West Virginia runs past Baylor, 80-69
Won’t spend a lot of time on this one. But remember one thing about the Big 12: The top six teams are really good. But when you go on the road, it’s really hard to win. Look at No. 1 Oklahoma at 3-7 Kansas State earlier on Saturday and how that turned out.
Baylor wasn’t very good from the field (38.7 percent). It dug itself a hole. Credit this team for making a charge at the end and narrowing it to single digits. Alas, it just wasn’t enough. And you know it’s going to be one of those nights when one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the conference – West Virginia was shooting 30.8 percent – goes 7-of-14. Daxter Miles had 20 and had four from long range.
Plus, you can only imagine how worn out West Virginia players were about hearing about their struggles against the Bears. The Mountaineers were motivated that they weren’t going to let Baylor come into their building and walk out with smiles.
The Bears defense wasn’t very good. If you don’t play good defense on the road, then you’re in trouble. Obviously, that’s a t truism regardless of the venue. But the Moutaineers just had too many good looks as they shot 49 percent overall for the game. I’m not sure what the answer at the arc but the Bears have got to find a way to make it tougher on teams to spot up. You already know what Oklahoma did two weeks ago.
Then when your top three players in Rico Gathers (1-9), Lester Medford (2-11) and Taurean Prince (5-17, 0-5 from 3-point range) go a combined 8-37, you get what you get. Gathers was brutal with five points. Johnathan Motley takes one shot in 17 minutes (he made it) and Terry Maston scored 10 points when it was already pretty clear the Bears weren’t going to win this.
As for Prince, I know pro teams are intrigued with him. There’s a chance he’s going to at least get a camp invite. However, you’ve got to be more solid with the basketball. He had three turnovers to lead this team. This has been a problem all year.
In a game that Baylor head coach Scott Drew said he needed more ballhandlers, King McClure had a solid outing with 11 point.
So now Baylor is 17-6, 6-4 and tied for fifth with Iowa State. The roadtrip continues Wednesday in Manhattan, KS at Kansas State.
Life in the Big 12 is hard.
• Saturday is the 9th series meeting, all of which have come since 2011. BU leads 7-1, including 4 straight wins.
• Baylor is the only team to win in Morgantown in each of the last 3 seasons.
• Baylor went 3-0 against WVU last year, winning all three games by double-digits. It was the 3rd time BU beat a Big 12 opponent 3 times in a season (2010 vs. Texas and 2014 vs. TCU).
• Baylor is looking to win 4 consecutive Big 12 road games for the first time in program history. The last time BU won 4 straight conference road games was in 1990 Southwest Conference play.
• Baylor is 17-0 this season when it has taken the lead at any point in the 2nd half of a game.
• Baylor is 12-0 this season when winning the turnover battle and 5-0 in games following a loss.
• Baylor’s 6-3 Big 12 record trails only the 7-2 start of 2012 for BU’s best-ever record through 9 Big 12 games.
• All 5 of Baylor’s losses have been against current top-20 RPI teams (at Oregon, at TAMU, at Kansas, vs. OU, vs. UT).
• Baylor has won at least one road game against an AP Top 20 team in each of the last 7 seasons.
• Baylor is 9-9 against top-25 ranked teams since the start of the 2014-15 season, including a 5-3 home record.
• Baylor is 11-11 in Big 12 road games over the last 3 seasons, tying Oklahoma for the league’s best road record.
• Baylor is 20-20 in Big 12 road games over the last 5 seasons, trailing only Kansas at 23-17.
• Baylor has a 78% defensive rebound percentage in the last 4 games, allowing 20 offensive rebounds on 89 misses.
• Baylor is No. 15 in the AP Top 25 and No. 13 in the coaches poll, and has been ranked for 25 consecutive weeks.
• Baylor ranks top-15 nationally in assists per game (2nd), offensive rebound percentage (5th), assist-to-turnover ratio (7th), steal percentage (9th) and rebound margin (12th).
• Six BU players are averaging 8+ ppg in Big 12 play (Prince, Gathers, Motley, Medford, Freeman and Maston).
• Baylor is the nation’s only school top-15 ranked by the AP in football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball.
• Baylor has won 120 games since 2011-12, which ranks 2nd in the Big 12 behind Kansas (133).
• Baylor is 41-22 in games decided by 5 or fewer points and 11-2 in overtime games since 2008-09.
• Baylor is 79-66 in Big 12 play since 2007-08 after going 45-131 in the league’s first 11 years.
• Baylor is 95-11 when leading at the half since 2011-12, including 13-0 this season.
• Baylor has trailed at halftime in each of its last 5 games (3-2 record), but the Bears have won 40% of their games (25-38) when tied or trailing at half since 2011-12, including 4-5 this season.
QUICK HITS
• Saturday’s game will be televised on ESPN2, Baylor’s 160th straight televised game.
• Baylor has a .710 winning percentage over the last five seasons (120-49).
• Scott Drew is coaching his 411th game at Baylor (245-165). His .598 winning percentage is best in BU history among coaches with 60+ games, and his teams have a .687 winning percentage (211-96) since 2007-08.
• Taurean Prince is the only player in the Big 12’s top-20 in scoring (5th), rebounding (11th), assists (18th) and steals (9th).
• Rico Gathers ranks 21st on Baylor’s all-time scoring list (1,135) and has a school record 1,076 career rebounds.
• Gathers ranks 5th on the Big 12’s all-time rebounding list (1,076). He needs 2 more boards to pass Texas’ James Thomas (1,077) for 5th place and 8 more rebounds to pass Missouri’s Arthur Johnson (1,083) for 3rd place.
• Al Freeman has 14 double-figure scoring games this season. BU is 19-2 in Freeman’s 20 career games with 10+ points.
• Lester Medford has 28 career starts at point guard and has 192 assists and 54 turnovers in those games (3.6 A-T ratio).
• Medford joins Iowa State’s Monte Morris as the nation’s only players ranked in the NCAA top 40 in assists (5th), assist-to-turnover ratio (11th) and steals (38th). Morris ranks 6th in assists, 3rd in A-T ratio and 33rd in steals.
• Medford leads the Big 12 in assists (7.1), and ranks 2nd in steals (2.0) and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.4).
• Ishmail Wainright has 111 points this season after scoring 103 points over his first two seasons combined.
• King McClure is averaging 6.3 ppg in the last 7 games, up from 3.4 ppg in his 15 previous collegiate games.
• McClure has made 9-of-19 from 3-point range in his last 7 games, scoring 44 points in 93 minutes.
• Jake Lindsey has 50 assists and 13 turnovers, and his 3.8 assist-to-turnover ratio trails only Iowa State’s Monte Morris (5.0) among all Big 12 Conference players.
• Sophomores Johnathan Motley and Terry Maston combine to average 17.4 points per game off the bench. They’ve accounted for 70 percent of Baylor’s bench scoring (383 of 547 points).
• BU’s bench is averaging 27.5 ppg in the last 8 games, led by Motley (96 pts), Maston (61 pts) and McClure (44 pts).
• Baylor has held opponents under 75 points in 63 of its last 67 games overall, and BU is 49-18 in that stretch.
• Baylor is 53-18 in its last 71 games dating back to Feb. 12, 2014. Fourteen of the 18 losses have been away from home (9 road, 5 neutral) and 12 of the losses have been against ranked teams.
• Baylor is 331-75 in football and men’s and women’s basketball since 2011-12, the nation’s best record in that span.
• Baylor is 211-96 (24 wins per season) over the last 9 seasons and has made 7 postseason appearances (NCAA Tournament — 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015; NIT — 2009, 2013).
• Baylor’s 17-5 postseason record since 2009 is the nation’s 4th-best among teams with 3+ NCAA appearances.
• Baylor is one of only 14 schools nationally to play in the Sweet 16 in 3 of the last 6 seasons.
• Baylor made back-to-back NCAA Tournaments for the first time in program history in 2014 and 2015.
• Baylor is one of 13 teams to be nationally ranked in each of the last nine seasons.
• Baylor was picked 5th in the Big 12 Preseason Coaches Poll, behind Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa State and Texas.
• Drew is tied with Kansas’ Bill Self as the longest tenured head coach in the Big 12 Conference (13th seasons).
• Baylor is 28-12 in postseason tournaments (conference, national) over the last seven seasons.
• Baylor’s 5 NBA Draft picks in the last 4 years ranks 8th nationally behind Kentucky, Duke, Syracuse, Kansas, Arizona, North Carolina and UCLA.
• Baylor has the Big 12’s 2nd-longest active streak (16th-longest nationally) with at least one 3-point FG made in 788 consecutive games. The last time BU didn’t make a 3-pointer was Feb. 21, 1990, a win vs. Texas Tech.
AMONG NATION'S BEST STATISTICALLY
• Baylor ranks top-15 nationally in assists per game (2nd, 19.9), offensive rebound percentage (5th, 40.5), assist-to-turnover ratio (7th, 1.59), steal percentage (9th, 12.0) and rebound margin (12th, +9.6).
• Individually, Rico Gathers ranks 2nd in offensive rebound percentage (19.1) and 24th in defensive rebound percentage (27.2), while Lester Medford ranks 16th in assist rate (37.1) and 56th in steal percentage (3.6).
LINEUP NOTES
• Baylor has used the same starting lineup in every game this season — 1 of 2 Big 12 teams to do so (BU, OU).
• Baylor’s starting lineup has 446 games of combined experience, including 197 starts.
• Rico Gathers and Lester Medford have both started 56 consecutive games.
• Gathers has played in all 131 games during his Baylor career. The Big 12 consecutive games played record is 142 by Texas’ Damion James, and Gathers can reach 140 consecutive games entering the Big 12 Championship.
KEYS TO VICTORY
• Baylor is 13-0 this season when leading at the half and 95-11 when leading at the break since 2011-12.
• Baylor is 15-1 this season when posting 16+ assists and 2-4 when recording 15 or fewer assists.
• Baylor is 16-2 this season when holding opponents below 35 rebounds and 1-3 when allowing 35+ boards.
• Baylor is 14-2 when out-rebounding its opponent and 3-3 when tying or losing the rebounding battle.
• Baylor is 17-1 this season when shooting 40% or better from the field and 0-4 when shooting less than 40%.
• Baylor is 12-1 when holding opponents below 70 points and 16-2 when holding teams below 80 points.
• BU is 12-0 when committing fewer turnovers than its opponent and 12-0 when getting more points off turnovers.
• Baylor is 19-2 when Al Freeman scores 10+ points, including a 12-2 mark this season.
• Baylor is 16-3 when Johnathan Motley scores 10+ points, including a 9-2 mark this season.
• Baylor is 25-4 when Lester Medford records 5+ assists, including a 15-3 mark this season.
• Baylor is 10-0 when Ishmail Wainright records 5+ assists, including a 6-0 mark this season.
A WIN WOULD ...
• Give Baylor 4 consecutive Big 12 road wins for the first time in program history. It would mark the first time Baylor won 4 consecutive conference road games since 1990 Southwest Conference play.
• Improve Baylor’s record to 8-1 all-time against West Virginia, including a 4-0 record in Morgantown.
• Give Baylor a 54-18 record over its last 72 games, including a 13-12 record against AP-ranked teams in that span.
• Make Baylor 91-41 during Rico Gathers’ and Taurean Prince’s 4-year careers.
• Give Baylor a 121-41 record since the start of the 2011-12 season and 212-96 since 2007-08.
SERIES HISTORY
• Saturday is the 9th all-time meeting between Baylor and West Virginia, all of which have been since 2011.
• BU leads the series 7-1, including a 3-0 mark in Morgantown.
• Baylor is the only team to win in Morgantown in each of the last 3 seasons.
• Baylor went 3-0 against WVU last season, marking the 3rd time BU beat a Big 12 team three times in a season (Texas 2010, TCU 2014). Baylor won 87-69 when the teams met in Morgantown on Feb. 7, won 78-66 when the teams met in Waco on Feb. 28, and claimed a 80-70 win in the Big 12 Championship quarterfinals on March 12.
LAST SEASON VS. WEST VIRGINIA
• Baylor swept all three games against West Virginia last season, winning each by double-digits.
• It was the third time Baylor defeated a Big 12 team three times in a season (2010 vs. Texas and 2014 vs. TCU).
• Baylor won 87-69 in Morgantown on Feb. 7, 78-66 in Waco on Feb. 28 and 80-70 in Kansas City on March 12.
• Baylor shot .524 (77-of-147) while holding WVU to .403 (73-of-181), making four more field goals despite attempting 34 fewer shots. The Bears also got to the free throw line 102 times against WVU’s 55 attempts.
• Taurean Prince averaged 17.7 points per game against WVU, including shooting 9-of-16 (.563) on 3-pointers.
• Rico Gathers averaged 16.3 points and 12.0 rebounds against West Virginia.