Baylor’s Cox has responded this year
Has helped Bears to 33-1 record
WACO, Texas — Baylor coach Kim Mulkey wouldn’t say exactly how or what she said to Lauren Cox in the locker room at the end of the 6-foot-4 post player’s freshman season a year ago.
“But I challenged her right in her face, and I think she accepted the challenge,” Mulkey said. “She’s in the best shape of her life. Her diabetes is under control. … When you do all the things you’re supposed to, and you feel good, you do good.”
The Lady Bears (33-1) are in their 10th straight Sweet 16 after Cox led them with 24 points and 16.5 rebounds per game in wins over Grambling State and Michigan to start the NCAA Tournament. The power forward has four double-doubles in a row, including the semifinal and championship games of the Big 12 Tournament.
“I think a lot of it goes back to last year. We had five really good post players, and I learned a lot from that,” Cox said. “And this year just working with Kalani (Brown). We work really well together.”
Brown, selected by coaches as the Big 12 Player of the Year, is a 6-foot-7 junior who leads the Lady Bears with 20.1 points and 10.2 rebounds a game this season. Cox, the other half of the duo that Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer referred to as “Double Trouble,” averages 15.3 points and 9.8 rebounds.
The Lady Bears, with a 30-game winning streak, play Oregon State tonight at Lexington, Ky. They try to get to their fifth straight Elite Eight.
PURDUE: Men’s coach Matt Painter has all but ruled out Isaac Haas for the Sweet 16 after the star center fractured his right elbow in the Boilermakers’ first-round NCAA Tournament win.
But the 7-foot-2 senior is holding out hope a new protective brace will give him a chance to play in second-seeded Purdue’s East Region matchup with third-seeded Texas Tech on Friday night.
Said Painter: “He didn’t practice the last two days, so I don’t see him playing.”
SISTER JEAN BOBBLEHEAD: Loyola-Chicago Ramblers merchandise has been selling briskly, but there’s one collectible that’s the Holy Grail: the Sister Jean bobblehead. And it’s making a comeback.
If you didn’t get one at team chaplain Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt’s bobblehead night in February 2011 or 2015, you were probably out of luck.
“We’re looking at doing another run very soon,” Tom Sorboro, senior associate AD for external operations, said via email from Atlanta, where the Ramblers beat seventh-seeded Nevada 69-68 on Thursday. “At this point, everything Sister Jean-related is of tremendous interest. She essentially has become her own brand . ... ”
ON THE MOVE: Rhode Island men’s coach Dan Hurley has agreed to become the coach at UConn. He succeeds Kevin Ollie, who was fired this month. … Former Colorado State assistant coach Niko Medved is returning to Fort Collins to lead the Rams after spending a year as Drake’s head coach. He replaces Larry Eustachy, who resigned last month. … Boston Celtics assistant Walter McCarty is returning to college ball as Evansville’s coach. The Evansville native played on Kentucky’s 1996 NCAA championship team, then played 10 years in the NBA. … Florida Atlantic hired Dusty May as its coach. He spent the last three years as an assistant at Florida under Mike White, the brother of FAU athletic director Brian White.