STORY LINES
• Baylor heads to Niceville, Fla., to face Ole Miss in the semifinals of the Emerald Coast Classic.
• The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network and the CBS Sports App.
• BU faces either George Mason or Cincinnati on Saturday. The Bears have never faced GMU and their only previous game against Cincinnati was a 55-45 win in Cincinnati on Dec. 21, 1946.
• Head coach Scott Drew is in his 16th season in Waco and is the BU's all-time wins leader (299-196).
• With one more win, Drew will become the 16th/17th active coach with 300 wins at his current school.
• Baylor has won 13 consecutive regular-season tournament games and is 19-3 in regular-season tournaments since 2013-14. The Bears won the 2016 Battle 4 Atlantis and 2017 Hall of Fame Classic.
• Baylor is 2-0 all-time vs. Ole Miss, including a 78-75 win in Oxford in the 2017 SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
• Baylor has won 3 straight games by double-figures after dropping the season opener.
• Baylor is looking to start 4-1 or better thru its first 5 games for the 13th consecutive season.
• Baylor is 39-1 in regular-season non-conference games against unranked teams since December 2014.
• Baylor is 29-6 in games against non-Big 12 teams over the last 3 seasons since 2016-17.
• Baylor returned 3 letterwinners from last year's team, the nation's fewest among Power-5 teams.
• King McClure is the lone returning senior, while Tristan Clark and Mark Vital are back as sophomores.
• Vital is coming off his career-first double-double with 11 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists vs. Nicholls St.
• Clark has scored in double-figures in all 4 games this season after doing so in 10 of 33 games last year. He ranks 4th nationally with an .821 field goal pct. and 17th nationally with a 14.3 block pct.
• McClure has scored 20+ points twice this season after doing so in 1 of 100 games over his first 3 years.
• BU added 9 newcomers for 2018-19, including 5 transfers (two Division I, two JuCo, one Division III).
• Makai Mason is the first grad transfer in program history after graduating from Yale in May.
• Mario Kegler (Mississippi State) and Freddie Gillespie (Carleton) are eligible after sitting out 2017-18.
• Darius Allen (Palm Beach State) and Devonte Bandoo (Hutchinson) joined the Bears as JuCo transfers.
• BU also added prep players Jared Butler, Matthew Mayer, Flo Thamba and Jackson Moffatt.
• BU has used 8 different starters in its first 4 games, including 4 players making their first DI starts.
• BU played its first 3 games without 2 projected starters — Mason (injury) and Kegler (suspension).
• Mason made his BU debut on Nov. 16 vs. Nicholls State, posting 11 points in 21 minutes.
• The Bears were picked 9th in the Big 12 Preseason Coaches Poll, the lowest since 2009-10 (10th).
• Baylor is 1 of 16 teams nationally to appear in every postseason since 2012 (5 NCAAs, 2 NITs).
• Baylor is 18-1 when leading at halftime since the start of the 2017-18 season (3-1 this season).
• Drew is coaching his 496th game at Baylor (299-196). His .604 winning percentage is best in BU history among coaches with 40+ games, and his teams have a .676 winning percentage since 2007-08 (265-127).
• BU is 71-16 since 2015-16 when leading at any point in the 2nd half of a game (19-6 last year).
• Baylor has posted a combined 140-30 record in November and December games during the Drew era, including a 58-8 mark in November and December games since 2013.
QUICK HITS
• Baylor is one of nine teams to be nationally ranked in each of the last 11 seasons dating back to 2007-08 – Baylor, Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan State, Notre Dame and North Carolina.
• BU is 103-86 in Big 12 play in 11 seasons since 2008 after going 45-131 in the league's first 11 seasons.
• BU is 38-67 against AP-ranked teams since 2007-08 after going 0-27 in Drew's first 4 rebuilding seasons.
• Baylor has defeated 6 top-10 teams in the last two seasons entering 2018-19.
• Baylor is 11-21 against AP Top 10 teams since March 2012. BU started the Drew era 1-26 vs. top-10.
• Baylor has won 89% of its games when leading at the half since 2011-12 (136-17). • BU has recorded double-digit non-conference wins in 11 of the last 12 seasons (all except 2012-13).
• Baylor is 174-80 over the last 7 seasons, averaging 24.4 wins per season since 2012.
• Baylor's 174 wins since 2011-12 are second-most in the Big 12 behind only Kansas (213).
• Baylor is 265-127 since 2007-08, the first year Drew's staff had a full allotment of scholarships.
• Baylor has the nation's 11th-longest active streak with at least one 3-point FG made in 873 straight games.
• Baylor has won 5 tournament titles under Drew, including each of the last 2 seasons (2007 Paradise Jam, 2011 Las Vegas Classic, 2013 NIT, 2016 Battle 4 Atlantis and 2017 Hall of Fame Classic).
