Baylor
West Virginia
WBB Heads to West Virginia for Big 12 Opener
12/9/2020 10:17:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Lady Bears and Mountaineers will play on the Big 12 Now on ESPN+
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#7/7 BAYLOR LADY BEARS (2-1) Location: Waco, Texas Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Kim Mulkey (La. Tech, 1984) Roster | Stats | Game Notes |
#7/7 BAYLOR (2-1) at RV/RV WEST VIRGINIA (4-0) December 10, 2020 | 6 PM (CT) Morgantown, W. Va. | WVU Coliseum (14,000)  LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast RADIO: 1660 AM/92.3 FMWATCH: Big 12 Now on ESPN+ Talent: Lanny Frattare (PBP), Meg Bulger (Analyst) DIGITAL RADIO LINK: ESPN Central Texas Talent: Bruce Gietzen (PBP), Maggie Davis-Stinnett (Analyst) Baylor Social Media:    ** Due to COVID-19, there will be no physical copies of stats, media almanacs, rosters, please use the following link for MEDIA RESOURCES ** |
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RV/RV WEST VIRGINIA MOUNTAINEERS (4-0) Location: Morgantown, W. Va. Conference: Big 12 Head Coach: Mike Carey Roster | Stats | Game Notes |
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By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Before the 2019-20 season was cut short by COVID-19, the Baylor Lady Bears pocketed their 10th-consecutive Big 12 championship.
Nine months later, seventh-ranked Baylor (2-1) opens defense of that title with a game against West Virginia (4-0) at 6 p.m. CST Thursday at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, W. Va., the Lady Bears' third-straight road game in the last 10 days.
"I certainly didn't plan to start the season with three quality opponents on the road," said Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, whose team is coming off an 83-78 loss at 16th-ranked Arkansas. "You can get away with that and do that if you're experienced and you've got returning players. What you become concerned about is if you don't win ballgames, what's the psyche of your team? is their confidence just shot, or are they able to bounce back?"
Baylor returned only two starters from a 28-2 team that was ranked No. 3 at the end of the season and has a trio of newcomers in grad transfer DiJonai Carrington from Stanford and freshmen Hannah Gusters and Sarah Andrews.
"I've said it many times, with this COVID stuff, the teams that are the most successful are the ones that have returning players and the experience," Mulkey said. "Teams with returning players are at an advantage under normal circumstances, but they're really at an advantage right now."
Picked fifth in the Big 12 coaches' preseason poll, West Virginia features a pair of preseason All-Big 12 honorable mention selections in redshirt senior guard Kysre Gondrezick (23.0 ppg, 3.5 assists) and 6-1 junior forward Kari Niblack (7.8 ppg, 7.5 rebounds).
In Sunday's 79-73 win over Tennessee in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, Gondrezick scored 27 and junior guard Madisen Smith hit four 3-pointers and added 16 points. The Mountaineers also knocked off LSU, 62-42, for coach Mike Carey's 700th career victory.
"You know what you get defensively from them, a very hard-nosed, aggressive defense, very difficult to make the first pass," Mulkey said. "They are playing very, very excited, they just beat Tennessee and they're undefeated."
Baylor is coming off just its sixth loss since the start of the 2017-18 season and trying to avoid its first back-to-back losses in almost six years. The Lady Razorbacks hit 30-of-39 free throws, with Carrington, Andrews and 6-3 junior center Queen Egbo all fouling out.
"Quite frankly, I think there were some terrible calls in the game," Mulkey said. "We outscored them seven field goals (31-24). I can't get on my kids in some of those situations. I thought Arkansas was smart, and they have those returning players that know how to make just enough contact to sell it. I knew that before we played them, I just didn't know it would be 39 free throws."
Egbo played just 11 minutes, finishing with six points and seven rebounds before fouling out early in the fourth quarter.
"Queen Egbo's got to quit fouling," Mulkey said. "In a big game, she's got to be in the ballgame for us. That's not anybody's fault but Queen. And I've told her that."
Against Arkansas' four-guard lineup, the 6-5 Gusters also played just nine minutes, finishing with four points, one rebound and two turnovers.
"You have to go on who we're playing and make sure you put her in a position to have some success," Mulkey said. "And it starts on the defensive end. You don't want her to lose her confidence because there's nobody on the floor she can guard and I'm asking her to go out there and guard a 3-point, off-the-dribble type player. She understands all that. West Virginia has post players that are much different than Arkansas."
Gusters said Egbo and 6-2 senior forward NaLyssa Smith have "definitely taught me how to be stronger and tougher through practices and games."
"Learning how to not just do high school moves, having to face up and really do moves and counter moves, it's definitely helped me," said Gusters, who is averaging 7.7 points and shooting 71.4 percent from the field.
Baylor's balanced scoring attack is led by Smith (15.7 ppg, 10.7 rebounds), Egbo (15.5, 9.0 rebounds) and Carrington (13.0 ppg), who poured in a game-high 24 points against Arkansas. After shooting a Big 12-best 58.6% from the field last season, Smith has struggled this season, hitting just 14-of-44 overall (31.8%) and 0-for-5 outside the arc.
"Keep shooting it. That's the way you get out of shooting slumps," Mulkey said. 'Second way you get out of it is go do something else. Go get an offensive rebound, get to the foul line. And she's doing that. She's averaging almost 11 rebounds per game, she's shooting great from the foul line (19-of-23). She's just not a hidden commodity for us anymore."
Thursday's game will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with Lanny Frattare and Meg Bulger calling the action.
The Lady Bears return home to host Texas Tech (3-1) at 6 p.m. Monday in their first home game in three weeks.
RICHARDS RETURNS TO FLOOR AFTER SPINAL INJURY, FEATURED ON ESPN'S SPORTSCENTER
Oct. 24, Moon Ursin and DiDi Richards collided in mid-air during a practice scrimmage, leaving Ursin with a concussion and Richards with a Spinal Cord Injury Without Radiographic Abnormality (SCIOWRA). Ursin returned to practice after clearing concussion protocol in mid-November while Richards' rehab began immediately after she briefly lost feeling below her knees. Richards was first confined to a walker to assist her in walking, but by mid-November she was completing individual drills and workouts with medical and strength & conditioning staff. Richards shocked doctors, team medical staff and coaches with the rate of her rehab. Thirty-eight days after the injury, she played 30 minutes off the bench at South Florida Dec. 1. She scored a bucket 13 seconds into her entry, and picked up where she left off last season by leading Baylor with seven assists. Sunday in Fayetteville, Ark. she resumed her starting role, getting her first start at point guard and finished the contest with a game-high eight assists. She led the Big 12 in assists per game in 2019-20, ranked 13th in the nation and had the NCAA's sixth-best assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.9:1.
Her return to the floor sparked interest from ESPN with Mechelle Voepel writing a feature on her recovery, and Scott Van Pelt led off his Tuesday edition of SportsCenter, covering Richards' return with the "Best Thing I Saw Today" segment.
ARKANSAS SPOILS MESSER'S HOMECOMING
The P.A. announcer in Fayetteville, Ark. introduced the visitors' (Baylor) starting lineup Sunday night, and in a rare occurrence announced an assistant coach before the head coach. That is because Sytia Messer was coaching Baylor at Bud Walton Arena, a place where she had led the Razorbacks to the 1998 Final Four as a player. She received a nice ovation from the Arkansas crowd, but then the Razorbacks knocked off the Lady Bears by five points. Arkansas' attacking-style offense had Baylor's defense on the ropes, and the Lady Bears' rim-stopper, Queen Egbo fouled out in just 11 minutes of play. Baylor's DiJonai Carrington had her strongest game of the season, scoring 24 points off the bench on 8-of-16 shooting, but Arkansas transfers Amber Ramirez (TCU) and Chelsea Dungee (OU) combined for 45 points to help sink Baylor. The Razorbacks benefitted from a 30-39 performance at the free-throw line while Baylor shot 12-18 from the charity stripe.
LADY BEARS TURN ATTENTION TO THE MOUNTAINEERS IN BIG 12 OPENER ON THE ROAD
Baylor hasn't lost back-to-back games since February of 2015 and haven't lost a Big 12 opener since falling at Oklahoma State, Dec. 30, 2015. The Lady Bears are 15-5 all-time in Big 12 openers under Mulkey. The Lady Bears are undefeated in Morgantown, W. Va. vs. the Mountaineers with an 8-0 mark on the road. Baylor holds a six-game win streak against West Virginia and is a winner in 13 of the last 14 games. Last meeting came in Morgantown, Feb. 24 with the Lady Bears taking a 64-39 win. Among returning players, Baylor scored nine points off the bench while DiDi Richards had eight points and five assists. In the losing effort, Kysre Gondrezick scored 13 off the bench – she will look to continue that momentum heading into Thursday's contest as the senior guard is averaging 23.0 points per contest through four games.
BAYLOR WINS 1,000TH WIN AS A PROGRAM; LADY BEARS BECOME 15TH PROGRAM IN D1 HISTORY TO REACH 1,000 VICTORIES
Baylor's win at South Florida Dec. 1 marked the program's 1,000th victory. Baylor became the 15th program in NCAA Division I history to reach 1,000 victories joining Tennessee, UConn, James Madison, Louisiana Tech, Stanford, Texas, SFA, Old Dominion, Ohio State, Maryland, Western Kentucky, Wisconsin-Green Bay, South Dakota State, and Notre Dame. Kim Mulkey has 606 of those wins as head coach for Baylor. At Louisiana Tech, she was either a player, assistant or associate head coach for 560 victories, which makes her a direct contributor to 1,106 wins between the two programs on the prestigious list.
LONE LADY BEARS SIGNEE, DAUDA, COMMITS FOR 2021-22
Baylor signed just one player for the 2021 recruiting class, but it was a big fish. Bentonville, Ark. native Maryam Dauda was ESPN Hoopgurlz's No. 1-ranked post recruit out of the 2021 class, was given five stars and ranked the No. 13 overall recruit in the class. Dauda began playing basketball in sixth grade after moving to the U.S. from Nigeria. The 6-4 post was a AAA All-State selection in Arkansas as a junior after averaging 16.6 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per contest. She was named to the Naismith High School Player of the Year watch list in November ahead of her senior season.
BAYLOR FINISHED 2019-20 RANKED FIRST IN FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE DEFENSE FOR
FOURTH-STRAIGHT YEAR
For the fourth-straight year and the fifth in Kim Mulkey's history as head coach at Baylor, the Lady Bears ranked No. 1 in the NCAA in defensive field goal percentage in 2019-20. Mulkey's Lady Bears are known for their tough-nosed defense, and last year's team was led by Richards who earned the national defensive player of the year award from both Naismith and the WBCA. The team held opponents to a .310 shooting mark, which tied with the 2011-12 squad for lowest opponent field goal percentage. Baylor has ranked in the top five in that category in each of the last six seasons and in 9 of the last 10. Baylor also won the category in 2010-11.
MULKEY JOINS STAR-STUDDED 2020 CLASS WITH NAISMITH HALL OF FAME INDUCTION
The Big 12 and NCAA Tournaments were cancelled, but Kim Mulkey did get some good news in April when she was announced as a member of the 2020 induction class to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. She and her class' peers are virtually peerless as she joined a star-studded class, including Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Tamika Catchings, Rudy Tomjanovich, Eddie Sutton, Barbara Stevens and Patrick Baumann.
Her induction ceremony was delayed due to COVID-19 and the 2020 class has yet to be enshrined. Her induction will be as a coach, although she has been nominated as a player on numerous occasions. She was also a finalist in 2018. Mulkey's many accomplishments earned her the honor, but among them are three NCAA titles, 21 Big 12 championships, and she was the fastest NCAA Division I head coach, man or woman, to reach 600 career victories (700 games).
50/50 – BAYLOR'S MAGIC NUMBER OFFENSIVELY & DEFENSIVELY
Kim Mulkey-coached teams at Baylor are 236-1 when shooting 50 percent or better from the field, while just 16 times in 20-plus seasons has an opponent shot 50 percent or better against the Lady Bears defense. Baylor's only loss when shooting 50 percent or better came vs. Mississippi State in the 2017 Elite 8.
