Gameday Thread: #20 Baylor (1-0) vs John Brown (2-0)

Sacks had plenty of shots to get us there. He hits 1 and Little hits his other FT! haha

Defensive Positive:

18 steals (Dennis with 6 and Nunn with 4)

IowaBear said:

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We're going to have to outscore teams again this year. This defense is hott garbage. No other way to spin it. Getting cooked by NAIA guards

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I don't understand why. Have so much more to work with than last year and still looks poor. Dennis could be coached up on D. While not a great athlete has a huge reach and should be miles better than Cryer/George. Has good hands. Isn't terribly slow footed. Nunn's over pursuit is used against him but I think he'll get there. Walter is decent from what I've seen but the freshman errors will be there (getting hit with back doors and losing his man off ball). I expect Walters D to really improve over the year.

Will give it a few more games before I get concerned about the defensive coaching. Just bad trends with a group that I think should be solid at worst. Have size, have pretty strong guys, have solid athleticism and still looks off. Positioning is bad and it looks like they don't know how to play this style. Think they need to simplify the D a bit. Bridges looks good though. Need a few others to join him.

Dennis has good hands but has also gotten beat or been late to contests. Hope it gets cleaned up because he has nice potential. I don't love how this team plays screens right now but sometimes you have to get physical and just fight through.

Don't want last year's terrible D make most lose patience with a new team so early. Trends are concerning but I'll hold off for a few more weeks as these guy's haven't played together much. The attitude and mentality of this team is better than last year's already so curious to see if they can get it figured out.

Didn't get to see most of the game.

Does the press result in better FG% for opponents?

I was really hoping we would beat their hind parts by more than we did.

I didn't get to watch any of today's game because of work, but it looks like did what needed to against a vastly overmatched opponent.

I'm sure it's hard to get up for an early afternoon Thursday game against a school you've never heard of. All you want to do in a game like that is get through it with at least a semi-comfortable win and move on to the next one.

I'm sure Drew saw plenty of things to clean up, but mission accomplished as far as I'm concerned.

I do get a nagging uneasy feeling about the lapses in D as well as it seems we don't do ourselves any favors on o spacing. Love needs to play. I was impressed with a few of their players and they played hard

EvilTroyAndAbed said:

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I'm not worried about a game that was played at 11 am, 18 hours after flying back from South Dakota, where they had an intense matchup against Auburn. Also not concerned since if it were a more important opponent, Drew wouldn't be cycling players in and out all game. This is why they play 30+ games, to figure out problems and get better.

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I'm hoping the defensive lapses today that allowed a thoroughly over matched NAIA opponent to score 70 on us were due at least in part to what you're referring to as far as the quick turnaround on the heels of an emotional, physical "W" against a tough opponent on the road. Hopefully the more these guys play together the better they'll get - especially on the defensive end - but 2 games in I'm wondering if watching this team is going to be kind of like watching an Art Briles football team with the good news being we are capable of scoring a lot of points against just about anybody, and the bad news being against the higher end opponents (which is the majority of our schedule) we're going to consistently need a lot of points.

bear2be2 said:

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I'm sure it's hard to get up for an early afternoon Thursday game against a school you've never heard of.

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It wasn't even early afternoon. It was late morning.

One thing worth noting is we're playing at a faster tempo in the early going than we typically have under Drew, averaging almost 72 possessions per 40 minutes through the first two games. That's 4-10 more possessions per 40 than Drew's teams have averaged the last 10 years.

I don't know if that will hold all year, but if it does, we're going to give up more raw points just as a product of opportunity.

Our adjusted defensive efficiency is currently 25th nationally according to KenPom. That's based on an extraordinarily small sample, so it doesn't mean much yet. But this start hasn't been the defensive disaster some seem to think it is.

Omg. 8 am? I totally missed it cause I thought 8pm. Who does 8 am??

Edit - nvm it was 11 am. My app was all the way off. Joy.

DanaDane said:

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Not this year, unless Jonathan can't play that game.

Study Drew's history from the time he started until now. He's always favored guys who have stuck with the program and are older. Missi will undoubtedly play more minutes than Jon, but he won't start. That's a sign of respect for older leaders that Homer applied, and both Scott and Bryce have followed with that.

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Jon is such a team guy, I can see him saying at some point to start Missi over him. Watch.

DanaDane said:

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Defensive Positive:

18 steals (Dennis with 6 and Nunn with 4)

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Who was playing bad defense? I need to go watch. If it wasnt the 'top 7' I'm not to stressed. 12 players got time today...that combined with cupcake 2 days after big win could be huge factors to lazy defense.

Not Mitchell Teague and Butler either way.

The best thing is that Drew got to try a lot of different 5 man combos on the court As I said earlier, you could easily see he was testing to see which combos had the best chemistry.

Next Up:

#185 (KenPom) Gardner Webb, then
#283 (KenPom) UMKC

Agree about testing the rotations, a great thing I thought is most of them seemed pretty functional. None were a disaster.

I'm watching it now. That's the best thing about streaming: if you cannot watch a game live for whatever reason you can go back and watch it a few hours (or a few days) later.

I see that too. How it just gets stronger

100. Great body language, more intense competitive fire, and guys who you can tell like playing together. Big reason I'm still very bullish that the lapses will get fixed.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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One thing I noticed after just two games is the overall body language and team chemistry is far better with this group. That has me more excited about this team that their ability to play basketball. I read a lot into body language. We had a couple guys last year who would mope and pout when things weren't going their way. I'm not seeing any of that with this group. Walter in particular is a 5 star player who won't demand touches or let a bad offensive night affect his effort in other areas. That is indeed a rarity in today's culture of entitlement. We obviously have a lot to work on, especially team defense, but our improved team chemistry and "connectedness" will help our coaches iron out the rough edges.

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Spot on with all of this. A lot of things excite me about this team and this is one of the biggest, which is hard to believe since there are so many new guys. I hate always reverting to the championship team but it is true, by the championship year a good core of that team had been practicing with each other for 3 years (due to redshirting then instead of immediate eligibility). It's also why I think there's a much better possibility for defensive improvement as these guys appear to have the chemistry and desire that will allow them to get after each other and push each other for improvement.

There's nothing wrong with comparing each year's team with the natty team. It's natural & inevitable. They literally set the standard and that will continue until we win another.

historian said:

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There's nothing wrong with comparing each year's team with the natty team. It's natural & inevitable. They literally set the standard and that will continue until we win another.

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There's nothing wrong with making the comparison, but it can lead to some unrealistic expectations.

I think the thing we have to remember is that title team had three years to grow into what it became. This year's team will have about three months.

This group has a very high ceiling IMO. But a lot is going to have to go right to make the type of run the 2021 team did.

Agreed

Agree, these are perfect matchups to get more of the wrinkles out. To be clear, this team is nowhere near as bad defensively as last year and the potential is exponentially higher on the Defensive side.

Still in waiting to see how the bigs and new guards get in sync. Bridges is there. Nunn is getting closer after working out the nerves. Dennis was coming off injury so probably just needs some more time.

About the defense in that game:

We played a lot of guys, getting game time for many

It's game 2, a lot still waiting to develop

The guys did really well against Auburn, especially in the second half.

We'll be fine.

DanaDane said:

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Not this year, unless Jonathan can't play that game.

Study Drew's history from the time he started until now. He's always favored guys who have stuck with the program and are older. Missi will undoubtedly play more minutes than Jon, but he won't start. That's a sign of respect for older leaders that Homer applied, and both Scott and Bryce have followed with that.

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EJ is the ultimate team guy and one of Baylor's all time GOATs. But he is not the same guy after the injury and I hate that for him. That said, he does not strike me as someone who would demand to keep a starting role (he has never started his entire Baylor career). EJ is selfless and would never stand in the way of what is best for the team. I think Missi will start sooner than later and Josh O will share the spot with Missi. Missi is a superstar in the making and Josh O is vastly improved and already light years ahead of what Thamba gave us last year. EJ will play situationally and we will need him often as young bigs tend to find themselves in foul trouble.

Me thinks a lot of people will be wanting to see a lot less Josh O and a lot more Jon (even today's version) after seeing Josh try to guard the bigs against Seton Hall, Michigan St and Duke. You and I are seeing two different people, which is okay. He hasn't progressed much at all since last year. Reflexes on D are still way too slow.

We are going to need Jon's leadership and toughness throughout the year. I hope he can provide that

Its a shame Jon's movement and explosion has been sapped. Even a 80% Jon and this is one of the 3 leading title (national) contenders. Fits what we want to do perfectly and just mauls the other teams front court most nights.

Quinton said:

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Its a shame Jon's movement and explosion has been sapped. Even a 80% Jon and this is one of the 3 leading title (national) contenders. Fits what we want to do perfectly and just mauls the other teams front court most nights.

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That's the general consensus with Jon but nobody says that about Love who has been phenomenal

I just re-watched the second half of that Auburn game and I stand by my statement, I do believe Josh O is vastly improved from where he was last year. He was caught in a tough mismatch with Broome who is a stretch 5 and pulled Josh out onto the perimeter, but even then he held his own and was much better than Thamba was last year. I didn't see any of the indeciveness or mental errors from last year.

In that Auburn game I also found it interesting we went with a long stretch of a "big" lineup with Bridges at SF, Lohner at PF, and Josh at center which happened after RayJ got into foul trouble. I don't ever recall Bridges and Lohner playing together last year which I found interesting. That's what I meant in another thread I think the primary competition for playing time will be between Lohner and Little if we decide to go big or small in the second unit. Which might vary from game to game depending on matchups. Lots of lineup combinations our coaches will tinker with during some of these cupcake games coming up.

Love will be terrific in a 6th man role where he only has to focus on scoring. But he still struggles to move laterally on the defensive end. That said, we will be able to hide him much more easily this year because Walter, Nunn, and Bridges are all straight junkyard dawgs with their perimeter D. Last season we couldn't hide Love on the defensive end because Keyonte and Cryer were even worse.