Kansas Basketball Vs Baylor: Get To Know The Bears

The Kansas Jayhawks (12-5, 2-2) are group to big nan Baylor Bears (11-5, 1-3) wrong Allen Fieldhouse astatine 7 p.m. CT Friday nighttime for KU’s 3rd Big 12 location crippled of nan season.

KU is coming disconnected an awesome location triumph versus No. 2 Iowa State connected Tuesday. The Jayhawks hit nan antecedently undefeated Cyclones 84-63 down a balanced onslaught from KU’s starting five.

Meanwhile, nan Bears travel to Lawrence aft thumping Oklahoma State connected their location level earlier this week 94-79. It was Baylor’s first convention triumph of nan play frankincense far.

Here are immoderate things to cognize astir nan Bears heading into Friday night’s matchup.

History

Kansas owns a 37-11 all-time grounds versus Baylor making love backmost to their first matchup connected Dec. 3, 1951. In fact, KU won 30 of nan first 35 games betwixt nan 2 schools from 1951 to 2018. Since then, it’s been much moreover pinch Kansas holding conscionable a 7-6 grounds complete their past 13 meetings and losing nan past two.  

Only erstwhile has Baylor ever won astatine Allen Fieldhouse. That came connected Jan. 11, 2020, erstwhile nan Bears stunned nan No. 3 Jayhawks 67-55.

Friday’s matchup will beryllium nan 22nd gathering betwixt nan 2 teams successful Lawrence pinch nan Jayhawks owning a 20-1 location grounds each clip versus nan Bears.

Record

Baylor enters Friday’s title pinch an 11-5 grounds wide and a 1-3 grounds successful Big 12 play. The Bears are presently classed 11th successful nan Big 12 pinch 3 convention losses: astatine TCU (69-63), astatine location versus No. 2 Iowa State (70-60), and location against No. 7 Houston (77-55).

Prior to Big 12 play, nan Bears didn’t look immoderate classed opponents. Their astir awesome non-conference wins came against San Diego State, Creighton, and St John’s.

Key players

The Bears are led successful scoring by Tennessee transportation Cameron Carr. The redshirt sophomore defender is averaging 20.3 points per crippled while shooting 54.3% from nan section and astir 42% from 3-point range.

Talented freshman defender Tounde Yessoufou is 2nd connected nan squad successful scoring pinch an mean of 17.9 points per game. The Bears starring rebounders are elder guards Dan Skillings Jr. and Michael Rataj who some mean complete six rebounds per game.

In total, nan Bears person six players averaging successful double digit scoring. The squad averages 88.7 points per crippled this play –which is 20th successful nan federation – but only 67.8 points per crippled truthful acold successful Big 12 play.

Coaching

Baylor caput coach Scott Drew is now successful his 23rd play arsenic caput coach of nan Bears (2003-present). He owns a 477–264 (.644) grounds arsenic caput coach astatine Baylor and has led nan Bears to 13 NCAA Tournament appearances – 1 of which resulted successful a nationalist title successful 2021.

Drew is easy nan astir successful caput coach successful Baylor history, but his occurrence against Kansas has been constricted arsenic he owns conscionable an 11-29 grounds versus nan Jayhawks during his clip successful Waco.