Baylor Basketball’s Best Skill: The Surprising Finding on Opponent Compatibility

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports Before Baylor’s NCAA Tournament game against Syracuse, tons of folks keyed in on Baylor’s massive offensive rebounding advantage. The Bears ranked second nationally in offensive rebounding rate. Syracuse ranked 335th in defensive rebounding. Put those two facts together, and most folks figured Baylor would destroy Syracuse on the offensive glass.

Baylor didn’t beat Syracuse by dominating the offensive glass though. The Bears secured 34.6% of their misses against Syracuse, which wasn’t even one of Baylor’s top 19 offensive rebounding performance of the season. Despite that pedestrian performance for Baylor, the Bears walloped the Orange and finished with 1.3…