Bears move to 3-0 with a 20 pt win over Romania.

Stefano DiMera said:

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Bears move to 3-0 with a 20 pt win over Romania.

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Glad to see we are playing well though not at full strength. Still a lot to work out but there is a lot to like about the new team. Williams and Carr impressed me. We seem to be more athletic and show more aggressiveness on d, even with a big lead.

USA beats romainia 85-65

I didn't see last 2 quarters

https://rhineruhr2025.com/en/schedule#/team-players/BKB/M/TEAM5-------------/GPB-/000600--

Scatter shooting thoughts:

FT shooting woes never seem to end at Baylor
Skillings is athletic followed closely by a turnover waiting to happen
Williams needs to forget about PT and focus on shooting technique.
Powell is better than anticipated.
Carr needs to stop mugging after every layup/dunk
White is a serviceable backup not a starter
Make a couple of shots and the following possession is one pass and forced three. Stringing together solid O possessions needs much work.
D looks OK. Not great but much further along (at this point) than past few years.
Front line will be very good. Backcourt needs much work.
Carr looks like Plastic Man on backside zone D. His length is crazy.
White and Agbim play very small on D.
Might be the best overall collection at 5 that Baylor has ever fielded.
Very Baylor to dribble into a crowded short corner and pickup the dribble leading to a live ball turnover.
Really solid athleticism. "Thinking the game" needs work.

Three games and three wins.

BearFan33 said:

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historian said:

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The final box score should be out soon

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https://rhineruhr2025.com/en/schedule#/team-players/BKB/M/TEAM5-------------/GPB-/000300--

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Thanks. I was thinking of Baylor's web site but the source doesn't matter.

Agree on FT shooting.

You hit it exactly right with White. He can give us nice minutes off the bench but starting pg is a real concern. Wright hurt us badly here.

Obi has length but does play a little small on D. I see that too. He has nice scoring punch though.

Carr can be special if he puts his head down and keeps working. Nice feel for the game with nba size and athleticism. Looks as good as anyone could have hoped at this stage.

Skilling's ceiling is high if Drew and the UVA coach can drill in his mind to focus all game. Good energy.. many mental lapses. Still good player.

Williams is an athlete trying to develop skills.. Drew brought him in knowing his shot was broken. They're going to work with him over time. Reminds me of the dude from Houston that was a good athlete but had almost no skill. Willed himself into a decent energy player this past year. Williams could become that.

Where can I rewatch the full games?

JTM said:

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Where can I rewatch the full games?

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maybe some here

https://www.fisu.tv/rhine-ruhr-2025-fisu-games-summer-replays

Thanks

so even with an improved defense it seems it opens up the offense more as we dropped over 100 again. weird how that works…..i like this team a lot and we haven't even got the whole roster together yet.

53% free throw shooting
50% three pointers

no matter what Scott Drew does, we can never have a good FT shooting team. How can this be fixed?

Bear2014 said:

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53% free throw shooting
50% three pointers

no matter what Scott Drew does, we can never have a good FT shooting team. How can this be fixed?

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I've noticed on a couple of occasions (in general not this team) where players had higher shooting % from 3 than the foul line; a lot of explanations come to mind, but the one that makes the most sense is you get better at the shots you work on the most, focus on. Quincy Acy as a freshman was as bad a free throw shooter as I ever saw. He left Baylor a slightly better than average one.

Bear2014 said:

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53% free throw shooting
50% three pointers

no matter what Scott Drew does, we can never have a good FT shooting team. How can this be fixed?

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Keep shooting.

Bear2014 said:

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53% free throw shooting
50% three pointers

no matter what Scott Drew does, we can never have a good FT shooting team. How can this be fixed?

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shoot FT from the back of the key

On to the semifinals! 🇺🇸#SicEm | #CultureofJOY pic.twitter.com/nQumdR3doL

— Baylor Men’s Basketball (@BaylorMBB) July 23, 2025

Bear2014 said:

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53% free throw shooting
50% three pointers

no matter what Scott Drew does, we can never have a good FT shooting team. How can this be fixed?

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This past season we shot 74.7% from the line as a team...not great (6th in the league but not terrible, Arizona was on top with 78%). The prior 2 years we scored more from the line than anyone else in the conference as we attempted over 22 ft per game. Do you want to know our worst Free throw season--we shot barely 70% from the line and attempted only 16.67 free throws a game--that was our NC team.
One thing I noticed, we were way down in free throw attempts in 24-25 from the prior 2 years. Nunn went from 117 attempts in 23-24 to 40. We went from 16.5point a game from the foul line in 23-24 to 13.7 this year. One of the areas where we need to improve.

Rataj had ridiculous numbers for Germany too. Our set of forwards and wings will be a problem.

Nice win against Finland. We shot very well
Williams is really good at driving to and scoring at the rim

27-10-3 statline for Germany.

Consensus that Rataj has been best player in tournament.

Brazil beat Germany so we don't have to deal with home crowd Saturday if we win today!!

saucebob said:

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Brazil beat Germany so we don't have to deal with home crowd Saturday if we win today!!

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thats good news! lets just win, baby!

Carr and free throws, yeesh.

So far the former Russians are tougher than our guys.

USA started out down 19-6.

Down 35-31 at the half.


Just 9-20 on free throws.

On defense, we definitely look like a team that has been together for about a month.

Carr is gonna be a tremendous addition. He's definitely gotta get better at FT shooting but his wingspan gives him all kinds of advantages on both ends of the floor. Excited to see a mixture of Skillings, Carr and Rataj on the court at the same time in the Fall.

Much better D in the 3rd and 4th quarter, although gotta learn to put a body on someone and not give up easy buckets inside.

Tied at 59.

Impressed with Skillings and Carr's hustle.

Skillings is a beast.

RansomBU said:

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Skillings is a beast.

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Good Skillings is very good. Bad Skillings is very bad.

Grand Canyon exists between the two ends of his spectrum.

The one constant I've seen from all 5 games is that our Achilles heel is likely going to be PG play. We have a long way to go there, although I'm sure we will see some progress during the Fall as all of these guys practice and play together over several months.

Big12Fan2024 said:

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The one constant I've seen from all 5 games is that our Achilles heel is likely going to be PG play. We have a long way to go there, although I'm sure we will see some progress during the Fall as all of these guys practice and play together over several months.

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Ya I'm curious if we're going to see increased full court press and ball pressure because of not having a true PG. Hoping all the athletic wings that can threaten with the ball in their hands will alleviate that,

Also hoping we can just get out and run more, so we have loss shots with the defense set. this is going to be Drew's toughest job in a while to construct an efficient offense with the $3.5M hole in the backcourt. But at this point, between Rob (who it turned out was ultimately in it for just Rob---not that he's the only one, but there are at least some Sawyers in the world that turn down bigger bucks) and all these longer athletes, I'll take the longer athletes and trust Drew can figure out how to get us into a half court offense when needed. If nothing else we have some grown men that look like they can at least attack the basket and try to get fouled if nothing else, then crash the boards with Bodo Bodo and company.

saucebob said:

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So far the former Russians are tougher than our guys.

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Former commies, not Russians.
Lithuanians were never Russians although similar ethnically & linguistically.

Big12Fan2024 said:

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The one constant I've seen from all 5 games is that our Achilles heel is likely going to be PG play. We have a long way to go there, although I'm sure we will see some progress during the Fall as all of these guys practice and play together over several months.

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Lack of a starter quality PG is a worry. Lack of enough dependable 3 point shooting might be an even bigger worry.

the paint looked like a mosh pit today until some 3s finally fell.

historian said:

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saucebob said:

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So far the former Russians are tougher than our guys.

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Former commies, not Russians.
Lithuanians were never Russians although similar ethnically & linguistically.

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You are right. I stand corrected.