By Michael Haag | Sports Editor
Baylor women’s basketball, the No. 7 seed in the Seattle 3 Regional, might be better suited in facing 10th-seeded University of Alabama in Storrs, Conn.
Given the Bears’ (29-12) success on the road paired with some underwhelming outings in the Ferrell Center, Baylor could be in a favorable spot with a neutral site game against the Crimson Tide (20-10).
The team hasn’t figured out why it’s so much better on the road or at neutral sites, but with the NCAA Tournament soon to be in full swing, the fact of the matter is the road to a championship runs through mostly neutral site games, anyway.
This gives the Bears a chance to tap into that road success in hopes of building a run through the tournament. Head coach Nicki Collen said there are certain things about hitting the road that lets her group zero in more.
“I do think there’s a different focus, there’s a different synergy, a different level of working together, of communicating better, because the crowd is louder, so we’re communicating earlier on defense, to help a teammate out, stuff that we should be doing all the time,” Collen said.
Baylor was just 3-5 at home in Big 12 play this season, compared to a 6-3 mark in road games. Senior guard Jaden Owens said that assistant coach Tony Greene tells the team he likes to coach them when they play on the road “because it’s a different type of locked in.”
“We haven’t really put our finger on why,” Owens said. “You would think we would always play best at home, but I don’t know, it’s something about when we’re away … when he’s in the huddle and he’s talking to us [about] how zoned in and locked in we are.”
In terms of playing against Alabama, Collen said her group is just excited to play a team that’s not in the Big 12. Since the conference does the home-and-home series and has the league tournament on top of that, she said playing a team up to three times gets exhausting and old.
Saturday’s game between the two programs will mark the first one ever, but the second-year head coach said she has a personal bond with Alabama head coach Kristy Curry.
“When [Kristy] left [Purdue] and went to Texas Tech, my college roommate — who was a manager for us at Purdue — was her SID [sports information director]. She had been the SID for Marsha Sharp and [then] she became the SID for Kristy Curry,” Colleen said. “When this matchup happened, [my old roommate] Tammy right away was like, ‘Oh my gosh, two of my favorite people [are] meeting up in the first round!’”
Collen also said that she and Curry had several interactions guarding former Bears guard Jordan Lewis, who transferred to Baylor after five years with Alabama.
Regarding the matchup, freshman forward Bella Fontleroy said practice this week has been “intense” but “intentional.”
“[We’ve been] focusing on just rebounding and executing and really making sure that we’re locked in so that when we get out on the court, we can come really together as a team and just execute the game plan,” Fontleroy said.
Collen said she expects Fontleroy and freshman forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs to have some nerves in their first NCAA Tournament game. However, she actually welcomes those jitters.
“I think nerves are good,” Collen said. “There’s not a game that I coach that I’m not nervous, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a preseason game against the 280th-ranked team or a top-25 matchup. I think that’s part of wanting to play well and wanting to perform well. I just think we really have to be focused, have a lot of energy [and] be really good on the boards.”
Since it’s a win-or-go-home situation in March Madness, Collen said the team’s focus and effort “has to be better.” She also noted that the team can’t let mistakes spiral downward in succession.
“You can’t let bad play snowball because that will get you beat real quick in the tournament,” Collen said. “We have to have a short memory, in terms of mistakes and moving on and fixing them, correcting them.”
Going into the tournament, Owens admitted that she was focusing on the wrong things. She said she was too worried about seeding and that she had to take a step back and realize who’s actually in charge of her life.
“Knowing God’s in control [is most important],” Owens said. “Just having faith that he put us in this situation for a specific reason. Don’t question it. Of course we want to be a one-seed or two-seed, but we’re in the seed that we’re supposed to be in because God put us there. I have no question, but I think we’re going to end up great.”
Owens told reporters on Wednesday she intends to use her final year of eligibility to return for a fifth season in 2023-24. Owens transferred to Baylor after her freshman season at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has been in the green and gold ever since.
She hopes that her and the squad can capitalize on their road success in order to ultimately lift an NCAA championship trophy.
“I think this is kind of exciting,” Owens said. “We only have away games from now on, so maybe it’ll be our best basketball, I’m hoping. This is a great time for that to happen.”
The winner between Baylor and Alabama will face either No. 2 seed University of Connecticut, the host team, or No. 15 seed University of Vermont. Tipoff between the Bears and Crimson Tide is set for 4:30 p.m. CT Saturday on ESPN2 in the Gampel Pavilion in Storrs.
