Texas Southern's tough schedule continues against No. 4 Baylor (Dec 21, 2016)
WACO, Texas -- Baylor and Texas Southern don't have much in common in the win-loss column, but dig a little deeper and the Bears and Tigers show some striking resemblances.
While fourth-ranked Baylor (11-0) is undefeated and Texas Southern (4-8) is fighting to get out of its current seven-game losing streak, they are similar in their ambitious schedules to this point.
Those schedules intersect when the Bears and Tigers meet at 7:30 ET on Wednesday night in Waco.
Baylor has won four games this season against top-25 opponents, including three versus top-10 foes. But the Bears' 34th-ranked strength-of-schedule is seven notches behind Texas Southern at the moment.
The Tigers have already played three games against top-25 competition, losing to No. 16 Arizona, No. 11 Louisville and No. 25 Cincinnati. Texas Southern lost those games by an average margin of more than 30 points, but at least the Tigers shouldn't be intimidated by Baylor.
"It definitely gets you ready to play a team like that with the style of play that Baylor plays," Texas Southern coach Mike Davis said. "It's similar to what Cincinnati plays. In our conference, we have a lot of teams that play zone. That's one of the reasons I like playing Baylor just because of the style of play."
Texas Southern and Baylor have a common opponent in Louisville. The Cardinals defeated the Tigers 102-71 on Dec. 10. Baylor trailed Louisville by 22 points before coming back for a 66-63 victory on Nov. 25.
Baylor and Texas Southern have one more similarity in that they each packed a bunch of games between final exams and Christmas break. The Bears are playing their fourth game in eight days while the Tigers are playing their fourth in nine days.
Baylor is in a stretch of three games versus SWAC opponents, and it has another against an NAIA program in John Brown University. Conversely, Texas Southern battled with Cincinnati, LSU and TCU.
Bears coach Scott Drew expects a postseason-like battle on the court.
"Mike Davis does a great job X-and-O wise, brings in a lot of good talent and they've had a lot of great wins, especially this time of year," Drew said. "The other night it's a one-point game with about a minute to go at LSU. Then they played a back-to-back, which is really hard. This is a team that most people think will be in the NCAA Tournament."
Texas Southern's two-day gauntlet of playing LSU and TCU was made more difficult by playing both games on the road.
"I thought we did a great job at LSU, but unfortunately we had to play the next day at TCU," Davis said. "We had a bus ride for six hours, getting in a 3:30 in the morning. It was really unfair to TCU because we didn't give them anything from a basketball standpoint."
This will also be both teams' final tune-up before conference play begins.
Baylor opens Big 12 action at Oklahoma on Dec. 30. Texas Southern starts SWAC play at Alcorn State on Jan. 2.
"Hopefully (the Baylor players) can enjoy family and friends, then on the 26th it's on to the grind of the Big 12," Drew said. "It's all business from there on out."
