OsoCoreyell said:
I had a great talk with a local high-school coach about Baylor Men's B-ball. He's a "no sugar-coating" kind of guy. Also a big Memphis guy, so no natural homerism for Baylor. He told me the following:
1) Lot's of opposing recruiters have been saying for years that Drew uses a "specialized defense" that doesn't translate to good defensive skills in the NBA, and that NBA scouts know this and discount our talent. He said that worked well for a while, but that as more and more schools have been moving to a similar defense, including at Duke and NC, and as a lot of Baylor's NBA talent has actually got a better defensive rep than offensive, that has dropped off. Says the high-school coaches will respond to that now with "c'mon man!"
2) Says there is no denying that Drew and Tang LOVE their players and work hard to create a positive atmosphere. Says that millennials really value this and respond much more.
3) Says Baylor offers a much more authentic "college experience" than a lot of other top programs. Athletes are still treated differently, but that they are more a part of the campus than at other programs.
It wasn't all happy love. But he was pretty upbeat about our recruiting. He also said that the kids love that highlighter yellow stuff, and he can't understand why. I agree with him on this point.
good insight. I think Drew is really well respected among NBA execs. We play a lot of zone but not exclusively zone, big misconception on that among the common fan. And the zone is more of a match-up zone with man to man principles anyway. I know the coaching staff would say they were really disappointed in how the defense performed last season after Tristan's injury. Before Tristan's injury, we were top 25 in defensive efficiency but pretty bad on offense and then we flipped that the rest of the season as we reinvented our style of play to try and give us the best shot to win games.
Offensively, Scott Drew teams have been in the top 25 of KenPom offensive efficiency rankings for 10 out of the last 12 years. You can probably take it to the bank that we will be in the top 25 again this next season with so many returning players.
Defensively, we had been trending up significantly in recent years. We had been in the top 25, three out of the last 4 years coming into the season but we ended up #75 last year.
We should be top 25 in both categories this season which is why we are a legit final 4 contender. Tristan, Freddie, Flo, Mark and Mario give us plenty of rim protection in the paint. Davion Mitchell is a Jevon Carter type defender. May win defensive player of the year in the Big12. And we should get better defense from Butler, Bandoo and Mayer than we did last year. Macio Teague is another smart defender with a long wingspan.
I think we will be a lot like Virginia has been in recent years with our efficiency but I suspect we will play much faster due to Mitchell, Teague, Butler and Bandoo's experience in the backcourt. Enjoy the ride!