Baylor-Wake Forest Thoughts

The short version is that what happened on Saturday was big time. Season opener on the road against a decent team with a ton of recent success. I know we won by 3 but anyone who saw that knows it wasn't that close. The defesne was nails only allowing one long scoring drive. The other two were 50 yards and 34 yards. Offensively we seemed to take our foot off the gas when we got up big but for the most part I was very please. The scary thing was that Griffin didn't even have a huge game, or a "good" game. He was just so/so.

The follwing are just some random thoughts about the game:

• Phil Taylor was as advertised. He absolutely makes a difference. Notice that now that we're good up front, on the line and the backers, Jordan Lake was nowhere to be seen on the stat sheet.
• We need to get Jay Finley the ball more. All the guy does is get yards. I know we have playmakers at various positions but he can control the game if you give him a chance.
• Kicking game is going to lose us a game this year. You just know it. Saturday's game would have been iced early in the 4th if we take care of business kicking field goals.
• The offensive line did an excellent job. The Wake defense was depleted but we didn't make them look better than they were.
• Points to Jason Lamb for beating a tackle and getting a big time sack. I honestly didn't think he had it in him after the past 3 seasons. Let's hope this year's version is here to stay.
• We can still improve the passing game. You can just tell that the passing game is servicable at this point but it hasn't come close to reaching its potential.

Here are some thoughts about our conference bretheren:

• Oklahoma's biggest problem is their offensive line. They'll lose 4 games (maybe one to us) if they don't get better up front. They have a first class defense but it won't take many points to beat them this year. We'll see.
• aggie fans are beating their chest about pounding a 4-7 team last year. I bet UAB exposes the ags in a couple of weeks.
• OSU looked good but I just know we'll see a "Poke Choke" sometime. Let's hope our number is up when that happens.
• Tech was also not impressive. As always, we'll see after a few more games. I think Texas destroys them at this point.
• We'll find out a little more about ISU after their game with equally horrible looking Iowa this weekend.
• We can't get Colorado and Kansas State on the schedule soon enough.

I'll post shortly after the UCONN game next Saturday. I'll be paying attention to how the fan base responds to the positive end of last season and the good start this season.

Coming Out of the Wilderness?

There has been a ton of talk this off season about us finally posting a non-losing record and making a bowl for the first time since I was in the 9th grade. No doubt we have enough talent to make this happen. We have an explosive offense and a serviceable defense that should be slightly improved from last year. I think (conservatively) we can expect a 3 point improvement on offense (again, conservative) and a 3 point improvement on scoring defense. Compared to last season that means we'd score 31 and give up 26 on average. The 6 point swing also tips two games our way from last year and gets us to 6 wins.

So who can we beat to get to that magic 6 win total? I like to break the schedule down into three sections: Must Wins, Coin Flip Games, and Gravy. If my math is right (double check it anyway), our must wins are: NW State, Kent State, UConn, and Iowa State. We cannot lose any of these. If we do, we are forced to win more than our share of 50/50 games or get an upset somewhere else. The gravy games are against Oklahoma, Texas, and OSU. Any win against these teams (however unlikely) will just be gravy on top of our main goal this year of getting to a bowl.

The coin flip games are ones in which the winner of the game will not be a surprised. The spreads in these games will be less than 10 points so each are winnable but very losable. Below, let's talk about these games. We need to win at least 2 and maybe 3 to guarantee us a bowl spot.

Wake Forest

This article was posted on baylorfans earlier today detailing the Deacon's depeleted defense. Their offense really struggled for most of the season but I still have reservations about this game. The fact that it is the opener on the road really bothers me. Coach Grobe's program is also pretty impressive. Despite thier losses from last season, scrubs won't exactly be taking their place. WF redshirts practically everyone so the guys coming up to take the reigns are most likely going to be 3rd year sophmores or 4th year juniors. They'll have a little experience and won't be fooled easily. Last year that team was so disciplined on defense it looked like they had 13 guys out there.

Nebraska

Lost their QB, and various other important positions from last season. I think their offense takes a small step back from last season but their defense will be better. I'm glad this one will be at home. I think this is going to be a close one just like last season. Hopefully, our kicking game will be better and we'll be able to get off the field on defense. Let's hope we can get some good Halloween mojo for this one.

Missouri

Again, the loss of Maclin, Daniel, Coffman, and some starters on defense have people wrongly thinking we can just walk into Columbia and win this one. Mizzou had the #25 rated recuiting class two years ago according to Rivals so it's not like they have no talent. That class included a 5-Star QB who has no had one year in the system. If you remember from last year, the Tigers shot ahead of us 14-0 early in the game. We faught back and finally tied the game late in the 2nd half but came up short. Another game I wish we had at home, Pinkle for all he's messed up in his tenure has been pretty solid in Columbia.

aggie

You don't get points for what was done before all of the players on the field were born but sometimes it seems like you do. We haven't won in College Station in forever. Everything on paper says we should be favored and win this game but I don't even come close to putting this one in ink yet. They'll be better on offense and marginally better on defense. This is one of those games that we need to prove that we can win where we traditionally haven't. A win at the big concrete tackle box will be a nice skin on the wall and will spare us from the "haven't won there in x years" talk every season.

Tech

There's been some speculation that we could very well be 5-6 heading into this game at Jerryworld. Like Mizzou, people are seeing the close loss last year, plus losses due to graduation/draft and assuming we will win easily. Not so fast my friend. This being game number 12 for the season for both teams means that Taylor Potts won't exactly be a new starter by the time we tee it up in late November. Also, remember that Crabtree was hurt early in our game and was a non-factor and they still beat us. Tech's defense will be a little better as well. I also have a feeling that since Tech's whole alumni base is in DFW, it will be like a home game for them.

So there you have it. We need at least 2 of these coin flip games and most likely 3 to guarantee a bowl berth. My order of these from most winnable to least is: aggie, WF, Tech, Nebraska, Mizzou. Ironically, the top three are away from Waco. Go figure. Let's hope Art and boys get it done this season. I'll throw this out there as well: If we win our opener at WF, it brings 8 wins into play.

That's all I got for this week kids. I'll be back with another off season topic next week.

Murph

...And We're Back: New Baylor Uniforms

With it being July and all, Baylor fans are chomping at the bit to see and discuss anything football related. With the Athletic Department debuting the new uniform combinations yesterday (Pics), a predictable eruption has come from message boarders.

The story on the Baylor Athletic site showcased five of the possible helmet/jersey/pant combinations. Among the more "radical" ideas was a white helmet and and all gold combination.

Before I give my thoughts on these, let me say this: I was a fan of the uniforms last year. They looked good. I liked the simple style and that we changed up the gold and white pants occasionally. That being said, generally speaking, I like what I see out of these new ones.

The only ones I'm not really a fan of is the all gold and the white jersey/gold pant combination. We had heard rumors about the all gold combo earlier and I was excited about it but the actual execution fell short. I think they should have either gone darker on the gold with lighter/brighter numbers and letters or outlined the numbers/letters with white instead of the solid forrest green with black outline. The white jersey/gold pant combo doesn't work for me because the gold is too light. Nothing pops. It would look better with last year's stripes.

I know the "purists" will hate the white helmets but I think they look awesome with the white jersey and pants. The all white look always looks good to me no matter what team is wearing them. I also like the white helmet with the green jersey/white pant combo. Again, it just pops.

There's been plenty of grumbling as I mentioned earlier and I'm seeing a ton of negative reaction to some of these with horrible facts/logic being used to support the reaction. Let's go over a few:

We're abandoning our "traditional" look.

We don't really have a traditional look. Check out this site. In the 80 years we've got documented photos of just our helmets, we've only had the interlocking BU for half of it. The helmet alone has been tweaked a dozen times. We've had numbers on the side of the helmet, nothing on the side of the helmet, three different colors of face masks, stripes/no stripes, outlined BU/non-outlined BU. The helmet that I have in my office has 6 "performance" stars on the front and 4 winged stickers on the back.

The jersey/pant combination is similar. True, we've had green and gold as part of our uniform forever and the tradition pretty much ends there. Wikipedia tells me that the color green has a wavelength of 520 to 570 nanometres. I don't even know what that means but I've bet we've used almost every shade of green in our jerseys since I started going to games in the 80's. We've also played with "Baylor" on the front/no "Baylor" on the front, bear paws on the shoulder, numbers on the sleeve, BU on the sleeve, fuzzy bear paw on the sleeve. Don't pretend that we've had a traditional look. It's always changed, and probably always will.

We are going the "Oregon" route.

Are you nuts? Unless you are defining "going Oregon" as having more than one home and away combination, you can't even come close to Oregon. They have 36 possible combinations. They have had diamond plating graphics in the past, they'll have wings on their shoulders this year. Please. The Oregon football department openly says that they tell recruits that they play with a different uniform combination every game. They will not wear the same combo twice in a season. Are we anywhere near that? Didn't think so.

Big time programs don't mess with their uniforms.

Really? Fist of all, we're not big time..yet. While there are programs like Texas, Alabama, Penn State, and Oklahoma that don't change at all, a little research shows that there are plenty of big time programs that tweak, change, and overhaul their look.

Is Joe Montana playing for Notre Dame or Green Bay?

The Wolverines appear to be updating their uniforms.

Even 5 time Champ and winners of 800 games Ohio State is not immune. From the late 1960's.

Is this what Spurrier wore when he played? Is Emmitt's look "traditional" or not?

As you can see, we're not alone in doing this. When it comes to uniforms, all that matters is that it looks good. If you're whining about this, you probably haven't experienced enough in your life to realize what is important and what's not. Just my $0.02 people.

I'll try to start posting again now that the season is creeping up on us. Until practice starts, I'll put together some good off season topics.

Later Kids,

Murph

Asleep At The Wheel

I know it's been a while since I last posted. Our Bears fell to Penn State last Thursday. We just didn't play our best game and that's all you can really say about it. Yes, the officiating was questionable in parts, but I don't think anyone can say that if we played the same with different referees, we'd win.

In the meantime, the blog is probably going to slow down a bit. I don't think I'm going to get to see a baseball game this season because my weekends are filling up fast. I'll still follow them and post occasionally but the days of seeing a post per day out of me will not be back until football reports in August. I'll be showing up about once a week to ponder a Baylor related topic or something completely random to keep you guessing.

If you want a topic discussed or a question answered, feel free to leave it in the comment section and I'll attend to it quickly.

Until then, have a good time kids.

Murph

Big Time!

It's hard to even explain how the guys are playing these days. One of my life motto's is: "Better late than never." That's about how I feel about this team. We've now won 7 of our last 8 including wins over Big East, ACC, SEC, and now a good Mountain West team.

Obviously Jerrells and Dunn had big games. That was as good as I've ever seen CJ play when you look at scoring, assists, rebounding, and defense. Dunn came out hot but I think he still tries to dribble through too much traffic at times.

Kevin Rodgers has played like a different person the past 3 weeks. I can't explain it. He went from being VERY soft to taking it strong to the rim when he gets an opportunity. It makes all the difference in the world for his game as well as opens up stuff for the guards.

The only concerning thing about last night's game was our bench. 0 points, 0 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 turnover. Ouch. Our bench guys played a total of 36 minutes and that was their production. This has to change to win on Thursday.

I've never seen Penn State play this season so again, no scouting report or keys to the game although one of my buddies insists that Dou's minutes is a direct correlation to our chances of winning. Being a Big 10 (11) team makes me think they are going to play super ugly and try to get us to come down to them. We'll see I guess. The reality is that if we're making our shots, we're not going to lose (how 'bout that analysis). I just think we're a team of destiny now. Maybe not the destiny we hoped for two months ago, but we'll take it now.

Murph

New York, New York!

Another solid outing from the Bears. I don't really have much to say about it that hasn't already been said. This has been a great run for us and takes a little sting off of the season. Let's just be real for a second here: A NIT Championship would be nice but no one will feel it outside of Baylor nation. Question: who won the NIT last year? No googling either. Answer below (I did have to check the old google machine on the interweb). Answer below. Now let's beat SDSU/St. Marys.





















Answer: Ohio State

They Did It Again

We'd never lose if we played like we did in the 1st half in every game. I've never seen a Baylor basketball team just come out on fire like that and simultaneously shut another team down. Some of that was VT not hitting shots. They had some open ones but for the most part we were playing with a ton of energy on defense.

Like many of you, I got a little nervous in the 2nd half. It would just seem so "Baylor" for us to find a way to choke that game away. Fortunately, we held on. In truth, I'm not that worried about the run the Hokies went on. We were up by 28 and you could tell the guys mentally let up. They just weren't the same after that.

Like Virginia Tech, I haven't the slightest idea what Auburn's team is like. I know that if we keep playing like we're capable, it's Hello NY.

Girls Beat UTSA in OT
Now that made me nervous. I don't even want to know what it did to Coach Mulkey. I pictured her in her hospital bed with a radio and going nuts jumping on the bed like Shooter from Hoosiers. Let's hope she's back on the sidelines for Tuesday.

Baseball Sweeps Tech
Elite teams sweep non-elite conference opponents. Good to see that we did that over the weekend. We now find ourselves in a 5 team logjam in 3rd place. The 1st and 2nd place teams (KU and OU) have only played one series. I like where we're at now considering we started conference on the bad end of a split with the aggies. We'll start covering baseball a little more when basketball winds down.

Edit: Baseball lost on Sunday so they didn't sweep afterall and now have an overall conference record of 3-3

Murph

I'll Have Whatever It Is That They're Having

I don't know where this team came from but they are sure fun to watch these days. We've got a nice little 4 out of 5 streak going now as we head for Blacksburg on Saturday. I'll refrain from going into detail on how disappointing it is that we are just now seeing this instead of getting really revved up for today's festivities. Better late than never.

Coach Drew got another skin on the wall, that of a well known Big East team. We also broke through in the post-season for the first time since the Truman administration. Think about that for a second. The football team not being in a bowl game since '94 all of a sudden doesn't seem that bad. It's been a roller-coaster with Drew this season. We were good early, terrible in conference, and now we've turned it on again. Add to this the whole Barnes thing last week and Scott seems pretty questionable (not in a bad way). His recruiting is not debatable. Just about every published record that follows it says he's doing a good job.

Look, I know the real knock on Drew when it comes to recruiting is that he does it by going negative on other schools and hiring AAU coaches. I'm not in the living room with potential players so I won't say for certain that it happens but there is a ton of smoke there if you catch my meaning. It's not a secret that other coaches in the conference don't like him. I think the apologists will say that they don't like him because he has started winning. While this may be partly true, you don't read or hear about bad blood between Mike Anderson and other coaches. Mizzou was worse than we were two seasons ago and they passed us this year. Where is the anger there? On the AAU coaching front, let's just say that I hope we get to a point that we don't need to do that in the near future.

On the coaching side, I think he's grown a little this year but still has a way to go. Discovering that playing a zone defense protects his immobile bigs in the middle and ditching the smurf line-up improved the team greatly. Unfortunately he didn't figure it out until after an at large bid was out of reach.

All this being said, I know that I had said earlier that his seat should get warm if next year looks like this year, but I think he's made enough headway in the past two weeks to put that to rest barring a total collapse or a dead hooker found in his trunk.

So onto Virginia Tech. I haven't seen them play at all this season so no scouting report from me. I think we'll need to get more out of Dugat (0 points last night) if we are going to keep going. We might also consider playing defense in the first half to prevent an opponent from shooting damn near 80% from the field. Just a suggestion.

That's all kids,
Murph

Back From The Dead

When I last left you Kool Aid Drinkers, we had just beaten Kansas and were gearing up for the game against the Great Satan, Rick Barnes. We finally broke through on those guys and were headed to the Championship Game. Like Lazarus, we had been raised from the dead, and like Lazarus, we would die again eventually.

I'm proud of our guys, we simply ran out of gas. It was painfully obvious around the 10-12 minute mark in the 2nd half. Shots became flat, passes lost their zip, the defense was a step slower. I'm in my 20s and work out nearly every day. If I run on the treadmill 3 days straight, there is no way I can get through a similar session on the 4th. I know our guys are Division I athletes, and so their in a better physical state than me, but I can understand getting tired.

Good for Drew as well this week. He accumulated more skins in one week than he has in his entire tenure at Baylor. He beat Kansas for the first time, Texas for the first time, and made it two straight post-season appearances. Not bad considering a first round loss in OKC this past week would have ended our season. Like many other things, the first time to do something is often the hardest. I have a feeling we'll be beating the Texas' of the world with a little more frequency now. Maybe like once every three years instead of 11 now.

Wednesday it looks like we'll be hosting the Artist Formerly Known as Hoya Paranoia. Like us, Georgetown had very high hopes this season and was ranked in the top 15 for part of the season. I'll admit, I have yet to watch a game of theirs this year so I won't give a scouting report. I only know that our guys are finally playing like they don't want their season to end. I think it's a close game either way. I hope our students will fill the FC. There are no more distractions like Sing or pledging to keep people from going.

An NIT Championship would be an unexpected but still a very positive note to end this era in Baylor Basketball. I hope it happens.

Murph

Well We Did It

I didn't believe it could happen but it did. I'm officially getting excited. This usually precludes the heartless collapse but that won't stop me from watching tonight.

We shot lights out and had some help from KU who obviously was sleepwalking the first 15 minutes of the game. I'll give our guys credit though, when KU finally started playing, we traded punches with them and even came back after the Jayhawks took a 5 point lead. When that happened a buddy of mine and I basically simultaneously texted each other saying we were about to fold. Good for the team for bowing their necks and playing.

This was also a big win for Coach Drew. When you think about it, he really hadn't had any big skins on the wall when it comes to conference wins. Most of our numbers this year and last came against the bottom half of the standings. Yesterday's game was one where he can show recruits that they can compete with the best and win as opposed to racking up wins against the Colorados of the world and coming in 4th or 5th in conference.

So what now? Well, we play the great Satan, Rick Barnes. As mentioned on a prior thread, Barnes absolutely owns us. Never lost to the Bears and he's been there for 11 seasons. So that's 22 plus the couple of times when we've seen the Horns in the conference tourney. Texas seemed down this year but that never translated into any kind of success against them this season. Dexter Pittman has been the MVP of the tournament so far being the dominant force in Texas' first two games. Texas fans were concerned about his stamina playing in back to back days but he apparently had enough in his tank to do it. We'll see what happens in the 3rd game in 3 days.

I'm guessing we'll stick with our dinky little 2-3 zone we've been running out there. It's kept our bigs out of foul trouble and our opponents have foolishly settled for long range jump shots. Abrams might have a career night against us, but if he's off, we'll have a chance. Texas doesn't have another guy who can just kill you consistently shooting out there. Let's hope one doesn't just go off.

Also, big ups to Dugat for playing solid in the 2nd half and also to Dou who my buddy believes is the key to our team.

Baylorfans Never Let Me Down

You knew these posts were coming. It was only a matter of time. I won't get excited until after we miracle ourselves past Kansas.

I have a meeting today from 10 to 1. I'm planning on getting sick around 11:30.

Last night the traffic picked up around 4 am Texas time. SiteMeter informs me that we now have hits from Poland and Spain. I'm sure it's an accident or they stumbled upon a picture or something but we'll take it.

"I'm Not Dead Yet"

If you've never seen that scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, shame on you. Who knew we would actually put together a complete game. It's like we exchanged jerseys with the team we played on Saturday. Today, they were the ones making dumb decisions and shooting bad shots early in the shot clock.

CJ, Dunn, and Rogers all played well. Don't get too excited over the rebound numbers. I would estimate that we didn't have to battle for approximately half of them. Nebraska would heave and leave much like we normally do.

To put this in perspective, a team that would allow Lomers to go double figures in points is obviously weak on the inside.

(Lomers or Juggernaut?)

Anyway, I have promised myself that I will not get my hopes up unless we somehow beat Kansas. Only then will I allow hope to filter into my mind. If we try that dinky 2-3 zone against KU, they might score 100 on us. We're going to need special games out of 3 or 4 of our guys for us to win tomorrow.

Finally the End

As we all know, today at 11:30 will most likely close the books on this era of Baylor Basketball. Not the Drew era but I'll get to that in a minute. I just mean with the 4 seniors that seem to have been at Baylor for 10 years. It's been a dissapointing ride this season (as I've documented) but I'll always at the least appreciate them coming here when they did.

Is anyone else thinking that we may win today which would give some hope? I can kind of see that happening followed by a strong 1st half against Kansas. For that breif 20 minutes of play, Baylor nation will get its hopes up. There will be 12 threads on Baylorfans with titles like "Can We?" and "The Field is Falling Like We Need It To!" Of course then Bill Self will wake up and call a play on offense and change defenses and show how unprepared our team is. This will ultimately crush the souls of those mentioned above.

Speaking of being prepared: I know I've been hard on Drew but I've never called for his job. If today's game looks like a carbon copy of Saturday's where we are just flatly out-prepared, out-coached tactically, and unmotivated, then maybe I'll change my stance on that.

By the way, the picture above is from Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey which was a terrible movie but one of those that I can't turn away from when I see it. You also see that Keanu Reeve's ability to use the same 60% of his lines in every movie he does goes way back.

That's all folks. After the impending Baylor loss, we'll draw our attention to the chicks and baseball. We need a dose of winning to cleanse our pallet every once in a while right?

Murph

Is it Over Yet?

The regular season for basketball mercifully came to an end on Saturday. No word on survivors as first response personnel are still trying to pull bodies from the wreckage. Rolling over on Senior Day; wish I didn't see that coming. Perhaps this team will finally be put out of its misery on Wednesday to the mediocre team that beat them on Saturday. Of course what will probably happen is the team will beat Nebraska and give everyone a little hope before folding against Kansas on Thursday. Has there ever been a so evident mismatch tactically than what we saw against Nebraska? We had better guards AND inside players and they still handle us.

For the rest of the spring we'll follow the increasingly interesting baseball team which swept its games over the weekend. A Baylor team that doesn't choke and thus wins close games? Much like the unicorn or a mermaid, you've heard of the legend but never seen it for yourself. We'll also follow what the Girls Basketball team does in the tournament. I don't follow chick ball that much but I can appreciate a winner.

That's all folks, keep the comments coming or if you want a topic analyzed for you, just let me know.

Murph

No New Baylor News = Productive Week at Work

If anyone has any football practice reports or anything else they'd like to say, send it to me and I'll give full credit. Basketball playing on Monday makes the week go by slowly.

Murph

Sing 2009 Results

Your Sing 2009 Winners are:

1st- Tri Delt
2nd- KOT
3rd- Sing Alliance (Is this the Twilight Zone?)

Sing Invitees
ATO
Chi-O
Kappa
ADPi
Kappa Sig

My opinion only comes from the one night that I watched but the rags got robbed. There is no way Tri Delt's Veggie Tale act was better than KOT's. Other than that, the only problem I have with the results is Pi Phi being left out. I thought they were just as good as Sing Alliance, ATO, and ADPi. Again, this is just based on what I saw on one night. For all I know Pi Phi was terrible the other nights.

In my first Sing post, I mentioned that there was no really good one or two acts like there usually is. Instead of 2 front runners, there was a group of 10 that could have concievably been fighting for the 8 spots.

I was quite humbled yesterday seeing the traffic to this blog spike. I thought word had gotten around about my wit and wisdom and people were flocking here to get the expert analysis the regular readers have enjoyed for the past 3 months. Instead, I checked the sitemeter and realized most people were googling "Baylor Sing" and accidentally finding my post running down the acts. I'm guessing traffic will go back to normal levels this week.

However, for those of you who came for Sing analysis, stay for all things Baylor analysis. We're glad you're here.

Murph

Baylor Basketball

If they only had a heart.......

The Curse of Rick Barnes

There's no way to talk around it. Rick Barnes has absolutely owned the Baylor Bears since he landed in Austin. How have we not beat this guy? Lord knows we've had chances. Even a couple of Drew's worst teams have caught Barnes' teams on a bad night or looking past to the next game. Every time, the Horns come through.

Sometimes its been purely talent. Having Kevin Durant take over a game in the conference tournament is one thing, getting tactically undressed is quite another. In the game in Waco, Texas' second half game plan absolutely destroyed us. They got Abrams going with designed plays for him. Baylor's version of designed plays for someone involves inbounding the ball to that player after a made opponent basket and letting him heave it on the other end.

Drew has to beat Texas. Plain and simple. Coach has gotten a ton of slack for racking up wins against teams below us in the standings the past couple of seasons. Even as bad as Texas has been this season, it's still big. It shows Baylor fandom that there is hope for this team and staff. It's always a big deal when Texas goes down. Goal posts have come down celebrating a win over a very bad Mack II team in football. I'd rush the court purely for breaking this awful streak we have going against them.

Just an aside, how has Barnes cornered the market in Texas for 7 foot white kids that can shoot from the outside? Boddicker, Buckman, Atchley (I think I'm missing one other). How has he cultivated this pipeline?

Back to the game tonight. This is our last game on a semi-national scale until the conference tournament. Even with Texas down, it would be a big win. It would give some confidence heading into Saturday/Conference tourney and it might knock the horns into the NIT. That would take the edge off of what had been a really disappointing season for us.

Complete analysis tomorrow
Murph

Signs of Life?

As mentioned earlier, I've already proclaimed the Baylor Basketball season dead. However, I can appreciate that they gave some effort in the last part of the 2nd half and pulled away from an absolutely awful opponent. Please, don't tell me how they played KU tough or this and that. They are a horrible team. The win pretty much locks up the 9th spot in the standings unless Iowa State wins out. There is a chance we climb to the 8th as well. I know I was crowing about absolutely needing to be out of the 8/9 spots due to having to play OU in the 2nd round of the tournament. Now that the Sooners have fallen to the 2nd spot, you want to stay out of the 7/10 slots. I don't care if they are the 2nd seed, the Sooners are the best team in the conference and a nightmare match up for us.

Since the name of this blog is Baylor Kool Aid, I'll give the ideal scenario of how our team could find its way into the tournament (however unlikely). We win our first game (likely against Nebraska again), then we need to beat KU (obviously easier said than done). Now the tricky part: We need to be pulling for upsets of the other 3 top seeds. If this happens, it opens the door (more liked cracked).

All of this is moot if we play like we have the past few weeks of course. I'm just trying to give the sunshine pumpers hope.

It was also good to see Drew pull the cliched stunt of removing the players names on the back of the jersey. Bravo. I always smirk when coaches do this kind of thing. As if the players are going to consciously play more unselfishly during the game because his name isn't on the back. That kind of attitude is built through the season and during practice. I think we all know the staff failed on this point this season. Next thing you know they'll pull a coach K and remove all the chairs in the locker room. The team will surely play better to "earn" their chairs back. Good grief.

Murph

It's That Time Again...

Since the basketball team has mailed it in the last two weeks, let's turn to our next hope for Baylor sports relevance: Football. Did I really just type that? Spring ball starts in March so let's talk about what we should be looking as the team starts drills.

Position Changes
It was reported yesterday that Jeremy Sanders and TJ Scranton had been moved to safety, Krys Buerck back to receiver, and Romie Blaylock to corner. I think each of these moves made sense. Buerck improved throughout the season but was never good one on one with a decent receiver. The plays he made were when he was playing zone and the quarterback made a mistake. Receiver is a much better fit for him and his skill set. I think he'll contribute more there. Also, the emergence of Trenston Hill probably made this switch easier for the coaching staff.

The move to corner will allow Blaylock to see the field earlier. In 2008, he pretty much just got in on a handful of plays and backed up Kendall Wright. Like Buerck switching back to receiver, the move to corner fits Blaylock's skills better and will allow him to contribute more.

I think the move of Sanders to safety will have the biggest impact of any. He was too good an athlete to not have on the field. He wasn't going to play QB, and running back never really fit him. The only plays the coaches let him run were the toss to each side. I think he takes Williams' spot. Williams was often burned in coverage last season. He did have a very good game against Missouri but I can't think of another game where he stood out. Sanders, with the addition of Landor at the safety spot hopefully improve the backfield productivity some. We need more pass break-ups and interceptions out of this group. On top of this, due to the offenses that are being played, we need a guy who can quickly come up and make a tackle on the quick screen to the WR.

Also,
Tim Griffin's blog on ESPN's web page took a break from talking Longhorns non-top to have Phil Taylor as one of his impact newcomers for next year. I think Taylor makes a difference but as I've said before, it's not like he's going to be in on every down. DT is still a weakness of this team. His presence, if he's as advertised, will draw a double team from the opposing O-line and hopefully open an opportunity for another lineman to get in the backfield.

If anyone can get to Waco to take in a practice this spring I'll open up this blog to put up a practice report. Full credit will be given to the contributor(s).

Thanks again kids,
Murph

You'll Never Believe This But Baylor Lost to a School with Inferior Talent

This post will be short and sweet because let's be real here, I could just cut/paste any recap of a game the past 6 weeks and be pretty close to what happened. I think Drew finally lost the team. They don't care and won't play hard any more. Hopefully, next season can be an addition by subtraction kind of situation. We'll see.

Good for Drew finally getting a technical however he did it in the worst way. Didn't get his money's worth so to speak. Also, if you're going to get T'd up, do it at home and get the crowd behind you. In Ames, it just got the Iowa State fans more to feed off of.

Should we be worried about being "snubbed" out of the NIT? With the Bears playing the way they are, we're going down that path.

Murph

Sing 2009 Condensed

Allow me to first to say that I never even made it to Sing while I was an undergrad until I had to either work one of the shows or Mrs. Murph was a Sing Chair of her sorority. It's not my thing. However, there are times when one must go see the show due to spouse pressure. I'm sure you can all relate to this. So without further delay, Murph's thoughts on the acts:




Tri Delt


Typical Tri Delt routine: lots of costumes, group dances, finish with what seems like a thousand girls on stage doing their "move." Solid overall. Not as good as what I've seen before but good enough for Pigskin




Phi Chi

If I die and dudes with gold sequined vests come out singing, I'm going to think I'm in hell. Traditionally, Phi Chi scores well with the judges but I just didn't think this act was as good as what they've done before. Just me.




Kappa


You will never believe this but Kappa's act involved having a ton of girls on stage doing the same move together. Question: Did the Sing authorities finally tell Kappa that doing a 20's, 30's, 40's era theme with flapper dancing was starting to feel like the same thing every year? Again, good act but wasn't very sharp.




Sigma Alpha Epsilon

I've known approximately 3 SAEs in my life and if I had known they had this in them, I would have hung out with those guys some more. Look, SAE isn't trying to get into Pigskin but I think their act was the most entertaining. They knew they couldn't sing or dance so they made me laugh. Plus, if that guy who did the rap wrote it and mixed the music himself, then that guy is just flat out nails. He shouldn't even be in school. Creativity like that makes money in the real world.




KOT


The same authorities that got onto Kappa must have gotten to the Rags as well. I can't imagine what the Sing chairs did when their 4 ideas (Cattle Drive, Cowboys and Indians, Old West, and Chisholm Trail) all got rejected for being like every other Sing act they do. In reality, this was one of the better acts. Good singing, good dancing, just solid. They may win the top spot this year.




Kappa Sigma



You didn't think a group could do a rodeo act and not get this picture did you? I honestly don't recall all that much about it. I'm sure it was typical Kappa Sig and was solid all around. Although I thought they were much better when they highlighted their 5 best dancers and had them break dance or something.

Pi Beta Phi

When I was in school, Pi Phi was never a real force when it came to Sing, which seems weird because you'd think a sorority like that would have enough talent to put together a good act. Anyways, this year they did pretty good. I didn't get some of the costumes but they were creative. This year, with no group being really good, Pi Phi might sneak into Pigskin.

Sigma Chi

Question: What do you get when about 25 guys sit around drinking beer for an hour thinking of a Sing act? The answer is this act. Like SAE, they aren't trying to get into Pigskin. They're just having fun. That's why I was somewhat entertained by the act. There were some laugh out loud moments for sure but no one thinks that they're winning anything.

Theta-Fiji

I don't remember a damn thing about this act other than it had a Barbie-Ken theme.

That's really all I can recall about Sing this year. I know I only covered about half the acts (maybe). If the group wasn't mentioned here then I can't recall a thing about it and thus deemed it boring. Overall, there was not an obviously dominant group or two like there normally seems to be which makes me think that Pigskin is wide open this year. Feel free to discuss any acts in the comments section below.

Murph

Obituary for 2008-2009 Season

The Baylor Men's Basketball season passed away Saturday the 21st of February in Stillwater, OK. The deceased appeared to show signs of life just a week earlier but in the seven days after a win against Texas A&M, the season's deadly symptoms came back to finish the team off. The autopsy report showed that a total lack of defense, predictable offense, and no inside game ultimately led to the season's demise. While the season is survived by its players and coaching staff, it will ultimately be put to rest for eternity the second week of March in Oklahoma City, OK. The team will pay its respects the next two weeks by going through the motions that it started in mid-January when its weakness was first diagnosed. A final viewing will be available on March 7th at the Ferrell Center.

In all honesty, I can't get over how disappointing this season was. We were picked 3rd by the very same coaches that had seen this group the past few seasons. We had 3 seniors that were going to contribute heavily (1 might have been a 1st round NBA pick). We had two other players that gained heavy experience last season and were only going to be better. The conference is even down this year. Texas has lost 5 conference games already. Kansas lost 4 starters from the prior season. So what happened?

As the obituary stated, defense, no consistent offense and non-existent inside game killed us this year. I was talking to someone on Saturday who is pretty close to the team and he had some disturbing information for me. He pretty much stated that it is well known in the locker room that Drew is not a strong coach when it comes to Xs and Os. I know I'm not really breaking news with that revelation but how would you like to play for a guy that you know is going to get undressed tactically every night? He went on to say that the players still like him and all that but coach just gets too in the moment and lets his emotions override any sane decision that needs to be made.

The example he gave was during the Wake Forest game. If you recall, we were hanging with the Deacons in the first half. The refs were calling things pretty tight which negated Wake's ability to manhandle us under the rim. Then, one of the refs got injured. Baylor was the "home" team in this game and had the option of playing with just two refs or having the reserve come out. Drew was so fired up mentioning that "we beat A&M in 5 OT with only 2 refs and we can do it here too." We all know what happened next. We got destroyed on the block and got run out of the gym in the 2nd half.

As you dozens of readers know, I have never called for Drew's job. I think he needs to show something in 09-10 and really show we're on the right track in 10-11. But does this disturb anyone else? Recruits aren't going to keep coming if we can't offer the playing time that was offered to CJ, KR, and HD AND never come close to the tournament on a semi-regular basis. I know next year's team will look very different and I'm looking forward to seeing what Drew can do with a team that isn't so guard heavy. As my favorite saying goes: We'll see.

As it stands now, even winning out and then a couple in the conference tournament won't get us in the dance. I think we still end up in the NIT. That isn't so bad when you look at it but it is devastating considering the expectations going into the season.

I'm going to try to post something everyday this week to appease the growing masses checking in here. Tomorrow, I'll have a full Sing report for those who would rather not watch it (like me).

Murph

Who to Root for this Weekend

All 12 conference teams will be in action this weekend. In keeping with the two prior posts about our position in the standings and what needs to happen for Baylor to have a shot in the conference tournament and build a NCAA tournament resume, here's what needs to happen this weekend:

Baylor wins over OK-State
Kansas beats Nebraska
Tech beats aggy
Iowa State over K-State
OU beats Texas
Colorado vs. Mizzou is inconsequential

It would have been nice if Tech or Colorado could have come through for us last night. Saturday's game with the Safety Orange team from Stillwater is huge because if we win, we'll hold the tiebreaker if we're tied at the end of the season (very possible).

Like I said before, I'll be in Waco this weekend for personal reasons (nothing dire) so I won't get to see the basketball game. I'll try to get my first look at Baylor baseball in a couple of seasons. Skipping class to see a baseball game was one of my favorite pastimes during my time in Waco. In those days, they would let you bring in food so my buddies and I would Gut-Pack up and head to the ballpark. Greatness.

Pictures and Commentary after the weekend.
Murph

Baylor Basketball Coming Down the Stretch

As I mentioned before, the Bears have 5 games left to put together a tournament resume or at the very least, position themselves better for the conference tournament. The goal for conference position should be to stay out of the 8 and 9 seeds. These seeds lead to seeing OU in the 2nd round of the conference tournament. This is crucial when we will probably need a 2nd conference tourney win to enhance the resume. Right now, there are 5 teams ahead of us that we could conceivably (not probably) catch: Texas, Nebraska, OK State, aggie, K-State.

Here's what each of these teams face during this home stretch:
Texas- OU, Tech, @OK State, Baylor, @Kansas
Nebraska- Colorado, @Kansas, aggie, @K-State, Iowa State, @Baylor
OK State- @Tech, Baylor, @Colorado, Texas, K-State, @OU
aggie- @Tech, @Nebraska, Iowa State, @Colorado, Missouri
K-State- @Iowa State, @Missouri, Nebraska, @Oklahoma State, Colorado

Baylor finished with: @OK State, @Iowa State, Colorado, @Texas, Nebraska

Given the nature of this season so far, I wouldn't put any games in ink yet. The league is basically the top 3 teams (OU, KU, MU) followed by 6 mediocre teams and then the bottom 3. You can look at the schedules differently. The aggies get to play all 3 bottom-feeders but must also play one of the top teams (That MU game would look good on a tournament resume). Texas has to play 2 of the top teams and only 1 bottom team. Your Baylor Bears have games against 2 bottom teams and no top teams. However, OK State, Texas, and Nebraska aren't going to roll over for us. Our recent history against the Longhorns needs to change course for us to have a real shot making a move up the standings.

The bottom line here is that if we find a way to win out and finish 9-7, things get real interesting for the Baylor Nation. Finish 8-8 and I think we're NIT bound barring a conference tourney championship game appearance. I hope our Athletic Department sees this season at what can happen when you don't schedule at least one good true road game (not tournament or neutral site). We might finish 9-7 and not beat one of the top 4 teams in our conference. I think we'll be on the outside looking in. Hope I'm wrong.

Murph

Baylor Kool Aid is World-Wide

I was checking the SiteMeter last week and noticed we are starting to attract some international traffic. Our first visitor was from Tel Aviv, Israel. So Shalom to you sir/madam.


As always, please please please leave a comment every once in a while to say hi or to tell my how much the site sucks. I can take it.

Who Were Those Guys?

Far be it for me to complain about a win. I hope those guys show up for the rest of the games this season. We played something that resembled defense and basically executed what my plan to beat OU was. Fast start? Check. Other team in foul trouble? Check. Production from an unusual source? Anthony Jones Check.

Now we get a week off to get ready for OSU in Stillwater. That game and Texas are the two toughest games left on the schedule. Hypotheticaly, if we find a way to win out, things could get real interesting. I think as of now, we are still on the outside looking in for the big dance. Finish the conference at 8-8 and then win a couple in the tournament and we at least give ourselves a shot.

If the season ended today we would be the 8th seed playing A&M again in the first round. A win there and we have a date with OU in Oklahoma City. That is obviously not what we want. Despite what happened Saturday, the aggies are still a match up problem for us. The good news is that with the schedule, we have a real shot at the 5th seed. That gets us a rematch with Colorado in all likelihood. A win there and we play someone like Texas or K-State who we match up better with. I think we are capable of winning out and go 9-7 but it much more probable we end at 8-8. I just don't trust this team yet.

All of these match ups in the conference tournament are purely speculative at this point. There are 5 games to play and there are 8 teams within 4 games of each other. We'll obviously know more at the end of this week about who might get slotted where and what match ups are likely.

Other than that, it is a slow week in Baylor sportsdom. I'll be back in Waco this weekend for a wedding and catching a baseball game. Reports will come after the weekend. I may even throw in some random stuff this week as well.

Later kids,
Murph

A Plea to Coach Drew

I think we can all agree that Coach Drew has been an outstanding representative of our University in his 6 seasons here (coaching ability aside). He has conducted himself with class and I have never heard anything bad about him personally. On the sidelines, he may not agree with every call. He usually gives a "Come On!" to a referee running by down the sideline after a blown call. While I appreciate his civility, I do have a plea for Coach tonight and the rest of the season: Please lose it for once on the sideline.

Now, I'm not calling for Drew to throw a chair across the floor. That's stupid. It also is totally out of his personality range. If he did something like that, people would think he's had a mental breakdown as opposed to being upset. That's why Bob Knight could do that and be effective. People don't think he's exceeded his personality range until he's about to murder someone.

Let me explain. I believe that every player and coach in the conference has a reputation. If a clumsy post player fouls out every other game, the refs aren't going to have any reservations about blowing the whistle on plays that for others they may let go. I'm not saying it's right. It's just human nature. Bob Knight would get T'd up when he didn't always deserve it. Refs did it as almost a rite of passage. Another example is a baseball player that almost never strikes out. If he takes a close pitch on a full count, 9 times out of 10 he's jogging down the line.

I think what's now happened to Coach Drew is that refs don't have any reservations about blowing the whistle on us. Let me be real clear here: The refs have yet to lose a game for us. I don't think it has anything to do with a conspiracy or the conference wanting to make sure certain teams win based on revenues or fan bases. However, I think a ref subconsciously makes decisions based on reputations. Rick Barnes teams get the benefit of the doubt because refs don't want to get an ear-full from him. The same can be said for a handful of coaches in the league. When a call can go either way, it's easier to screw Coach Drew's team because he won't question it very strongly.

Coach needs to get a technical. I'm asking for it. I don't care if it costs us a couple of points. We leave so many points on the floor as it is anyway so it won't matter. It doesn't need to be spontaneous, just pick the first close one that doesn't go our way. Demand that the official come over and explain himself. When he comes over, just start screaming until he obliges with a Tech. You don't even have to cuss or anything. If you just make enough noise for long enough, it will happen. Think Coach Norman Dale in Hoosiers.





This will do a few things. First, and most importantly, it sends a message to your team that you will protect them. There's been some talk about if the team respects Coach. Get a technical defending one of your players, and you move up a few notches. Guaran-Teed (see what I did there). Second, because of the undeniable truth that most Baylor fans that will be present love Drew, this will enrage them. They will blame it on the refs. Old ladies who usually only scream at the person two rows in front of them to sit down will start directing their wails at the officials. Any intimidation that can be put on the zebras should be when you are at home. Finally, the action itself tells the officials that the days of you being "Aw shucks, you need glasses ref?" when we get the bad end of a call that could go either way are over. I wholeheartedly think this will make a difference.

So let's do it Scott. It's just a hunch but I believe if you do this in the right spot of the game on Saturday, it will change the complexion of your team. They will play with more passion and the crowd will feed them energy.

Pre aggie Thoughts

With Valentines happening, I'm not entirely sure if I'll get to watch this one live tomorrow night. I'll DVR it for sure but the dead-on analysis that I usually bring may be delayed.

First off about the game, let's all acknowledge that A&M is a match-up nightmare for us. It's not that they have better talent because they don't. Their strength in the front court has a bigger advantage than ours in the backcourt. It's that simple. They have a stable of forwards they can throw out there, we are ecstatic when Lomers scores 4 and pulls 3 rebounds. We should also remember that our guards haven't exactly been setting the world on fire lately either.

I think what we need to do is to really put our foot on the gas in this game. We need to make their big fellas run up and down the court and then hope Turgeon is stupid enough to go small with us to keep up, negating his size advantage up front. This could very well backfire on us. I think in the OU game on Wednesday we slowed it down and was methodical about working for a decent shot and it kept us in the game. If we get going up and down again, we may revert to heaving contested 3s with 23 seconds on the shot clock.

Outside of this, the formula that I laid out for the OU game still holds true, especially the part about starting strong. I think of this aggie team like a heavy run oriented football team. They are very strong when ahead or in an even game, but do not have the offensive firepower to come from behind.

It would partially redeem the season if we beat them on Saturday. I know it wouldn't be all that big in the big picture of conference rankings and so forth. Let me tell you a story: I was a freshman at Baylor in the fall of 1998. The aggies came to Floyd Casey that fall and quickly established themselves as the better team. They were in control of the game in the 2nd half and Slocum then faked a punt with the aggies scoring another touchdown a few plays later. I get an uncontrollable rage when I think of that time and sincerely hope we beat those guys by 100 points in every sport.

I don't hate all aggie fans. Many of my good friends ended up in College Station. I almost went there myself. My buddies are good fans, they aren't in your face about it, they respect their opponents. It's the others that make me homicidal. I will never fell sorry for these aggie fans. If we find ourselves up 90-45 or something ridiculous Saturday, I hope our fans in the FC are chanting that they want 100.

That's all I got to say about it. For those who are dateless or have the most understanding wives/girlfriend(s)/bootycall/whatever, my spirit will be with you.

Murph

The Good, Bad, and Ugly of the OU Game

What I Liked About the Game
First of all, we finally came with some effort last night. This makes the loss somewhat palatable. Our guys had energy and played with a little passion for a change. Also, for all the crap I give Drew about his coaching, his substitution pattern last night was a quantum leap forward. He "stole" minutes for his quality players on the bench. I think the guys looked much fresher late in the 2nd half compared to the other games during this horrendous streak. I also rag on Lomers relentlessly on here but last night might have been his best game yet. Not statistically, but he fought hard for rebounds and didn't blow at least 2 scoring opportunities like he normally does.

We did a good job on Blake Griffin. Looking at the final box score he still had 18 and 10 but I don't feel like he was THE difference maker last night. A third of those 18 came on free throws so it wasn't like he was just scoring at will.

Having only 11 turnovers for the entire game was also a nice change of pace. I believe that this directly led us to be in the game until the end.

The Bad
The guy who killed us was Austin Johnson, and I'm not even talking about his shot-clock beating prayer that went in and effectively took the heart out of our team last night. He went 6 of 8 from the field (4 of 5 from distance) and had 5 assists versus 1 turnover. Johnson basically played about as perfect of a game as a guard can play.

Converse Johnson's play with that of 3 of our starters: Dugat, Acy, and Carter. Those three guys scored a combined 18 points (versus Johnson's 17) and combined for 7 assists and 4 turnovers. We need more production out of these three starters. I drive the Quincy Acy bandwagon but he needs to score more than 4 (I wasn't expecting a huge game from him given OU's frontcourt). I wouldn't say Tweety had a bad game (8 points, 4 assists, 1 TO) but he needs to be more efficient with his shots. His FG and 3PT% were 33% and 25% respectively. I don't even know what to think about Dugat anymore. He's a fantastic athlete and could probably play at a college level at just about any sport. The problem is that he's not a high level college athlete consistently. He's capable of going for 20 on a given night but too often it comes as often as leap year. I call it Dugat Roulette.

The Ugly
The ugly stuff is all going to be a reach because I think we played one of our better games as a whole last night. First off, the crowd was pathetic. The number 2 team in the country is in town and you can't get over 8K in the FC (Please don't quote me the announced attendance, there's no way it was what the athletic department said)? I had the pleasure of sitting in front of possibly the most uneducated fan in all of the land. Why are these people always the most vocal? I loved the passion, just wish it could have been used for good. I thought the refs were bad in the first half but were better in the 2nd. They didn't cost us the game.

Overview
All in all, it's like I said. We played better but not near the level we needed (and were capable of) to beat a team like we saw last night. The real problem with our team is that we cannot put real game changing runs together. When we get hot on the offensive end, we almost always end up just trading baskets with the other team. So instead of going on a 12-2 run, it ends up being a 12-8 stretch. While that's a net positive, it doesn't change the game and when we cool off, our opponent goes on their own 12-3 or so run. That's what happened last night. We'd go on a 5 possession (3 offensive, 2 defensive) run where we were productive and then made stops. This is when we whittled the OU lead down to 3 in the 2nd half. However, we always followed up by allowing an OU run and then basically traded baskets for the rest of the game.

Bottom line as always, we need our guys to put their hard hat on while on defense and keep working on that end until we make an offensive run. Otherwise, it cheapens our offensive efforts. I know I'm not breaking news with any of this but it's been the story of the season. Hopefully, now that the schedule gets considerably easier, we can put together a run for the NIT.

Later Kids,
Murph

Baylor +3. Really, Vegas?

Before I talk about the game tonight, I'd like to get some stuff off my mind. I'm getting a double-dip of basketball this week because I was at the Dallas Mavericks game last night while the weather apocalypse was occurring outside. My piece of advice for anyone who wants to bring a significant other to a basketball game or any other sporting event: make for damn sure your girl half-way is interested in said game.

To set up, Mrs. Murph and I went to the Mav game with another Baylor couple. Neither girl could care less about basketball. The wife likes football and during those games she can give reasoned responses to questions about what's going on. This is not the case for basketball. Both girls spent the entire game gabbing while planning our next 8 vacations, talking about babies, and dishing gossip. Josh Howard could have pulled a gun out of his shorts and started shooting people on the court and neither one would have noticed. Add to this the obligatory Baylor "it's picture time" segment of the night which always coincides with the most exciting part of the game. Take one with your camera, then theirs, then a picture of them with their camera, then yours and then GOOD LORD WHY CAN'T YOU PEOPLE WAIT FOR A TIMEOUT OR SOMETHING. BASKETBALL STOPS EVERY 3 MINUTES, IT WON'T KILL YOU TO SIT THERE UNTIL THE ACTION STOPS. Whew. That felt better.

I'd like to start a movement where couples take one picture of themselves at some athletic venue and just use it over and over again but tell people it's from different places. The background is always the row behind you so no one will know. The truth is that no one really cares enough to notice. I know this is a blow to scrapbookers and obsessive compulsive facebookers everywhere, but I think it's a good suggestion.

Now on to the game tonight. As mentioned before, I'll be in attendance tonight to witness the carnage myself. With me, I bring Mrs. Murph, the couple from last night (whoopiee!) and a 3 game Baylor winning streak with me in attendance. Oddly, the last time the Bears dropped a game while I was there was against OU.

So, outside of Nancy Kerrigan-ing Blake Griffin on his way into the arena tonight, how does Baylor win? I haven't any idea. I'd feel better if we'd shown some testicular fortitude in the past 3 weeks but we know that hasn't happened. While the odds are stacked against us, there is a formula to pull upsets in college basketball:

Get Opponent in Foul Trouble
Tough to do given our style of play but if Blake Griffin is on the bench early with fouls, it makes things interesting. OU still has a stronger front court even without him, but it opens up things up for us on defense (a stretch given our guys probably can't spell defense). The other side to this is us getting in the bonus early. This allows those cheap fouls away from the basket to turn into points. Converting these chances is an absolute must.

Start Fast
Think the 2001 Kansas upset here. Our guys came out making shots and turning turnovers into layups. We were up by double digits before Kansas knew what had even happened. This also gets the crowd involved.

Huge Game from Someone Unexpected
This is in all likelihood going to come from a bench player. Think someone like Ellis/Lomers/Diene/Jones here. Nobody in their right mind expects anything from these guys in this game but if one of the 7 footers has a 8 point-6 rebound game, that is a huge lift for our offense. Guys like Tweety and Dunn need to score when Jerrells is on the bench. I think part of what is making CJ more and more ineffective is that he is playing massive minutes carrying the scoring load. Watch the tape of his shot late in the 2nd half of recent games. Almost no arc on his shot. I think he gets tired. If we can keep the scoring clip up reasonably well with him on the bench, he can use his skills better to close the game.

That's the formula to pull off the upset. It won't hurt if OU can't hit jump shots as well. I'll try to have a report up sometime tomorrow. I would say tonight but I'm going to watch LOST when I get home. Priorities people.

As always, I'd love to hear from anyone who finds themselves here. I've been tracking the traffic and it looks like a handful of folks log on at some point during the day. For that I am very grateful.

Here's to seeing an upset tonight,
Murph

It's Over (Tech Post Mortem)

That's the season kids. We don't deserve any kind of post-season play this year unless we miracle ourselves past OU, Texas, aggie, and others, plus at least two wins in the conference tournament.

As I mentioned before, I missed watching the game because of a prior engagement. It was at an Italian place where you sit down at 7 and not get your food until 9. I checked the score on my iphone and saw we were down by 3 with a little over a minute left. I knew it was already over. I hadn't watched a second and I knew we didn't have what Bill Raferty would describe as the "onions" to win that game. I don't take pleasure in this. I'd rather be proven wrong than being able to say "told you so."

I called my dad, who played basketball in college and is a college basketball junkie, what happened. He described what he had seen and then just said: "It was every Baylor game you've seen this year. Just a different place and opponent." I think we all know what this means.

This season's collapse has put the spotlight square on Coach Drew and for good reason. When your team is picked 3rd in the conference and you end up being lucky to be 9th, you will have criticism sent your way. Let me be clear, I'm not calling for his job this season or even next season. We were sold on the talent he had coming in and that talent has not met expectations this season. It was also evident that coaches that had inferior talent on their roster have learned to absolutely undress our team and Drew can't do a thing about it.

I've read some say that what needs to happen is for Drew to hire a really good X's and O's type guy. This won't happen and let me tell you why. If you think that Coach has lost his voice with this team, just watch what happens if you bring in a guy like people are describing. Players aren't stupid, they know who knows more about the game. In crunch time, is Drew going to hand the board to Coach Gameplan and say "draw up a winner"? I think everyone knows the answer. Drew will lose his voice in the locker room and it will be painfully obvious. Just like how Tony Romo waved the punt team off the field on 4th down in that abortion of a game in Philly. He publicly neutered his head coach. Players will tune out and ignore Drew if he brings in a real assistant.

Looking at the current recruiting, it appears that next year will be a completely different team. That's a good thing. I think we'll be less guard oriented and more forward oriented. We will still lack a true center but the added strength at the 3 and 4 will help. How sad is it that the best center of the Drew era is RT Guinn? He was a Bliss recruit/transfer. Put him on this team and we have 3 more wins in conference. RT wasn't Wilt by any stretch but he rebounded and could score about 8 a game. Think about what that would do for a guy like Quincy Acy to play against another power forward and not a center.

I feel like I could type for days about this team. It looks like Drew has become Guy Morriss-like on the message boards. I say that only in that there are some that are demanding accountability and another camp that says that criticism should be withheld because of a situation that was inherited. Like I said before, I'm not calling for Drew's head yet. 2010-2011 is when we need to see consistent results on the court and have a good sense of where the program is going. By then, kids would have been in middle school when the scandal hit. That's more than enough time to get your guys in the program and producing results.

I may tackle all of this again in the next month or so. Of course, much will be determined by how the team finishes out the season. I'll be in Waco on Wednesday for the OU game. I'll report back on Thursday.

Murph

Pre Tech Thoughts

First of all, I will not be watching this game. My wife, whom I love (gritting teeth), has set up a triple date with two couples I have never met on Saturday night. Of course I'm thrilled by this. Then again, if what the past two weeks has shown us continues, I'm better off dying a slow death of forced conversation and feigned interest than watching the stomach punch that is Baylor basketball at this point.

This needs to be the game that Curtis gets out of whatever he's in. This team cannot win unless he fills the stat sheet with points and assists. He also contributes because he is one of the few players we have that actually goes to the rim and draws fouls. We've got more offense than Tech but they seem to always be dangerous, especially at home. Tech doesn't have anybody that just jumps out on the scouting report so this could be a game where we try to get our defense together. Let me say that again: The defense must show up in this game or the future or there will be no point in even lacing them up from here on out.

I'm tired of seeing the same damn game over and over where we start out and make shots and even get a stop or two on defense. Then we totally regress and stop moving around and look like 5 guys who have never met each other. This is my wish.

I'll be making a triumphant return to Waco on Wednesday night for the OU game. That should be awesome. 6,500 crazy....er....awake fans supporting our team. I'll have a full report when I come back.

For those who keep finding themselves over here, please leave a comment telling me how much I suck or if you are just indifferent to what is going on here. I'd like to know.

Murph

Signing Day 2009

It appears that everyone who we were expecting to sign today has and so it is finally time to asses what the team will be looking like this year and beyond. For simplicity sake, I'm going to reference Rivals. I know there are other recruiting services and they are all different with rankings, bias, and slants.

What I like about this class
First of all, we addressed a major need in the offensive line. We are replacing a top 10 draft pick and a 2 year starter on the line. Ideally, the JUCOs will fill these spots without much of a drop-off. Luckily, with as much zone read as we use on offense, the center and guard positions are more important. I see next year's line maybe not as having a higher ceiling than last year's but will definitely be better when the bench linemen rotate in.

Second, we add play makers on the offensive side. Outside of Griffin, Finley, and Wright last year, we didn't have anybody who is a threat to take it to the house every time he touches the ball. The additions of Glasco Martin and Darius Jones will hopefully fix this. There is no bigger Thomas White fan than I but most of his plays were the quick read pass off the snap. He was incredibly reliable about getting 4-6 yards a pop. Now we might have someone that is capable of making someone miss and going 12-20 a play.

Third, we have incredible size in this class. I believe only 3 players are listed below 6 feet. You don't get any points for how you look getting off the bus but it helps if you are as big or bigger than your opponent. For the past decade outside of the Jason Smiths of the world, how many of our guys could you see in a fellow Big 12 team uniform? I think that is starting to change. The wide receivers in this class are giants. Hopefully, one of them will turn into a Dez Bryant type player that our QB can just throw it high to on 3rd down and he'll go get it.

What Concerns me
Our bottom 5 recruits all play or are projected to play defense. Try to remember what we saw during the bowl season as Big 12 teams that were scoring like crazy all of a sudden sputtered when faced with teams that could tackle. Offensive improvement will help the defense but only marginally. Landor will probably step into the Williams/Lamar safety spot and that will hopefully be an upgrade to the secondary. I'm guessing Lloyd will play if he's as advertised. We absolutely need someone who can get to the quarterback from the end position. He was also a more highly rated player than Robertson was last year and played. Also, if Chance Casey is starting at corner this season, it means we've improved our secondary.

Next year's class needs a DT or three in it. I know people point to Phil Taylor, the Penn State transfer but even if he is as good as we hope he is, we are still weak there. He won't play every down. Taylor might be the first Baylor linemen in forever to get double-teamed. That's great and all but it means that someone needs to be able to win their one-on-one battle with the lineman across from them. No one has shown they can do that yet. Maybe Lloyd or Mason can be that guy in the fall.

Overall Thoughts
I've seen it said that this is a "great" class. Slow down. It's great compared to classes in the past but we don't play the Baylor 2006 team next season. Recruiting is all about two things: upgrading your current talent and bringing your overall talent base higher than your opponents. I think in 4 years you will be able to look at this class and say this was largely the group that jump-started the Baylor resurgence. Compared to other teams, Baylor still is behind but the talent gap is starting to shrink. All you need to do is get the talent close enough to your opponent that coaching and execution on the field can get you a win. Hopefully, the days of us losing purely on talent are ending. If Briles gets us into a bowl game this season, look for the 2010 class to be "great." Remember: College football is a zero sum game. Our increased success comes at a cost to another program. A Baylor team on the rise directly hurts TCU, Tech, OSU, and aggie. Those are the teams we are competing with for players right now.

The traffic on this site has picked up recently. Thanks to all of you who have stopped by. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section. I'd like to get a more interactive thing going here.

Thanks,
Murph