CTbruin said:
And point was our defense is better than some here think. Just watch them in person.
The D was average. Not bad, not great. Average. Gave up 82 points. That isn't great D.
Why? Turnovers that lead to extra possessions and easy transition buckets.
Neither team was bad in half court D. The overall shooting by both teams showed decent D. But both teams allowed the opponent to shoot a high % from 3. Box scores never lie.
The big difference [can't be seen in box score] is that Baylor had 2/3 of its 15 turnovers in the first half and Auburn had 2/3 of their 15 turnovers in the 2nd half. That one item swung the results. Stopped Auburn's easy transition buckets. Equally important it increased the number of shots Baylor took. Hard to outscore a team when they get numerous more shots because you turn it over constantly.
FT accuracy disparity was another huge item. Baylor will get better at D [is OK now] but won't be a good D until the turnovers get under control. Few teams keep opponents' scoring under control when having numerous live ball turnovers.
But let's be honest……82 was a large scoring output. Takeaway some of the easy transition buckets and Auburn likely scores in the high 60s/low 70s. That number is fine. But also note that they shot FTs poorly and that item might have given them another 6-7 points. As CDC often points out, B12 games are often decided by 1-2 possessions. Baylor has work to do on both O [limiting turnovers] and D [better rotations] to be on the right side of those 1-2 possession games.
But will gladly admit that the team is light years ahead of the crap show that was last year's D.