No. 6/6 Baylor WBB Set to Face TCU in Big 12 Quarterfinals Friday

Thu Mar 11 19:27:08 CST 2021

[Web Header Pregame Info 2020-21]
[BU Logo]
#6/6 BAYLOR LADY BEARS (22-2)
Location: Waco, Texas
Conference: Big 12
Head Coach: Kim Mulkey<https://baylorbears.com/coaches.aspx?rc=1573> (La. Tech, 1984)

Roster<https://baylorbears.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/2020-21> | Stats<https://baylorbears.com/sports/womens-basketball/stats> | Game Notes (PDF)<https://baylorbears.com/documents/2021/3/11/BU_WBB_Game_Notes_B12_QF_TCU_3_12_21.pdf?id=17150>
#6/6 BAYLOR (22-2) vs. WEST VIRGINIA (10-14)
March 12, 2021 | 1:30 PM | Big 12 Championship QF
Kansas City, Mo. | Municipal Auditorium (10,116)
[ESPNU Logo]WATCH: E<https://listen.streamon.fm/krzi>SPNU<https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/2f2d1dde-b7b4-462f-aaaf-1cd4ac41f88a#bucketId=24800>
Talent: Chuckie Kempf (PBP), Brenda VanLengen (Analyst),
RADIO: 92.9 FM DIGITAL RADIO LINK: 9<https://listen.streamon.fm/krzi>2.9 FM<http://listen.streamon.fm/krmx>
Talent: Bruce Gietzen (PBP), Maggie Davis-Stinnett (Analyst)
LIVE STATS: SIDEARM Stats<https://big12sports.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary>

Baylor Social Media: [auto twitter icon] <http://twitter.com/baylorwbb>  [instagram png] <http://instagram.com/baylorwbb>  [Facebook PNG] <http://facebook.com/baylorwbb>
** Due to COVID-19, there will be no physical copies of stats, media almanacs, rosters, please use the following link for MEDIA RESOURCES<http://baylorbea.rs/MediaWBB> **
[logo]
TCU (10-14)
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Conference: Big 12
Head Coach: Reagan Pebley (Colorado, 1997, 7th Year)

Roster<https://gofrogs.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster> | Stats<https://gofrogs.com/sports/womens-basketball/stats/2020-21> | Game Notes

________________________________

BAYLOR FINISHES BIG 12 SEASON AT 17-1, OUTRIGHT CHAMPION, PREPARES FOR RUN AT 11TH CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT TITLE
    Baylor's 96-73 win Monday over No. 17 West Virginia closed out the regular season, and the Lady Bears finished 17-1 in the league standings, capturing their 12th Big 12 Regular Season Championship and 11th-straight.  March Madness begins for Baylor Friday with the Lady Bears as the No. 1 seed, facing TCU at 1:30 p.m. at Kansas City, Mo.'s Municipal Auditorium in the quarterfinals of the 2021 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship.
     Baylor will be looking for its 11th tournament title, which would be the 23rd Big 12 title in program history. Baylor has advanced to the title game nine seasons in a row and has won eight of the last nine title games. Baylor is 24-1 in Big 12 Tournament play since the 2011 conference tournament, with its only loss coming to West Virginia in the 2017 title matchup. Baylor's all-time record in the Big 12 Tournament is 43-13. DiDi Richards<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10008>, Moon Ursin<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10010>, NaLyssa Smith<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10009>, Queen Egbo<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10005>, Trinity Oliver<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10007>, and Caitlin Bickle<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10004> were all members of the 2019 Big 12 Championship in a win over Iowa State, March 11, 2019, while Richards, Ursin and Oliver were members of the Lady Bears team that won the 2018 title vs. Texas, March 5, 2018.

BAYLOR VS. THE HORNED FROGS
     Baylor has 31-straight wins over TCU after a season sweep this year. Baylor hasn't lost to the Horned Frogs since 1990, and the Lady Bears and TCU have only met once in the Big 12 Championship Tournament. The Lady Bears won 94-48 over TCU, March 4, 2018. DiDi Richards<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10008> and Moon Ursin<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10010> are the only Lady Bears on the 2021 roster that played in that contest with Richards scoring six points, grabbing six rebounds and tallying three steals. Ursin had four points and two rebounds in the win.
    During the 31-game win streak over TCU, Baylor's average margin of victory is 21.9 points per contest.

LADY BEARS IN NATION'S LEAD FOR FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE DEFENSE … AGAIN
     For four-straight years and five since the 2010-11 season, the Baylor Lady Bears have been the NCAA Statistical Champion in Defensive Field Goal Percentage. It took until Feb. 14, but Baylor leads the category again through 24 games at a .322 clip. The Lady Bears also lead the nation in rebound margin (19.3) and Assists Per Game (21.6).

SMITH, RICHARDS NAMED TO NAISMITH/WBCA 'FINAL FIVE' FOR RESPECTIVE NATIONAL POSITION AWARDS
     Baylor's NaLyssa Smith<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10009> and DiDi Richards<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10008> are in strong contention for national awards at their respective positions. Richards, March 1, was named to the Nancy Lieberman Award 'Final Five' list for nation's best point guard while Smith was named to the Katrina McClain Award 'Final Five' for power forwards, March 4. March 5 the position award short lists concluded and fans can vote for their selections at HoopHallAwards.com. Baylor fans can vote Richards and Smith along with their selections at shooting guard, small forward and center through March 19. Award winners will be announced shortly after the 2021 Final Four.

AP POLL RESEARCH SHOWS MULKEY AS ACTIVE LEADER IN TOTAL TOP 25 APPEARANCES AS PLAYER, ASSISTANT AND HEAD COACH
     Longtime women's hoops guru Mel Greenberg put together a list of coaches and players' appearances in the AP Top 25 poll over the years and found that Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey<https://baylorbears.com/coaches.aspx?rc=1573> is the NCAA's active leader in appearances at 667 from her time as a player and assistant at Louisiana Tech and her 21-year tenure as head coach at Baylor. She trails only Holly Warlick (693) for most all-time appearances; Warlick played, assisted Pat Summitt and was head coach at Tennessee from 2012-2019.

RICHARDS TAKES THIRD-PLACE ALL-TIME ON CAREER-ASSISTS LIST AT BU
     When most think of DiDi Richards<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10008>, they think defense. After all, she was the National Defensive Player of the Year by both the WBCA and Naismith last season without having high steals or blocks numbers. Her reputation for on-ball defense and pestering the Big 12 and the nation's top perimeter players earned her the awards. But, many might not know that Richards is one of Baylor's all-time best passers. This season, she ranks first in the Big 12 in assists per game, which ranks 6th nationally. In the regular-season finale Monday, Richards passed Kristy Wallace (525, 2014-18) for third all-time on the BU career lists for assists with her first of nine. Her 534 assists trails only Niya Johnson,  Baylor's all-time leader with 988, and Odyssey Sims who ranked second at 641.

COVID-19'S EFFECT ON THE LADY BEARS
     Baylor lost four games scheduled for the Preseason WNIT in Waco in November, along with a Thanksgiving week game vs. Oregon in Las Vegas. Baylor lost its top-10 matchup with UConn Jan. 7.
     Moon Ursin<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10010>, lost her grandmother, Ruby Alexander, to the virus in April after a swift and brief battle with COVID. Kamaria McDaniel<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10266>, a transfer from Penn State that is having to sit this season, lost her grandfather, Johnny Webster, Sr., in April as well. Kim Mulkey<https://baylorbears.com/coaches.aspx?rc=1573>, Jordyn Oliver<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10006>, DiJonai Carrington<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10073> and Caitlin Bickle<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10004> have all had to miss time due to COVID-19 protocols this season.

RICHARDS RETURNS TO FLOOR AFTER SPINAL INJURY, FEATURED ON ESPN'S SPORTSCENTER
     Oct. 24, Moon Ursin<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10010> and DiDi Richards<https://baylorbears.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=10008> collided in mid-air during a practice scrimmage, leaving Ursin with a concussion and Richards with a Spinal Cord Injury Without Radiographic Abnormality (SCIOWRA). Ursin returned to practice after clearing concussion protocol in mid-November while Richards' rehab began immediately after she briefly lost feeling below her knees. Richards was first confined to a walker to assist her in walking, but by mid-November, she was completing individual drills and workouts with medical and strength & conditioning staff. Richards shocked doctors, team medical staff and coaches with the rate of her rehab. Thirty-eight days after the injury, she played 30 minutes off the bench at South Florida Dec. 1. She scored a bucket 13 seconds into her entry, and picked up where she left off last season by leading Baylor with seven assists. Dec. 6 in Fayetteville, Ark., she resumed her starting role, getting her first start at point guard and finished the contest with a game-high eight assists. She led the Big 12 in assists per game in 2019-20, ranked 13th in the nation and had the NCAA's sixth-best assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.9:1.
     Her return to the floor sparked interest from ESPN with Mechelle Voepel writing a feature on her recovery, and Scott Van Pelt led off his Tuesday edition of SportsCenter, covering Richards' return with the "Best Thing I Saw Today" segment.

___________________________________
Kyle Robarts | Associate Director, Athletics Communications (WBB, WTEN)
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
O: 254-710-3042 | C: 254-405-9492

[cid:image008.png at 01D716AC.8072C470]<http://baylorbears.com/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/localmedia/attachments/20210312/3e951994/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 14163 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/localmedia/attachments/20210312/3e951994/attachment-0008.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 6589 bytes
Desc: image002.png
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/localmedia/attachments/20210312/3e951994/attachment-0009.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2913 bytes
Desc: image003.png
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/localmedia/attachments/20210312/3e951994/attachment-0010.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.png
Type: image/png
Size: 3173 bytes
Desc: image004.png
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/localmedia/attachments/20210312/3e951994/attachment-0011.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image005.png
Type: image/png
Size: 616 bytes
Desc: image005.png
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/localmedia/attachments/20210312/3e951994/attachment-0012.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image006.png
Type: image/png
Size: 439 bytes
Desc: image006.png
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/localmedia/attachments/20210312/3e951994/attachment-0013.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image007.png
Type: image/png
Size: 20529 bytes
Desc: image007.png
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/localmedia/attachments/20210312/3e951994/attachment-0014.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image008.png
Type: image/png
Size: 11689 bytes
Desc: image008.png
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/localmedia/attachments/20210312/3e951994/attachment-0015.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: BU WBB Game Notes B12 QF TCU 3.12.21.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 3513428 bytes
Desc: BU WBB Game Notes B12 QF TCU 3.12.21.pdf
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/localmedia/attachments/20210312/3e951994/attachment-0001.pdf>