Baylor Basketball: 2020-21 season preview for the Bears

2020-21 Baylor Basketball outlook

Now time for my opinion and predictions on how this season will go. If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’re interested in how I think the Bears will fair in 2020 and 2021.

I do see the Bears coming into the season as the preseason number one team in the country.

Do I think they will hold that spot for an entire season? No. But that is extremely rare, if not downright impossible. I do believe the Bears will be a Top 10 team all season long if not a Top 5 or 6. If the Bears were to play #3 Villanova, #8 Illinois, and #1 Gonzaga in the first few weeks of the season; winning ⅔ of those would be a gigantic success. Now they’ve temporarily lost the games against #18 and #3 but they still have great opportunities in front of them.

I think the Bears will and should be the favorites in all but 2 or 3 of their games this season. Although, it would not surprise me if they lose 3-5. Baylor broke a Big 12 record last season winning 23 straight games. That was a record for a reason and is a tall task to ask to try to repeat.

Although I do think they have the talent, experience, and coaching to finish the season with two or fewer L’s in the loss column. Finishing this season with 1-2 losses would also not come as a surprise, though I do think 1 or 5 are much less likely than 2-4.

The Big 12 will be full of challenges this year as it looks again to be the best, if not the second best, conference in all of basketball. That will make the weekly grind undoubtedly challenging like we’ve come accustom to in Big 12 play.

One thing I think that has changed in 2020 that will help the Bears, is playing the games with no or limited fans in the stands. This hurts teams like Kansas who rely on Allen Fieldhouse to give them one of the most distinct advantages in the nation. Baylor will thrive essentially playing everyone on a neutral court this year. So they might actually have a chance to win more conference games on the road than normal.

In a normal year away games for the #2 team in the country vs a Top 40 opponent on the road would be called a “trap game.” Places, where they’ve struggled to win in the past like Kansas, Iowa State, or TCU, will be much less of a factor. Essentially every team in the Big 12 has great home fans and is part of the cause why the conference has been so successful in recent years.

This year could sneakily be a factor that is not easily picked up by the computers in the preseason or early season. It could lead Baylor to have very few losses if any and be right back where they were last year as the #1 seed candidates heading into March.

Everything I’ve seen leads me to believe Scott Drew and the Bears will do everything in their power to get to the Final Four, to make up for last season’s lost opportunity.

Good luck,
and
Sic ‘Em Bears!