Two key Baylor players will be game-time decisions

Baylor’s James Akinjo and Jeremy Sochan will both be game-time decisions for today’s game against Oklahoma, per head coach Scott Drew.

Neither were active in the Bears’ 77-68 victory over West Virginia. The losses came at the worst time for Baylor after losing their last two games to Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, on their home court no less.

Akinjo, Baylor’s leading scorer (13.9 points per game) this season and assists (5.7), took a hard fall in the loss against the Red Raiders and played on a minutes restriction against the Cowboys before taking time to rest against West Virginia.

After their loss to Oklahoma State, Drew said Akinjo looked noticeably different on the court. He also noted that they have to push through while waiting for the return of the both Akinjo and Sochan.

“That obviously affected [Akinjo],” Drew said on the injury. “We didn’t think he was going to play today, and he gutted it out. But that obviously wasn’t the same James. In this league, everyone’s banged up, and you only have so much margin for error. We’ve got to get him and Jeremy back and in the meantime, figure out a better way to put guys in positions to be successful.”

Sochan was also injured one game prior against TCU. Despite losing a key rotational piece, the then-No. 1 Bears took down the Horned Frogs 76-64 on the road. The 6-foot-9 freshman out of Milton Keynes, England averages 7.9 points per game, 5.9 boards and two assists per outing.

With injuries plaguing the Bears’ squad since the start of 2022, Drew wants his team to focus on what he and his players can control.

“At the end of the day, the health of your team affects it,” Drew said. “Jeremy was three to one assists to turnovers. If he’s healthy, that helps with it. Then that adds to your rotation. Guys aren’t as fatigued out there, so we know fatigue makes cowards of us all. That leads to more turnovers. We were very ineffective shooting the ball for a vast majority of the game; You look at the analytics and the shot charts, and our shots were pretty good shots and we missed them … Control what we can control to begin with, find out who we got healthy and come up with a plan that can work.”

Oklahoma will host the Bears at 3 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon and will be aired on ESPN+.