Chemistry class: Baylor’s best started elsewhere
MaCio Teague prefers all the time spent in the gym bonding with his Baylor teammates more than that weekend camping trip.
“Actually my least favorite thing that I’ve done since I’ve been here,” Teague said, prompting a chuckle from teammate Freddie Gillespie as he discussed the team retreat that came soon after he transferred to Baylor before last season.
“We all get on the bus and then we pull up and it’s the woods, and they say give us your phones,” Gillespie said. “We get out there, and they said, here’s some tents, and we spent a long weekend in the woods.”
Long after coming out of the woods, the top-ranked Bears — and their top five scorers, who all began college elsewhere — have certainly come together.
Baylor (22-1, 11-0 Big 12) has won a school-record 21 games in a row since blowing a 10-point lead against Washington in the final five minutes of its only loss, back during the first week of the season. The Bears lead the Big 12 with their longest conference winning streak ever, and have been No. 1 in the AP Top 25 four weeks in a row after so much volatility at the top of the poll before that.
Guards Jared Butler, Davion Mitchell, Devonte Bandoo and Teague had never all played together before this season.
Gillespie, the gregarious 6-foot-9 senior center, played two seasons at D-III Carleton College in Minnesota before transferring to Baylor. He had to sit out in 2017-18, when the Bears missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years.
That same season, Butler was still in high school and headed to Alabama, Teague was a sophomore at UNC-Asheville, Mitchell a freshman at Auburn and Bandoo was at a community college in Kansas. Teague and Mitchell had to sit out last season following their transfers.
South Carolina receives notice: South Carolina became the latest school to receive an NCAA notice of allegations over the federal probe into college basketball.
The school received the notice about a Level I violation to have been committed by former assistant coach Lamont Evans, who worked for coach Frank Martin for four seasons from 2012-13 to 2015-16.
Hoosiers snap skid: Devonte Green scored 18 of his 27 points in the first half, helping host Indiana close out an 89-77 victory over No. 21 Iowa.
The Hoosiers (16-8, 6-7 Big Ten) snapped a four-game skid.
Luka Garza scored 38 points for the Hawkeyes (17-8, 8-6).
Howard at the top: Senior guard Markus Howard scored 24 points for No. 18 Marquette in a 72-71 road loss to No. 15 Villanova on Wednesday night and became the Big East’s all-time leading scorer in conference games with 1,408 points.