KANSAS CITY - Baylor head men's basketball coach Scott Drew has been named Big 12 Coach of the Year Wednesday by the Austin American-Statesman and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
In his seventh season as head coach, Drew guided the Bears to a 24-6 record and a tied for second place in the league standings at 11-5. Baylor, which was picked 10th in the preseason coaches poll, has been ranked for a school-record nine consecutive weeks in the AP Top 25 Poll. Baylor's 24 wins are tied for the second-most in school history.
Baylor, the No. 3 seed at this week's Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Championship, earned its first opening-round bye in the Big 12 era. The Bears will play the winner of No. 6 Texas and No. 11 Iowa State in the quarterfinals Thursday at approximately 8:30 p.m. CST on ESPN2.
Quincy Acy
Big 12 All-Reserve (Big 12 media), Big 12 All-Underrated (The Oklahoman)
Tweety Carter
All-American, fourth team (Sporting News); All-Big 12, second team (Big 12 media, AP, Austin American-Statesman, Columbia [Mo.] Tribune, Dallas Morning News, Kansas City Star, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Oklahoman, Sporting News, Yahoo! Sports); All-Big 12, third team (coaches); Big 12 All-Improved (Big 12 media)
Scott Drew
All-Coaches, second team (Yahoo! Sports); Big 12 Coach of the Year (Austin American-Statesman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
LaceDarius Dunn
All-American, honorable mention (Yahoo! Sports); All-Big 12, second team (coaches, AP, Dallas Morning News, Columbia [Mo.] Tribune, Austin American-Statesman, Sporting News); All-Big 12, third team (The Oklahoman, Yahoo! Sports)
Ekpe Udoh
All-American, third team (Yahoo! Sports); All-American, fourth team (FOXSports.com); USBWA All-District VII; All-Big 12, first team (Austin American-Statesman, Columbia [Mo.] Tribune); All-Big 12, second team (coaches, AP, Big 12 media, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Kansas City Star, The Oklahoman, Sporting News, Yahoo! Sports); Big 12 Newcomer of the Year (coaches, Columbia [Mo.] Tribune, Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman, Big 12 media, Yahoo! Sports, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Kansas City Star); Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Sporting News), Big 12 All-Defense (coaches, Big 12 media, The Oklahoman); Big 12 All-Rookie (coaches); Big 12 All-Newcomer (Big 12 media, The Oklahoman)
GAME CENTER: GAME 31
MEDIA INFORMATION
Date: Thurs., March 11, 2010
Tip-Off: 7:35 p.m. CST
Location: Kansas City, Mo.
Arena: Municipal Auditorium (9,308)
Television: Metro Sports
Talent: Mark Ewing (pxp), Patti Phillips (color)
Radio: Baylor ISP Sports Network; KLRK 92.9 FM (Waco)
Talent: Rick May (pxp), Lori Fogleman (color)
Video Web Stream: www.Big12Sports.com (free)
Audio Web Stream: www.BaylorBears.com
Live Stats: www.Big12Sports.com
BAYLOR LADY BEARS
2009-10 Record: 22-8, 9-7
Ranking (AP/ESPN): 16/18
Last Game: L, 70-54, Texas
Head Coach: Kim Mulkey
Career Record: 259-74 (10th season)
Record at Baylor: same
Mulkey vs. Colorado: 7-3
COLORADO BUFFALOES
2009-10 Record: 13-16, 3-13
Ranking (AP/ESPN): none
Last Game: L, 59-41, at Iowa State
Head Coach: Kathy Mc*******-Miller
Career Record: 156-172 (11th season)
Record at Colorado: 65-87 (5th season)
Colorado vs. Baylor: Baylor leads 10-8
STORY LINES
- No. 16 Baylor, 22-8 on the season and finishing league play at 9-7, fell to the No. 6 seed in the Big 12 Championship after a 70-54 loss to then-No. 18 Texas on Sunday afternoon. The loss snapped BU's five-game win streak.
- Colorado, the Big 12 Championship's No. 11 seed, is 13-16 overall and posted a 3-13 league mark. Colorado has lost three straight and 11 of its last 12 games.
- In addition to a one-game suspension mandated by NCAA basketball playing rules, Brittney Griner has been suspended for an additional game by Lady Bears' head coach Kim Mulkey following Griner's ejection from the Lady Bears' 69-60 victory at Texas Tech, March 3. Griner sat out against No. 18 Texas and will miss the Lady Bears' Big 12 Championship opener against Colorado.< br>- Griner received five Big 12 Conference honors on Monday. She was named the league's Freshman of the Year, Co-Defensive Player of the Year and to the All-Big 12 first team, All-Defensive team and All-Freshman team.
- As a team, Baylor ranks No. 1 nationally in blocks per game (7.3); No. 2 in field goal percentage defense (33.42); No. 6 in rebound margin (9.3); No. 8 in field goal percentage (.466); No. 12 in 3-point field goal percentage defense (27.5); No. 13 in scoring margin (16.2); No. 28 in scoring defense (56.5) and No. 29 in scoring offense (72.7).
- In 10 seasons under head coach Kim Mulkey, Baylor is 259-74 (.779), which ranks her No. 4 nationally in winning percentage. In addition, the Lady Bear program ranks No. 6 among the NCAA Division I's winningest teams over that span.
- Only two Baylor players, juniors Melissa Jones and Kelli Griffin, have two or more years in the Lady Bear system. Morghan Medlock, a senior, transferred last season from Southern California and junior Whitney Zachariason has just over a year in the program after transferring from Arkansas. All the rest of the squad are freshmen and sophomores.
- Baylor returned one starter (Kelli Griffin) and eight letterwinners from its 2009 NCAA Sweet 16 team which finished the season 29-6.
- The Lady Bears remain the Big 12 leader in field goal percentage (.466), field goal percentage defense (.334), rebounding offense (43.7) and blocked shots (7.3) and are No. 2 in 3-point field goal percentage defense (.275), scoring defense (.565), scoring margin (16.2) and assists (14.8). In conference games only, BU remains No. 1 in blocked shots (6.4), rebounding offense (41.1) and field goal percentage defense (.359) and No. 3 in scoring defense (59.4).
- Junior point guard Kelli Griffin ranks No. 3 in the Big 12 Conference in assist/turnover ratio at 2.0 and No. 4 in assists (5.0). She has doled out 146 assists and turned the ball over only 73 times this season. Over the past seven games, Griffin has dished out 52 assists while committing only 21 turnovers for a 2.56 ratio.
- Griffin now ranks No. 9 on Baylor's career assist chart with 321 and is also No. 9 on BU's single-season assist list with 146.
- Griner became just the seventh female to dunk in a regular-season NCAA contest when she threw one down against Jacksonville State, Nov. 24. Griner added two more dunks to her total against Texas State (Jan. 2) and registered another at Kansas State (Feb. 3). She is also a defensive threat as a shot blocker and alterer with her 88" wing span. She has blocked a school and Big 12 record 173 shots and altered 76 more.
- Baylor averages 78.4 points and allows 52.1 in its 22 wins on the year, but in its eight losses is scoring just 57.1 ppg and yielding 68.6 ppg. In its losses, BU is 18-of-98 (.184) from 3-point range, compared to 53-of-153 (.346) in its wins.
- Griner recorded the program's first-ever triple-double with 34 points, 13 rebounds and 11 blocked shots against Oral Roberts, she added her second and third of the season against Colorado (26 pts., 11 blocks, 10 reb.) and Oklahoma (17 pts., 11 blocks, 10 reb.). Her three triple-doubles tie the Big 12 single-season record.
- For the fifth straight season, Baylor surpassed the 100,000 fan mark in home attendance. Baylor drew 9,758 fans against Texas, its ninth-largest crowd, setting an all-time single-season attendance record with 122,550 fans attending 16 home games this season. The previous record was 119,603 set over 19 home games in 2006-07. BU currently ranks No. 9 in NCAA Division I attendance.
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE SEED
This season marks the first time since 2004 that Baylor has not earned a top four seed in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship. This year's No. 6 seed is the team's lowest seed since it was the tournament's No. 7 seed in 2003.
LADY BEARS & BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
1997 (1-1) - No. 9 seed
First round - defeated Oklahoma State, 68-62
Quarterfinals - lost to Kansas, 66-54
1998 (0-1) - No. 6 seed
First round - lost to Kansas State, 71-66 OT
1999 (0-1) - No. 7 seed
First round - lost to Missouri, 60-55
2000 (0-1) - No. 12 seed
First round - lost to Nebraska, 82-61
2001 (1-1) - No. 6 seed
First round - defeated Kansas State, 60-44
Quarterfinals - lost to Iowa State, 73-48
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
The Colorado Buffaloes enter the contest with a 13-16 mark and completed Big 12 action at 3-13. Colorado's three league wins this season have come against Missouri (64-48 & 80-79) and at Kansas State (63-57). The Buffaloes are 3-8 on the road this season, 1-0 in neutral site games. The Buffaloes have lost 11 of their last 12 games, their lone victory during that span was an 80-79 overtime win at Missouri.
Colorado head coach Kathy Mc*******-Miller is 156-172 (.476) in her 11th year as a head coach and 65-87 (.428) in five seasons at Colorado.
The Buffaloes are led by 6-1 sophomore forward Brittany Spears' 17.5 points and 8.0 rebounds a game while Bianca Smith, a 5-9 junior guard, averages 13.2 points. Chucky Jeffery, a 5-10 freshman guard, ranks second on the team in rebounding with 5.1 a game.
SERIES RECORD
Baylor leads the series 10-8 and the Lady Bears enter the contest riding a six-game win streak over the Buffaloes. The game marks the first time the two teams have met on a neutral court since the Big 12's formation. They have only met on a neutral court once, Dec., 7, 1985, when Colorado posted a 75-62 Dial Classic win in Long Beach Calif.
LUBBOCK, Texas - Baylor infielder Raynor Campbell was named the National Player of the Week by CollegeBaseballInsider.com, as announced by the media outlet Wednesday.
Campbell joins former Bear Mark McCormick as the only Baylor players to earn CBI's National Player of the Week award. McCormick was honored on March 23, 2005, after he helped Baylor sweep top-ranked Texas.
With the award, Campbell has now been honored by three different media outlets as a national player of the week. He was named one of four National Players of the Week by Collegiate Baseball Magazine on Monday, and the College Baseball Foundation named him to its National All-Star Lineup earlier in the day on Wednesday.
No Baylor player had even been honored by more than one outlet in the same week. He was also named Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Player of the Week.
The senior from Katy, Texas, hit .500 (12-for-24) with four home runs, three doubles and 17 RBI in Baylor's six games during the week of March 1-7.
Campbell hit safely and drove in at least one run in all six games during the week. He collected at least one RBI in 12 different plate appearances and had five multi-RBI games.
With the Bears on a five-game losing streak, and the offense struggling, Campbell was moved into the clean-up spot in the lineup for Saturday's doubleheader. It was the first time he hit fourth in the order since his fourth collegiate game on Feb. 13, 2007.
Campbell responded in a big way, going 6-for-9 with three home runs, 10 RBI, four runs scored and two stolen bases as Baylor won each of the last three games of the four-game set with Oral Roberts.
In the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, Campbell gave the Bears an early lead with a two-run homer, then after the Golden Eagles tied the game in the second, he put the Bears on top again with a sacrifice fly. With the Bears behind again the next time he came to the plate, he knocked a RBI single to tie the score, and Baylor went on to win 7-6.
In Sunday's series finale against ORU, Campbell tied the game with a RBI single in the fifth, hit what would prove to be a game-winning, two-run homer in the sixth, and added two insurance runs with another homer in the eighth.
Campbell doubled twice and drove in a pair of runs in Friday's series opener. He went 4-for-10 with five RBI, a double and a home run in Baylor's two midweek games earlier in the week.
Campbell sat out Tuesday's win over Louisiana Tech, but he is expected to return to the lineup when the Bears host Illinois-Chicago this weekend. Baylor takes on the Flames at 6:30 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and noon on Sunday.
The Metro Sports Network will televise Thursday's Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship women's basketball game between sixth-seeded Baylor and 11th-seeded Colorado. Tip off will be at 7:35 p.m., in Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium.
Waco's Grande channel 20 will carry the live broadcast. Mark Ewing will handle play-by-play while Patti Phillips will provide color commentary.
The Big 12 Conference will provide free video web stream for all Big 12 Championship games at www.Big12Sports.com .
In addition, Baylor ISP Sports Network will carry the game on Waco's KLRK 92.9 FM with Rick May and Lori Fogleman calling the action. Fans may also listen to the broadcast via the internet at www.BaylorBears.com .
BOULDER CITY, Nev. - Both Lene Hafsten-Morch and Chelsey Cothran finished in the top 15 to help lead the Baylor women's golf team to a fourth-place showing Wednesday at the UNLV Spring Invitational.
Four Big 12 schools finished in the top five - Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor and Missouri. The Lady Bears finished the tournament at 24-over 888, two shots behind third-place Texas Tech (22-over 886). Host UNLV won the event by 12 strokes (2-over 866); Texas finished second at 14-over 878. Missouri finished fifth at 31-over.
Baylor has now finished in the top five in each of its last two spring events and four times total this season.
Hafsten-Morch turned in her best performance of the spring, firing a season-low 2-over 218 to finish seventh overall - her fourth career top-10 finish. Cothran posted her second consecutive top-15 finish with a 5-over 221 to finish tied for 14th.
Jaclyn Jansen carded a final-round 3-over 75 to finish tied for 23rd at 8-over 224. Hannah Burke finished the tournament tied for 34th (11-over 227), while freshman Melanie White shot 17-over 233 to finish 66th overall.
The Baylor Lady Bears will return west in two weeks March 26-27 for the Mountain View Collegiate in Tucson, Ariz.
WACO, Texas- After sweeping a four-match home stand the 16th-ranked men's tennis team will take their five-match win streak on the road to face eighth-ranked UCLA on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. (PT) in Los Angeles and No. 24 Pepperdine on Saturday at 2 p.m. (PT). in Malibu, Calif.
Live results for Thursday's match can be found here courtesy of UCLABruins.com.
Live results for Saturday's match can be found here courtesy of Pepperdinesports.com.
LAST TIME OUT: The Bears dispatched junior college foe Laredo Community College, 7-0, on Tuesday at the Baylor Tennis Center. It was the Bears first match in 10 days, but they had no rust as Baylor swept the doubles contests and won all of the singles matches in straight sets.
BAYLOR IN THE GOLDEN STATE: In 22 matches in California during the Matt Knoll era, Baylor is 13-9. The Bears played no matches in the nation's most populated state in 2009, but Baylor was only 1-3 in 2008 with losses to USC, UCLA and Pepperdine and a win against Stanford. Baylor's best trip west came in the 2006 campaign when the Bears went 6-2 in matches played in California.
CURRENT STREAKS AND TRENDS: Overall, the Bears have won 25 of 28 matches dating back to last season, including five in a row. It is Baylor's second five-match win streak of the season after starting the year with five straight victories. Baylor is 10-0 when winning the doubles point and 0-2 when losing it. Senior Denes Lukacs has won 29 of his last 33 matches overall, which includes a 10-0 start to this dual match season. Senior Dominik Mueller has won 10 of 11 to start the dual match season.
BAYLOR IN THE RANKINGS: In rankings released by the ITA on March 9, Baylor dropped from No. 14 to No. 16 as a team. The Bears have been ranked as high as No. 5 in the country in the Feb. 12 edition of the rankings. Individually, Baylor is represented in the singles rankings by Denes Lukacs at No. 22 and Jordan Rux at No. 28. The Bears have three doubles tandems in the current rankings as Rux partners with Maros Horny to be the 17th-ranked pairing. Horny is also teamed with Lukacs to make up the 59th-ranked duo, while Julian Bley and Attila Bucko are currently ranked 45th.
SCOUTING UCLA: The Bruins enter Thursday's match sporting a 7-3 record after beating No. 33 Duke, 4-3, on Tuesday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. UCLA has lost twice this season to cross-town rival USC and once to nationally-ranked Tennessee. Overall, Billy Martin's squad has won four of its last five. Martin, in his 17th season as UCLA head coach, has the 2005 NCAA title to his credit.
PLAYERS TO WATCH: The Bruins have four singles players ranked in the March 2 ITA rankings led by Haythem Abid at No. 40. He is followed by No. 50 Matt Brooklyn, No. 92 Amit Inbar and No. 118 Nick Meister. UCLA also had two doubles teams ranked, as Abid and Meister checked in at No. 55, followed by Brooklyn and Kallim Stewart at No. 57.
SERIES RECORD: The Bears hold a 5-2 series lead over the Bruins in a rivalry that dates back to Baylor's championship season in 2004 when the Bears beat UCLA twice, once in the regular season and then a 4-0 win in the NCAA Championship title match. In summary, the Bears and Bruins have met seven times in the last six year with five of the seven matches resulting in a 4-3 score. Baylor is 2-1 in California, 1-1 in neutral site meetings and 2-0 at the Baylor Tennis Center against the Bruins.
LAST TIME AGAINST UCLA: On Feb. 22, 2009, the 12th-ranked Bears and the sixth-ranked Bruins met in Waco with Baylor outlasting UCLA, 4-3. The win was Baylor head coach Matt Knoll's 300th career victory during his 14-year coaching career.
SCOUTING PEPPERDINE: The Pepperdine men are currently 5-5, but sport a 3-1 home record this season. Three of the losses came to top five teams, and all five have been to top 30 teams. Adam Steinberg is in his eighth year at the helm of the Pepperdine program and is just four years removed from winning the 2006 NCAA Championship. The Waves will face Duke on Wednesday before playing Baylor on Saturday.
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Senior Bassam Beidas, who is ranked No. 90 by the ITA, has a 19-6 overall record in 2009-10. Freshman Sebastian Fanselow is ranked No. 120 by the ITA and is 17-5 overall and 7-3 in dual match play.
SERIES RECORD: Baylor owns an 8-4 record against Pepperdine in a series that dates back to 1999 when Baylor took a 4-3 win in Malibu, Calif. The two teams did not meet in 2000, but have played at least one match every year since then. Baylor has won seven of the last nine meetings, in part due to last season's two match sweep of Pepperdine. The Bears are 2-3 in Malibu, 2-0 in neutral site meetings and 4-1 against the Waves in Waco. Seven of the 12 matches between the two schools have been decided by one point.
LAST TIME AGAINST PEPPERDINE: The 10th-ranked Bears got past the No. 18 Waves, 4-1, on March 29, 2009, at the Baylor Tennis Center. After Baylor lost the doubles point, the Bears quickly responded with four straight singles wins to shut down the Waves. The win closed out a season-long nine-match home stand for the Bears with Baylor going 8-1. It was Baylor's last match before conference play began.
WINNING AGAINST THE BEST: The Matt Knoll era has seen Baylor play 321 ranked opponents with the Bears going 236-86 in those matches. Last season the Bears were 20-6 against teams in the ITA's rankings of the top 75 college teams. Baylor's best year against ranked foes came in 2005 when it went 29-1 against the nation's elite with the only loss coming to No. 6 UCLA in the NCAA Tournament finals.
BAYLOR AGAINST TOP 10 TEAMS: During Matt Knoll's 13+ years at Baylor, the Bears are 37-36 all-time against teams ranked in the top 10. This season Baylor has yet to face an opponent in the top 10, but last season Baylor was 3-5 against such opponents. The Bears best year against top 10 competition came in 2005 when they went 10-1 in such contests.
OWNING NON-CONFERENCE OPPOSITION: The Knoll era has brought success in non-conference play with Baylor sporting a 240-65 mark in non-league play over the last 13+ years.
LOOKING AHEAD: After its California road trip, Baylor will return home to host TCU on March 17, at 6 p.m. It marks the second meeting between the Bears and the Horned Frogs this season as Baylor took the first match, 7-0, on Feb. 1. From there the Bears will travel to Virginia to face the No. 1 ranked Virginia Cavaliers on March 21, at 1 p.m.
Quotes- Head Coach Matt Knoll
On the road trip...
"We are getting a lot of good tennis in the next several weeks and this is the first step in it. It is a huge challenge to play at UCLA. It is almost impossible to win there, and Pepperdine is also incredibly difficult. Those are two very, very good teams that we have played year in and year out, so we know their personnel pretty well. We know they are going to be pretty tough. I think it is a challenge we need now. We are going to go out and see how we do and hopefully we can compete well and have a chance to win."
On his team...
"I certainly think we are fresh. We haven't played that much in the last month. I think we are pretty hungry. We are eager to play, so hopefully those things will pay off for us."
On the UCLA match...
"We lost 4-3 last time we went out there. We know they have great guys at every single spot. I think our guys are really looking forward to the challenge to see how we do."
On dropping two spots in the ITA team rankings to No. 16...
"I think when you look at what's going on, we are just really under-played. They are counting a certain number of wins and we just don't have that many matches against ranked teams at this stage. I think it is maybe the best possible place to be, because we have kind of fallen out of the national conversation. I still think we are very, very good. I am excited, I am going to print it out and put it on my wall and see how high we can climb. If we keep doing what we have been doing we are going to be fine."
LUBBOCK, Texas - Baylor infielder Raynor Campbell has been named to the College Baseball Foundation "National All-Star Lineup," as announced by the foundation on Wednesday.
Campbell becomes only the second Baylor player ever honored by the College Baseball Foundation. Former Bear Mike Pankratz was named to the All-Star Lineup for games during the week of May 6-12, 2006.
The senior from Katy, Texas, hit .500 (12-for-24) with four home runs, three doubles and 17 RBI in Baylor's six games during the week of March 1-7.
The honor is Campbell's third of the week. He was also named the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Player of the Week and one of Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's National Players of the Week.
With the honor, Campbell becomes the first Baylor player to ever earn two national player of the week awards in the same week.
Campbell hit safely and drove in at least one run in all six games during the week. He collected at least one RBI in 12 different plate appearances and had five multi-RBI games.
With the Bears on a five-game losing streak, and the offense struggling, Campbell was moved into the clean-up spot in the lineup for Saturday's doubleheader. It was the first time he hit fourth in the order since his fourth collegiate game on Feb. 13, 2007.
Campbell responded in a big way, going 6-for-9 with three home runs, 10 RBI, four runs scored and two stolen bases as Baylor won each of the last three games of the four-game set with Oral Roberts.
In the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, Campbell gave the Bears an early lead with a two-run homer, then after the Golden Eagles tied the game in the second, he put the Bears on top again with a sacrifice fly. With the Bears behind again the next time he came to the plate, he knocked a RBI single to tie the score, and Baylor went on to win 7-6.
In Sunday's series finale against ORU, Campbell tied the game with a RBI single in the fifth, hit what would prove to be a game-winning, two-run homer in the sixth, and added two insurance runs with another homer in the eighth.
Campbell doubled twice and drove in a pair of runs in Friday's series opener. He went 4-for-10 with five RBI, a double and a home run in Baylor's two midweek games earlier in the week.
Campbell sat out Tuesday's win over Louisiana Tech, but he is expected to return to the lineup when the Bears host Illinois-Chicago this weekend. Baylor takes on the Flames at 6:30 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and noon on Sunday.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The No. 43 Baylor men's golf team prepares for a busy seven-day stretch that begins this weekend with the Seminole Intercollegiate at the par-72, 7,172-yard Southwood Golf Course.
Last week, sophomore Joakim Mikkelsen earned individual medalist honors for the first time in his career, winning the Border Olympics by two shots. Baylor, which won the 2009 Border Olympics, finished eighth in this year's edition.
The 54-hole tournament will feature 18 holes Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Hosted by Florida State, the 14-team Seminole Intercollegiate field includes Arkansas, Cincinnati, George Mason, Georgia State, Mercer, Mississippi State, North Carolina, North Texas, South Carolina, Troy, Vanderbilt and Western Carolina. Live scoring will be available at www.GolfStat.com.
"We are looking forward to playing again after a disappointing team effort at the Border Olympics," Baylor head men's golf coach Greg Priest said. "We had some very good individual performances with Joakim (Mikkelsen) winning and Payne (Gniewek) finishing 16th."
Mikkelsen anchors a lineup that will include Payne Gniewek, Lorenzo Scotto, Ryan O'Rear, Austin Berkovsky and Jerry Ruiz. Either Berkovsky or Ruiz will compete as an individual. Mikkelsen leads the Bears with a 71.86 scoring average, 0.14 score vs. par and 12 rounds of par or better. Gniewek ranks second to Mikkelsen in stroke average (73.24), score vs. par (1.52) and rounds of par or better (eight).
Since joining the Bears at the semester break, Ruiz has posted a 75.33 stroke average through six rounds, while O'Rear has a 75.83 average (also through six rounds).
"We need to get more consistent as a team and put 54 holes together," Priest said. "The saying around Baylor has been `Star fast, finish strong' and we need to learn to do that."
After the Seminole Intercollegiate, Baylor will head west March 17-18 to Tucson, Ariz., for the National Invitational Tournament
