‘Flo and Everyday John’ Do Baylor’s Dirty Work Inside
Baylor’s guards get the national attention. But ‘Flo and Everyday John’ help the Bears do the dirty work of advancing in the NCAA Tournament.
Flo Thamba and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua are the interior tandem for the Bears (25-2), who face Arkansas on Monday in the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight. As they have all season, they likely won’t score many points or get much attention from announcers. But the pair have carved out a vital place in Baylor’s push to the Final Four.
“Flo and John are two guys that aren’t in that headlines often, but those guys have done so much for our team this year,” head coach Scott Drew said before the Sweet 16.
Their season averages don’t excite casual fans. Thamba, the 6-foot-9 junior, is averaging 3.6 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in his third season in Waco, but his first as the full-time starter in the pivot.
Scoring isn’t really Thamba’s job, though. Drew starts Thamba because of his toughness, defensive ability, pick setting, rim protection, and those other small basketball things that don’t normally show up when you’re watching someone like Jared Butler or Davion Mitchell shoot a 3-pointer.
But Thamba has done them without complaint since he arrived in Waco three seasons ago from Mountain Mission School in Virginia after emigrating from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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“Flo has gone from someone that played limited minutes and inconsistent minutes to someone that you can count on each and every night,” Drew said. “Sometimes because of matchups or foul trouble or whatnot, people get more or less playing time, but he’s always been a great teammate and really embraced his role.”
Foul trouble was an issue for Thamba against Villanova, as he scored just four points and grabbed two rebounds. But he also had one steal and one block.
If Thamba is a more ‘traditional’ forward, then Tchamwa Tchatchoua, the 6-foot-8 sophomore who is in his first season on the floor for Baylor, is the more athletic rim-to-rim runner. He transferred to Baylor from UNLV after the 2018-19 season, and then sat out last season. The Cameroon native played at the NBA Global Academy in Australia before going to college.
Tchamwa Tchatchoua is a force as the trailer in transition, and his overall numbers — 6.4 points and 5.1 rebounds per game — are better than Thamba’s. His athleticism is a better fit for the guard personnel on the floor, but by coming off the bench he changes the pace of the game inside the paint.
But he does all those little things that Thamba does, too — pick-setting, rim protection, and he’s deceptively physical. It’s how he’s come to be known as ‘Everyday John’ to his teammates.
“With John in transition, we get threes,” guard MaCio Teague said. “I think I’ve had like four threes specifically this year because John sprinted the floor and a guard had to drop down into the paint to defend him. And one of the (other) guys found me across the floor and I shot it, and I pointed to John like ‘Yo, you just got me that three, appreciate it.’”
Tchamwa Tchatchoua had two points, three rebounds, and one assist against Villanova.
Mark Vital might be the team’s ultimate role player, but there’s only so much the 6-foot-5 guard can do. With Thamba and Tchamwa Tchatchoua patrolling the paint, the Bears have been one of the best teams in the country this season.
Even if their numbers don’t state either’s importance, their coach and their teammates know it.
“That’s hard because nowadays, a lot of times your inner circles are telling you ‘Hey you got to get yours, you need more touches, you need more this or that,’” Drew said. “And, Flo and John have just been great, great ambassadors, teammates, and they really fit their role and what I mean by their role is they make everyone around them better.”
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
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