After Baylor’s first defeat at No. 2 of the season on Saturday night, a 71-58 defeat at No. 17 Kansas, coach Scott Drew acknowledged that the COVID-19 protocols that sidelined the Bears for 21 days was the ‘kryptonite’ of be his basketball team.
“We were the number one shooting team in the country and we’ll get to that,” said Drew. But even Superman has kryptonite. And I think the COVID protocols are ours. ‘
Baylor, who came into play 43.2% from the 3-point range, was 6-for-26 from behind the arc. The Bears shot back only 8-for-25 from behind the arc in their first game, a come-from-behind victory in Iowa State on Tuesday.
This was Baylor’s first week back after six consecutive postponements due to COVID-19 issues within the program and the Big 12 protocols. The Bears trained for the first time in nearly three weeks last Sunday.
“Anyone who’s had COVID would know that when you come back, you’re probably not 100 percent,” Drew said. “For people who didn’t [have COVID] and were unable to exercise or train, I would think that’s rust or other parts of it. The latter is that it is a chemistry game, just like football. You can train with quarterbacks and running backs as much as you want, until you train with the line and the receivers – it’s a timing game too. You have to take pictures at the end of the day. And normally when the legs go it’s hard to make 3s … All that comes and we get back into that rhythm.
Again, two plus two equals four. Lots of people take breaks, but they may not have people who have COVID, and if they do, they exercise every day, they don’t have blizzards, they’re exercising. Their comeback time is much faster than other teams. “
Baylor guard Jared Butler, the Bears’ Wooden Award nominee, knocked off the field just 2-for-9, scoring five runs before making an error. MaCio Teague (18 points) and Davion Mitchell (13 points) had pieces where they got into a rhythm in the attacking end, but they shot a combined 12-for-35 from the floor.
Marcus Garrett bore most of the responsibility for guarding Butler, who had 30 points in the first meeting between the two teams earlier this season.
“First, give credit to Marcus,” Drew said. Second, our staff, we need to get him in a better position. Third, you will have nights when you don’t shoot well. And that was tonight.
“They’ve also done a good job of improving and improving guys,” Drew added later. “Boys on the rotation are much sharper and cleaner, which is what you expect. We 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 getting an early seven-point lead before Baylor fought back. Kansas took a three point lead at half-time and Baylor never got closer than that in the second half. David McCormack dominated the paint in the first half, finishing with 20 points and three rebounds before retiring, while Garrett contributed 14 points to the attacking end and Christian Braun had 11 points.
McCormack’s 14-point first half immediately set the tone; Kansas would use its great advantage against Baylor’s frontcourt and the Bears would have to adapt. 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 they’ve played at a really high level,” said Drew. “They did a great job in getting him the ball. But he did a great job of being strong, demanding, being physical, finishing … He deserves a lot of credit for that.”
Kansas dominated the backboards, beating Baylor 48-28 – including 14 offensive rebounds that turned into 17 second chance points.
“I feel like we were trapped,” Garrett said after the game. “We knew we had to rebound and defend to win the game. That was a big thing we stressed all week.”
Kansas has now won six of the past seven games, with the lone loss on Tuesday in extra time in Texas. The Jayhawks have held seven consecutive opponents with 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 early start in the NCAA tournament, Kansas plays just as well as any team in the Big 12 entering the post season.
“We finished 12-6 in a ridiculously tough competition when we sucked for three weeks,” said Kansas coach Bill Self. “You take those three weeks out and we’ve consistently performed well. Of course you can’t do that. But to play the whole series of games and play against everyone twice, many teams across America would like to be 12 years old. 6 in the toughest competition in America. “
Baylor could drop from second place in the country for the first time all season long in next week’s AP poll, and the Bears have a difficult three-game trajectory to end the regular season: Tuesday in West Virginia , home vs. Oklahoma State on Thursday, at home vs. Texas Tech on Sundays.
“At the end of the day, they came here and beat us in certain aspects of the game and we lost,” said Teague. ‘We have to be more difficult than that. We just have to be better. ‘
ESPN’s Myron Medcalf contributed to this report.