3rd year in a row with no true PG. love Drew but it's head scratching that he keeps letting that happen.
We're definitely not a top 20 team right now. Our offense isn't this juggernaut it was thought to be and we play zero defense.
Hopefully we steadily improve as the season goes on

I am a half-glass full type of fan, and saw a lot of positives. Our effort and intensity were light years ahead of where they were vs. MSU, but our execution was not. Still lapses in transition D. Walter continually getting beat on the ball defensively. I know he is better than that, he simply appears to be taking poor angles and once guys get a step on him he's unable to get around screens. This has been a trend last several games. Not a lack of effort so they can get better.

Offensively loved the weave action where we were able to isolate Dennis on a big. Allowed him to play to his strength which is penetrating and working his magic in the paint which opens up our perimeter shooters. Keep doing more of this. RayJ's sloppy turnovers have to be addressed. Teams have scouted the Missi lobs so we need to stop forcing those. The failed lob attempts seem to account for half of Dennis's turnovers. Nunn struggling to adjust against physicality, athleticism and quality defensive pressure at this level of competition. We need a secondary playmaker to take some pressure off RayJ.

You know I love Walter but he had been torched well before he got into any kind of foul trouble. The past several games as well

Jakobe is one and done for sure, Top 10, maybe Top 5. His game translates to the NBA. I was there tonight, the atmosphere was very loud for Duke like a home game. We'll be a serious contender by NCAA time.

Crawfoso1973 said:

---

You know I love Walter but he had been torched well before he got into any kind of foul trouble. The past several games as well

---

We've had too many blow-by's period. And Walter has had his share. But he couldn't even try to defend late in the game.

I agree wholeheartedly with your point above about a secondary playmaker on offense. Nunn has been exposed as a pretty limited role player as our competition level has risen.

I'd consider switching him and Love so we're not falling in 10-point holes to start every game. We need more offense than we're currently getting from our starting five.

It's basically Dennis, Walter and whatever we can get from Missi on lobs/putbacks and Bridges on catch-and-shoot 3s. We can't keep asking RayJ and Walter to create everything.

Baylor needs a defensive coordinator...coach. You should not just be able to go to the rim as easy as we are letting our opponents.

We lack defensive fundamentals. We are not defensively responsible. Walter and Nunn are way better athletes than Cryer and college George/ Flag (who was a limited but okay defender) but still terrible results.

A defensive specialist on staff with the green light to do his thing would help. Major deficiency right now.

Back to the original question, what did we learn tonight:

Positives
1. Unlike the Michigan St game where we got punched in the mouth and it took us an entire half to recover, this time we took the punch, stumbled for a bit, but got back up and ramped up our intensity on both ends of the court.

2. I continue to see growth in various parts of Yves Missi's game. All of us should enjoy him while we can.

3. As I said in the game thread, RayJ has some of the best lane floaters we've had in sometime.

4. We didn't play as timidly on either end of the court as we did Saturday. Much more aggressive.

5. We gained more experience playing on a big stage in what was basically a Duke home game.


Negatives
1. My thoughts that our guards are not good on ball defenders, can't stay in front of the person they're guarding and are easily beaten off the dribble by high quality players were confirmed again tonight. As I said in the game thread, Izzo's post game comments about us Saturday are spot on -- we ARE slow footed on D. Missi is the only big quick enough to recover from a mistake and still make a play. The other 2 bigs are just not fast enough from a reactionary standpoint. The good news is that I'm confident Drew and staff will rework some of the D now that it's evident we struggle in a few areas there.

2. We have no floor general, are turnover prone and sloppy at dribbling the ball. We need a floor general that would allow RayJ to play more as a 2 and Walter as a 3. There was no offensive flow against Michigan St and none tonight. Everything turned into jittery Iso-ball, similar to what happened against MSU. When we finally got successful at Iso-ball by taking Filipowski off the dribble and had Duke on the ropes, we then came back with 3 wasted possessions. This team doesn't value possessions, which is fine when you're playing Cupcake U, but it doesn't work when you're playing talent levels like Michigan St, Duke, Kansas or even UH.

3. The crisp passing by everyone on the team that was evident in games against Seton Hall, Florida and Auburn has suddenly disappeared. Understandably so against MSU, a really good defensive team. Not so much against Duke, a very mediocre defensive team. We've gotta get this back and I'm confident we can.

Stefano DiMera said:

---

They had the all access microphone on both coaches and Schyer said in a time out ' these guys don't communicate on defense so we can beat them every time'.

---

Can't remember now whether I saw it in a tweet, in an ESPN blurb or when I was looking at the Detroit news sites, but Izzo basically said the same thing.

It's a great point. Walter and Nunn are constantly guessing at screen coverages and at times have no clue where someone is coming from. Have been blown by seconds after turning around from the defensive stance dozens of times so far.

Leads to increasing hesitancy which leads to more easy penetration. Negative feedback loop.

DanaDane said:

---

Stefano DiMera said:

---

They had the all access microphone on both coaches and Schyer said in a time out ' these guys don't communicate on defense so we can beat them every time'.

---

Can't remember now whether I saw it in a tweet, in an ESPN blurb or when I was looking at the Detroit news sites, but Izzo basically said the same thing.

---

Ku will eat them alive if that's the case. Great offensive schemes to exploit weaknesses.

DanaDane said:

---

Stefano DiMera said:

---

They had the all access microphone on both coaches and Schyer said in a time out ' these guys don't communicate on defense so we can beat them every time'.

---

Can't remember now whether I saw it in a tweet, in an ESPN blurb or when I was looking at the Detroit news sites, but Izzo basically said the same thing.

---

Damn, that's really troubling.

Agree. I firmly believe that would at least help the guards in trying to stay in front. I don't think all of the Big 12 teams can exploit our weakness there, but about half certainly can.

Still like this team.

To be fair, Izzo's comment was obviously more soft spoken (since it was not an eavesdropping comment like Scheyer's in a huddle) since he knew it was with the media, and the way I remember it he said it within the context of it being early in the season and not communicating as well as you need to so Baylor didn't look like Baylor, yada yada yada.

Hotsauce said:

---

Still like this team.

---

I think there's a lot to like about this team. Every team has areas to work on. Most would have said UConn is one of the 4 or 5 most likely Final Four level teams right now and you see what happened to them tonight against a team that we took care of reasonably easy.

I do too which makes these performances more frustrating. They should not be this bad on defense. No reason even with the lack of a physical nasty forward. The guards should be nowhere near this bad.

It just makes no sense. Iowa St (last few years) and Houston are not loaded with ultra talented guys. They still play sound, physical defense with decent but not great talent. There is more than just inherent roster deficiencies. They should not be anywhere close to this bad.

To be fair those teams are older with core guys staying 3 and 4 years. Need to find the answer though. Feels like regressing to pre Davion and Butler days on that side of the floor

An "L" still means "loss". Sad that Drew got outcoached by someone almost 2/3 his age. It's hard to decide who is softer. Baylor fans, players or "leadership"?

Nunn...

robal said:

---

Baylor is NOT a top 20 team at this point

Baylor was out coached again

Ja'Kobe is Not a one and done player

Ja'Kobe was beaten off the dribble ALL night long

Aranda could only hope for holes that big the way Baylor left the lane open tonight

Missi is a BIG time shot blocker

Have to question RayJ as a point guard

---

Jakobe is a one and done

DanaDane said:

---

Not sure why we go through this every year but:

-- When Kendal Brown signed, he was gonna be a 1st Round Draft choice and was never staying more than 1 year
-- When Keyonte George signed, he was gonna be a 1st Round Draft choice and was never staying more than 1 year
-- When JaKobe Walter signed, he was and is projected as a high 1st Round Draft choice and will play for us this year only.


-- When Jeremy Sochan signed, he was not a guaranteed 1st Round Draft choice. He earned that by building his play throughout the year and so he made the smart financial decision and departed. Otherwise, he may have stayed 1 more year.

-- When Yves Missi reclassified to this year, there was discussion he might be a two-year player due to his age but that his talent could make him a 1 year player once he displayed it on the floor. He was not projected as a 1st Round Draft choice for this year at the time only because he had just reclassified and given his age most felt he might play two years. Now that he's been on the court, I think we see where this is headed (and, no, scouts are not gonna care about typical freshman mistakes he may make from time to time....what they see is an athletic freak that could be something special in a couple of years).

---

A combination of ignorance and envy is why there's often so much animosity toward our one-and-done players.

Langston needs to start

Very perplexing. I think we have some really good fans, but when it comes to understanding what and how NBA teams draft some seem to be very lacking. Or, for whatever reason, their expecations are just completely out of whack and they think to be a 1st Round draft choice or to be a 5 star recruit you have to come into college and immediately average 35 points, 23 rebounds, 15 assists, 0 TOs, make no mistakes on D and single-handidly dominate every game.

I believe some of it is just frustration. We've reached the promised land once and everyone wants to get back. Unfortunately, it's not that easy because there are 350+ teams wanting the same thing.

We definitely will be ranked in the Top 20 when the next poll comes out on Monday (unless we lose Friday night which would be tough to watch since I'm going to the game).

We have two one and done players and I think the one not talked much about goes first in the draft no matter how high the other one is picked.

Missi destroyed Filipowski.

This team has no help defenders (not counting the 3 fives) which is why the guards look so bad defensively. If you beat your man off the dribble you are going to get to the rim. No one else is coming to get in your way. This is instinctual and can't be taught. Therefore, we should switch to a zone.

Getting to watch Missi is worth the price of admission even if we don't win another game this season.

Crawfoso1973 said:

---

DanaDane said:

---

Not sure why we go through this every year but:

-- When Kendal Brown signed, he was gonna be a 1st Round Draft choice and was never staying more than 1 year
-- When Keyonte George signed, he was gonna be a 1st Round Draft choice and was never staying more than 1 year
-- When JaKobe Walter signed, he was and is projected as a high 1st Round Draft choice and will play for us this year only.


-- When Jeremy Sochan signed, he was not a guaranteed 1st Round Draft choice. He earned that by building his play throughout the year and so he made the smart financial decision and departed. Otherwise, he may have stayed 1 more year.

-- When Yves Missi reclassified to this year, there was discussion he might be a two-year player due to his age but that his talent could make him a 1 year player once he displayed it on the floor. He was not projected as a 1st Round Draft choice for this year at the time only because he had just reclassified and given his age most felt he might play two years. Now that he's been on the court, I think we see where this is headed (and, no, scouts are not gonna care about typical freshman mistakes he may make from time to time....what they see is an athletic freak that could be something special in a couple of years).

---

combination of ignorance and envy is why there's often so much animosity toward our one-and-done players.

---

I think this is an oversimplification. I think the animosity -- and that's probably the wrong word -- stems from the natural frustration of watching immature players try to lead your team.

I like Walter and Missi a lot. But if they're our best or most important players in March, we're likely going to lose in the first weekend again.

Over-reliance on freshman players is not a path to tournament success in modern college basketball. It's been proven time and again by virtually every program that has consistently gone that route. College basketball is a grown man's game. Experience wins come tournament time.

We need our experienced players to up their game and lead this team. If we're going to win anything this year, it will be with the old guys handling the pressure roles and the young guys playing free and confident in roles more suited to their maturity levels.