Getty Tristan Clark #25 and the Baylor Bears will kick off their regular season against Central Arkansas Tuesday. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
It’ll be a battle of the Bears when the Baylor University Bears host the Central Arkansas Bears at the Ferrell Center in Waco Tuesday.
The game (Noon ET start time) won’t be on regular cable TV anywhere, but you can watch it live on ESPN+, the digital streaming service from ESPN that has exclusive coverage of several Baylor and Big 12 basketball games this season, tons of other college basketball and live sports every week, all the 30-for-30 documentaries and additional original content (both video and written) all for $4.99 per month.
You can sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch Baylor vs Central Arkansas live on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the ESPN app.
Baylor vs Central Arkansas Preview
Expectations are high for the Baylor Bears this season.Baylor coach Scott Drew saw his team fall to Gonzaga in the second round of the NCAA tournament last year, and that glimpse of tourney play has left his team hungry for more.
“One, you start winning in postseason, you want to win more,” Drew said. “You want to stay longer. You want to achieve more. Hopefully that all goes hand-in-hand for those that are returning.”
Drew has several key players returning from last year, including six out of his top nine players. Returning for the Bears are junior center Tristan Clark, who averaged 15 points and six boards per game last year, and sophomore guard Jared Butler, who averaged just over 10 points a game in limited action during his freshman campaign.
Central Arkansas is coming off a disappointing season that fell way short of expectations last year. They will also begin their 2019-2020 campaign without their best player from a season ago, Thatch Unruh. They will, however, have four returning starters from last season, including center Hayden Koval, a 7-foot sophomore with a hulking frame who averaged 12.5 points, just over six rebounds and 2.2 blocks.
Koval’s presence in this game–and throughout this season–will be huge, and his matchup against Tristan Clark should be the game’s most intriguing and pivotal one.
Central Arkansas will also be led by junior guard DeAndre Jones, who averaged 12.5 points, 4.9 assists and two steals a game last year. Jones was second in the Southland Conference in assists and third in steals in his 2018-2019 campaign, so if he brings his A-game, he could give the Bears more than a few fits. Central Arkansas coach Russ Pennell has confidence in his team despite their very challenging schedule this year:
“What I want for us to do is to get a little more even-keeled, where no moment is too big and no moment is too low for us to play good, solid basketball,” Pennell said.
“There’s no question that I feel like we’ve got the pieces to do it,” Pennell continued. “We got size, we got speed, we got shooters. We’ve got the ingredients. I feel like I’m baking a cake, and I’ve got all the ingredients in the kitchen — I just got to get them all in the bowl and make them all fit together.”
Central Arkansas will get their first chance to cook Tuesday against Baylor.
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