By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
On the heels of a three-game winning streak, No. 13 Baylor men’s basketball is headed to Nassau, Bahamas for the Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship, where they’ll play No. 22 St. John’s and either No. 11 Tennessee or Virginia.
“St. John’s, ranked top 25, off to a great start, great backcourt and definitely going to be a real challenge,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said. “And then you have in the other bracket, Virginia and Tennessee, two other really good teams. So at the end of these two games, I think all us coaches will learn more about just what we need to improve on before conference and just what areas we maybe are better than we thought or worse than we thought.”
The tournament-style invitational will feature four games, starting with two first-round matchups: No. 13 Baylor vs. No. 22 St. John’s and No. 11 Tennessee vs. Virginia. The Bears and Red Storm will tip off at 6 p.m. Thursday, with the winner advancing to Friday night’s championship match at 8:30 p.m. The loser will play a consolation game at 6 p.m.
The last time the Bears played in the Bahamas was 2021, when they swept Arizona State, VCU and Michigan State in the Battle 4 Atlantis invitational on Paradise Island. That year’s team finished 27-7 and won the Big 12 regular season title before falling to North Carolina in the Round of 32.
“Obviously the main goal is to go out there and go 2-0,” graduate wing Jalen Celestine said. “Just enjoy the time together. Some of our family is going to be out there, so it’s going to be a cool little Waco getaway.”
Five-star freshman wing VJ Edgecombe, who notched a double-double against Sam Houston and has lit up social media with athletic highlight dunks and blocks throughout the season, was born in Bimini, Bahamas. This weekend, he’ll get a chance to return home to play in front of familiar faces in his home country.
“If [my teammates] want to go somewhere and we have time to, I’m definitely showing them around,” Edgecombe said. “Super excited getting to play in front of my family and everyone back home once again.”
St. John’s has taken strides forward under former national championship-winning head coach Rick Pitino, who took over prior to last season. The Red Storm are 4-0 behind massive scoring volume from junior guard RJ Luis (17.5 points per game on 48.9% shooting) and a defense that ranks 14th nationally in blocks per game.
Tennessee hasn’t missed a step in the absence of former star wing Dalton Knecht, who scored 37 points for the Lakers Tuesday. The reigning SEC regular season champions lead the nation in both field goal percentage (58.1%) and limiting opponent rebounds (25.0 per game). Zakai Zeigler, a three-time SEC All-Defense team member, leads the team in scoring and ranks first in the conference with 7.8 assists per game.
Virginia entered this season on shaky ground following the sudden retirement of head coach Tony Bennett in October. But so far, they’ve looked like the classic Cavaliers: lethargic offense (65.7 points per game, No. 330 in the nation) keeping pace for a top-10 defense (53.7 points per game). Bennett may have retired, but his legacy lives on in a team that ranks dead last nationally in pace by multiple possessions per game.
The Bears are 42-13 in regular-season tournaments under Drew, including seven titles — the latest of which came in 2023, when they knocked off Oregon State and Florida in the NIT Season Tip-Off in Brooklyn, New York. The quest for No. 8 starts at 6 p.m. on Thursday against St. John’s.
