Losing to Iowa hurt, especially since it took overtime to barely beat Davidson as well. I was hoping for 12.

Losing to Iowa hurt. The fact we haven't won a game comfortable and have had several cupcake opportunities hurts even more.

We're lucky we only fell to #15.

Should probably be lower, if we're being honest with ourselves.

We have not played well at all (minus the LeMoyne game).

Will be curious to see where we land in the coach's poll.

Being honest with oneself is a big ask. Sometimes a little self-delusion is pretty helpful, at least in the short run.

I can't help but sense some discord amongst the players. Granted, they have not played together long, and there's a "getting to know you" period. Is there some resentment from the veteran players towards the new ones? Scott is becoming a ball hog. Is she becoming frustrated with her teammates because she senses that's the only way we get points? And others get frustrated because she won't share and give them a chance? On the bright side, Deng and Nelms stepping up.

Scott has always been a ball. She's taking over 16 shots per game in her college career. That was known prior to Bu signing her.
I agree she's taking way too many attempts. But until a consistent secondary scorer emerges that's going to continue.

I think some are really going out of their way to find something to nitpick. The only cupcake I would consider is La Moyne, which we handled easily. UNVL just lost to Arizona State (home) by 3. Davidson lost by 8 to Miami who gave Iowa all they could handle and Iowa is now ranked 11th, a team we should have beaten if only by making free throws. I think you need to look beyond a school's name before declaring them a cupcake based on how things may have been just a few years ago.

I think you have to expect some things early in the season when a bunch of new players are learning to play with each other and the staff is working on figuring out the best rotations. We have seen our team get better as the season progresses every year under these circumstances (bringing in a lot of transfers). I would be greatly surprised if that wasn't the case this year....barring of course impactful injuries.

Concerning ranking. I don't think you can tell much about anything at this point except the top 6 or 7 seem to be ahead of everyone else. I thought the TCU win against NCST was notable, but then NCST flopped against Rhode Island. So much for TCU's impressive win, just like ours over Duke. I think you will see a lot of churning in the top 25 with the exception of the top few in the coming weeks. The name on the jersey just does not tell the story of a team's strength as it did just a few years ago because of the portal.

I've harped on parity a lot the last several years and it has been moving up from the lower levels aided by the portal. I think that is what we are seeing in the lower two-thirds of the top 25 plus those teams in the next 15-20 or so. The separation between these teams is getting narrower and narrower.

However, I think this free agency that allows the rich programs to pump seemingly unlimited money into the equation has allowed those at the very top that have the monetary resources to be back to an almost untouchable status as they can pretty much lure in whoever they want. You know the list....UConn, SC, UT, LSU, etc. Not even Tennessee or Notre Dame is keeping up at this point with those teams they used to compete with on a yearly basis for a NC.

I am hopeful that Deng's breakout this past game is not a one-off and I don't think it will be. There is also another mix into the equation for us if we can ever get Ines and Ella on the court. We don't know what they might bring to the table as we haven't seen them.

I just can't get too worked up over making season-long predictions based on things I am seeing right now. I see this or that, but I have seen the same types of things from Baylor WBB teams for 20 years and in all but a few of those years it was something that simply took some time to get straightened out before we got deep into conference and the NCAAs. The one thing that really does bother me about this year, however, is that I think we got hosed on the conference schedule with playing the top top teams on the road without a return trip to Waco (except for TCU). That is going to make it a lot tougher.

The difference is that TCU never trailed in the 2nd half of that NC State contest, and absolutely dominated the Wolfpack on their homecourt.

They've also handled business with ease and have trounced everyone else on their schedule to date.

Meanwhile, we've struggled in every game except the LeMoyne contest.

At this point, there is no question that TCU will be the team to beat in the Big XII, followed by Iowa State.

So that puts us as the 3rd best team in conference at the moment, assuming West Virginia doesn't replace us there.

No sense in trying to downplay other conference foes at this point.

I think we've seen enough through 6 games to know we aren't the best team in conference at the moment.

And if we don't make some adjustments rather quickly, we won't come close to finishing the season as the best team.

I don't think the problem is that Scott is a ball hog. I think the issue is that Bella and Buggs haven't quite figured out to adjust to having another superstar on the court at the same time. I think they will, and when they do, the three of them will be dangerous for any team we play.

LTBear19 said:

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The difference is that TCU never trailed in the 2nd half of that NC State contest, and absolutely dominated the Wolfpack on their homecourt.

They've also handled business with ease and have trounced everyone else on their schedule to date.

Meanwhile, we've struggled in every game except the LeMoyne contest.

At this point, there is no question that TCU will be the team to beat in the Big XII, followed by Iowa State.

So that puts us as the 3rd best team in conference at the moment, assuming West Virginia doesn't replace us there.

No sense in trying to downplay other conference foes at this point.

I think we've seen enough through 6 games to know we aren't the best team in conference at the moment.

And if we don't make some adjustments rather quickly, we won't come close to finishing the season as the best team.

---

I wrote nothing about the relative strength of teams in the conference. Only pointed out that what seem like impressive wins in the early season, don't always pan out that well as the team you beat isn't quite the team people thought they were. That is a generic statement that can be seen across the country in both men's and women's games year after year. It wasn't too many years ago that Baylor fans got all excited about the men beating Kentucky early in the year......Kentucky then turned out to not be real good that year.....and neither were we.

How you get from my statement that I am downgrading anybody in the conference is your agenda, not mine. No one, I don't believe, here or elsewhere has said TCU wasn't the team to beat, they won the conference last year for crying out loud, and their win against NCST was impressive....until NCST lost to Rhode Island which takes some luster off of it. I would hope TCU would trounce everyone else on their schedule thus far. Who on their schedule thus far has really been up to the level of UNLV or even Davidson?

Of course adjustments are made as the season moves on. Every team makes adjustments during the season. That is why they improve over the season as we have done each of the last several years.

I really don't see how you can enjoy watching a Baylor game. I know you have no confidence in CNC, but that is who we have and under the realities of our NIL situation I understand the obstacles we face with recruiting . I question some of the things that CNC does, but I don't see any positive outcome of me going onto a message board to nitpick on situations that are matters of opinion at best, even among coaches.

I'm sure you are a good guy, but it is a waste of time for us to discuss anything. If we did agree on something, you would bring up something else.

ctxbear said:

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I don't think the problem is that Scott is a ball hog. I think the issue is that Bella and Buggs haven't quite figured out to adjust to having another superstar on the court at the same time. I think they will, and when they do, the three of them will be dangerous for any team we play.

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I share your hope. There have been a couple of times when I thought Scott had turned into Jada Walker....driving into places where there is no where to go and the trees are too tall to get off a shot with even a prayer of getting a foul called. Hopefully Deng emerging will also improve the situation.

blackie said:

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LTBear19 said:

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The difference is that TCU never trailed in the 2nd half of that NC State contest, and absolutely dominated the Wolfpack on their homecourt.

They've also handled business with ease and have trounced everyone else on their schedule to date.

Meanwhile, we've struggled in every game except the LeMoyne contest.

At this point, there is no question that TCU will be the team to beat in the Big XII, followed by Iowa State.

So that puts us as the 3rd best team in conference at the moment, assuming West Virginia doesn't replace us there.

No sense in trying to downplay other conference foes at this point.

I think we've seen enough through 6 games to know we aren't the best team in conference at the moment.

And if we don't make some adjustments rather quickly, we won't come close to finishing the season as the best team.

---

I wrote nothing about the relative strength of teams in the conference. Only pointed out that what seem like impressive wins in the early season, don't always pan out that well as the team you beat isn't quite the team people thought they were. That is a generic statement that can be seen across the country in both men's and women's games year after year. It wasn't too many years ago that Baylor fans got all excited about the men beating Kentucky early in the year......Kentucky then turned out to not be real good that year.....and neither were we.

How you get from my statement that I am downgrading anybody in the conference is your agenda, not mine. No one, I don't believe, here or elsewhere has said TCU wasn't the team to beat, they won the conference last year for crying out loud, and their win against NCST was impressive....until NCST lost to Rhode Island which takes some luster off of it. I would hope TCU would trounce everyone else on their schedule thus far. Who on their schedule thus far has really been up to the level of UNLV or even Davidson?

Of course adjustments are made as the season moves on. Every team makes adjustments during the season. That is why they improve over the season as we have done each of the last several years.

I really don't see how you can enjoy watching a Baylor game. I know you have no confidence in CNC, but that is who we have and under the realities of our NIL situation I understand the obstacles we face with recruiting . I question some of the things that CNC does, but I don't see any positive outcome of me going onto a message board to nitpick on situations that are matters of opinion at best, even among coaches.

I'm sure you are a good guy, but it is a waste of time for us to discuss anything. If we did agree on something, you would bring up something else.

---

I am shocked.

This is the FIRST time that you have remotely said anything that resembles questioning CNC. At least that I can think of.

And that is probably why we have not seen eye to eye on many topics pertaining to women's basketball these last few years.

Contrary to popular belief, I'd absolutely love to see CNC thrive as our head coach.

But up to this point, there have been many questionable moves/decisions made by her that have made me and others on here have doubts.

And I, like many others, probably aren't going to just stand by and clap like nothing's wrong.

Just because one isn't on staff does not mean that their observations are invalid.

It just seems that you have gone out of your way to vouch for CNC no matter what moves she makes, even when a casual fan can see that a decision that was made was questionable, at best.

And for those of us who actually follow basketball closely and would like to believe that we understand the ins and outs of the game, some of those questionable decisions tend to stand out even more.

It's quite similar to those fans who backed Kim Mulkey no matter what, which is funny, because we are both on the same page when it comes to not putting our former coach up on a pedestal (like many on here continue to do).

At the end of the day, we all want our team to win.

But it's also OK to point out things that are going wrong, because believe it or not, maybe someone close to the program might take the constructive criticism to heart and actually think about whether there is some validity to it.

I know, wishful thinking, but I'd be shocked if fans are the ONLY ones reading these boards.

Especially since Sicem365 is really the only board where us Baylor folks can come together and discuss our athletic programs. The good and the bad.

Not every message board needs to be full of sunshine pumpers. And as long as folks are being respectful to one another and not name-calling, we should welcome different viewpoints and opinions.

And despite our own back-and-forths, I've always felt we've been professional and respectful of one another.

At the end of the day, we'll probably disagree on some things, and agree on others. That's the nature of a message board. At least those not named Texags.

I can't speak for everyone else who has been critical of this staff at times, but my frustration comes from the fact that we have had teams capable of winning trophies and making deep tourney runs each of the last 4 years - but there have been times where I didnt feel our girls were placed in the absolute best position to win key games (and for me personally, it all came to a head during that two-week stretch in March where we lost to TCU twice and Ole Miss at home).

As a coach, if you put your team in the best position to win, and the players just don't execute, then that's all I can ask of the coach.

Hopefully CNC can figure it out this year, because if we can put the pieces together quickly, we can still challenge for the Big XII Title and possibly make a deep run in March.

And if we can do those things, I will gladly give CNC her props and be more than happy to eat some seasoned crow.

And for the record, I enjoy reading your comments, even though we might disagree at times, because it's obvious you are a big fan of the program and want us to succeed as much as anyone on this board.