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After No.2 Baylor’s first loss of the season on Saturday night, a 71-58 loss to No.17 Kansas, coach Scott Drew acknowledged that the COVID-19 protocols that ruled out the Bears for 21 days are the “kryptonite” from his basketball team.
“We were the nation’s # 1 shooting team and we’ll be back,” said Drew. “But even Superman has kryptonite. And I guess the COVID protocols are ours.”
Baylor, who entered the game with 43.2% 3-point distance, went 6-for-26 behind the arc. The Bears shot just 8 for 25 from behind the arc in their opener, a comeback victory at Iowa State on Tuesday.
It was Baylor’s first week back after six straight postponements due to COVID-19 issues within the Big 12’s program and protocols. The Bears trained last Sunday for the first time in nearly three weeks.
“Anyone who’s had COVID would know when you come back that you’re probably not 100%,” Drew said. “For the people who haven’t [have COVID] and i couldnt practice or train i think its rust or other areas of that. The last thing is, it’s a chemistry game just like soccer. You can train with quarterbacks and running backs whatever you want, until you work with the line and the receivers – it’s a timing game too. At the end of the day, you have to take pictures. And normally when the legs go, it’s difficult to do 3s … All of this will come and we will come back in this rhythm.
“Again, two plus two is four. A lot of people take breaks, but they may not have people with COVID, and if they do, they train every day. , they don’t have blizzards, they’re training. Their comeback is much faster than the other teams. “
Baylor goaltender Jared Butler, the Bears’ Wood Prize contender, went just 2 for 9 on the field and scored five runs before committing a foul. MaCio Teague (18 points) and Davion Mitchell (13 points) had stretches where they entered a rhythm on the attacking side, but they shot a combined 12 for 35 from the floor.
Marcus Garrett took most of the responsibility for guarding Butler, who had 30 points when the two teams first met earlier this season.
“First you have to pay homage to Marcus,” Drew said. “Second, our staff, we have to do a better job to put them in better positions. Second, third, you’re going to have nights where you don’t shoot well. And that was tonight.
“They also did a good job getting better and better,” Drew added later. “The guys on the rotation are a lot sharper and cleaner, which you’d expect. We’ve had three weeks where we got worse and they had three weeks where they got better, so we have to catch up.”
The game went back and forth for most of the first half, with Kansas taking a seven-point lead before Baylor hit back. Kansas took a three-point lead at halftime, and Baylor never came close in the second half. David McCormack dominated the paint in the first half and finished with 20 points and three rebounds before fouling, while Garrett contributed 14 points on offense and Christian Braun 11 points.
McCormack’s 14-point first half immediately set the tone; Kansas would use their size advantage against Baylor’s frontcourt and the Bears would have to adjust. They slowed him down after half-time, but it was too late.
“Let’s give him credit for really helping Kansas, especially the last six, seven games that they’ve really played at a high level,” said Drew. “They did a great job getting him the ball. But he did a great job being strong, demanding it, being physical, finishing… He deserves a lot of credit for that.”
Kansas dominated the full-backs, passing Baylor 48-28 – including 14 offensive rebounds that turned into 17 second chance points.
“I feel like we were locked in,” Garrett said after the game. “We knew we had to bounce back and defend to win the game. It was a big thing that we insisted on all week.”
Kansas have now won six of their last seven games, with the only overtime loss coming to Texas on Tuesday. The Jayhawks have held seven straight opponents to less than one point per possession, and Baylor’s 58 points on Saturday were the lowest the Bears have scored all season.
After looking like an NCAA tournament start, Kansas is playing as well as any Big 12 team entering the playoffs.
“We finished 12-6 in a ridiculously tough league when we were down for three weeks,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “You take those three weeks off and we’ve always performed well. Of course you can’t do that. But to play the whole game roster and play everyone twice, a lot of teams across America would love to have it. 12-6 in America’s toughest league. “
Baylor could drop from the nation’s second place in next week’s AP poll for the first time this season, and the Bears have a tough three-game streak to end the regular season: in West Virginia on Tuesday, at home against Oklahoma State on Thursday, home to Texas Tech on Sunday.
“At the end of the day, they came in here and outperformed us in some aspects of the game and we lost,” said Teague. “We have to be tougher than that. We just have to be better.”
ESPN’s Myron Medcalf contributed to this report.
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