand the deeper metrics that go into ranking b-ball teams.
BUbackerinET
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BYU (#23) 91
Zags (#2) 78

Kansas will be 1
Jack Bauer
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1. KU
2. BU
3. Dayton
4. Maryland
5. Florida State
fubar
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Pope coaches the Mormons?

We did once recruit a dude named Jihad Muhammed, so ....
boognish_bear
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Jack Bauer said:

1. KU
2. BU
3. Dayton
4. Maryland
5. Florida State


I'd be fine with that
MommaBear
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The only way Kansas moves up to #1 is if voters pick them for their name only. We beat them by 12 on their court, and they only be us by 3 on ours. Kansas has a total of 3 losses, while we only have 2.

Baylor has 6 wins over ranked teams.
Kansas just got their 3rd ranked win today.

My projected top 5 are:

1 - Baylor
2 - Kansas
3 - Gonzaga
4 - Duke
5 - Dayton
boognish_bear
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historian
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MommaBear said:

The only way Kansas moves up to #1 is if voters pick them for their name only. We beat them by 12 on their court, and they only be us by 3 on ours. Kansas has a total of 3 losses, while we only have 2.

Baylor has 6 wins over ranked teams.
Kansas just got their 3rd ranked win today.

My projected top 5 are:

1 - Baylor
2 - Kansas
3 - Gonzaga
4 - Duke
5 - Dayton
You have a good point. But I'm not so optimistic about the polls. They don't use as much logic (especially Newell). I think they will still put Kansas first because they won more recently and think it is indicative of things to come. So #1 & #2 will be reversed. I hope I'm wrong but it seems to me that's how this often goes.

Baylor & Kansas will probably both win out and therefore share the conference title. We will get another crack at them in Kansas City and thus a chance to claim a conference championship outright.
“Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!”
Psalm 119:36
william
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CHP Bear
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MommaBear said:

The only way Kansas moves up to #1 is if voters pick them for their name only. We beat them by 12 on their court, and they only be us by 3 on ours. Kansas has a total of 3 losses, while we only have 2.

Baylor has 6 wins over ranked teams.
Kansas just got their 3rd ranked win today.

My projected top 5 are:

1 - Baylor
2 - Kansas
3 - Gonzaga
4 - Duke
5 - Dayton

Your 1st sentence says it all.
BaylorRocks
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MommaBear said:

The only way Kansas moves up to #1 is if voters pick them for their name only. We beat them by 12 on their court, and they only be us by 3 on ours. Kansas has a total of 3 losses, while we only have 2.

Baylor has 6 wins over ranked teams.
Kansas just got their 3rd ranked win today.

My projected top 5 are:

1 - Baylor
2 - Kansas
3 - Gonzaga
4 - Duke
5 - Dayton

The only way Kansas is #1 is because of their name?
And, reason that Baylor won by 12 and then KU won by 3 so Baylor is the better team by 9 points?

Momma, momma, momma......love the heart.
Be sure and pick the pretty horse for the win at the track next weekend too.

Sic'em
boognish_bear
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boognish_bear
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boognish_bear
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wuzzybear
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BUbackerinET said:

He was - today. IMO, Mitchell and Bandoo should not be on the court at the same time, if we have any options.
Agree only to a point. Without Teague your choices are narrowed. Once Teague is 100% I don't think you will get what you do not want for more than 4 minutes. Also, it is high time for Mayer to step into the spotlight. His upside is enormous...a perfect fit for this team cuz he can play every position but the 5.
boognish_bear
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This is kind of a surprise to see from such a storied program....they wanted this one bad

wuzzybear
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We have to remember when we beat KU at the Phog Dotson suffered an injury which allowed us to get a double digit win plus Self had not figured out to beat us all you need is 4 guards and Bazooka in the game. Yesterday the roles were reversed and we had Teague a little gimpy and they figured out how to match up using 4 out. However, the good news is that we are now as good as KU and it will be a chess match from here on out. Would love to play 2 more times and beat them in Atlanta.

Every player comes with an issue or two. Not to be negative, but sometimes I think we dribble too much just trying to create a play when we should be swinging it side to side. I am not a big fan of running that weave on the perimeter too much, but our guys are patient and looking for that opening. The bottom line yesterday was that they got more mismatches using Bazooka than we did. One way to beat that on the O side is for Freddie to make very makeable jump shots from the FT line or the soft corner which will force them to guard him. There are all kinds of little games within the game going on at any given time. This game we got outplayed but it would not have mattered if we had just hit a couple more open shots.

At the end of the day the team that shoots better usually wins. Both teams are more than capable of doing that. Now that we have the biggest game in BU history behind us I think Drew will learn from this and we will not lose again til we play KU. Actually I am sort of glad the overinflated value of a 23 game win streak is over (maybe in a sad way), and now we will see if just like KU who has gotten better and better since we beat them, we follow the same path.
wuzzybear
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For all of you who are not happy about yesterday do not fret. This team proved how resilient they are down the stretch. I'm sure everyone thought KU was gonna win by double digits and we did look a bit shook, but we NEVER NEVER quit. If that game goes to OT I really like our chances given that Bazooka had 4 fouls and we have a deeper bench. Without Bazooka they are watered down, but without Freddie we still have a very very good team on the floor. In my humble opinion it is simply time for Mayer to step into the spotlight and Clark just needs a little more time to be mentally not thinking about the injury. Maybe by the NCAA tourney all of this will happen and there is nothing more than I would love is to play KU twice more. What a year if BU/KU played 4x and each won twice with the best team winning in Atlanta. There is a 50/50 chance that will happen and those are pretty good odds in a 64 team tourney.
historian
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wuzzybear said:

For all of you who are not happy about yesterday do not fret. This team proved how resilient they are down the stretch. I'm sure everyone thought KU was gonna win by double digits and we did look a bit shook, but we NEVER NEVER quit. If that game goes to OT I really like our chances given that Bazooka had 4 fouls and we have a deeper bench. Without Bazooka they are watered down, but without Freddie we still have a very very good team on the floor. In my humble opinion it is simply time for Mayer to step into the spotlight and Clark just needs a little more time to be mentally not thinking about the injury. Maybe by the NCAA tourney all of this will happen and there is nothing more than I would love is to play KU twice more. What a year if BU/KU played 4x and each won twice with the best team winning in Atlanta. There is a 50/50 chance that will happen and those are pretty good odds in a 64 team tourney.
I agree. Despite the results yesterday, I am very much up on the team. I think we will win out and share the regular season title with the Jayhawks. Outright would be better, but it's a great accomplishment nonetheless. I also think we have a shot at winning the tournament. The team has already proven they can beat every Big 12 opponent, several twice and we clearly have the better team. Although we split the Kansas series, our win in Lawrence by 12 (never done before) is better than their's in Waco by 3 (something they have done many times--including 2019). Mayer did have a very good game but he is capable of more. It's wonderful to see how much he has developed and matured in the 2 years he has been at Baylor. Clark cannot get to 100% physically & mentally soon enough. One quibble: I like the idea of playing them 2 more times, but I would prefer Baylor were to finish the season 3-1 against the Jayhawks--a genuine possibility.
“Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!”
Psalm 119:36
wuzzybear
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Yes and it is so cool to discuss this because we are so close to becoming the next KU in MBB. I'd like to point out that the next time we play them you simply cannot let Bazooka get his lobs. KU shot 23% from 3 so I would have liked to see them FORCED to make those in the last 10 minutes rather than making it so easy for them to get to the rim. Next time let Freddie and Clark body up to Bazooka, keep Mitchell or Vital draped all over Dotson and take your chances with them on the 3 ball. You are gonna lose if they hit em, but you are probably gonna lose anyway if you let happen what happened yesterday in the paint.

WE ARE SO SO CLOSE !!!
historian
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Dunks are so much fun to watch--when it's Vital, Gillespie, or Mayer throwing them. Not so much when it's someone for the other team. We let him get 9-10 (or more). If we could have stopped him just a few more times, that could have made a huge difference. Conversely, if we could have had a few more--Vital had one that was a beauty, but only the one--it also could have been a game changer. If we could have done both, maybe we would have won the game.

No doubt the team will prepare for that for the rematch next month. That will be another great game!
“Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!”
Psalm 119:36
BUbackerinET
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Kansas 1
Baylor 2
Dayton 3
Duke/Florida St. 4
Jack Bauer
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BUbackerinET said:

Kansas 1
Baylor 2
Dayton 3
Duke/Florida St. 4



Duke got blown out by 20 on Wednesday. No way they move up
Jack Bauer
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Looks like Okie State is putting 3-4 players on Azubuike when he gets the ball.
boognish_bear
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Jack Bauer said:

Looks like Okie State is putting 3-4 players on Azubuike when he gets the ball.


And he still ended up putting up 19 pts 16 rebs and 3 blocks to boot
 
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