After the first loss of the season no. 2 Baylor on Saturday night, a 71-58 defeat at number 17 in Kansas, coach Scott Drew acknowledged that the COVID-19 protocols that removed the Bears for 21 days are the “kryptonite” of his basketball team.
“We were the No. 1 team in the country and we’ll get back to that,” Drew said. “But even Superman has kryptonite. And I think the COVID protocols are ours.”
Baylor, who entered the game by shooting 43.2% of the 3-point distance, passed 6-for-26 from behind the arc. The Bears shot just 8 for 25 from behind the arc in their first game back, a victory coming from behind at Iowa State on Tuesday.
This was Baylor’s first week back after six consecutive delays due to COVID-19 problems in the program and the Big 12 protocols. The Bears trained last Sunday for the first time in almost three weeks.
“Anyone with COVID would know when you come back that you’re probably not 100%,” Drew said. “It simply came to our notice then [have COVID] and I haven’t been able to practice or train, I’d think it’s rust or other areas. The last thing is that it’s a chemistry game, just like football. You can train with quarterback and backback everything you want, until you train with the line and the receivers – it’s also a synchronization game. At the end of the day, you have to take photos. And normally, when the legs go, it’s hard to do 3 … That will come and we’ll come back at that pace.
“Again, two plus two equals four. Many people take breaks, but they may not have people who have COVID and, if necessary, train every day, they don’t have snowstorms, they” practice again. Their return time is much faster than the other teams. “
Baylor keeper Jared Butler, the bear’s wooden prize nominee, left just 2 points out of 9 on the field and scored five points before committing a foul. MaCio Teague (18 points) and Davion Mitchell (13 points) had stretches in which they entered a rhythm at the offensive end, but shot a combined 12-for-35 from the floor.
Marcus Garrett took the biggest responsibility for guarding Butler, who had 30 points in the first meeting between the two teams at the beginning of this season.
“First, you have to give credit to Marcus,” Drew said. “Secondly, our staff, we have to do a better job to put it in a better position. Then, thirdly, you will have nights when you don’t shoot it well. And that was tonight.
“They’ve done a good job with the boys as they get better and better,” Drew added later. “The guys in the rotation are much clearer and cleaner, which you would expect. We’ve had three weeks of getting worse and they’ve had three weeks of getting better, so we need to catch up.”
The game was back and forth for most of the first half, with Kansas reaching a seven-point lead early on before Baylor struggled. Kansas took a three-point lead until the break, and Baylor never came closer than 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 to the offensive end and Christian Braun had 11 points.
McCormack’s first 14-point half set the tone immediately; Kansas was going to use its size advantage over Baylor’s front yard, and Bears would have to adjust. They slowed him down after the break, but it was too late.
“Let’s give him credit for really helping Kansas, especially in the last six, seven games that they’ve really played at a high level,” Drew said. “They did a great job taking the ball. But he did a great job being strong, demanding, physically, finishing … He deserves a lot of credit for that.”
Kansas dominated the panels, beating Baylor 48-28 – including 14 offensive rebounds that turned into 17 second-chance points.
“I feel like we were locked up,” Garrett said after the game. “I knew we had to come back and defend ourselves to win the game. It was an important thing that we emphasized all week.”
Kansas has now won six of its last seven games, with the only loss coming in overtime on Tuesday in Texas. The Jayhawks held seven straight opponents to less than a point on possession, and Baylor’s 58 points on Saturday were the lowest Bears have scored all season.
After looking like an early exit in the NCAA tournament, Kansas plays as well as any team in the Big 12 that enters the postseason.
“I finished 12-6 in a ridiculously heavy league when I sucked for three weeks,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “Take the three weeks out of them and we did consistently well. Of course, you can’t do that. But to play the entire list of games and to play everyone twice, a lot of teams across America would like to have 12-6 in the toughest league in America. “
Baylor could drop from No. 2 in the country in next week’s AP poll for the first time all season, and the Bears have a tough three-game stretch to finish the regular season: in West Virginia on Tuesday at home against Oklahoma on Thursday, home vs. Texas Tech Sunday.
“At the end of the day, they came here and outscored us in certain aspects of the game and we lost,” Teague said. “We have to be tougher than that. We just have to be better.”
ESPN’s Myron Medcalf contributed to this report.