To the original topic tonight (Cincinnati game) gave a good illustration of the progress made by many players on this years team. Lead by Jana, she has turned into one of the better guards in the conference. Bella has made major strides and has become the most valuable player on the team. Buggs has become a great defensive player and has developed a mid range shot as well as being relentless on the boards. Jada has started hitting threes again after being in a horrendous slump. Played a very good floor game tonight. Sarah has accepted a lesser role on this team. She is letting the game come to her. Still very productive. I liked what I saw from Leti tonight. She could make a real difference next year. Overall we are beginning to regain our former confidence and now can better compete against a zone defense.

ChapBear said:

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To the original topic tonight (Cincinnati game) gave a good illustration of the progress made by many players on this years team. Lead by Jana, she has turned into one of the better guards in the conference. Bella has made major strides and has become the most valuable player on the team. Buggs has become a great defensive player and has developed a mid range shot as well as being relentless on the boards. Jada has started hitting threes again after being in a horrendous slump. Played a very good floor game tonight. Sarah has accepted a lesser role on this team. She is letting the game come to her. Still very productive. I liked what I saw from Leti tonight. She could make a real difference next year. Overall we are beginning to regain our former confidence and now can better compete against a zone defense.

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Good summary. Don't forget the return of Madison Bartley.

Both CNC and Aranda are/were terrible mis-hires....if you want nationally elite programs.

But, Rhoades is a genius and the best AD on the country.......uh right?

The two are NOT mutually exclusive. Rhoades is responsible for it all.

Sic'em

Leonidas said:

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ChapBear said:

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To the original topic tonight (Cincinnati game) gave a good illustration of the progress made by many players on this years team. Lead by Jana, she has turned into one of the better guards in the conference. Bella has made major strides and has become the most valuable player on the team. Buggs has become a great defensive player and has developed a mid range shot as well as being relentless on the boards. Jada has started hitting threes again after being in a horrendous slump. Played a very good floor game tonight. Sarah has accepted a lesser role on this team. She is letting the game come to her. Still very productive. I liked what I saw from Leti tonight. She could make a real difference next year. Overall we are beginning to regain our former confidence and now can better compete against a zone defense.

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Good summary. Don't forget the return of Madison Bartley.

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I don't agree with everything. However, I will say that Jana has adopted to the style of play and has made the most of her minutes. We, as a team, seem to be working ourselves out of our shooting slump. I still don't love how reliant we are on the outside shot, and I feel some holes need to be filled in the off season. But I don't hold my breath every time the ball is shot from beyond the arc. Still too many missed close range shots and not enough movement. Buggs tends to always be a step behind on the defensive side of the ball, and has struggled finishing for the most part. Blackwell misses more layups than I can count and Walker has gotten more erratic with each passing game. But, even with all that, if they can play within themselves and shoot at least 33% from behind the arc, we have a chance to beat anyone in the conference. AND I loved seeing Letty get some valuable minutes tonight. She needs the experience. We are going to need her height.

All that said, I do love our placement in Creme's braketology. Even as a 5 seed I like our matchups.

SirBearALot said:

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Early in the year CNC said the team was good and would be even better in March. Went 14 -0 and now 18- 6 ?

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And now we are 22 -6

I also liked what I saw from Lety. She still needs some development but she is improving.. Hopefully next year she will be ready for a lot more minutes.

Jana and Bella have improved so much this year! I expect Jana will be back next year and will be a team leader along with Bella and Buggs.

lol. Here yall go again with the "but Kim would have……" CNC should have……" Kim's gone. CNC is here. We have awesome players who are getting coached well. Let it go.

Baylor is 22-6. Lsu is 24-3. Lsu plays in a lesser conference. LSU has won two more games than Baylor , but ranked much higher because of Kim Mulkey's name.

Cp2310 said:

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Baylor is 22-6. Lsu is 24-3. Lsu plays in a lesser conference. LSU has won two more games than Baylor , but ranked much higher because of Kim Mulkey's name.

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You're going to have to convince me that the Big 12 is better than the SEC. I get you're looking at the AP Poll probably, but nothing I have seen make me think the Big 12 is a strong conference.

B12 is not a strong conference in any way shape or form. That's just a ridiculous statement. I'll go on record now we don't have any B12 teams get past the S16. LSU is ranked higher than Bu because they're better… not because of Mulkeys name.

Bear3 said:

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I also liked what I saw from Lety. She still needs some development but she is improving.. Hopefully next year she will be ready for a lot more minutes.

Jana and Bella have improved so much this year! I expect Jana will be back next year and will be a team leader along with Bella and Buggs.

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Lety appears to be mobile for her size, noticed her sprinting down the court a few times. She will need to avoid fouling so much, 3 in 7 minutes, and get more comfortable around the basket, looks like she gets sped up when she get the ball causing her to miss layups and turn the ball over. The great news is that she is a freshman and I'm confident she will continue to improve. A 6'7" rim protector/runner will make a change on both ends of the court.

Good lord - you must not watch much basketball. The Big 12 is nowhere near as competitive as the SEC.

Check the strength of schedule.

Strength of schedule and strength of conference are not the same thing. If you had actually watched any of the SEC conference games this year, this would not be a discussion.

Yes I have watched some SEC games. They are old school rivalry games. And ALL games count towards Strength of schedule. LSU has the 55th ranked SOS and they have South Carolina and Tennessee on their schedule. lol.

LSU would mop BU and I'm one of bigger BU homers around. Wouldn't be much of a game. Not sure why you keep using LSU as an example. They're ahead of BU in the rankings because they're better. It's not rocket science

I agree the SEC and the Big 12 at this time are the bottom two conferences. But do you feel these girls genuinely are not being coached at a good level at Baylor University? No other school just this one and if you don't why do you say that? If you do I want to know. I feel me and you look at the program in different ways but I just want to understand and see your point of view.

Where did I ever mention coaching ? I didnt. You just enjoy putting words into my mouth.
I've said before I think CNC is a good not great coach. I've also said anything less than the S16 is a failure. And I stand by that. Please point to where I said anything about coaching. Unless you're referring me thinking LSU would smoke BU? And they absolutely would
I don't really have a POV. I don't expect a lot to be honest. S16's 20-25 wins. Regularly competing at the top of a below average conference. I think I'm pretty easy to please as far as team accomplishments

I think any team can do good with lyss she was great. losing Dauda was tough but it's the truth she had to start over with building relationships to get recruits. Regardless she had to build relationships with coaches in AAU with players and sell her plan for the program. Even if Mulkey had people maybe they do not fit the system that coach Nicki wants. It's not like she came from another program and people somewhat knew her. I think our problem with big recruits is NIL and what we offer in that aspect but we will thrive in the portal. The staff has had some short ends of the stick with injuries. This year our problem is height. Losing Bartley was huge just with height and depth. Even with her not at full strength the team appeared comfortable. At the beginning of the season coach said Jada has had a small list of plays while she is the point, I'm sure it has grown but she wasn't a point guard at Kentucky she was there off guard and always guarded the other teams best guard. She is having some learning curves much like Jana had a year ago. But we see the jump Jana was able to make with minimal play time I think Jada can do the same. I think Yaya will be able to play in space and more in control. I believe in the player development in this system and it has shown from the players that carried over. Look and Bella , Buggs, and Jana Jaden is a good example, and Bickle. Hopefully Kyla can be the answer and if not we have to get a big the portal especially with Aijha and Dre leaving. Love Baylor and love he staff and team and the potential of where we can go.

I also would like to say I am happy we get to play Iowa State again potentially in the tournament so we can have e a chance to make up for the loss. And the the same with OU. Both games if we play the right way are win able.

I struggle with the coaching question. Between the huge limitations of the current roster of players and their lack of court and in-game awareness at times, our record is really what it should be except for the BYU loss. That was a terrible loss. I was also surprised at how badly Kansas beat us at their place, but our record is what it is. We are not a better team than OU, Texas, K-State, and Iowa State. We are a 5 Seed. The only areas that I don't understand at times about CNC are her substitution patterns, TO calls (really lack of), and in-game adjustments. All of those areas though may be due to the current roster construction. It really has major limitations along with Sarah not playing like I thought she would throughout her senior year. I thought she would be up for conference player of the year.

I did not mean to make it seem like I was putting words in your mouth but that is what this thread is about. So I was wanting your take on it that's it. And when I say coach I'm talking the ability to develop to potential be one of those top teams. I'm not coming at you wanting to argue my point verses yours but just to see your ideas sorry I used a discussion board to ask another poster a question.

That's fair I misread your post.
I think CNC is a brilliant basketball mind.
My biggest issue with her is probably what my biggest issue with Mulkey was.
Usage of TO's I feel she waits too long when teams go on big runs and bury us. I just have never understood not using TO's to stop the bleeding (Drew is a master at this)

My point is when you have a name you can play a # 55 ranked sos and stay on top. CNC is taking a different route. She is trying to rebuild a program. She could have easily scheduled cupcakes to pad her win total and give the appearance that they are on track. She schedules tough games to put her team through the fire so they will be well tested in March. I understand her plan. They played so many tough games early that they hit a wall midseason. Now they are coming out of it and playing some of their best basketball.as far as lsu goes I'm just showing how each team is taking a different path based on their name and roster. When Kim was here she did the same thing. She scheduled 1 top team a year in preseason and would loose 2 sometimes 3 games in conference. Secure a # 1 or 2 seed. This pretty much garunteed close to 30 wins a season.

franke said:

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To be fair, Mulkey's first year team was a lot of holdovers from previous regime plus Alexis Morris. NIL had little bearing on overachieving with that team. That overachieving I think set them up pretty good to compete for the best "free agents" in year two.

It's a combo of winning and NIL that gets your players. I still don't believe that if you give a cellar-dweller a ton of NIL money that it would move the needle that much. Baylor has been slow to the NIL game, but if they get it up, the culture of winning is there.

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It makes you wonder how things will go long term.

Let's say in the future, there is some sort of revenue sharing model with football and the TV revenue.

Well, the lady's are SOL because they don't make money. So I guess 100% of what they get is going to be NIL because you cannot share (TV Revenue) what you don't make.

i wonder if it could be the importance of having them end game? I feel the men have a lot more media timeouts it just feels that way but maybe that can be because Drew uses his a lot more. But I get both sides of it for sure. I think it is nice to have timeout for situations like the WV game but could we have stopped it with using more time outs? I get that for sure!!

Cp2310 said:

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My point is when you have a name you can play a # 55 ranked sos and stay on top. CNC is taking a different route. She is trying to rebuild a program. She could have easily scheduled cupcakes to pad her win total and give the appearance that they are on track. She schedules tough games to put her team through the fire so they will be well tested in March. I understand her plan. They played so many tough games early that they hit a wall midseason. Now they are coming out of it and playing some of their best basketball.as far as lsu goes I'm just showing how each team is taking a different path based on their name and roster. When Kim was here she did the same thing. She scheduled 1 top team a year in preseason and would loose 2 sometimes 3 games in conference. Secure a # 1 or 2 seed. This pretty much garunteed close to 30 wins a season.

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Baylor played so many tough games early? Who? Questioning a coach that has won 4 national championships is stupid!!

Oh the men absolutely have more media timeouts now that the woman have gone to quarters. In fact it's double. Men have 8 woman just 4. That may play a role in how she goes about TO's

IowaBear said:

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Oh the men absolutely have more media timeouts now that the woman have gone to quarters. In fact it's double. Men have 8 woman just 4. That may play a role in how she goes about TO's

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Yes. They removed half because they view the "end of the quarter" as a time out. I don't fully agree with it and don't love how the media tie out works in the fourth but it does speed up the game.

IowaBear said:

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LSU would mop BU and I'm one of bigger BU homers around. Wouldn't be much of a game. Not sure why you keep using LSU as an example. They're ahead of BU in the rankings because they're better. It's not rocket science

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It pains me to agree with IowaBear but their talent level is above ours, at this time. That old statement of "she could take hers and beat yours and she could take yours and beat hers" does not apply here. Don't get me wrong, I love our girls and I believe Baylor will narrow the gap, eventually, as we continue to build a system and recruit more 4/5 star players.

Yup things can switch on a dime. I just want us to find away into the S16 this year. Take that next step under Collen and get to the 2nd weekend.

So many Kim lovers, I suggest they follow her to Lsu. They are not fans of baylor. Please take your fake Fandom and move to baton Rouge

mickeyjoe said:

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So many Kim lovers, I suggest they follow her to Lsu. They are not fans of baylor. Please take your fake Fandom and move to baton Rouge

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Real question: do you have an extra chromosome?

It's perfectly within fandom to question the trajectory of your team… blindly following is how you end up drinking the kool-aid

Dude… SEC would mop Big12 this year. It's okay to admit that. Conferences ebb and flow. CNC has had a few years to find a decent post player or coach one up and she hasn't. It is okay to question this. Mulkey quickly won a natty at her new school. It's okay to point this out. CNC is trying to fill a hall of famers shoes which isn't easy so I'm giving her a little leeway, but at some point we have to show out in the tourney. We have to get past simply competing with top teams and actually beat them.

BigGameBaylorBear said:

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I would be okay with taking the money out of our women's basketball and putting it back into our baseball

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College baseball is a minor sport that very few people care about.
Regular season college baseball games are almost never on TV.

The sports that deserve the most support are the ones that give you the most visibility on television.

Our womens basketball program has put Baylor University on the map.