3/17/2021

Baylor is appearing in the NCAA postseason for a school-record ninth consecutive season

No. 1 BAYLOR BEARS (22-2, 13-1)
Location: Waco, Texas 
Head Coach: Scott Drew (Butler, 1993)
Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF)

No. 16 HARTFORD HAWKS (15-8, 8-6)
Location: West Hartford, Conn.
Head Coach: John Gallagher (Saint Joseph’s, 1999)
Roster | Stats (PDF) | Game Notes (PDF)

BAYLOR (22-2, 13-1) vs. HARTFORD (15-8, 8-6)
March 19, 2021 • 2:30 p.m. CT
Indianapolis, Ind. • Lucas Oil Stadium – Unity (South) (70,000)

LIVE STATS: baylorstats.com
WATCH: truTV and March Madness App
Talent: Lisa Byington (pxp), Steve Smith (analyst), AJ Ross (reporter)

LISTEN:Baylor Sports Network | ESPN Central Texas
Talent: John Morris (pxp) and Pat Nunley (analyst)

Baylor Social Media: 

STORY LINES
• Baylor is appearing in the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time in the last seven tournaments.
• Baylor is 14-14 in 13 all-time NCAA Championships, including an 11-8 record in the Scott Drew era.
• BU is appearing in the NCAA postseason for a school-record 9th consecutive season (7 NCAA, 2 NIT).
• Baylor’s streak of 9 consecutive postseasons is tied as the nation’s 7th-longest active streak. 
• Baylor is making its 10th NCAA Tournament appearance in the modern tournament era. BU’s first three NCAA Tournament appearances in 1946, 1948 and 1950 were in an eight-team, unseeded bracket.
• Baylor has played in two Final Fours (1948 and 1950) — when it was an eight-team bracket — and one national championship game (lost to Kentucky in 1948 title game).
• Baylor has played 11 of its 22 games (9-2) vs. seven different NCAA Tournament teams this season.
• Baylor won the Big 12 for the first time and claimed its first conference title since 1950.
• The conference title is the 6th in program history and the 4th outright title (1932, 1946, 1948, 2021).
• Baylor and Hartford are meeting for the 3rd time – BU won both meetings in Waco in 2008 and 2009.
• Baylor is 34-21 in postseason tournaments (conference, national) over the last 13 seasons.
• Baylor is 7-2 vs. AP Top 25 teams this season, including 4-0 against AP Top 10 teams.
• BU leads the nation in 3-point percentage (.418) and is top-10 nationally in scoring margin (3rd, +18.0), scoring (3rd, 84.4), effective FG% (3rd, 57.5), defensive turnover pct. (3rd, 24.6), offensive rebound pct. (4th, 37.5), turnover margin (6th, +4.9), turnovers forced (9th, 17.3) and steals (10th, 9.0).
• BU has led by at least 10 points in 21 of 24 games this year (4 of 7 games since the pause).
• Baylor has led by at least 4 points in all 54 games over the last 2 seasons (double-digit leads in 45 of 54).
• Baylor’s current .418 team 3FG% is the 4th-best mark by any team in the Big 12’s 25-year history.
• Baylor is guaranteed to finish with its fewest losses since going 13-0 in 1911-12.
• Jared Butler (Cousy, Wooden, Naismith semi/finalist), MaCio Teague (West Award finalist), Davion Mitchell & Mark Vital (Naismith Defensive POY Semifinalists) are all national award candidates.
• Butler is AP Big 12 Player of the Year, Baylor’s first conference POY since David Wesley (1992 SWC).
• Butler (1st Team) and Mitchell (3rd Team) were both named Sporting News All-Americans, and Teague (3rd Team) was named a NCAA.com All-American, giving BU 3 All-America honorees.
• Mitchell (coaches) and Vital (The Athletic) both earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year honors.
• For a second-straight year, BU has 60% of the Big 12 All-Defensive Team (Vital, Mitchell and Butler).
• Butler leads the Big 12 in 3-pointers made (2.6/game), 3-point percentage (.429) and steals (2.0), ranks 2nd in assists (4.8), 3rd in scoring (17.1), 4th in FG% (.488) and 9th in ast-to ratio (1.56).
• Teague was named AP 2nd Team All-Big 12 and has been all-conference in all 4 collegiate seasons.
• Teague leads the 5 West Award finalists in career ppg, assists, steals, 3-pointers, FTM and FT%.
• Scott Drew earned AP and coaches’ Big 12 Coach of the Year for a second-consecutive season.
• Six Baylor players are shooting at least 39% on 3FGs and averaging at least one 3FG made per game: Mitchell (46%), Butler (43%), Teague (39%), Mayer (42%), Flagler (39%) and Cryer (41%).

FIRST CONFERENCE TITLE IN 71 YEARS 
• Baylor won its first conference championship in 71 seasons (1950 Southwest Conference). 
• Baylor has won six league titles in programs history, four of them outright – 1932 (10-2), 1946 (11-1), 1948 (11-1), 1949 (9-3), 1950 (8-4) and 2021 (13-1). The 1949 and 1950 titles were co-championships. 
• Baylor’s best previous Big 12 finish was outright 2nd-place last season. BU also tied for 2nd in 2010 and 2017. 
• Baylor’s 15 Big 12 wins last season were the most ever by a team that didn’t claim the Big 12 title. 

QUICK HITS 
• Baylor has been top-5 ranked for 28-straight weeks. BU was top-5 for 12 weeks all-time prior to this streak. 
• BU’s streak of 36-straight AP polls ranked is the nation’s 3rd-longest active streak and longest in BU history. 
• Baylor is 1 of 3 Power-5 schools (Kansas, Michigan State) to win 18+ games every year since 2008. 
• Baylor is 48-6 since MaCio Teague and Davion Mitchell became eligible at the start of 2019-20. 
• Mark Vital holds the BU record for career Big 12 wins at 45-22. The previous record was A.J. Walton’s 39. 
• Baylor became the first team since UNLV in 1990-91 to win its first 17 games by 8+ points. 
• Baylor joins Duke, Gonzaga and Kansas as the only programs ranked No. 1 in 3 of the last 5 seasons. 
• Head coach Scott Drew is in his 18th season in Waco and is BU’s all-time wins leader (364-215). 
• Baylor is 25-1 at home over the last 2 seasons, with the lone loss by 3 points to Kansas on 2/22/20. 
• BU is 14-3 in Big 12 road games over the last 2 seasons (rest of league is 59-99 in B12 road games). 
• Baylor’s 18-game winning streak tied the 4th-longest in the Big 12’s 25-year history. The Bears set the record with 23 straight last season, while Kansas had the 2nd and 3rd-longest streaks – 22 in 1997 and 20 in 2008. 
• Baylor signed the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history (No. 4) in November. BU inked 5-star Kendall Brown, 4-star Langston Love and 4-star Jeremy Sochan for the 2021-22 season. 
• Baylor won double-digit Big 12 games for the 8th time (2010, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021). 
• Baylor is 70-5 when leading at halftime over the last 4 seasons (40-2 over last 2 seasons, 19-0 this season). 
• Baylor has won 90% of its games when leading at the half since 2011-12 (188-21). 
• BU is 48-4 when leading at any point in the 2nd half of a game over the last 2 seasons (136-23 last 6 seasons). 
• Baylor has won 20+ games in 12 of the last 14 seasons after recording only three 20-win seasons in the previous 100 years of Baylor Basketball (1946, 1948, 1988). 
• Baylor is 239-99 over the last 10 seasons, averaging 24 wins per season since 2011-12. 
• Baylor’s 239 wins since 2011-12 are second-most in the Big 12 behind only Kansas (284). 
• Baylor is 330-146 since 2007-08, the first year Drew’s staff had a full allotment of scholarships. 
• Eight of Baylor’s players either have used or are currently using a redshirt year. Four after transferring to BU – Flagler, Mitchell, Tchamwa Tchatchoua and Teague, and four as freshmen — Moffatt, Turner, Vital and Dainja. 
• Ten of Baylor’s 11 starting point guards under Drew have earned All-Big recognition (16 of last 17 seasons). 
• Baylor is 1 of 10 teams nationally to appear in every postseason since 2012 (7 NCAAs, 2 NITs). 
• Baylor has the nation’s 10th-longest active streak with at least one 3-point FG made in 956 straight games — the last time Baylor failed to make a 3-pointer was more than 30 years ago, on Feb. 21, 1990 vs. Texas Tech (0-8). 

BAYLOR VS. 2021 NCAA TOURNAMENT FIELD 
• Baylor has played half of its 22 games this season against NCAA Tournament teams. 
• The Bears are 9-2 against teams in the 2021 NCAA Tournament field, including 4-1 vs. top-3 seeds. 
• BU has played seven 2021 NCAA Tournament teams – No. 1 Illinois (1-0), No. 3 Kansas (1-1), No. 3 Texas (1-0), No. 3 West Virginia (1-0), No. 4 Oklahoma State (2-1), No. 6 Texas Tech (2-0) and No. 8 Oklahoma (1-0). 

BAYLOR IN NCAA TOURNAMENTS 
• Baylor is making its 13th NCAA Tournament appearance, and the Bears have lost to the eventual national champion four times (1946, 1948, 2010 and 2012). 
• Baylor’s 1946 team lost to Oklahoma A&M in the regional semifinals in Kansas City, Mo. 
• Baylor’s 1948 squad lost to Kentucky in the national title game at New York’s Madison Square Garden, 
• Baylor’s 2010 team lost to Duke in the Elite Eight at Houston’s Reliant Stadium. 
• Baylor’s 2012 team lost to Kentucky in the Elite Eight at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome. 
• Baylor’s first eight NCAA bids all came in even-numbered years —1946, 1948, 1950, 1988, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. BU has appeared in six of the last seven NCAA Tournaments (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021). 
• Baylor played in three tournaments in a five-year span between 1946-1950 under head coach Bill Henderson, including Final Four appearances in 1948 and 1950. 

COURTESY BAYLOR ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS