Raspy-sounding Nikki Collen is happy Baylor women are back home for March Madness

By Canadian Press on March 20, 2025.

WACO, Texas (AP) — Nikki Collen’s raspy voice kept the Baylor coach’s NCAA Tournament preview chat with reporters very brief.

She didn’t need long to get to the point.

The Bears (27-7) are hosting early-round games for the first time since her Baylor debut in 2021-22. While that experience wasn’t great — Baylor had a 12-year streak of Sweet 16 appearances stopped by South Dakota in the second round three years ago — it beats the alternative of opening the NCAAs on the road.

“I think it was a goal when we went on the road and won last year, how difficult that was and what an emotional advantage Virginia Tech had,” Collen said in answering the first questions, referring to her first trip past the second round in her first three seasons replacing three-time national championship winner Kim Mulkey.

“That’s the advantage,” Collen said. “Your fans, your building, your rims, your routine. So excited to be here, even if I don’t sound it.”

That scratchy voice led to several pauses from an almost-embarrassed Collen, who was mercifully turned loose by the narrator after about five minutes of discussing fourth-seeded Baylor’s first-round matchup with No. 13 seed Grand Canyon (32-2) on Friday.

No. 5 seed Mississippi (20-10) faces 12th-seeded Ball State (27-7) on Friday night. The winners meet Sunday for a Sweet 16 spot in the Spokane 1 Regional.

Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, the only Big 12 player to average a double-double at 14.3 points and 10.5 rebounds, is expected to return for Baylor after missing seven games with a right knee injury. She will be on a minutes restriction.

Aaronette Vonleh averages 14.6 points per gam to lead the Bears, who have the third-longest women’s tournament streak at 21 years, while Jada Walker and Sarah Andrews average five assists per game apiece.

Baylor kept a nine-game winning streak rolling early in the absence of Littlepage-Buggs before losing twice to TCU in the past four games. The first loss decided the regular-season championship, and the second settled the Big 12 tournament title.

“I feel like the biggest thing we learned or already knew is that we need to rebound because Buggs is very elite at that,” Vonleh said. “I think on the flip side we also learned that we have people that can contribute and step up if somebody goes down. I mean, I’m grateful that she’s finally back and able to make our job a little bit easier.”

Return trip

Before beating Baylor three years ago, South Dakota earned its first NCAA Tournament victory by knocking off Ole Miss. Now the Rebels are back, with their highest seed since 1994 at No. 5. They were seventh in 2022.

The only disappointment for Ole Miss was believing they were good enough to get the home court that goes with being a top-four seed.

“Would we have been excited had we hosted? Of course,” said coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin, who has her team in the tournament for the fourth consecutive year. “But we’ve also been on the road and so this is not foreign to us. We’re incredibly grateful and it doesn’t take much for us to just keep the main thing the main thing.”

The venue is different this time. Baylor has since moved to Foster Pavilion from the Ferrell Center.

Plenty of winning

Grand Canyon enters with the nation’s longest winning streak at 30 games, and the Lopes have a pair of victories over Big 12 teams in Arizona State and Arizona. The losses were to Middle Tennessee and then-No. 23 Oregon.

“I think a lot of people can get caught up in the name, but at the end of the day, it’s basketball,” said Trinity San Antonio, who leads the Lopes at 15.7 points and 5.5 assists per game. “It doesn’t really matter who we’re up against.”

What’s in a name

Speaking of getting caught up in a name, San Antonio is getting a chance to play about 170 miles from the South Texas city of the same name. As expected, she was asked to explain.

“Just my dad’s side of the family — Puerto Rico,” she said. “That name has a stronghold in our lineage. There’s a town called San Antonio in Puerto Rico, so, you know, just Puerto Rican, that it.”

San Antonio was born in Guam but grew up in the Los Angeles area and started her career at California Baptist. She played for Puerto Rico in the Paris Olympics last summer.

Took awhile to get back

Ball State is making its second NCAA appearance 16 years after the first, when the Cardinals knocked off fifth-seeded Tennessee in 2009 before losing to Iowa State in the second round.

They are trying to pull off the 12-over-5 upset again in Brady Sallee’s first NCAA Tournament as a head coach. Assistant head coach Audrey McDonald played on that 2009 team.

“Her experience as a player and going through this, and really the message of, ‘Guys, it’s worth it,’” Sallee said of McDonald. “As we were trudging through February trying to get to here, it’s that calming message. Clearly, they knew it, but she has a different perspective on it.”

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AP March Madness coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

Schuyler Dixon, The Associated Press

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