Bears in 1st Sweet 16 since ’17
A lone pass right before halftime Sunday summed up Baylor’s perpetual discipline this season, including two lopsided victories in the NCAA Tournament. Instead of heaving up a prayer a few seconds before the buzzer, the Bears’ Davion Mitchell connected with Adam Flagler along the right sideline.
“That was a big momentum play with Adam’s three before the half,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said following the top-seeded Bears’ 76-63 victory over ninth-seeded Wisconsin in the tournament’s second round. “A great pass by Davion, too, to pitch it ahead instead of just chucking it up like a lot of times people do.”
Baylor, with its feet firmly back under it and churning, has divided its solid season into two chunks: Pre-pause and post-pause. As the NCAA Tournament presses on, the Bears are looking more like the pre-pause team that blasted to an 18-0 start before stopping for 20 days in February because of COVID-19 issues within the program. Especially on one side of the ball.
“The practices before the tournament really helped our defense,” Mitchell said. “We really pride ourselves on making things hard for other teams … so we definitely are getting back to ourselves. And there are a lot of things we’ve still got to work on.”
The teams met in historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the setting of the 1954 Indiana state title game in the 1986 movie “Hoosiers,” and the rolling Bears, in their quest for their first
national title, left their own imprint on the building — and Baylor’s overwhelmed opponent.
“A terrific team,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said of the Bears. “… They’re athletic, they’re strong and they can put a lot of pressure on you at every position, specifically when they go smaller. So that definitely played a factor in (the outcome).”
The NCAA Tournament is being held in its entirety in and around Indianapolis because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Baylor (24-2) advances to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2017. Fifth-seeded Villanova and 13th-seeded
North Texas played later Sunday for the right to face the Bears in the Sweet 16 next weekend.
Junior forward Matthew Mayer led the Bears on Sunday with 17 points off the bench, and Jared Butler and Mitchell each added 16 points on a balanced scoring ledger. Thanks to Flagler’s 3-pointer at the buzzer, Baylor led 42-29 at halftime and the Badgers never seriously threatened over the final 20 minutes.
“When we first came back after that three-week pause, in the next 14 days we played six games,” Drew said. “We were on the road for nine of the 14 days and
traveled something like 3,500 miles. So it was prep, play, recover, prep, play, recover — there was no practice time. We never really had a chance.
“Let’s say you shoot one time in three weeks — you’re not going to be a good shooter. It’s the same thing with defense. And defense is fiveon-five … (so) your timing is all off.”
It was on against the 18-13 Badgers, however, who had easily dispatched eighthseeded North Carolina 8562 on Friday to set up what turned out to be a one-sided collision against the region’s top seed. The Bears created 14 Wisconsin turnovers to having four of their own, their second-fewest committed of the season.
Baylor grabbed a sevenpoint lead midway through the first half and never led by less the rest of the contest. Both of Baylor’s losses this season, at Kansas and in the Big 12 semifinals against Oklahoma State, occurred post-pause and in the Bears’ last nine games, but they appear to be back on track when it counts most.