Baylor Basketball: Reclaiming No. 1
The Bears smothered No. 6 Villanova 57-36 in Waco; the lowest scoring game in Jay Wright’s 21 seasons.
Baylor welcomed in the No. 6 Villanova Wildcats to the Ferrell Center and proceeded to play a perfect defensive game in front of, as SicEm365’s Drake Toll described it, “God, Dickie V and literally everybody.”
With the No. 1 ranking on the line, the Bears left no doubt.
Taking charges, striping the ball from drivers, getting on the floor, and switching one through five to deny any penetration whatsoever for the Wildcats. The Bear Pit student section was sold out, women’s basketball coach Nikki Collen conducted the band, and the Ferrell reached one of their loudest decibel ratings which all helped add to Coach Scott Drew’s team’s defensive energy.
The Bears were stout all afternoon as they stonewalled ‘Nova in the Sweet 16 rematch from a year ago and punctuated the statement victory with two thunderous blocks by Matthew Mayer and Flo Thamba 38 seconds apart.
The end result?
Just the worst offensive performance by Villanova in Coach Jay Wright’s 21 seasons as the Wildcats only mustered 36 points—15 in the first half, 21 in the second half—and shot 22.2 percent from both the field and from three. Thirty-six points tied the fewest by an AP Top 10 team in the shot clock era.
It was the first time Villanova was held below 40 points since 1979 (when they defeated Penn in a pre-shot clock era game). The last time Baylor held any team to 36 or fewer points was in 1950 when they beat Texas A&M Corpus Christi 52-33.
The game was so bad that Coach Wright tweeted out congrats to Coach Drew and the Bears shortly after the game ended. That is something you rarely ever seen done, and is textbook PR 101 for crisis management.
This is because what occurred in Waco, my friends, should be considered a crisis not only for Villanova but for the rest of college basketball.
And just like that, Baylor is right back as the No. 1 ranked team in the nation. What is scary is that people outside of Waco are just starting to recognize that this team is good enough to repeat as national champions. They have dipped a bit offensively, especially when it comes to shooting percentage, but they seem to have improved—how is that even possible—on the defensive side.
Before the season began, we warned you that the Bears were on a quest to repeat and that they had the tools to do exactly that. They returned five key pieces from last year’s title team, welcomed a four and five-star freshmen studs, and added a stellar transfer point guard into a rock solid culture of JOY and yet many continue to be shocked at how the Bears dismantle their opponents.
Even Dickie V could not believe it!
Still, Sunday’s performance was historic. I do not think anybody expected that it would be a defensive blowout where Villanova could not even break 40 points. Wildcat superstar Collin Gillespie was visibly frustrated after a charge on the wing late in the game and only had six points coming on two threes in a two minute span right before halftime.
Villanova had both 13 fouls and 13 turnovers, but only made 12 total shots. They could not buy a bucket and lived in a basketball desert as indicated by these scoring stretches:
Scored nine points from game start to 2:50 of first half
Scored six points in final 2:50 of first half
Scored seven points from start of second half to 7:49 left
Scored seven points from 7:49 to 1:52 left
Scored seven points in final 1:52
In fact, both teams scored five points each in the final minute. The Bears still only scored 57 points and were help to 0.95 Points Per Possession (PPP) for the game, but it did not matter.
That is because Baylor held Villanova to 0.517 PPP on the day. Typically, the worst offenses still manage to average 0.84 PPP; in Baylor’s National Championship blowout last year, Gonzaga stil averaged 1.03 PPP. Only Justin Moore scored in double digits (15) for the Wildcats.
Yet with 13 minutes remaining, the game was still in reach for Villanova as they only faced a nine-point deficit.
Everyone just continued to do their job for Baylor.
LJ Cryer had eight points with two huge triples at key moments in the first and second half; James Akinjo had a game high 16 points and seven rebounds; before fouling out Jeremy Sochan had nine points and 10 rebounds; Kendall Brown had a beautiful drive turned into spin post move to start the game; Mayer had that huge block on Gillespie; Thamba posterized Brandon Slater on the defensive end with a block at the rim; and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua had seven points, nine boards and that last emphatic poster dunk over Slater.
Poor Slater, poor Coach Wright and poor Villanova. They had a tough day, and now must go back to the drawing board prior to Big East play beginning to figure out how they can compete with the nation’s best of UCLA, Purdue and, yes, Baylor.
For Coach Drew and Baylor, well they have finals before a road trip to Eugene, OR, to face the Ducks; two more non-conference foes to close 2021 before kicking off the new year in Hilton Coliseum against the currently unbeaten Cyclones.
The Bears are No. 1 now; there are no guarantees that they stay there.