Arizona State and Baylor are both in the midst of difficult seasons as they square off Saturday afternoon in Waco, Texas.
The Sun Devils (14-12, 5-8 Big 12) have found a little momentum, winning consecutive games over Oklahoma State and No. 13 Texas Tech, which lost star JT Toppin to an ACL injury in the game Tuesday night. Still, for Arizona State, the victory marked the first win over a ranked opponent since Jan. 21, 2025.
Sun Devils coach Bobby Hurley brushed off a question about his abilities as a coach afterward.
“I don’t care about doubters, what people say and all that stuff,” he said. “I mean, I’ve coached against some of the best coaches in the country. I’ve been doing it now for 11 years here, and so I feel like I’m in my element, that I could go toe to toe with anybody. So I’m very confident in my abilities.”
The Sun Devils forced 17 turnovers, which led to 21 points. Maurice Odum emerged as the star of the night, scoring 23 points. Odum leads the team with 17.3 points and 5.9 assists per game followed by Massamba Diop’s 13.9 points and 5.8 rebounds.
Asked about Odum, Hurley said: “He’s got to be one of the more difficult players to guard in our league, just because of how shifty he is with the ball and his ability to shoot.”
Baylor (13-13, 3-10), meanwhile, is reeling on a four-game losing streak. The Bears haven’t had a losing season under Scott Drew since 2006-07, but are in jeopardy of it this season.
The Bears had some life three weeks ago, with back-to-back victories over West Virginia and Colorado, but they have fallen off. The latest setback was a 90-74 loss at Kansas State on Tuesday, which was playing its first game since firing Jerome Tang, a longtime assistant under Drew.
Against K-State, Baylor was just 3 of 24 from 3-point range. However, Drew spent a portion of his postgame news conference speaking about Tang.
“Coach Tang never stays down long,” Drew said, “because he’s such a positive and optimistic person. I think he had opportunities to leave (K-State) and he stayed because he really loves the people here. He loves the school. I know when I lose, the worst thing I do is let people down. That’s hard on me, and it’s hard on him.”
Cameron Carr leads Baylor and is sixth in the conference in scoring with 18.9 points per game.
This will be the second meeting between the schools as Big 12 members. Baylor had a 72-66 overtime victory last season in Tempe, Ariz.
–Field Level Media
