Jan. 9, 2004
WACO, Texas -
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#24/RV Baylor (12-2, 0-1) vs. Texas A&M (7-5, 0-1)
Saturday, Jan. 10, 2004 - 2:30 pm (CST)
Reed Arena (12,500) - College Station, Texas
TV - FOX Sports Network
Brian Anderson - play-by-play
Brenda VanLengen - color analysis
Baylor's game with Texas A&M will be the second of two Big 12 women's telecasts on Fox Sports Network on Saturday. Colorado will host Kansas State in the first game (12:30 pm CST). The Baylor-Texas A&M broadcast can be viewed by 29,149 million households. This will be the second of five Baylor television games this season. Baylor's game with Florida was broadcast on the Sunshine Network.
Radio - KLRK - FM 92.9 - Rick May (play-by-play) and Lori Scott Fogleman (color analysis). Broadcast begins 30 minutes prior to game time.
FREE ADMISSION...
Texas A&M will be offering free admission to the game. Also, hot dogs and sodas will be 50 cents each.
#24 LADY BEARS VS. TEXAS A&M...
The #24 Baylor Lady Bears (12-2, 0-1) will regroup after having their six-game winning streak snapped in their Big 12 Conference opener against 14th-ranked Colorado on Wednesday evening in the Ferrell Center. The Texas A&M Aggies come into the contest at 7-5, 0-1 after dropping a 67-65 road decision against Oklahoma State on Wednesday.
BREAKING INTO THE TOP 25...
After gaining votes for several weeks in the Associated Press' Top 25 Poll, the Lady Bears finally broke in at No. 24 . Prior to this week, the last time Baylor was listed in the AP Top 25 was at the end of the 2001-02 season when they were No. 7. Baylor received 50 votes in the latest USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll, up 35 from the previous week. They currently sit at No. 28.
THE LADY BEARS...
The Lady Bears finished the non-conference portion of their schedule at 12-1. Under fourth-year head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson's guidance the Lady Bears are 46-2 in non-conference regular season games. After dropping their Big 12 Conference opener at home to No. 14 Colorado (69-59), Baylor's season record now stands at 12-2 and they are 0-1 in league play.
Three players are averaging in double figures for Baylor. With a career-high 27 points against Washington State, sophomore post Sophia Young moved into the lead for the Lady Bears in scoring and rebounding average. Young followed that game with the 19th double-double of her career with a 13-point, 10-rebound performance against Pacific and produced another double-double against Eastern Kentucky (21p, 11r). Young recorded her fourth double-double of the season against Colorado (14p, 11r). She is averaging a team-leading 17.4 points and 8.4 rebounds an outing. Steffanie Blackmon, a junior post, ranks second in both categories with 14.4 points and 6.4 rebounds. Freshman forward Emily Niemann is averaging 10.6 points. Baylor's two seniors Jessika Stratton and Dionne Brown follow closely with 8.9 and 8.7 points, respectively.
Baylor is outscoring their opponents by 28.7 points a game and is shooting a league-leading .501 (445-889) on the season. The Lady Bears are holding their opponents to just 54.1 points a game and a .325 (268-824) shooting average. Baylor has shot .500 or above in nine of the 14 games this season and has been over the .600 mark once (Sam Houston State .661).
THE COACHES...
Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson, in her fourth season, has an 84-28 head coaching record which equates out to a .750 winning percentage. She has produced 20-win seasons in each of her years as a head coach and has taken the Lady Bears to postseason competition all three seasons, twice to the NCAA Tournament and to the finals of the WNIT last year.
Since taking over the head of the Lady Bear program four years ago Mulkey-Robertson has posted the second-best win total among Big 12 coaches:
Oklahoma - 90-24
Baylor - 84-28
Texas Tech - 84-25
Texas - 84-30
Colorado - 82-28
Kansas State - 77-31
Iowa State - 70-35
Missouri - 62-42
Oklahoma State - 46-57
Nebraska - 44-56
Texas A&M - 42-55
Kansas - 35-65
*Baylor, Colorado, Texas Tech and Texas are the only Big 12 teams to win 20 or more games in each of the past three seasons.
Mulkey-Robertson was named Baylor's fourth head coach on April 4, 2000. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame that same year. This past summer she was inducted into the Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame.
Texas A&M's Gary Blair is in his first season as the Aggies' head coach, coming to College Station after highly successful head coaching stints at Arkansas and Stephen F. Austin. He spent eight seasons at Stephen F. Austin where he compiled a 210-43 record then moved to Arkansas where he posted a 198-120 mark in 10 campaigns. His career record is 415-168, he is in his 19th season as a collegiate head coach.
MULKEY AND BLAIR GO WAY BACK...
Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson and Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair have spent four years on the same team back in the early eighties. Mulkey-Robertson played at Louisiana Tech from 1980-84 when Blair was a Lady Techster assistant coach.
The two have also opposed each other on the sidelines as head coaches. In Mulkey-Robertson's first season at Baylor, the Lady Bears, competing in the program's first NCAA Tournament, faced Blair's Arkansas team in the first round of the tournament (3-17-01). The LadyBacks posted a 68-59 win at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT...
Texas A&M Aggies, under new head coach Gary Blair, come into the game with a 7-5 record and are 0-1 in Big 12 play. They have posted wins over Boston University (61-53), Seton Hall (54-52), Arkansas-Little Rock (54-45), North Texas (72-62), McNeese State (74-48), UL-Monroe (78-69) and Texas State (92-48). Their five losses have come at the hands of LaSalle (67-62), Minnesota, currently ranked No. 6 (88-72), Marshall (61-56), Houston (46-40) and Oklahoma State (67-65). The Aggies are 5-2 in Reed Arena this season.
Only one player is averaging double-digit scoring for the Aggies. Senior Toccara Williams, a 5-9 guard, leads the team with 13.4 points and 6.4 assists a game. She ranks second on the team in rebounding with 5.5 a contest and is also the team's leader in steals with 41. Another senior Janae Derrick is the team's to rebounder hauling down 6.8 a game.
THE SERIES RECORDS...
Texas A&M leads the series 32-31 but Baylor has won the last six contests. The Aggies' last win over the Lady Bears came on Jan. 20, 2001 in College Station, 87-81. In that losing effort, Baylor's Danielle Crockrom turned in a 41-point, 23-rebound performance. Texas A&M holds a 16-10 edge in games played in College Station.
LAST MEETING...
The two teams met times last season each time in a different city. Baylor posted a 66-49 win in Waco, a 97-54 victory in College Station and triumphed 80-61 in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament in Dallas.
