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Gameday Thread: No. 5 Baylor vs No. 1 USC - Sweet Sixteen

March 29, 2024
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PORTLAND, Ore. – The Baylor women’s basketball team continues its run in the 2024 NCAA Tournament on Saturday when it faces USC at the Moda Center. 

The Sweet 16 matchup between the Bears (26-7) and the Trojans (28-5) is set for 4:30 p.m. CT and airs nationally on ESPN with Beth Mowins and Debbie Antonelli on the call. 

A live radio broadcast will be available on ESPN Central Texas (1660 AM/92.3 FM) and live in-game updates will be provided via Twitter and live stats. 

STARTING FIVE

Baylor is playing in its 20th-straight NCAA Tournament in 2024. The Bears hold the fourth-longest active streak in the country in consecutive appearances behind Tennessee (42), Stanford (36) and UConn (35).

The Bears are making their first appearance in the Sweet 16 since 2021 and first under the direction of head coach Nicki Collen.

Baylor is 57-18 all-time in the NCAA Tournament with three national championships, four Final Four appearances, 10 trips to the Elite Eight and 16 Sweet 16 appearances. BU’s 16 Sweet 16 appearances are the third-most in the last two decades behind only UConn and Stanford.

The Bears rank ninth nationally in three-point percentage defense, holding their opponents to 26.2% from behind the arc this season. Baylor has held its opponent to below 20% shooting from 3-point range in five of the last eight games.

Baylor is an impressive 21-1 this season when outrebounding its opponents. The Bears have recorded 50-plus rebounds in six contests this season, eclipsing 60 boards in wins over McNeese (68) and Delaware State (64).

QUEENS OF THE CASSELL

No. 5-seeded Baylor outlasted the No. 4 seed Virginia Tech Hokies, 75-72, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.

The win by the Bears snapped a 26-game home winning streak for the Hokies, which was a program record. Virginia Tech dropped to 32-2 at Cassell Coliseum in the last two seasons.

Jada Walker paced the Baylor offense with a career-high 28 points, going a team-leading 9-for-10 from the charity stripe. She notched 26 of her 28 points in the second half, including 14 in the fourth quarter. Additionally, she went without a turnover and dished out three assists in the outing.

Team captains Sarah Andrews (16) and Darianna Littlepage-Buggs (10) joined Walker in double figures while Bella Fontleroy led the Bears on the boards for the second-straight game, grabbing nine.

FIGHTING IN THE FIRST ROUND

Baylor earned the 80-63 victory over Vanderbilt in its opening-round game on March 22.

The game marked the 100th career game for head coach Nicki Collen. She holds a 74-27 record at the helm of the Bears.

The Bears have won their opening-round game 21 times in 22 showings in the Big Dance.

Bella Fontleroy turned in her third double-double of the year, and sixth of her career, with a 19-point, 11-rebound performance to lead the Bears in both categories.

Baylor’s 80 points marked the 11th time this year that the Bears have put up at least 80 and first time since scoring 83 at Houston on Feb. 4.

Discussion from...

Gameday Thread: No. 5 Baylor vs No. 1 USC - Sweet Sixteen

20,522 Views | 212 Replies | Last: 1 mo ago by MrGolfguy
Jack Bauer
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6:55p, 3/30/24
Every marginal call was going to go USCs way
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historian
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6:55p, 3/30/24
Baylor has 20 fouls
UFC has 11
“Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!”
Psalm 119:36
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BearFan33
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6:56p, 3/30/24
Screw job
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TechDawgMc
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In reply to Team America • 6:56p, 3/30/24
Team America said:
A whole lot of contact has been let go and then they call that with 2 seconds on the shot clock. Should have been over the back on that out of bounds anyway.


That was an egregious sequence. Obviously Baylor ball and then a nothing foul call to bail them out.
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BearlyNose
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6:56p, 3/30/24
Proud of the way the Ladies didn't give up.
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KIA
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6:57p, 3/30/24
They won't swallow their whistles as much if Geno is on the other sideline.
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Jack Bauer
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In reply to TechDawgMc • 6:57p, 3/30/24
TechDawgMc said:
Team America said:
A whole lot of contact has been let go and then they call that with 2 seconds on the shot clock. Should have been over the back on that out of bounds anyway.


I like how they pretended to review the play for so long when we all knew they would give it to USC

That was an egregious sequence. Obviously Baylor ball and then a nothing foul call to bail them out.
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historian
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6:58p, 3/30/24
Might as well have Higgins or Hartness calling this one.

That said, we've made some mistakes: some really bad shots, too many fouls (some were legit), etc.
“Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!”
Psalm 119:36
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KIA
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In reply to BearlyNose • 6:58p, 3/30/24
BearlyNose said:
Proud of the way the Ladies didn't give up.
Good game plan. Girls played hard.
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IowaBear
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6:58p, 3/30/24
Ref blaming is for wimps….
We missed a billion lay ups
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Self Made Bear
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6:59p, 3/30/24
Holy crap that was off them.
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hitmanmw
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6:59p, 3/30/24
We just got absolutely hosed on that call with 2 seconds on the shot clock. JuJu got every call all day. Such a screw job!! Proud of how the ladies fought. I hope Nicki rips the officiating.
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Guitarbiscuit
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6:59p, 3/30/24
Ok now let's review a pointless out of bounds play with 1 second left to make it appear we are calling this game fairly.
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Self Made Bear
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In reply to IowaBear • 7:00p, 3/30/24
IowaBear said:
Ref blaming is for wimps….
We missed a billion lay ups

Go crawl in a hole, troll
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Team America
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7:00p, 3/30/24
Wow another blown out of bounds call. Didn't matter, but still an awful call.
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WacoKelly83
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7:01p, 3/30/24
Gutsy game Lady Bears. So proud of our team
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IowaBear
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In reply to Self Made Bear • 7:02p, 3/30/24
Troll? Lol good one snowflake. Go cry and blame the refs some more
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Big12Fan2024
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7:02p, 3/30/24
#1 seeds get those calls. We used to get them when we were an annual #1 seed. It's not right but it's the way it is in both men's and women's basketball.

Nicki did a fantastic job this season. I was a little worried after the first two years but there are many positives signs showing now. I doubt we will ever be a power like we were but that's mainly because Nicki isn't going to have the same level NIL available that several other programs have. But Nicki has returned us to be a program that a lot of schools don't want to face.
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Guitarbiscuit
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In reply to Self Made Bear • 7:02p, 3/30/24
Self Made Bear said:
IowaBear said:
Ref blaming is for wimps….
We missed a billion lay ups

Go crawl in a hole, troll

I don't agree at all with your assessment. The Baylor men deserved to lose because they were not as good as their opponent-Clemson.

Baylor women were the better team today and USC needed to be bailed out by the officials in order to win.

If you don't see that, then you need to renew your prescription.
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IowaBear
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In reply to Guitarbiscuit • 7:03p, 3/30/24
Again we missed a billion layups. That's a fact. Ref blaming is stupid and for losers. Always has been. Make 2 of those like 12 missed layups and we win
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Guitarbiscuit
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In reply to IowaBear • 7:04p, 3/30/24
IowaBear said:
Troll? Lol good one snowflake. Go cry and blame the refs some more

Are you all there? I'm no whiner, but I do know a bailout when I see one. You are wrong. Baylor women got screwed and USC required officials' help to get over the line.
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Bear3
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7:04p, 3/30/24
This was a very good hard fought game by our ladies. It was a very good season, Sweet 16 and came very close to knocking out a one seed with generational player. Very proud of this team and coaching staff! The future is certainly bright for Baylor Wbb. And yes, there were some questionable calls…..
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IowaBear
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In reply to Guitarbiscuit • 7:06p, 3/30/24
Make lay ups and we win. It's that frigging simple. ***** and moan about reffing all you want.. go back and count all the misses bunnies. Those are why we ultimately lost.
Ref blaming is for *******
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Guitarbiscuit
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In reply to IowaBear • 7:07p, 3/30/24
IowaBear said:
Again we missed a billion layups. That's a fact. Ref blaming is stupid and for losers. Always has been. Make 2 of those like 12 missed layups and we win

Again--look at what occurred the last 30 seconds. The refs are to be blamed for this. You apparently assume that the refs are not corrupt.

This game was almost as bad as the Baylor / Duke game from 2008.

You can call me a loser all you want, but the refs were going to do whatever it took to get USC the win. If Baylor would have made 2 more layups, the refs would have obliged by calling 2 more phantom fouls on Baylor.

The refs are usually not to blame. But today they were.
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IowaBear
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In reply to Guitarbiscuit • 7:09p, 3/30/24
Yes I assumed refs have the integrity of the game at mind regardless of who's playing.
What's your excuse for all the missed lay ups? After all I'd we make even a few we win.
Go ahead and blame the refs. But I'll call that exactly what it is. A loser's mentality
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Brusinbear2001
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In reply to IowaBear • 7:09p, 3/30/24
but we have shocked the world, i think our name is going to not be one to play with next year. We get the majority of our core back. We have an outstanding coach and an outstanding team. Every team misses layups, every team misses free throws, every team has bad calls for or against them it's basketball. One thing not every team has is the fight our team has, we could have folded in Big 12 play, after the Iowa State loss, or even at half when they had a lead and went on runs but we didn't. Our Sophomores are huge!!!! Jada is amazing and really turned it around for this run we had. I appreciate Aijha and Dre for picking us to be apart of this family. Dre could have went to USC that was here final two but she came here because she believed in our coach and what Waco had to offer to not only make her a great basketball player but a great person. Aijha she could have let that injury keep her from coming back to play but she wanted to play with this team!!!

Do we have room to improve yes everyone does, but the fight piece I think we got it!! I hope everyone comes out to continue to support this team they deserve it!!
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MrGolfguy
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7:09p, 3/30/24
So proud of the team & coaches, great effort all around. Just a hair away from the Elite 8.
Very good season when its all totaled up, a lot to build on for next year.

Sic'em Bears!
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whitetrash
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7:11p, 3/30/24
Was too nervous to watch, but judging by the comments sounds like the game was called exactly the same way as the Iowa-WV game last weekend. Refs did everything possible to ensure darling Caitlin advanced, but in the end it was too many missed bunnies by WV that allowed her to do so. Sounds like tonight refs did everything possible to make sure Juju keeps playing, but in the end we missed to may layups.

Guess who called the Iowa-WV game? Cameron Inouye, Kevin Pethtel and Nykesha Thompson

Guess who called the USC-BU game? Cameron Inouye, Kevin Pethtel and Melissa Barlow
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Guitarbiscuit
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In reply to hitmanmw • 7:13p, 3/30/24
hitmanmw said:
We just got absolutely hosed on that call with 2 seconds on the shot clock. JuJu got every call all day. Such a screw job!! Proud of how the ladies fought. I hope Nicki rips the officiating.

Absolutely screwed. Simply put, there was no foul at all at that point. The refs had predetermined exactly what they were going to do here, knowing that USC would likely not get a bucket with only 5 seconds on the clock.

I find it disgusting, but I'm not surprised. This garbage happens every day, and at times I'm sure Baylor has gotten help from the officials. But today we were not the ones receiving freebies from the officials.
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BUatbirth
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7:14p, 3/30/24
Make layups/put backs…another wide open 3…and those questionable calls mean nothing.
Proud of our fight
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Guitarbiscuit
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In reply to whitetrash • 7:15p, 3/30/24
whitetrash said:
Was too nervous to watch, but judging by the comments sounds like the game was called exactly the same way as the Iowa-WV game last weekend. Refs did everything possible to ensure darling Caitlin advanced, but in the end it was too many missed bunnies by WV that allowed her to do so. Sounds like tonight refs did everything possible to make sure Juju keeps playing, but in the end we missed to may layups.

Guess who called the Iowa-WV game? Cameron Inouye, Kevin Pethtel and Nykesha Thompson

Guess who called the USC-BU game? Cameron Inouye, Kevin Pethtel and Melissa Barlow


Go figure.
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blackie
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In reply to Bear3 • 7:16p, 3/30/24
Bear3 said:
This was a very good hard fought game by our ladies. It was a very good season, Sweet 16 and came very close to knocking out a one seed with generational player. Very proud of this team and coaching staff! The future is certainly bright for Baylor Wbb. And yes, there were some questionable calls…..
The perimeter is expected to be back. I have to believe that we will be getting help down low. I think a lot of our missed layups can at least be understood by realizing going into some relative trees and you end up altering your shot or rushing your shot. It is not as easy as it looks when watching TV. Waiting with anticipation with who the portal brings in and how the two "bigs" that we do have can come out of their shell by next year.

And finally, can we drop the "middle school team" crap applied to this team and coach....even from the trolls. They deserve a whole lot better. They are a good team.
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Chibears2
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7:24p, 3/30/24
This performance and the commentary praising our fight and our coaching staffs ability to game scheme and make in game adjustments is going to get us the attention of some good portal players. Keep grinding!
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historian
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In reply to Big12Fan2024 • 7:26p, 3/30/24
Big12Fan2024 said:
#1 seeds get those calls. We used to get them when we were an annual #1 seed. It's not right but it's the way it is in both men's and women's basketball.

Nicki did a fantastic job this season. I was a little worried after the first two years but there are many positives signs showing now. I doubt we will ever be a power like we were but that's mainly because Nicki isn't going to have the same level NIL available that several other programs have. But Nicki has returned us to be a program that a lot of schools don't want to face.

It's doubtful that Mulkey would have been able to maintain Baylor's status for long had she remained. We will never really know, but the sport has a lot more parity than it used to and it's a lot more competitive. That's good for the sport in general but not as good for established powers like Baylor & UConn.
“Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!”
Psalm 119:36
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BaylorTaxman
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7:28p, 3/30/24
Amazing effort by our WBB team. That was a gutsy performance. I am very proud…they have no reason to hang their head.
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