Utah basketball vs. Baylor by the numbers

The Utah men's basketball team closes out its regular season schedule Saturday with a matchup against Baylor in Waco, Texas.

Tipoff from Foster Pavilion between the Runnin' Utes (10-20, 2-15 Big 12) and Bears (15-15, 5-12 Big 12) is set for 3 p.m. MT on Peacock.

Here's a look at the matchup through the lens of some notable statistics and trends.

Utah vs. Baylor By The Numbers

16: Utah's Big 12 Tournament Seed

The Utes locked themselves into the No. 16 seed for the Big 12 tournament with Tuesday's loss to Colorado and Kansas State's victory over West Virginia that same night. That's because the Wildcats own the head-to-head tiebreaker over Utah, so regardless of what happens Saturday in Waco and at Allen Fieldhouse between Kansas State and Kansas, Utah will be the No. 16 seed and face the No. 9 seed in the first round of the conference tournament.

The team that lines up across the Utes for that opening round matchup from T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, remains to be seen. The game Utah fans will want to keep an eye on Saturday is the 6 p.m. MT matchup between West Virginia and UCF in Morgantown. The Mountaineers are currently in the No. 9 spot with an 8-9 record in league play, but can flip the script with a victory over the 9-8 Knights.

BYU can crash the party and claim the No. 9 seed with an upset over Texas Tech in Provo, plus a UCF victory over West Virginia.

2: Points Needed for Terrence Brown to Break 600

Utah's high-scoring guard is chasing down a couple of major milestones as he wraps up his first season with the Utes.

The simplest feat that Brown could very well accomplish in the opening minutes of Saturday's game is reach the 600-point threshold for the season. Sitting at 598 points through 30 games, the 6-foot-3 guard needs to make a single 2-pointer (or 3-pointer) against the Bears to become the fifth Utah player since 1996-97 to score 600 or more points in a single season. Branden Carlson (2023-24), Jakob Poeltl (2015-16), Andrew Bogut (2004-05) and Keith Van Horn (1996-97) currently reside on that exclusive list.

Broadly speaking, scoring 600 points in a season is no small achievement; doing so as the lead floor general at the highest level of competition is certainly nothing to scoff at, either. In fact, of the 11 players from a power conference with 600 or more points on the season (as of Thursday), only six have done so while leading their team in assists.

Brown, who paces Utah with 112 total assists going into Saturday, would become the seventh player added to that short list and join Duke's Cameron Boozer, Arkansas' Darius Acuff Jr., Mississippi State's Josh Hubbard, Stanford's Ebuka Okorie, Alabama's Labaron Philon Jr. and Wisconsin's Nick Boyd. Iowa's Bennett Stirtz has an opportunity to join that list on Thursday during the Hawkeyes' showdown with Michigan, and could soon be joined by Ohio State's Bruce Thornton by the end of the Buckeyes' tilt with Indiana on Saturday.

4: Utah/Baylor Players Averaging 17 or More Points

Don't be surprise if Baylor and Utah's top two scorers dictate much of Saturday's outcome, given how much the Utes lean on Brown and Don McHenry to carry the load offensively and the fact that almost everything the Bears do runs through Cameron Carr and Tounde Yessoufou. Those four players average more than 17 points per game and rank among the Big 12's top 11 scorers, with Brown (19.9 ppg) leading the group at No. 4 in the conference.

When combined with McHenry's output, Utah's guard tandem accounts for almost half (49.8%) of the team's total point production this season. McHenry is second on the team and No. 11 in the Big 12 at 17.2 points per game and is 14 points away from reaching the 2,000-mark for his career.

Similarly, Baylor's top duo does much of the team's heavy lifting on the offensive end of the floor. Carr and Yessoufou make up 44.6% of the Bears' total points, with the former pacing at 18.9 points per game (No. 6 in the Big 12) and the latter not far behind at 17.7 points per contest (No. 9 in the conference). Yessoufou, a former five-star recruit in the 2025 class, is coming off his 11th 20-point game of the season in Baylor's 77-64 loss to Houston.

Utah's Offense vs. Baylor's Defense

Adjusted efficiency

Utah: 114.4 (No. 95 nationally)
Baylor: 122.4 (No. 116)

Scoring

Utah: 74.6 points per game (No. 219)
Baylor: 77 points allowed per game (No. 264)

Effective field goal percentage

Utah: 52% (No. 154)
Baylor: 51.8% (No. 203)

3-point field goal percentage

Utah: 35.2% (No. 108)
Baylor: 35.2% (No. 248)

3-pointers per game

Utah: 7.8 (No. 176)
Baylor: 7.5 (No. 138)

2-point field goal percentage

Utah: 51.5% (No. 195)
Baylor: 51.2% (No. 156)

Turnovers per game

Utah: 11.4 (No. 173)
Baylor: 11 (No. 113)

Utah's Defense vs. Baylor's Offense

Adjusted efficiency

Utah: 110.2 (No. 194)
Baylor: 122.4 (No. 28)

Scoring

Utah: 78.6 points allowed per game (No. 306)
Baylor: 82.1 points per game (No. 54)

Effective field goal percentage

Utah: 53.5% (No. 279)
Baylor: 53.5% (No. 86)

3-point field goal percentage

Utah: 34.7% (No. 222)
Baylor: 34.7% (No. 146)

3-pointers per game

Utah: 7.2 (No. 98)
Baylor: 8.2 (No. 141)

2-point field goal percentage

Utah: 54.2% (No. 284)
Baylor: 54.5% (No. 78)

Turnovers per game

Utah: 9.4 (No. 352)
Baylor: 11.8 (No. 207)

Play Styles

Utah

Percentage of points from 3-pointers: 31.5% (No. 183)
Percentage of points from 2-pointers: 50.1% (No. 145)
Percentage of points from free throws: 18.4% (No. 258)

Baylor

Percentage of points from 3-pointers: 31.1% (No. 196)
Percentage of points from 2-pointers: 49.4% (No. 167)
Percentage of points from free throws: 19.5% (No. 194)

How to Watch Iowa State vs. Utah

Date: Saturday, March 7
Game Time: 2 p.m. PT/3 p.m. MT
Where: Foster Pavilion | Waco, Texas
How to watch (TV): Peacock
Radio: ESPN 700
KenPom prediction: Baylor 84, Utah 73