What the Baylor Bears Have Changed to Turn the Season Around
The Baylor Bears were a frustrating team to watch two weeks ago. They couldn't stop a runny nose and even on nights where the three-point shots were falling at a good clip, there was no guarantee they were coming out with a victory. Scott Drew and the Bears' adjustments can be boiled down to two simple sentiments; give ourselves more shots and, as Shooter Flatch must've advised Drew, make the opponents "chuck it from the cheap seats."
Offensively, the Bears are not exactly feeding the beast in the paint and letting him go to work. In fact, Baylor is a historically bad low post scoring team for a squad that could crack into the Top 10 next week if they beat the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday. Baylor ranks towards the bottom of Division I in low post scoring and their two centers, Flo Thamba and Josh Ojianwuna, both average less than six points a game.
The Bears live and die by the three, so their biggest offensive change was just to get more shots.
Baylor has sky-rocketed to one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the nation since the winning streak began January 11. In the five games since, Baylor has not been outrebounded in a game, and has beaten their opponents on the offensive glass 66-48, including dominant performances in the last two games, doubling up their opponents on the offensive boards 34-17 in those contests.
After a woeful start to the conference schedule, the Bears are now eighth in the country in offensive rebounding percentage and lead the Big 12 in that category, a full three percentage points higher than the next best team in the conference. This is a step back towards normalcy for the Bears, with normal meaning elite, as Baylor has finished in the top eight in offensive rebounding percentage each of the last three seasons.
Baylor has had more field goals than their opponents in each of their last three games and shot a whopping 10 more field goals than the Kansas Jayhawks Monday night. In the first three losses of the conference schedule, the Bears were outshot by 12 field goals.
Defensively, Drew has turned back the clock with a matchup zone. The switch isn't exactly flattering to the Bears, but it has been affective. In the first four Big 12 games when the Bears were still operating strictly man-to-man, they allowed 85 points a game and went 1-3. In the four game stretch since making the defensive switch against Oklahoma State, Baylor has trimmed down the scoring average against by a mind-boggling 20 points, allowing just over 65 points a game and going 4-0 in that stretch.
Just realizing how amazing the switch to zone has been for Scott Drew this year.
— Cam Stuart (@realcamstuart) January 27, 2023
First 4 Big 12 games: 85 ppg against (1-3)
Last 4 Big 12 games: 65 ppg against (4-0)
Almost like the guy is Hall of Fame coach or something.
Maybe more so than the fact they don't have the individual defenders they have had the past three years, Baylor is also playing the percentages by playing the zone. They struggled defending the paint, especially against quick and shifty guards. For example, TCU's Mike Miles scored 33 points against Baylor earlier this month while nine of his 12 field goals came from the paint. Now, the Bears are loading the box, to steal a football term, to protect the paint and are making teams shoot over the zone.
Drew and the Bears will take their chances with teams shooting threes all night rather than taking lay ups. Since the switch to zone, only one team has shot better than 30% from three (Texas Tech) against them in a game.
By playing the zone, the Bears have taken high percentage shots almost entirely out of the equation. In the span of the five game winning streak, Baylor is still a -26 in the paint, but it's almost as if they rate themselves as such a good shooting team that they like their chances at making more threes to make up for a shrinking number of easy twos.
Maybe the Golden State Warriors comparison isn't so bad after all.
Follow Cameron Stuart on Twitter
Want the latest in breaking and insider news for the Baylor Bears? Click Here
Follow Inside the Bears on Twitter and Facebook
Make sure to subscribe to our daily podcast @LockedOnBaylor today! Click here To Listen.
Want even more Baylor Bears News? Check out the SI.com team page here
Covering Baylor for Inside The Bears and the Locked on Baylor podcast. You can follow me for more Baylor content at @realcamstuart on Twitter. Originally from Rockland, Massachusetts and a Baylor alum, so I might mix the occasional bias and/or Boston sports tweet in there every once in a while.