Gameday Thread: #13 Baylor (17-5; 6-3) at #4 Kansas (18-5; 6-4)

Dennis had six or more turnovers in games against Auburn, Duke, Michigan State, and KU.

He can't ball handle or facilitate against talent.

Mitch Henessey said:

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I liked that he wanted that last shot, and how pissed he was that he missed it.

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I liked seeing how pissed he was too. He's got fire in him. Hopefully he can unlock that 3 ball soon.

Dennis looks and plays small against aggressive and athletic defenses. We can compensate with better ball movement to take the pressure off him. When the offense stagnates and he is forced to do it on his own the turnovers mount.

Big agree. We can largely play around this weakness, but it requires Jakobe making shots. If our top talent option continues to be this bad then Dennis is going to have to magically get more athletic.

I'm actually more encouraged tonight than I thought I'd be. I figured we'd lose, but we look like the better team when we're firing on all cylinders. And we're getting better. But we need to play better than we did tonight.

Let's not forget KU was missing their best player. You can maybe argue love is our best player, but love is less important to us than the guys KU was missing is to them.

Mitch Henessey said:

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BUGWBBear said:

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Ends with a doink. We Are Baylor.

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Drunk again already, BUG?

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No. Just living rent free in your head, Mitchypoo.

IowaBear said:

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Love is our best guard. He's a gigantic loss for us. But you are correct in McCullar being a big loss for KU

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Any word on Love's return?

IowaBear said:

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And your thoughts on Dennis play? Or Nunn? bridges? None of upperclassmen stepped up when we needed them most. And that's happened multiple times this year

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Dennis really struggled tonight. The only other game he's had like this in Big 12 play was the K-State game.

It was unfortunate timing, for sure. But I have trouble getting too worked up about it given a) how much he's leaned on for everything we do offensively and b) how consistent he's been around his two stinkers.

All away venues outside of Auburn. And all "bright light" feature games. Ku is not especially talented without McCullar.

But they have an aura and name that can make guys shy away. That's the biggest issue. Shook mentally in those situations.

I will agree Dennis isn't a great matchup v athletic guards with aggressive forwards who really get at you. He's casual with the ball and lacks explosion.

But at home he's okay with it (Iowa st). We'll know more after Ku at home and although I wouldn't call them especially talented, Hou at home.

IvanBear said:

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Dennis had six or more turnovers in games against Auburn, Duke, Michigan State, and KU.

He can't ball handle or facilitate against talent.

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This is an idiotic take. He's second in the best conference on the planet in assists per game.

Get as frustrated as you want with his turnovers, particularly the careless ones. But to say he can't facilitate against talent is ludicrous.

He's one of the best facilitators/passers in the nation.

Take him off this team and we'd have a minimum of five more losses than we currently do.

My point to Ivanbear was that it wasn't just Walter who was bad. None of the upperclassmen played well in fact I'd argue Nunn and Dennis were just pitiful. Bridges was his usual self for the most part

In Dennis's defense, watching on replay, he was getting shoved on almost every dribble drive. I still think he has been the MVP up to this point for this team. Missi is a beast! And, he has one of the higher basketball IQs on the team.

Mitch Henessey said:

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This game will make Walter better. He's an alpha personality, and he realized he can play in the toughest environment in the country.

He needs to be better, but I think he will. 4 inches on that last shot and we're in OT. I liked that he wanted that last shot, and how pissed he was that he missed it.

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Agreed. Walter does have a good work ethic. That much is obvious. Hopefully the good work ethic will result in an uptick in 3 point percentage once the tournament begins.

I like Ted Harrison's take on Baylor MBB:

lol so much good in that and watching the freshmen be genuinely angry about getting that close makes me excited for the home stretch.#SicEm forever.

— Ted Harrison (@tedvid) February 11, 2024

To win on the road in a difficult environment like Allen Fieldhouse, your PG must:

1) control the flow of the game, which takes the crowd out & keeps the opponent out of their game;
2) value possessions and avoids careless turnovers;
3) instill confidence in the team as a leader through poised play and good decisions;
4) prove clutch any time he goes to the FT line;
5) needs to outperform the home team's PG

And a team that can hit open shots.

Not sure what happened tonight since I didn't get to see the game, but one glance at the boxscore tells me all I need to know statistically. When you outrebound an opponent by 17 boards, you should end up taking at least 10 more shots than they take. KU actually got 10 MORE looks than we did because we turned the ball over 21 times. That is beyond awful. You can't have your PG's play explaining 6 of those (nor your shooting guard explaining 5 of those). That's just carelessness, both on the PG as well as the rest of the team. And someone will have to explain to me how Josh O could have 4 turnovers in as few minutes as the boxscore indicates he played. I'm not sure how that is even possible.

But, despite all of that, it is apparent from reading the thread we STILL had two opportunities to nail open 3 pointers and failed, so there are a lot of positives to be said about the grit of this team. And, there's also obviously a lot of positives to be said about Missi. From the descriptions all of you provided in this thread along with a glance at the boxcore, it is evident he just continues to grow and grow at a tremendous pace. I also wish Love would have gotten a chance to play because KU has proven vulnerable to opponents who can drive to the basket and that is the major skill Love brings to this team.

Oh well, I didn't expect to win this one so hopefully we kick it in gear. We absolutely cannot let the home game with OU get away from us and we can't go into Morgantown lackadaisically. Let's shoot for 2-0 this week.

if anyone was curious, in the nba last night in their 48 minute games, the highest amount of turnovers was 19 (hornets). this season our of ~1600 games - there have only been 37 times a team had 21 or more turnovers. again it's a 48 minute game so presumably we should never be anywhere near that level...but it's also "professionals" vs "amateurs" so i dont how comparable the two stats are

we can say it's a long game and both teams have turnovers. if we're getting 3 or 4 positions less than the opponent each night (13 less than kansas - what a joke) and we cant hit our ft's - every game is going to be an absolute uphill climb unless we're playing someone from the SEC () or other sub-par league.

i believe in CSD 100000%. feels like the offense we run could enable players to have better ball-safety than it does. or maybe it is the conservative offense and if CSD didn't call what he calls - they have 30+ a game because rayj can't seem to keep his mitts on the ball.

Tbf, like 5 of the TOs were Josh O's doing. He has the worst hands on the team and maybe in the entire league.

RayJ has had games where he doesn't seem interested in scrapping which is pretty inexplicable compared to the other times when he's amazing.

These two accounted for half the TOs I'm sure.

Hotsauce said:

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Tbf, like 5 of the TOs were Josh O's doing. He has the worst hands on the team and maybe in the entire league.

RayJ has had games where he doesn't seem interested in scrapping which is pretty inexplicable compared to the other times when he's amazing.

These two accounted for half the TOs I'm sure.

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Those turnovers that bounced off of Josh O I still lay them squarely on RayJ. He threw several dumb passes to Josh in a crowd of defenders 12 or 15 feet from the basket and for no reason. If you're a PG you can't put your bigs in that position. Josh's hands are fine when he is ready for the pass when posting up or on lob attempts.

Dennis had 6, Walter had 5 so there's 11 of your 21. No idea how many Josh so had. But as mentioned above Dennis did Josh zero favors with sone of his passes

DP4LIFE said:

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In Dennis's defense, watching on replay, he was getting shoved on almost every dribble drive. I still think he has been the MVP up to this point for this team. Missi is a beast! And, he has one of the higher basketball IQs on the team.

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It looks like he's being shoved only because he's small and weak relative to more athletic teams and defenders.

As a wide receiver back in high school, we spent time on the speed bag to improve our hands. Those punching bags wore out your knuckles but greatly improved our ability to catch and hood the football. Is that a basketball training tool? Might help our guys with cement hands.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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DP4LIFE said:

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In Dennis's defense, watching on replay, he was getting shoved on almost every dribble drive. I still think he has been the MVP up to this point for this team. Missi is a beast! And, he has one of the higher basketball IQs on the team.

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It looks like he's being shoved only because he's small and weak relative to more athletic teams and defenders.

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That's a very fair point. But, it's just not called consistently in most games. Case in point - Missi getting whistled for his third foul trying to defend a transition lay up - when he completely backed off.

Hotsauce said:

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Tbf, like 5 of the TOs were Josh O's doing. He has the worst hands on the team and maybe in the entire league.

RayJ has had games where he doesn't seem interested in scrapping which is pretty inexplicable compared to the other times when he's amazing.

These two accounted for half the TOs I'm sure.

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project big men with few years of bball can't ever seem to handle the ball

I wish Walter played defense. Guy cannot guard anyone.

davesburgerbarn said:

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I wish Walter played defense. Guy cannot guard anyone.

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I wasn't able to see the whole game yesterday. Did everyone blow by him again?