Baylor junior Mamadou Diene walked off the South Carolina court Wednesday night, turned to head coach Scott Drew and told him, 'hey coach, this is the first time I've won a road game at Baylor.''
He apparently flashed a smile and kept going.
"That was the best,'' Drew said.
As hurdles go, for programs escaping from what had been perceived as a death sentence, Baylor cleared another one Wednesday night with the 92-84 victory.
The Bears won on the road, at an SEC team no less, to snap a 25-game losing streak away from Waco. That comes on the heels of a Paradise Jam victory in the Virgin Islands in November over Wichita State, Notre Dame and Winthrop, which has seen the Bears going through a revival of sorts on the basketball court.
"We were down 20 in this game too," Drew said of trailing 44-24 at one point. "We're getting more and more confidence and it shows the character."
Drew said the last road win for the Bears was at Purdue on Dec. 30, 2004. The Bears also won at Texas A&M on Feb. 25, 2003, Drew's first season at the school following the shooting death of Patrick Dennehy by former teammate Carlton Dotson and the subsequent resignation of former coach
Dave Bliss over his attempting to coverup violations.
In 2005-06, Baylor's penalty was to play no nonconference games, and the Bears didn't win a road Big 12 game that season, either.
This season, Baylor's 8-1 record looks more legitimate every day. The Bears' only loss is to Washington State at home, a game that came down to the final few possessions. And, the Bears' resurgence comes at a time when the Big 12 is looking extremely strong with Final Four contenders at the top -- Kansas, Texas and Texas A&M -- and a slew of NCAA potential teams in Baylor, Kansas State, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma.
Final nuggets
• If you stayed up late on the East Coast and tracked the Ohio-St. John's game at the Rainbow Classic, then you followed a dandy.
Senior point guard
Eugene Lawrence buried a 3-pointer to tie the game at 69-69 with 1.5 seconds left. Ohio inbounded the ball and the pass went like a bullet to
Leon Williams for a layup at the buzzer. Ohio's
Bubba Walther threw the baseball pass to Williams, who finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Ohio (7-3) had been on the losing end of final possession games against Holy Cross and Temple. The Bobcats now play Louisiana-Lafayette in the semifinals Friday after the Ragin' Cajuns upset host Hawaii 61-59. The other side of the bracket gets going Thursday with Georgia playing East Tennessee State and Saint Mary's playing Tulane. St. John's now must play host Hawaii in the loser's bracket which doesn't bode as well for a potential two-loss trip to the Islands.
• There are four winless teams still in Division I: Furman (0-8), Ball State (0-10), Grambling State (0-6) and NJIT (0-13). Yikes.
• Stanford sophomore center
Brook Lopez made a strong debut Wednesday night with 20 points and six boards in a win over Santa Clara. Lopez wasn't hurt, just academically ineligible, so expect him to immediately be one of the top centers in the country. He looked like he didn't miss a beat as hey toyed with the Broncos' big men.
• Great win for Arizona over UNLV Wednesday night, which amazingly marked the Wildcats' first ever victory at the Thomas & Mack Center. The Runnin' Rebels late-game management wasn't too smooth as Steve Lappas appropriately detailed during the telecast. Arizona continues to look like Kevin O'Neill's tough love is working with gutty wins over Texas A&M, Illinois in Chicago and now at UNLV.
• LSU coach John Brady may have regretted the Wichita State series after losing to the Shockers in Baton Rouge last season and then losing again in Wichita State Wednesday night -- by 20.
• I still am amazed that John Calipari was able to pull off this nonconference home slate for Memphis: Georgetown, Arizona, Gonzaga and Tennessee. That simply doesn't happen in today's neutral-site driven nonconference scheduling era.
Andy Katz
