longtimebear said:

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How many times have we seen this movie? On the road and opponent hits the court red hot and the bears aren't.
Don't know what it is but I know I'm tiring of it. Frustrating, Frustrating

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This team just doesn't have the pieces, unfortunately. After losing Dennis, we needed to find another playmaking guard who could create for himself and his teammates. We were led to believe Roach would be that guy, and that just couldn't be further from the truth.

By Baylor standards, we have bad guards this year. And we have no depth at all behind our two frontcourt players, who have both done their jobs well, for the most part.

This is just a deeply flawed team. And I don't think there's any fixing it at this point. We'll overwhelm the teams that can't keep up with us athletically and lose (often in lopsided fashion) to those who can. It is what it is.

The biggest reason is our only point guard, Robert Wright, doesn't start.

No that's not the biggest reason. Your boy while darn good is a turnover machine. Wright plays like 30 minutes a game… what are you wanting Drew to do play him all 40? Dude would average 8-10 TOs if that was the case.
There's many reasons this team is blah.

BUCANDOIT82 said:

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The biggest reason is our only point guard, Robert Wright, doesn't start.

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That's not the biggest reason. Wright plays starter minutes and was in yesterday's game by the 18-minute mark of the first half.

This team just isn't good enough. And Wright, while very promising, isn't good or consistent enough yet to change that by himself.

BUCANDOIT82 said:

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The biggest reason is our only point guard, Robert Wright, doesn't start.

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No defense

You basically have no leader among the starting 5 and it shows when we start off games against those with equal or better talent with little to no emotion and there is no one to get in anyone's face to help change that. We look and play with the emotion of a pickup team at the Y with 5 randos.

Anyone willing to show up at Rudy's for one of Drew's coaches show appearances and ask the tough questions?

Complete feast/famine team the way it's constructed. If this group had another year together I firmly believe next season would be immense, but that's not how CBB goes anymore, so you can't afford to misread transfer player strengths year-to-year. And Roach in particular was misread - he's around his averages YoY but his last season was a way outlier in terms of range shooting %, and we thought he was that guy every year.

So as it stands, this team just either completely blinks off and goes polar cold, or they score 50+ in a half and outrun you. Unfortunately those things tend to happen in one game, and the former has been outweighing the latter.

I do think there's a version of this team that can catch lightning in a bottle and hurt some people deep into March. We have some ugly losses but we still don't have a bad one in the sense of location and team quality as you're looking at resumes. But we're going to have to beat those teams eventually, and we're just soft right now.

This all points back to roster construction imo. Hell you can tie most of the struggles to roster construction. We've entered this era where Drew has decided to routinely overhaul the roster on a year 2 year basis. That's on Drew, he's designing/building his teams in a way where overhauls are unavoidable. CSD is a friggin legend and a damm good coach. But the roster construction has to improve dramatically if Baylor is going to be a serious contender in the B12 and national stage going forward.

This team could pick it up as the year goes on. Our losses have included some horrendous shooting. Defense sometimes does alright but starts to fade quickly when the 3 ball isn't falling. If they can quit the defensive lapses and shoot it more consistently against good teams then we can potentially get around a 5 or 6 seed. That being said if Omier or Josh O get in foul trouble it's a problem because we only have 2 bigs. If both get in foul trouble the opposing team is going to attack the paint until we have no bigs or they draw early help and kick out for easy 3s. This year when one player starts throwing up bricks the rest of the team seems to follow.

Last night was a good example of the hot cold. First half, terrible, last ten minutes way better. Part of that was Arizona relaxing. Our defense in the first half was so bad that we never had an opportunity to beat their d down the floor. Not sure what their points per possession was but had to be high. Once their d was set there was no way Nunn or Roach were beating them off the dribble, and VJ can't go left, so you just play him hard to the right and take away his drive.
Once Arizona missed some shots in the 2nd we were able to push the ball and get them a little off balance.
I think we finish 500 in conference and make the tourney as a 8/9 seed and make the sweet 16, that's if everyone stays healthy. To reiterate Iowa, this roster is just not balanced and really lacking a true 4 that would make a huge difference for us.

Give me a break!

BULiferBB said:

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Give me a break! I didn't finish--------- Drew cares about this team more than you can imagine! He probably is the most competitive person on the court.

WHY are you going to ask him HARD questions? He is already asking them himself.

You do realize we are buying players now and we are not going to be able to buy all of them. Not to mention, a whole new staff and a whole new team. Also, getting used to a new arena and moving in it this summer on top of everything else!

You guys said it was all Tang when he left-------have you looked at KSU record??? Then it was John Jakus I hate this attitude of not giving Drew the credit he deserves. After all, who do you think hired them and who helped them/ developed them so they could move on to their new positions?

Someone on another thread said they wish Drew would have left- for Kentucky--DUMB DUMB!
Baylor has seen first hand what happens when a good coach leaves!!! It doesn't build itself overnight!

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TXBEAR_bf said:

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Last night was a good example of the hot cold. First half, terrible, last ten minutes way better. Part of that was Arizona relaxing. Our defense in the first half was so bad that we never had an opportunity to beat their d down the floor. Not sure what their points per possession was but had to be high. Once their d was set there was no way Nunn or Roach were beating them off the dribble, and VJ can't go left, so you just play him hard to the right and take away his drive.
Once Arizona missed some shots in the 2nd we were able to push the ball and get them a little off balance.
I think we finish 500 in conference and make the tourney as a 8/9 seed and make the sweet 16, that's if everyone stays healthy. To reiterate Iowa, this roster is just not balanced and really lacking a true 4 that would make a huge difference for us.

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If we go to the tourney as an 8/9 seed I think there is a greater chance we're done in the first round as opposed to getting to the sweet 16.

You are correct, I just brain farted and forgot that would be a number one seed matchup in the second round. I don't think there is a one seed we could beat. So yes, highly likely we would be out before sweet 16. I suppose that VJ could improve a lot between now and tourney, along with Wright but if Roach and Nunn aren't doing it now, not likely they will be impact later in the year. Not counting on Love or Celestine to be impact if they can't get back in the next couple of weeks.

You all need to be prepared that this team might not make the tournament at all. Wow, you go from UK choice for coach to not making the tournament....Not good.

This team cant shoot the dang ball. Period. No one has the right to shoot a 3 point shoot until you can prove your ability to drain a midrange jumper.

And that dang 3 man weave is the dumbest play - drop it from the book.

I'd be curious to hear CSD respond to a question as simple as "why have your last few teams sucked at defense?"

BluesBear said:

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You all need to be prepared that this team might not make the tournament at all. Wow, you go from UK choice for coach to not making the tournament....Not good.

This team cant shoot the dang ball. Period. No one has the right to shoot a 3 point shoot until you can prove your ability to drain a midrange jumper.

And that dang 3 man weave is the dumbest play - drop it from the book.

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You might need to be prepared the opposite...this team will finish around.500 in conference which will be 20 wins..that's a tournament team .

This team will beat the teams it should beat . especially t home .and maybe steal a couple on road..and that's it

They are no threat to Iowa State.. Houston..or Kansas

This isn't a championship caliber team, so I am not going to be surprised if they don't make it or if they do make it.

Thanks everyone for your contributions to this thread. It's hard to admit our team isn't what it used to be.
Other than Ives Missi, what big named high schooler has come in here and really made a big difference to this team? I'm not a fan of high draft pick players that leave after 1 season. Their recruitment to me is a big waste of time and money.

BluesBear said:

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This isn't a championship caliber team, so I am not going to be surprised if they don't make it or if they do make it.

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There is massive gap between championship team vs. not making the tournament at all. The sky is not falling. We remain a fringe top 25 team so therefore we are virtually guaranteed a tournament appearance unless we have multiple season-ending injuries to our key guys and lose out. This team has disappointed against superior teams, but has a high floor since we have taken care of business against the teams we "should" win against.

We aren't guaranteed anything yet. Our resume is pretty bad with Arkansas falling off a cliff and St Johns being just ok. We have no marquee wins. I do think we would really have to faceplant to miss the tournament. But will need a record over .500 in league play imo to be safe. The next 2 are absolute must wins imo. Lose either of those and things get sticky

IowaBear said:

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We aren't guaranteed anything yet. Our resume is pretty bad with Arkansas falling off a cliff and St Johns being just ok. We have no marquee wins. I do think we would really have to faceplant to miss the tournament. But will need a record over .500 in league play imo to be safe. The next 2 are absolute must wins imo. Lose either of those and things get sticky

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Of course, anything can happen in sports. If we continue our trend of taking care of equal or lesser teams, we should be in.

BULiferBB said:

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BULiferBB said:

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Give me a break! I didn't finish--------- Drew cares about this team more than you can imagine! He probably is the most competitive person on the court.

WHY are you going to ask him HARD questions? He is already asking them himself.

You do realize we are buying players now and we are not going to be able to buy all of them. Not to mention, a whole new staff and a whole new team. Also, getting used to a new arena and moving in it this summer on top of everything else!

You guys said it was all Tang when he left-------have you looked at KSU record??? Then it was John Jakus I hate this attitude of not giving Drew the credit he deserves. After all, who do you think hired them and who helped them/ developed them so they could move on to their new positions?

Someone on another thread said they wish Drew would have left- for Kentucky--DUMB DUMB!
Baylor has seen first hand what happens when a good coach leaves!!! It doesn't build itself overnight!

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I'll say it though because you're probably referring to me saying we would have been better this year if Drew had left, that's not wishing Drew was gone. That's just a fact that Drew has put together a putird roster that makes no sense, and someone coming in his place and building this team from scratch would have put together a true team not a random collection of guards. [Insert bernie sanders meme: I'm once again saying this roster is almost entirely shooting guards who can't ball handle.]

You've hit on the core problem but you don't seem to understand it correctly .Drew can't buy all the players, no one can, but he's set us up to the point where year over year he has to buy almost an entirely new rotation. That's not smart or sustainable for success - and that's drew's fault by not trying to buy lesser players. He strikes out on all the big dogs and ends up with the garbage like Celestine and Nunn - who both came here because we swung and missed on other guys in the portal.

Also understand who Drew is at a coach. He never has been or never will be some basketball genius of X's and O's. Turns out most elite basketball coaches aren't! He's an elite motivator, his career is marked by being extremely good at picking talent both coaching and players that sync up well together, finding diamonds in the rough that can develop well (be it guys like Teague to an elite college player, or guys like Sochan who are so good they end up going pro after one year), finally he's been humble enough to change his strategy and evolve with the game (changing defenses over the years, recognizing when offence became stale and seeking out guys like Jakus for the staff, etc). There's a reason he's got such a large tree for his relatively young age, he knows how to pick 'em. So yes give drew the credit but recognize who he is and what his competitive edge is.



Everyone is frustrated because the things that are Drew's greatest strengths as a coach he's absolutely not leaning into right now and he needs to get back to that.

IowaBear said:

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This all points back to roster construction imo. Hell you can tie most of the struggles to roster construction. We've entered this era where Drew has decided to routinely overhaul the roster on a year 2 year basis. That's on Drew, he's designing/building his teams in a way where overhauls are unavoidable. CSD is a friggin legend and a damm good coach. But the roster construction has to improve dramatically if Baylor is going to be a serious contender in the B12 and national stage going forward.

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I just pray he listens to your wisdom, realizes your genius, and follow your suggestions.

IowaBear said:

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We aren't guaranteed anything yet. Our resume is pretty bad with Arkansas falling off a cliff and St Johns being just ok. We have no marquee wins. I do think we would really have to faceplant to miss the tournament. But will need a record over .500 in league play imo to be safe. The next 2 are absolute must wins imo. Lose either of those and things get sticky

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We're still top-25 in the NET rankings. If we win the games we're supposed to -- and there are a lot of them on the schedule (including the next three) -- we'll be comfortably in the field.

I don't think this team has the ceiling to do any real damage in March. But our floor has proven to be pretty high. If you can't match our athleticism, we'll usually handle you. And that will be true of more than half the Big 12 this year.

Problem is we can't really point to a program that is doing what we're doing that has had any sustained success relying on sometimes80% or more of its personnel being freshman and transfers in key contributing roles.

It's been house money the last couple years with the natty but it's not an approach that will yield dividends.

Too much pessimism…Losses at Gonzaga, at Connecticut, at Iowa State and at Arizona. We now enter a favorable part of our schedule. Yes, we have to execute.

BUCANDOIT82 said:

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Too much pessimism…Losses at Gonzaga, at Connecticut, at Iowa State and at Arizona. We now enter a favorable part of our schedule. Yes, we have to execute.

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All but one of those games was over by halftime. And so was the neutral site Tennessee game. That's the problem. It's not that we're losing to good teams. It's that we don't belong on the court with good teams.

This program is supposed to be elite. It's not acceptable to be getting blown out regularly by anyone.

No perimeter shooting, horrific defense, and non-existent post play is the story of this season.

A team "1st Round Prospect" guards will no longer get the job done (deep tourney runs). CSD's program (err schtick) is sliding, and has been for 3 successive years.

CSD got lucky and caught lightning in a bottle with Teague, Butler, Mitchell, Flagler, and a team that played together for 3-4 years. And even then, there were Flo, Vidal, and Every Day John to round out a strong 5 at all times.

Sit back, remanence, and celebrate the 2021 season. Most schools never get close to even sniffing a Natty....let alone the Final 4. But.....it is looking very apparent that it is not going to happen again for CSD....or Baylor.

Sic'em

Cove Dawg said:

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No perimeter shooting, horrific defense, and non-existent post play is the story of this season.

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Non-existent post play?

Norchad Omier has an effective field goal percentage of 63 percent on 10 shots a game. By efficiency, he's probably a top-three post scorer in all of college basketball. And Ojianwuna is averaging a very respectable 8.3 points (on 77.8 percent shooting) and 7.3 rebounds per contest.

Post depth is a problem for this team, but post play has not been. Our problem is our guards, plain and simple. Our guards are simply not good enough this year to run the offense Scott Drew likes to employ, which is extremely disappointing given that this roster was built to be guard-dominated.