Baylor Basketball: Bears Burn Up Court in Hot 4-0 Start

Denton Ramsey — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:05:39 -0500

The Baylor Bears garnered their fourth win of the season on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 22, with a Texas-sized victory over Hardin-Simmons.

After cruising to a 56-19 halftime lead, the Bears never looked back en route to a 106-45 Baylor win at the Ferrell Center.

“The biggest thing that we wanted to do was to make sure that we were sharp and to make sure that we were preparing for the rest of the week, because we have a big week ahead of us in the Old Spice Tournament,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew told the media following the Bears blowout victory. “I think the starters really came out and set a tone and did a good job of getting us a lead. We played good defense, rebounded, and took care of the ball.”

In addition, the newcomers got quite a bit of playing time in Baylor’s fourth game of the season.

“We got a chance to play the freshmen a lot of minutes and allowed them to work through some mistakes, work through some nerves and to get a chance to see what it is like to get some extended play,” Drew said. “I was pleased how they finished up with nine-straight defensive stops.”

Baylor junior guard LaceDarius Dunn (known as “Kool” on campus) led the way for the Bears in scoring with 27 points in just 23 minutes of playing time.

“I think we came out and did a great job of executing, preparing for what we are about to do; three games in four days,” Dunn said. “I think we came out and played. We weren’t trying to come out and do anything spectacular. We just came out here and did what we had to do.”

Meanwhile, transfer junior forward Ekpe Udoh is also making quite a name for himself on campus, hitting the game-winner at the buzzer against Hartford and pulling down a double-double (13 points and 11 rebounds) in Baylor’s win over Hardin-Simmons.

“This was just a preparation game for what we have on Thursday,” Udoh said. “We wanted to sharpen up on some things to prepare for Thursday. Except for the free throws, we did what we needed to do.”

So far, so good. The Bears are now 4-0 on the young season and await the Old Spice Classic, which tips off on Thanksgiving Day with a showdown between Baylor and Alabama on ESPN2.

“I think we will know a lot more about our team after this weekend,” Drew said. “I think it is a great opportunity playing so many NCAA Tournament-type teams. We are going to be a better team at the end of the year than we are at the beginning of the year. I think this will give us a measuring stick of what areas we need to improve on to reach our goals at the end of the year.”

Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at denton.ramsey@gmail.com

Read more Baylor Basketball news on BleacherReport.com

Baylor Basketball Quartet Playing Hoops at the Next Level

Denton Ramsey — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:47:56 -0500

Four of Baylor’s superstar seniors that helped guide the 2008-09 Bears men’s basketball team to the NIT title game are playing hoops at a higher level.

And all four have a huge chance of one day hooping it up on the NBA hardwood.
Curtis Jerrells, Henry Dugat, Kevin Rogers, and Mamadou Diene all graduated from BU last year with high accolades in basketball, education, and experience.

It looks like all four will get even more of the latter, with the quartet of stars all garnering a chance to play basketball at a higher level in the coming years of their lives.

Jerrells recently inked a contract to play for the San Antonio Spurs’ NBA Development League team, the Austin Toros, and he began training camp on Nov. 13.

Dugat, meanwhile, was invited to (and is currently attending) the Rio Grande Valley Vipers training camp with hopes of landing a spot on the team’s roster.

Rogers, on the other hand, is taking his game abroad as he is currently playing in Greece for the Panionios ON Telecoms Athens basketball team.

In addition, Diene is also continuing to improve his game by playing basketball abroad.

All four (with Diene being the very first) signed to play basketball at Baylor under the helm of head coach Scott Drew, who continues to remold the Bears hoops program.

With four players and counting with future hopes of playing in the NBA, look for Drew’s name to soon pop up on Coach of the Year ballots.

Stay tuned for updates on all four of these Baylor Bears playing basketball at the next level…

Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at denton.ramsey@gmail.com

Read more Baylor Basketball news on BleacherReport.com

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Baylor Basketball: Bears Burn Up Court in Hot 4-0 Start

Baylor Basketball Quartet Playing Hoops at the Next Level