The Gonzaga Bulldogs beat the Baylor Bears, 101-63, in men’s college basketball action in Spokane, Wash., on Monday.
The game was a battle of Top 10 teams, as the Bears (0-1) were No. 8 and the Bulldogs (1-0) were No. 6 in the AP preseason top 25.
Only one team played like it was a Top 10 team as Gonzaga dismantled the team that beat it in the 2021 national championship game.
It was Gonzaga’s game from the jump, as the Bulldogs shot better than 50% for the game, were dominant in the paint and turned Baylor’s turnovers into points.
Baylor’s one answer was early in the second half when it went on a 16-4 run to cut Gonzaga’s lead from 25 points to 13 points. But the Bulldogs answered and were never threatened after that.
Nolan Hickman led the Bulldogs with 17 points, one of five Bulldogs in double figures.
Baylor was led by Norchad Omier, who had 15 points and nine rebounds. The Bears didn’t play guard Langston Love, who has been cleared from last year’s injury and participated in Monday’s pre-game shootaround. Baylor held him out of the game as a precaution.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
New Faces on the Floor
In the transfer portal era, this is the sort of statistical production teams must sometimes replace.
In Baylor’s case it was a combination of transfers, one-and-done players and players that moved onto the NBA. But that’s still a lot to replace.
Guard Jayden Nunn and forward Josh Ojianwuna were the only two Bears from last year’s team that played on Monday. The other three starters were transfers Jeremy Roach and Norchad Omier, along with freshman VJ Edgecombe.
That explained some of the disjointedness on offense on Monday night. Baylor didn’t shoot particularly well from the field in the first 20 minutes, including 2-for-13 from the 3-point line. The Bears finished below 40%. At times, the Bears were not on the same page offensively.
Real talk? Better chemistry may not have made a difference for the Bears. Gonzaga was fantastic from the start, building as much as a 20-point lead and showing off an inside game that may be a differentiator for the Bulldogs in the NCAA Tournament.
For one night, the Bears had no answer. The chemistry, eventually, should come. This group is too talented for it not to.
Edgecombe’s Room to Grow
It’s not really fair to compare freshmen debuts because even five-star players can struggle coming out of the gate. But the hype surrounding Baylor’s five-star freshman VJ Edgecombe was similar to the hype surrounding last year’s five-star freshman, Ja’Kobe Walter.
All Walter did was drop 28 points, including four 3-pointers, while he grabbed five rebounds against Auburn in Baylor’s opener last year.
Edgecombe, who has every opportunity to be as good as Walter, wasn’t as lucky. He struggled, but so did everyone for the Bears. He finished with four points.
Statistics aside, all you have to do is watch him play and you can see why Baylor is high on him. He’s long, athletic and versatile. He made a terrific open-court steal that led to points on the other end. Plus, there was that thunderous dunk at the end of the game in which he posterized Gonzaga coach Mark Few’s son, Joe, and left Gonzaga’s fans impressed.
He played for the Bahamas in Olympic qualifying and averaged 16.5 points and 3.8 assists. He played for Montverde Academy, one of the top prep academies in the country.
There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s going to be one of the top freshmen in the Big 12. But Baylor ran into a buzzsaw on Monday night. He could have scored 30 and it may not have mattered.
Besides, Baylor wants Edgecombe putting up Walter’s November numbers in March. He didn’t play well, but that just means he has plenty of room to grow.
Oh, What Might Have Been
The past two years that has been plenty of talk about Gonzaga joining the Big 12, but earlier this year they agreed to join the Pac-12 in two years.
In a different universe, this could have been a Big 12 game. And one game doesn’t mean the Big 12 made a mistake not bringing in the Zags. But, as someone who was in favor of the league adding Gonzaga, Monday was a reminder that the Bulldogs have been a top program in the country for more than two decades.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has been clear about two things. He wants to make the Big 12 a national conference and he believes basketball is undervalued. In a different universe, adding Gonzaga would have helped his ambition of uncoupling the Big 12’s basketball TV deal from its football. I think Yormark really wanted it. I’m not sure the presidents and athletic directors did.
I felt the Big 12 missed a chance to add to that basketball ambition when Gonzaga agreed to join the Pac-12. Monday’s game, whether Gonzaga won or lost, only reinforced it. The Bulldogs would have been a great fit. But, now, we’ll never know.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
