Takeaways from the Baylor loss to TCU on the hardwood

The Baylor basketball squad traveled to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex on Saturday to take on the Horned Frogs of TCU in a Big 12 Conference battle of unranked teams. Both teams have 10 wins on the season and both are coming off big wins. Baylor has won four in row, and scored over 100 points in three of the four wins, most recently a beatdown of Arlington Baptist 124-61, a margin of victory by 63 points. The Bears are fifth in the country in scoring as they average 95.6 points per game.

The Bears have six players who are averaging double-digits, led by guard Cameron Carr and his 21.3 points per contest. In addition, Carr adds 5.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.

Baylor's starting five looked like this:

Big 12 hoops up next 🏀#SicEm | #CultureofJOY pic.twitter.com/cjDGemiJk9
— Baylor Men’s Basketball (@BaylorMBB) January 3, 2026

Dan Skillings Jr., 12.4 points/7.4 rebounds/3.3 assists

Obi Agbim, 11.7 points/2.5 rebounds/3.7 assists

Cameron Carr, 21.3 points/5.7 rebounds/2.3 assists

Michael Rataj, 10.4 points/6.6 rebounds/3.2 assists

Tounde Ysssoufou, 19.3 points/5.9 rebounds/2.2 assists

Here are the takeaways that stood out in Baylor' win.

First Half Takeaways

Cold shooting: Baylor started the game shooting just 2-8 from the field (25 percent), 0-2 from 3-point range and 0-2 from the charity stripe. By contrast, TCU was shooting 50 percent on 3-point shots. The Bears missed on 9 of their last 11 shots to close out the first half with only 23 points on 36 percent shooting from the field and 22 percent from 3-point range. Cameron Carr led the Bears with eight points.

James Nnjai saw action: Former NBA draftee Nnjai saw some action. Nnjai scored on a dunk and committed one personal foul. He was booed by the TCU home crowd each time he touched the ball.

NNAJI PUTBACK 😤#SicEm | #CultureofJOY pic.twitter.com/dfK4zMxRNf
— Baylor Men’s Basketball (@BaylorMBB) January 3, 2026

Turnovers: Baylor committed four turnovers as the Horned Frogs went on a 6-0 run late in the half. In addition, the TCU defense held the Bears without any points for six minutes toward the end of the half.

Second Half

Scoring: TCU came out in the second half and promptly extended their lead to 12 points over Baylor as the Horned Frogs hit on four of four baskets to start the second half. Down the stretch, Baylor went on a 8-0 run to cut the lead to four points. TCU scored again to increase their lead to 66-60 with 0:29 left in the game. Baylor could not score during the final seconds of the second half and TCU pulled out a 69-63 victory.

That Caden o-board leads to a Obi trey 👌#SicEm | #CultureofJOY pic.twitter.com/BVvNYSaDIC
— Baylor Men’s Basketball (@BaylorMBB) January 3, 2026

In the loss, Baylor was held to 32 points below their season scoring average. The Bears fell to 10-3 on the season and 0-1 in the conference. TCU improved to 11-3. TCU won the battle of the boards, outrebounding Baylor 43-34.

The Bears were paced by Carr with 17 points, Yessoufou poured in 10 points and added five rebounds, two blocks and three steals. Skillings recorded 13 points. Nnjai finished with five points, four rebounds and four fouls.

Next up for the Bears is Iowa State at home at Foster Pavilion on January 7.

First Half Takeaways

Second Half

More From Baylor On SI