By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
When the 6-foot-7 Norchad Omier out-leapt 7-foot-2 Khaman Maluach on the opening tipoff, Baylor fans hoped it would be a sign of good things to come.
Baylor entered Sunday’s Round of 32 matchup as a sizeable underdog against No. 1 Duke. Led by projected No. 1 NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg and fellow future lottery selections Maluach and Kon Knueppel, the Blue Devils entered March Madness as the most popular pick to win the title. Jon Scheyer’s squad showed why Sunday, overwhelming the Bears en route to an 89-66 victory.
“The last few years, we’ve been really blessed,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said. “At the end of the year, if there’s no tears, it means you didn’t really put your heart into it. And we always talk about emptying your cup, and that’s all you can do is empty your cup. I know our staff feels like we emptied our cup this year, and I know a lot of our players feel the same.”
Baylor’s anthracite jerseys darted in and out of the lane all afternoon, finding creative drive-and-kick angles to exploit against Duke’s towering frontline, but the size difference proved too much to overcome. The Blue Devils shot 64% from the field to Baylor’s 37%.
“The analytics showed they don’t have any weaknesses,” Drew said. “Size and length always [wins] if you don’t have size and length, if everything’s equal. And they’re blessed because they have size and length and skill.”
Omier opened the game aggressively on the glass, snagging three offensive rebounds in the first 2:21 and scoring the Bears’ first six points. Former Duke transfer Jeremy Roach subbed in and immediately sunk a stepback 3-pointer to take a 9-7 lead.
The key individual battle, though, was between projected top-five picks Flagg and VJ Edgecombe, who visited Duke together in 2023. Flagg isolated the smaller Edgecombe in the post, drawing a turnaround and-one; Edgecombe broke up a lob from Flagg to Maluach. The Duke star’s now-infamous trash talk to Edgecombe during their prep days — “You not like that!” — marked the beginning of a rivalry that fully ignited Sunday.
“Duke is a well-executed team, well-coached team, they play hard,” Edgecombe said. “They just made shots. We had a ton of mistakes and they separated from that. The game of basketball is a game of runs, and they went on a pretty big run.”
Edgecombe wasn’t the only Baylor freshman gunning for the future top draft pick. Robert O. Wright III, a high school teammate of Flagg’s at Montverde (FL) Academy, pieced together a team-best minus-8 plus/minus with 11 points, two rebounds and three assists. He spent most of the game conducting the Bears’ offense and sprinting around in circles, trying to find the forest for the trees in an imposing defensive opponent.
“I love Rob with all my heart,” Edgecombe said of his roommate. “He’s a great player but a better person for sure. I’m just thankful to have a great point guard like that [by] my side the whole time.”
Duke’s defensive length soon began taking a toll on Baylor’s guard-heavy rotation. After Langston Love’s second 3-pointer at 7:56, the Bears missed eight straight shots. The Blue Devils breezed to separate “kill shot” runs of 10-0 and 12-0 in the final 7:35 of the first half.
“The last eight minutes, I beat myself up as a coach,” Drew said. “Should’ve done some different things, burned all the timeouts, played Norchad [Omier], tried to run longer offense. But Duke’s a great team, Coach Scheyer’s done a great job. You make mistakes, they make you pay.”
A major part of Duke’s 47-30 halftime lead was the free-throw differential, which the Blue Devils also led by 17 (16-for-19 to 2-for-2). Baylor won the offensive rebounding battle nine to one but forced just two turnovers and failed to score another bench point after Roach’s 3-pointer.
Roach struggled against his former team, finishing with seven points on 3-of-10 shooting. The fifth-year guard never found his footing with the Bears, averaging fewer points, rebounds and assists than his final year in Durham. His shooting splits dropped from 46.8/42.9/84.4 to 38.2/33.6/69.4 as he battled early-season injury issues and ultimately lost his starting job to Wright.
Duke’s Tyrese Proctor ignited in the second half, draining three straight shots from downtown as the Blue Devils built their lead. Proctor shot 7-for-8 from downtown in a 25-point masterclass, becoming the first Duke player to hit five or more 3-pointers in consecutive NCAA Tournament games since his head coach, Jon Scheyer.
Baylor failed to shoot 40% from the field in either half, clearing the way for the Blue Devils to cruise to an 89-66 victory. The loss marked the Bears’ worst margin of defeat since their ill-fated season opener against Gonzaga, a 101-63 loss.
“Basketball has changed my life if I’m being honest,” Omier said. “Coming to Baylor, probably one of the best things I’ve ever done. … I don’t know if it’s bad to be happy right now, but I’m happy that they came to Baylor and we have these amazing people.”
“The last game’s never easy if you like the guys who you were with for the year,” Drew said. “Our staff really were blessed to be with [a] great group of guys.”
Sunday likely marked the final game of Edgecombe’s Baylor career. The über-athletic freshman is projected to become the program’s highest-drafted player ever. He closed out his collegiate career with a team-high 16 points and four offensive rebounds on 6-of-10 shooting.
