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Oregon St.-Baylor Preview

Mar 27, 2016 - 10:31 PM DALLAS (AP) Baylor players have been wearing those green ''Eight Is Not Enough'' bracelets so long that Nina Davis figures she probably has a permanent mark on her arm.

Those rubbery bands are a reminder of where the Lady Bears ended their last two seasons - in a women's NCAA Tournament regional final - and motivation to go farther this season. They have made it to the Elite Eight for the third year in a row, this time against Pac-12 champion Oregon State on Monday night.

''The job is not done yet,'' said point guard Niya Johnson, one of three Baylor seniors with their last shot at getting to a Final Four after losses to Notre Dame at this point in each of the past two years.

''I'm definitely ready for the opportunity to get rid of it tomorrow,'' Davis said about the bracelets they have worn since last summer.

As the No. 1 seed in the Dallas Regional, Big 12 champion Baylor (36-1) is playing only about 100 miles from its Waco campus. The Lady Bears are in the same NBA arena where they lost a regional final five years ago against Texas A&M, the eventual national champion they beat three previous times that season.

The Big 12 champion Lady Bears are in their seventh regional final, and have been to three Final Fours under coach Kim Mulkey. Second-seeded Oregon State (31-4) had never gotten this deep in the NCAA Tournament.

''They have a confidence and they know what at that to expect, and they have been there and they've played the biggest stage,'' Oregon State guard Jamie Weisner said. ''But I think we have confidence, too. We're going places we've never been before, and that alone is a lot of confidence we can ride on.''

Weisner, who had career highs with 38 points and seven 3-pointers in the Beavers' Sweet 16 win over DePaul, is among a senior group that as freshmen won only 10 games and endured a 10-game Pac-12 losing streak.

''Seems like a lifetime ago in some regards because we've come so far and developed the program so far since then,'' 6-foot-6 senior center Ruth Hamblin said. ''But we have really experienced it all just climbing up this mountain and I think we're excited for the next step.''

The Beavers are one win away from joining fellow Pac-12 team Washington in the Final Four. Oregon, under sixth-year coach Scott Rueck, won the conference tournament this year while sharing the regular-season title with Arizona State after winning it outright last season.

''I think everybody is watching each other closely,'' Rueck said. ''We would be lying if we didn't say it was giving each other confidence watching each other succeed.''

A few tidbits before Oregon State and Baylor play for the first time since 1995:

BIG STREAKS: Baylor carries a 23-game winning streak into the regional final. Oregon State has won 21 of its last 22 games.

30-30: Davis has scored 30 points in each of Baylor's last two NCAA Tournament games, matching the junior's season high set in November. ''Just doing what I do,'' Davis said. ''Attacking the goal and trying to cause the defense to collide on me, and dish it out to my teammates, and if they don't come try, to get a shot off.

LONG TIME AGO: Oregon State has won the only two games in the series against Baylor. But those wins by the Beavers were in 1983 and 1995, when Mulkey was a player and then an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech.

FUTURE GENERATIONS: There is a picture of Mulkey from Baylor's 2005 national championship with her young daughter and son on the ladder as she cuts the net. Daughter Makenzie is now part of Baylor's staff after four seasons as a player, and son Kramer is a junior shortstop at LSU. Rueck's three young children are in Dallas with him. ''Nothing better,'' Rueck said, with 12-year-old son Cole sitting in the second row during the coach's media availability. ''That's what this whole thing is about, and I pray someday that I can be his assistant.''