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Daily Bears Report 10/21

Johnathon Motley named to 2017 Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award watch list. Jim Grobe tabbed to the watch list for the 2016 Bryant Coach of the Year Award

By Ohio Baylor Fan
Baylor v Yale
6’10” Johnathan Motley
Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Today’s Events

Soccer

  • No. 24 Baylor soccer ends regular season play this weekend with home matches tonight at 7 p.m. CT against Iowa State and Sunday at 1 p.m. versus Kansas on FOX Sports Southwest. From Baylor Bears dot com where you can also find Match Info and Baylor Quick Notes.

Both matches will feature live stats on BaylorBears.com and Friday's game will have a live audio stream via Baylor All-Access on BaylorBears.com. Twitter updates will also be provided on the @BaylorFutbol official account.

Women’s Tennis

  • The Baylor women’s tennis program had a strong showing on opening day of the ITA Texas Regional Championship Presented by Oracle. From Baylor Bears dot com.

Four singles competitors and each doubles duo advanced to day two with Thursday wins at Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center and Hurd Tennis Center.

Inside Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center due to rain in the morning, Baylor posted two doubles wins. Freshman Jessica Hinojosa and junior Theresa Van Zyl began the day with an 8-3 win over SMU’s Liza Buss and Daria Sharapova. Senior Rhiann Newborn and sophomore Karina Traxler followed suit, besting Diane Friedrichs and Caitlyn Mitchell of Sam Houston State, 8-0.

With the weather clearing and sun shining, the tournament moved outside to Hurd Tennis Center for singles rounds. Hinojosa, Newborn and Van Zyl advanced with two victories to Friday action.

Playing to a 6-3, 6-0 win over Autumn Crossnoe of Abilene Christian and a 6-3, 6-1 win against Alex Jones of Texas State was Hinojosa, who moves to 5-1 in fall singles play. Newborn earned a 6-2, 6-0 result against Abilene Christian’s Ansley Boarman before battling for a 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 three-set victory over Sam Houston State’s Mila Milanovic. After topping Hanna Helfving of Lamar, 6-2, 6-4, Van Zyl recorded another win in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, against Madison Tedford of TCU.

Senior Blair Shankle, the No. 2 seed in the tournament and 54th-ranked player nationally, received a first round bye before besting Houston’s Tsveta Dimitrova in three sets, 1-6, 6-2, 7-5, to advance to day two of singles play.

Profit and Traxler earned singles wins in the round of 64 over Texas’ Chelsea Crovetti, 6-2, 6-0, and Texas Tech’s Reagan Collins, 6-0, 6-1, respectively, before falling in the second round. After dropping her opening match to Katie Poluta of Texas, 6-0, 6-1, junior Vanessa Phan will play through the consolation bracket beginning Friday.

“Good first day of tennis for the Bears,” Baylor head coach Joey Scrivano said. “The ladies competed hard and show improvement. There is still a lot of work to be done and tomorrow is another opportunity to make a baby step.”

A link to live video of select matches at Hurd Tennis Center are available on the Baylor women’s tennis schedule page at www.baylorbears.com. Fans can also keep up with the Bears by following the team’s official Twitter (@BaylorWTennis) and Instagram (@BaylorWTennis) accounts.

The ITA Texas Regional Championship Presented by Oracle resumes with doubles at 9 a.m. (CT) at Hurd Tennis Center. Consolation singles and main draw singles will follow.

Men’s Tennis

  • Baylor men’s tennis will have six players in action at the ITA Texas Regional Championship Presented by Oracle beginning Friday in Fort Worth, Texas. From Baylor Bears dot com.

The regional event, which runs through Monday, will be held at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center and is hosted by TCU.

The winners of the single and double draws will advance to the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships held in New York City next month. The ITA Texas Regional Championship will feature 14 Texas schools – Abilene Christian, Baylor, Lamar, Prairie View A&M, Rice, SMU, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, UT Arlington, UT-Rio Grande Valley and UT San Antonio.

Three Bears will be continuing their fall seasons as sophomore Jimmy Bendeck holds an 8-1 singles record and is seeded 10th in the 128-person singles draw. Freshmen Constantin Frantzen (2-2) and Bjoern Petersen (0-2) are seeded 22nd and 28th, respectively.

This will be the first tournament of the season for seniors Sam May and Tyler Stayer and redshirt sophomore Will Little, who is the No. 23 seed at the event.

In doubles action, Bendeck and Frantzen will play together, while Little and Petersen are seeded 13th in the 64-duo draw.

For the latest information on the Baylor men's tennis team, follow the team on Twitter: @BaylorMTennis.

Coin Toss

  • Lorena first grader Addison Kramer takes part in Baylor football pregame coin toss. WacoTrib has the story and photo of Addison as she hands the coin used for the coin toss to umpire Rich Podraza before the start of Baylor’s homecoming game on Saturday.

BBVA Compass Bank sponsors the Coin Toss Kid program. The bank selects a winner, who must be under 18 years old and a resident of Texas, before each Baylor home football game this season to be part of the pregame ceremony. Parents and guardians can enter their children online at www.baylorbears.com/sponsorship/bbva.html.

Cross Country

Johnathan Motley

  • Baylor men’s basketball junior Johnathan Motley has been named as one of 20 players on the 2017 Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award watch list, as announced Thursday by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. From Baylor Bears dot com.

Motley is the only player from a Texas university on the watch list and is one of two Big 12 players on the list, joining Kansas’ Carlton Bragg Jr. The Houston native has played all 68 games, including 40 starts, over his first two seasons of action following a redshirt in 2013-14.

Motley has also been named to the five-player 2017 Preseason All-Big 12 team by the league’s coaches. He averaged 11.1 points and 5.1 rebounds in 20.9 minutes per game last season. Motley led the Big 12 and posted the sixth-best single-season field goal percentage in program history by making 61.4 percent of his shots in 2015-16.

Named after Hall of Famer and two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Karl Malone, the annual honor in its third year recognizes the top power forwards in Division I men’s college basketball. A national committee comprised of top college basketball personnel determined the watch list of 20 candidates. Previous award winners are Louisville’s Montrezl Harrell (2015) and Iowa State’s Georges Niang (2016).

By mid-February, the watch list of 20 players will be narrowed to just 10. In March, five finalists will be submitted to Mr. Malone and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee. The award winner will be presented at the ESPN College Basketball Awards Show presented by Wendy’s in Los Angeles on April 7. Broadcast information will be released at a later date. For more information on the 2016 Karl Malone Award, log onto www.HoophallAwards.com.

The Bears open the 2016-17 season on Nov. 11 when they host Oral Roberts at the Ferrell Center. That game will tip off at 6 p.m. CT on ESPNU. For season tickets, call the Baylor Athletics Ticket Office at 254-710-1000, or visit www.BaylorBears.com/tickets for more information. Single-game tickets go on sale Oct. 28.

Jim Grobe

The 31st annual American Heart Association Paul “Bear” Bryant Awards presented by Marathon Oil Corporation seek to recognize excellence in college football coaching while raising funds to fight heart disease and stroke.

With Grobe at the helm, Baylor has risen to a ranking of No. 9 in the AP Top 25 and No. 8 in the Amway Coaches Poll. The Bears are 6-0 for the fourth-straight year – a program first and the only FBS team to achieve that feat – and 3-0 in conference play for a fourth-straight year as well.

Grobe’s squad is top-20 in the country in scoring offense (43.7, 9th), total offense (549.2, 5th), scoring defense (17.2, 12th) and total defense (320.3, 19th).

In December, five to 10 finalists for the honor will be announced. Finalists will attend an awards banquet Jan. 11, 2017, at the Toyota Center, where the winner will be announced live. The Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year Award is the only college coaching honor determined after all bowl games are concluded and is voted on by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

Fan Posting

There’s trouble, right here in river city. Trouble with a capital T, that rhymes with P, and that stands for Passing. What a mess. If you want to see the Bears out of sync, look no further than your DVR and the air attack against mighty Kansas. After starting 3 of 4 on the first drive, Russell would complete only 6 more passes in his one half of play. We must get better, or the second half of the season (you know, the one where the teams are all dangerous) will not be pretty.

In addition to last Saturday's thumping of the Jayhawks, I've also included the syncs for all 2016 Baylor Football games in one glorious repository. Just consider this your one-stop sync shop for the bye week. Feel free to peruse each of the games at your leisure (pronounced: lye-ZHUR-ay) should you find yourself in need of a BU Football fix. Just one word of caution... please watch responsibly.

Domestic Violence Awareness

Approximately 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. Throughout the course of a year, this equates to over 10 million women and men, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

October marks Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a time where people and organizations throughout the country share valuable knowledge on the issue and offer support for victims.

Computer link for Domestic Violence Hot Line: http://www.thehotline.org/

Hot Line Telephone Number: 1-800-799-Safe (7233)

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