By Gio Gennero | Sports Writer
For the third straight year, the No. 3 Bears are a top-three seed heading into the NCAA Tournament after finishing the regular season with a 22-10 (11-7 Big 12). For the third time in program history, Baylor is set to face-off against No. 14 UC Santa Barbara, this time on a bigger stage at 12:30 p.m. Friday in Denver.
“Like anybody in the field: well-coached, good players, good team,” head coach Scott Drew said. “Everybody at this time of year knows that this could be your last practice in the Ferrell Center. So, you’re dialed-in, you’re locked-in and you’re competing as hard as you can, trying to execute as well as you can. As a coaching staff, you want them fresh, you don’t want to get anyone injured. At the same time, you want to get them ready. It’s a fine line and prayer in between.”
This time last year the Bears were missing multiple key players including junior guard LJ Cryer (leading scorer) and senior forward Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua (Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year). This time around, both will be suited, booted and ready to go come tip-off.
Unfortunately, a question mark still looms in the eye of freshman guard Langston Love. Love has missed a few games with an eye injury, but Drew said he will continue to practice and be evaluated.
“Hopefully the rest of the year we keep everybody going in the right direction,” Drew said after knocking on wood. “It’s such a physical game nowadays, and injuries play such a big part in things, you’ve got to have depth. It takes a team to win. We’ve been blessed to just not have season-ending injuries. … We’ll see how [Love] does in practice the next couple days, and then from there we’ll be able to decide if he can play or not.”
This season, the green and gold went 8-10 against teams in the field, including big wins over top-three seeds in UCLA, Kansas, Texas and Gonzaga. Baylor is looking to take a 2-1 series lead against UC Santa Barbara in their first meeting since 1970.
“It’s one game,” senior forward Flo Thamba said. “You gotta make sure you play it to the best of your ability because the next game is not guaranteed. When I look at it from my perspective, it can be a continuous college career or it might be it. The reality of it is just focusing, paying attention to all the details so you can actually win the game so you get another opportunity to play another.”
