It’s good to be home. Or, at least, it has been so far for Baylor as it prepares for the final game of its season-opening home slate when Tarleton State visits Waco, Texas, on Friday evening.
The Bears (2-0), one of just three high-major teams in the country without any returning scholarship players, have eased into their schedule with a pair of home wins. The most recent of those, against Washington — an expected NCAA Tournament team — was an encouraging sign that the rebuild is going well.
“Washington is picked to be in the NCAA tournament by a lot of people,” said Baylor coach Scott Drew. “And they got a really good team and, as they get a couple guys back healthy, that’ll be a real quality win for us.
“I thought the crowd played a really, really big part in it.”
Also playing a big role in Sunday’s 78-69 win was a player celebrating his own personal homecoming, center Caden Powell. The Waco product played at Wyoming and Rice before transferring to Baylor for his senior season. He had 12 points and 10 rebounds against the Huskies off the bench.
“Such a great teammate. Such a pillar in the community,” Drew said. “I mean, everyone that knows him loves him. And seeing the team celebrate his double-double was really cool. You always can tell who the players really think is a great teammate, because it’s really easy to cheer for those guys.”
Tarleton State (2-2) comes in battle-tested, having dropped road games to high-major opponents SMU and LSU before rallying for home wins against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Merrimack.
Against Merrimack on Tuesday, Texans guard Freddy Hicks hit double-digits in scoring (18 points) for the fourth straight game while adding five assists and four blocks.
“This is the most talented team that I have ever been a part of here at Tarleton State,” Hicks said. “We have some of the most talented dudes, probably in the nation. I think if we stick to our defense and play hard, who knows what can happen?”
