As the majority of men’s college basketball teams have reached the midway point of the season there are only two remaining undefeated teams: USC Trojans and Baylor Bears.
The Baylor Bears are continuing their pure dominance following their first national championship title in school history last season. They are 15-0 to start this season and stand strong at the No. 1 spot in the AP Top-25 for the fifth straight week. Let’s take a look at how they have reached this point without a loss and what is to come.
Non-Conference Play
Their first 12 games of the season came against non-conference opponents. They scored an average of 79.4 points per game and beat opponents by an average of 26.9 points. Additionally they only allowed one team, Oregon Ducks, to reach 70 points and they kept them to under 60 on six occasions. Clearly this has to be taken with a grain of salt with all of the rather easy opponents like Incarnate Word (4-13) and Northwestern State (4-13).
Yet, in those first 12 games they faced four very tough teams. Their first test was against the Stanford Cardinals (8-4) but the Bears were too much as they came away with an 86-48 victory. Two games later they took on the VCU Rams (9-4) who put up a battle and only lost 69-61. Their very next game came against the Michigan State Spartans (13-2) who they handled 75-58. Baylor’s biggest test came against the Villanova Wildcats (11-4) who were ranked No. 6 at the time. In a defense heavy game the Bears walked away with a 57-36 win.
Early Conference Play
With the start of the new year came the start of their conference play. On New Years Day they went on the road for a Top-10 conference battle with the undefeated No. 8 Iowa State Cyclones. The bears held a 41-33 lead at half, but the Cyclones battled late to bring it within five with 2:20 remaining. Yet, the Bears stood strong and came away with a 77-72 victory.
They also beat a good Oklahoma Sooners (12-3) 84-74 and then played the TCU Horned Frogs (10-2) on Saturday where they won 76-64.
Top Play Makers
The success of this team is clear with all of the big play makers. Four guys are averaging 10 or more points per game, five are averaging 3.5 or more rebounds per game, six are averaging one or more steal per game and seven have more than 100 total points.
The names that stand out the most are senior James Akinjo and junior Adam Flagler. Akinjo leads the team with 216 points (14.4 ppg), 92 assists (6.1 apg), 33 steals (2.2 spg). Flagler is third with 72 points (12.3 ppg), second with 51 assists (3.6 apg) and leads the team with an 85.0 free throw percentage.
Biggest Failure
Free Throw shooting. Free throws are one of the most crucial aspects of basketball and they can be the make it or break it factor for a lot of teams. If a team fails at the charity stripe they are going to struggle once they play close games.
They are sitting at a 66.7% as a team which is not good. They only have three players shooting over 70% from the line. On average, they are missing 6.5 each game. Additionally, there have been 5 games with seven or more misses.
They are one of only four teams in the Big 12 (Texas Tech, West Virginia, Oklahoma State) with less than 70% from the free throw line. This means when they get into late January and February nine of their final 11 regular season conference games will be against teams that will have a better chance of beating them on the line.
Upcoming Games
Being in the Big 12, one of the toughest conferences in men’s college basketball, means there are a lot of ranked opponents. Of their final 15 games, eight will be against currently ranked teams, including five of their last seven.
Their next game to start the second half of the season will be at home against No. 19 Texas Tech (11-3). They won’t face another ranked team until the final game of January on the road against a non-conference and No. 24 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide (11-4).
Their February will be incredibly tough as they have No. 9 Kansas (12-2) and No. 21 Texas (12-3) twice.
Their next game against Texas Tech will be huge as they just knocked off Kansas and they will have all of that momentum. If they get past the Red Raiders their biggest worry will be the Jayhawks who love to tear apart Big 12 teams.
This is a great Baylor Bears team on both ends of the ball. They can score like crazy and are consistently winning the rebounding game. They will really have to improve their free throw shooting which is going to be a major factor come close games. Most importantly, they have a ton of tough opponents who will try their hardest to ruin the Bears hopes of maintaining a perfect season.
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