Baylor gaining steam heading to Sweet 16

Baylor’s early exit from the Big 12 Tournament was disappointing. It was unexpected. It also may have been the best thing that could’ve happened to the Bears.

It gave them a full week of practice — a week to work on what was ailing them.

“We needed to practice hard,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “We needed to get better.”

Mission accomplished. After two impressive NCAA Tournament wins, Baylor has looked like the team that was arguably the sport’s best prior to its three-week COVID-19 pause in February. The No. 1 seed in the South Region followed up an openinground, 24-point victory over No. 16 Hartford with a commanding 76-63 win over No. 9 Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Baylor will meet No. 5 Villanova in the Sweet 16 next

Saturday or Sunday.

The Bears’ defense, which had struggled late in the regular season, keyed the win. They forced the nation’s leader in fewest turnovers to commit 14, held Wisconsin star D’Mitrik Trice to 5 of 17 shooting and limited the Badgers to 8 of 21 from the 3-point line.

After returning from the COVID-19 pause, Baylor (24-2) didn’t have much time to practice. It played six games in the span of 14 days. But that changed after the early exit from the Big 12 Tournament.

“Let’s say you shoot one time in three weeks, you’re not going to be a good shooter. Well, same thing with defense,” Drew said after his team reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2017. “And defense is five-on-five, so it’s rotations. It’s kind of like trying to run your offense or set plays with going one-on-O. Your timing is all off.”

Before the pause, Baylor was 17-0. After, it went 5-2 with multiple close calls. But so far in the tournament it has hardly had to sweat, winning its two games by a combined 37 points. The offensive attack was balanced on Sunday, a strength of the Big 12 regular-season champions. Matthew Moyer scored 17 points off the bench, making big shots in the second half when Wisconsin (18-13) made repeated runs, and Davion Mitchell and Jared Butler each had 16. The ball moved, to the tune of 15 assists on 25 made field goals. The defense turned those 14 turnovers into 16 points.

“I think we definitely are getting back to ourselves,” Mitchell said.

It sure has looked like it thus far in the tournament. Most importantly, Baylor is defending like it did prior to that three-week layoff. It’s what made this team such a powerhouse.