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