Baylor Basketball: Quest to Repeat
Coach Scott Drew hang their 2021 NCAA championship banners tonight and then commence their journey to repeat
Only six basketball teams have ever won back to back national championships in the history of the NCAA. Only two programs have accomplished it in the last 30 years.
1945-46: Oklahoma State
1948-49: Kentucky
1955-56: San Francisco
1961-62: Cincinnati
1964-65; 67-73: UCLA
1991-92: Duke
2006-07: Florida
Coach Scott Drew said at his opening season press conference, “so few have ever been able to go back to back…the exciting part is we have the opportunity to do something really historic.”
Tonight, Baylor begins their journey to become the seventh team to repeat. We look at how they are equipped to do so along with the obstacles they will face.
As Adam Flagler narrated, ‘championships cast long shadows. Obscuring what came before and clouding what can come after.’
After coming off the most dominant college basketball season since Kentucky won it all in 2012, the Baylor Bears have quickly been cast back into the shadows.
Relegated to being an afterthought, an underdog, where their current culture of JOY is overlooked in order to continuously throw stones for being tied to a university with past cultural failings.
Let’s start with the most obvious challenge that Scott Drew and his team will have to overcome: losing four upperclassmen starters to the NBA, G-League and NFL.
Jared Butler, Davion Mitchell, MaCio Teague and Mark Vital have all gone to play professionally in some capacity at the NBA level. Vital then left to join NFL practice squads as a tight end. The quartet of super stars accounted for the following of Baylor’s production:
52.2 out of 84.4 points per game (61.84%)
118.4 out of 200 minutes per game (59.2%)
16.7 out of 36.5 rebounds per game (45.75%)
13.4 our of 17 assists per game (78.82%)
5.8 out of 9 steals per game (64.44%)
2.1 out of 3.8 blocks per game (55.26%)
The four also averaged 48.57 percent from the field and the trio of Butler, Teague and Mitchell averaged 41.93 percent from three (Vital did not make a three on the year).
That is a lot of production to make up from a national championship team who also faces a daunting schedule against No. 4 Villanova, at No. 13 Oregon and at No. 14 Alabama. Throw in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, a game against Stanford and a round robin Big 12 with both Kansas and Texas in the top five, and you have one doozy of a year ahead.
Looking around the nation there just seems to be more firepower. Final Four squads Gonzaga and UCLA as well as Big Ten teams Michigan and Purdue are also ranked above the No. 8 Bears to start the year. And the hype behind Baylor is just as loud with Kentucky, Duke (in Coach K’s final year), Memphis, Houston and Illinois also loaded.
Furthermore, fans will be back this season. Going on the road will be no cupcake, especially after a season of plying in empty gyms.
How in the world is Baylor not to be expected to just fall off a cliff with this hand they have been dealt?
So what is the argument for getting back to the top of the mountain when you have lost production, teams are better around you, road environments will be more difficult, and Drew Timme and the Zags will be focused on revenge and finishing the job?
Oh yeah, and Baylor’s four-star freshman Langston Love suffered a torn ACL in a secret scrimmage vs rival Texas A&M and is out for the season.
For starters, Baylor returns seven letterwinners from their title team—at least five could start just about anywhere in the nation. They have a five and four star freshman available in their highly ranked class. They also welcome in two experienced transfers who can hit shots.
Go with the Flo
During last year’s national title game, Baylor did not deviate much from the game plan they had been running all season. However, one thing was palpable in that quarter-filed Lucas Oil Stadium: Flo Thamba’s tenacity.
The lone returning starter only played 16 minutes, only had three points, six boards and fouled out of the game, but he perhaps had his best game of the season. The six-foot-10, 245-pound center from Congo was physically demonstrative.
Thamba only scored double digits once all year—against a hapless Cyclone team at that—and averaged four points in the NCAA tourney. Against Gonzaga, you could feel his defensive intensity, hear his talk on the floor and see how his teammates responded to his leadership.
In one 18-second instance specifically, Thamba delivered a thunderous block on Corey Kispert, grabbed a defensive rebound and ignited the fast break for a quick Butler three to make it 26-10.
Keep playing defense like that, increase his point and rebounding numbers slightly, Baylor has a nice experienced center for a solid foundation.
Everyday Jon
Patrolling the paint by Thamba’s side will be beloved Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua. The Cameroon native and UNLV transfer became a fan favorite on the Bears’ title team for his explosive energy and highlight reel plays. Blocks, ally-oop lobs and an knack for taking charges were able to propel Baylor the most when they needed a pick-me-up.
Tchatchoua, who averaged 5.5 points and 3.5 boards in 17 minutes last year, does not let anything stop him. Not even the Covid-19 pandemic. He took weight room supplies to his apartment and would work out for hours on end.
It is easy to envision Tchatchoua becoming a ‘glue guy’ with infectious energy that replaces all of the same intangibles that Vital was known for. It is also easy to see him starting or coming off the bench and he has the attitude to happily accept either role Coach Drew assigns.
The Unknowns
To be certain, a lot of Baylor’s roster consists of players largely unknown or overlooked due to where they came from. Or some have been injured or not gotten as many minutes last year behind CBB Hall-of-Famers.
However, obscurity is where all of Coach Drew’s players come from. Remember where Teague (UNC Asheville) and Mitchell (Auburn) transferred in from? Or Tchatchoua (UNLV) and Flagler (Presbyterian)? And remember beloved DIII transfer Freddie Gillespie?
Dale Bonner averaged 20.2 points per game and shot 44 percent from behind the arc at DII Fairmont State a season ago while James Akinjo shot 40 percent from three and averaged 15.6 points and 5.4 assists at Arizona.
Then there is LJ Cryer who scored 3,488 points in high school—the most ever by a Houston high school player and fifth most ever in Texas HS history. Cryer had his moments last year, and should get more opportunities this season.
Dain Dainja (redshirted freshman), Jordan Turner (redshirt sophomore), five-star, McDonalds All-American freshman Kendall Brown and four-star, European import Jeremy Sochan—who I love everything about— all expect to compete for minutes.
Matthew Mayer Time
This is what we have all been waiting for right? Finally, Matthew Mayer will get to start his first game in a Baylor uniform as a senior.
To this point, Mayer has come off the bench in 93 games over his first three seasons and has scored double digits 21 times. He has done so all while struggling He has developed from a wild Tasmanian Devil in year one to a cloud of organized chaos in year two to inconsistent playmaker on the Bears title team.
His growth and maturity is a bit of an enigma when compared to other spoiled sports superstars. Mayer struggled with fear and doubt of not performing, not scoring and worrying about what others in the stands thought about him. He opened up in an interview with Kendall Kaut saying:
“I always struggled a lot with fear and what people think about me in the stands, and not feeling like I was deserving to shoot the ball.”
(For those interested, Kaut also wrote a great Baylor mega preview here.)
Bears’ fans are hopeful that Mayer will provide one final evolution from that inconsistent playmaker last year in limited minutes to smooth operating superstar playing about 30 minutes each night.
I think there is a high probability of that happening and for Mayer to continue to grow as the year goes on that will develop his NBA draft stock and put Baylor in a position to repeat.
Flagler’s Leadership
Flagler also came off the bench last season after redshirting in 2019-20 at Baylor. He had 13 points in the championship game against the Zags, including the three-pointer with 12:54 left to play that many believed to have put the game on ice as the Bears went up 16.
Along with Mayer, Tchatchoua and Thamba, Flagler is the fourth experienced pillar of why this year’s Baylor team that can do great things. He will potentially be expected to do much of the ball handling and continue the defensive intensity as new faces such as Akinjo and Brown and Cryer adopt that culture and gel into a new team chemistry.
If narrating the Baylor pre-season basketball hype video is any further indication, Flagler is ready for all the responsibility and more saying:
“Last year is ours forever. Motivated by it; not defined by it. Inspired; not pressured. So we turn our eyes to this year full of new opportunities, but with the same destination in mind. The shadows? They’re no place for us.”
Baylor may start eighth in the nation and third in the Big 12, but make no mistake, the Bears do not shy away from the national spotlight. They embrace it.
This Baylor team still expects that they can—and will—continue to make history in Waco.