Baylor coach Scott Drew had a simple message after his No. 8 Bears opened the season Monday with a 101-63 loss at No. 6 Gonzaga.
“For the Baylor fans that stayed up, I promise you, we will get better,” Drew said. “We will give you a better effort than this.”
Baylor (0-1) gets a chance to awaken its potential after the late-night loss in Spokane, Wash., with another stiff test as it takes on No. 16 Arkansas (1-0) in a neutral-site matchup Saturday in Dallas.
The Razorbacks began the John Calipari era with a 76-60 victory over Lipscomb on Wednesday. Despite the result, Calipari saw plenty of room for improvement.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “We’ve got to go this weekend to Baylor, they got beat, so you understand what we’re walking into. (Our team) has to have a week of practice where they’re doing loose ball drills, charge drills. It’s going to be a roughhouse of competitive teams going after each other. We need that right now.”
Baylor struggled in a number of areas in the opener. Gonzaga jumped out to a 49-30 lead in the first half and kept its foot on the gas the rest of the way. The Bears were outrebounded 45-32, made just 3 of 21 3-point attempts and gave up 48 points in the paint.
It was a forgettable start to the season, although Baylor was expected to be a work-in-progress with just one returning starter.
“They really exploited our switching (on defense),” Drew said. “And then offensively, we did a really poor job tonight. … Eleven assists, 12 turnovers and only eight second-chance points, that’s not Baylor basketball.”
Arkansas, meanwhile, is playing a new brand of basketball under Calipari. Lipscomb made it interesting, pulling to within four at one point in the second half, but Arkansas prevailed. Freshman guard Boogie Fland led the team with 17 points, and Florida Atlantic transfer guard Johnell Davis had 15.
Calipari spoke of what he’d like to see from his team going forward.
“You’ve got to play like you have nothing to lose,” he said. “You’ve got to play the same way (as our opponents) and that means being aggressive, going at the rim.”
Saturday’s game features a pair of national championship-winning coaches. Drew was among the top candidates to replace Calipari at Kentucky last offseason but opted to stay with Baylor.
Calipari said he never talked with Drew about the Kentucky position, adding: “Scott has done unbelievable work at Baylor and probably got comfortable there.”
The two have squared off a few times over the years, most notably in the 2012 NCAA Tournament. Calipari led Kentucky to the national championship that year, punching its Final Four ticket by beating Baylor, 82-70, in the Elite Eight.
For the programs, this is a throwback to the old Southwest Conference days. This will be the 146th series meeting, but just the fifth since Arkansas left the Southwest Conference in 1991. Baylor won the last meeting, 67-64, as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Jan. 28, 2023 in Waco, Texas.
