HUNTSVILLE — Monday afternoon at Johnson Coliseum, the Bearkats began preparing for their first-round NCAA tournament matchup with 19th-ranked Baylor.
Sam Houston State (25-7) literally has a steep hill to climb if it wants to upset the third-seeded Bears (25-7) on Thursday in New Orleans. Baylor has a 7-foot center (Josh Lomers) and a pair of 6-10 forwards (Ekpe Udoh and Anthony Jones) who have played in all 32 games this season.
With no one on the active roster listed taller than 6-8, the 14th-seeded Bearkats are working on finding a way to counter the Bears’ size advantage.
“Our game plan is going to be to stretch them out,” senior forward Preston Brown said. “They may be bigger than us, but we have some guys that can dribble the ball and get around them a little bit. We are just trying to stretch them out. We have good 3-point shooters and three or four of us can knock down those shots.”
The good news for the Bearkats is that Baylor’s size isn’t anything they haven’t seen this season. Sam Houston had two nonconference games against Kentucky and Louisiana-Lafayette, teams which had plenty of players who have to bend down just to make it through the door.
Against the Wildcats on Nov. 19, the Bearkats struggled inside, getting outscored 48-18 in the paint. All-SLC forward Gilberto Clavell finished with 14 points, but was just 3 of 12 from the floor. Kentucky forwards Demarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson combined to score 47 points.
But Sam Houston was able to hang with one of the top teams in the country because of its outside shooting. Senior Corey Allmond drilled a Rupp Arena-record 11 3-pointers as the Kats hit 18 treys in a 102-92 loss to the Wildcats.
“It’s going to be a lot like playing Kentucky with (Baylor’s) length,” SHSU head coach Bob Marlin said. “Hopefully we will be able to shoot the ball like we did at Kentucky and make some shots. We are going to need to do that and get defensive rebounds. We have to keep those long guys off the offensive glass.”
Udoh is Baylor’s most dangerous post player. He is averaging 13.9 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. The junior transfer from Michigan has also blocked 124 shots.
Lomers and Jones both average more than six points a game and combine to grab eight boards.
The Bearkats will need not only Clavell and Brown to play well, but forwards Antuan Bootle, Arthur Zulu and Marco Cooper must continue to contribute solid minutes off the bench.
“We aren’t going to be surprised by their height and their length because we have been up against it this season,” Brown added.
“It is just a matter of what we are going to do against it. We know that we need to knock down shots, because when we played Kentucky it was hard to get easy shots inside because of their height.”
The Bears have more than just a strong inside presence. They also have two talented guards, both of whom are from Louisiana.
LaceDarius Dunn (6-4 junior) is averaging a team-high 19.4 points and Tweety Carter (5-11 senior) has been just as good, chipping in 15.7.
The Bearkats counter with Allmond (15.9 points) and senior point guard Ashton Mitchell (12.7). Sophomore Drae Murray and junior Lance Pevehouse have been valuable this season as well.
Junior Josten Crow rotates between playing guard and forward and is averaging 8.1 points per game, but his defense has been huge.
As one of the top defenders in the SLC, Crow completely shut down Stephen F. Austin’s leading scorer, Eddie Williams, in SHSU’s 64-48 victory in the championship game of the Southland tournament Saturday.
“We know they have a great team and a lot of athletic players,” Crow said. “They are good. We know they beat Texas the last three times they played them.
“We are just going to have to slow them down as much as we can with the guys we got. We have to get it done.”
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