Baylor defeats Arkansas 72-67

“Intensity. Toughness. Resilience.” These three words from Baylor AD Mack Rhodes describe what he saw tonight out of Drew’s bunch. Though simple, the positivity is a far cry from what fans felt from watching the Bears in Spokane on Monday. What led to Baylor taking this one by 5, and what does that mean for the rest of our challenging non-conference schedule?

Game Notes

The Bears started hot in the first half, led by Norchad Omier’s dominance in the paint and Scott Drew implementing a 1-3-1 zone. Omier got off to a blazing start with 6 points and 5 rebounds within the 1st ten minutes, simply out-sizing anyone the Razorbacks tried to line him up against. A somehow consistently slept-on Jayden Nunn hit a few threes and cashed in on a few drives, while completely shutting down Arkansas’ stellar guard trio of Davis, Wagner, and Fland. The lack of early production from these three is more than likely what tilted the balances in favor of the Bears; and it came as a result of Drew’s defensive adjustments. Everyone knows that Baylor’s greatest strength is the speed and athleticism of our guards. Unlike last year, each one of Nunn, Wright, Roach, and VJ can make just about any ball handler in the country uncomfortable, and it showed tonight. Arkansas was consistently forced to run their offense outside of the three-point line, but when they did manage to make it inside, they fared no better. Baylor overwhelmed any passing lanes available and swarmed to the basketball when it was given to the pocket man close to the block. Even when Arkansas began to make threes, they still could not consistently find open looks to get in any sort of rhythm on offense, which eventually led to their 7-point deficit late into the game.

Rebounds, rebounds, REBOUNDS! Though Baylor had 32 rebounds to Arky’s 37, so many of our boards should have fallen the other way. VJ and Norchad are just game changers, they are incredibly physical and make each rebound a fight. Even when Arkansas did grab a rebound, they were usually completely out of position and had to reset their offense. There is room to improve for sure, but wow that was encouraging. Offensively, oh man am I excited. Am I wrong to say we still didn’t look that good on offense? Baylor players consistently found themselves out of position or loading the wings with multiple players throughout the 1st half, and seemed to take a tick too long on swing passes that would have resulted in open looks. Baylor only had 12 assists on 34 made shots, but consistently found paydirt due to how incredibly talented this team is. Whether it was Norchad bullying defenders off of a rebound, Roach facilitating, Nunn bulldozing his way to the rim, or Rob and VJ doing Rob and VJ things, Baylor somehow scored 72 points while shooting for 29.2% from 3. This team is so dangerous. Certain plays showed flashes of what this offense can be, such as VJ’s lob to Josh, VJ’s acrobatic assist to Omier, or Rob’s beautiful assist for a J Nunn 3 ball. When plays like these become the norm instead of a highlight… WATCH OUT. I have not waivered from my top-8 labeling of this team, and after tonight’s offensive performance, I am all the more optimistic. *whispers* wait until this offense adds its leading shooter back into the rotation…

Notice the spacing from Celestine in the second clip. There is no chance that VJ should be open, but teams are deathly afraid of his ability to find buckets off the bounce.

LOVE the energy from VJ, this kid is going to be special. An underrated part of his game is his ability to find space to pass no matter where he is or what he is doing, and that showed on this lob.

Reactions:

Baylor fans are probably over the moon right now, and rightfully so, but it’s smart to look at why Baylor flipped the script from Monday till now and think about how the rest of the season might follow suit. I went into this game thinking the Bears would consistently lead and win by 8. While the final score was different, I was very satisfied with the game-flow, and the immediate progressions I saw out of this group of players. It honestly felt that Monday never happened (it didn’t, and you can’t convince me it did). While Nunn, Omier, and VJ got most of the spotlight from this game (rightfully so), I cannot state enough how crucial Jeremy Roach is to this basketball team. He is essentially a point-guard version of JTT (no one can ever really meet that standard though); the dude locks down his man and is an on-floor coach on defense, all the while facilitating and slowing down the young and fast players on our offense. During the next game, just watch how in every clutch moment, the ball goes to JR3. Watch how he verbally calms the team down and re-centers the attack even after a run by the other team, it’s so refreshing to see. He is without a doubt, my unsung hero.

Some had other favorites, such as Baylor Student Carlton Schrank:

“Im really impressed with Jayden Nunn. He’s attacking and is continuing to shoot even after going 0-5 against Gonzaga. His confidence at the arc and the rim is great."

He’s not wrong, Jayden did not look like the same player who carried Baylor to a win over ISU against Gonzaga, but oh man. Tonight he surely was.

When asked “what sticks out as the reason Baylor looks so different today than they did Monday, Twitter user @baylorjohnnn said:

"Jeremy roach" 🤪

Fair, Johnnn, fair. Let’s see what Jayden Nunn had to say about the same question:

Sic’em freakin Bears. The vibes are incredibly high, hopefully, they are high enough to sustain me as I journey home on the fabled Interstate-35. Final Four or Bust!

be on the lookout tomorrow for bonus content from today’s game…