IowaBear said:
Where have I dismissed the facts?
This is by definition a talented roster…
Scott 5 star
Kyla, Jana, DLB, BELLA, Ines, Nelms, Marcella all high 4 stars. This isn't a talent issue. This is in fact one of the most talented rosters in the B12.
I get it… some don't think coaching has anything to do with why they keep getting ran out of the gym by teams with equal or slightly better talent. But acting like this isn't CNCs most talented roster since Mulkey left her a handful of all B12 players is just inaccurate. We can all agree that Miles is the best player in the B12. Not 1 person has denied that. But people acting like TCYU has all this superior talent are coping HARD. Suarez wasn't even close to superstar level until she got to TCU/B12. Scott is in fact better than her. And the numbers largely support that. Put Miles on this team and Scott's numbers are even better.
This is a message board and these are just opinions. But anyone who doesn't think coaching matter simply doesn't know ball I'm sorry if that sounds rude. But it's reality. And I'm in no way saying that's you. But your posts to me read like you want to blame everyone but CNC. And that's not reality. At least for me. It always starts and ends with coaching
I guess you can call it what you want, talent or something else, but ratings out of high school do not mean the player will perform at that level in college. It can be physical, it can be mental, it can be a simple case of being a big fish in a small pond against high school level competition then hitting a wall when having to play against people with similar or better skills. We know in every sport that high school recruiting rankings are often bad at predicting future success. You have to see what they do in college. If you want to say this team has the highest recruiting rankings out of high school, OK. I'll trust you on that.
And yes, it can be coaching. But when I see players who come up to big games and can't make something even close to their normal shooting for
open, non-contested shots, to me, that is indicating the player is really not as good as advertised, and I don't see how that can be laid back on the coach at that point in time. The coach can probably make them better in other areas, but I don't see how it affects this aspect They have the same coach whether they are hitting those shots in one game and not in others, more so than just normal, expected variance.
I've stated earlier why I was skeptical this team actually being better than last year's, so I won't repeat in detail. I don't think the addition of Scott and K. Johnson in the starting lineup with Deng possibly off the bench overall made us better (and IMO, not as good) than having Walker and Vonleh with Felder coming off the bench. I would take YaYa over Deng every day. It looked overall weaker to me. Now if Scott could consistently get her shot, it might be different, but we haven't had this year any consistency outside or anything close to an inside game as we had with Vonleh to allow Scott to get her shot against the better teams, and then when she gets to the big game she can't even make the open ones. That inconsistency has got to detract from whatever talent level you want to assign her.
I think you made a good point about putting Miles on the team and Scott being better. Is it possible that Miles being on the TCU team made their other players better? I believe so.
Yes, I think coaching matters, but I also know that coaching is no longer the only piece to the puzzle. And I'm not blaming anyone for anything because my expectations sadly, but certainly, were immediately reset when KM walked out the door. I had been concerned for that day coming for years when she started having health issues. I just thought it would never be done in a way that dumped the program under the bus as it did. And certainly didn't consider such things at that time when it eventually would come as legal pay for play and a lessened conference.
I recognize that it is unrealistic to believe that Baylor WBB will ever reach anywhere close to where we have been unless something really changes. Could a coach like Campbell make a difference? Possibly, but I don't see us overcoming a bidding war with the SEC, B1G or ACC or overcoming our conference affiliation to get
enough of the big time recruits and transfers such as you get in those leagues to challenge SS and above teams as we once did. So, it might get us to the top of the Big XII, but might still not get us to the second weekend, although I think TCU has a good change of getting past your earlier stated belief that no XII team would get to the SS this year.
I realized a long time ago the difference between "reasons' and "excuses". Reasons are things that keep you from achieving your maximum performance for which you have little or likely no control over and are of such a nature that the deficiency is just too great to overcome. Excuses are things that keep you from that performance, but are things that you could control, but don't. For example, in the first Tech game, I think it reasonable to believe had we had Scott for that entire game and at full strength at that point in the season, we would have won that game. That to me is a "reason" that greatly contributed to the loss. She was injured. Had Scott not played because of academic issues or violation of team rules, that is an excuse as someone did not do something to stay on top of things to prevent those things from happening.
I have not been happy with everything CNC does. Perhaps not happy is not the right words...didn't understand may be closer to the truth because I only see what I see in games and read here. I don't know what limitations she may be under and how those match up with our conference peers. I wish we knew that. I might be in your camp. The problem may be at a higher pay grade than her. Football is going to suck up most of the pay for play money at Baylor. It is ridiculous to believe otherwise. That is what the overall fan base wants. But I think that is a reason that has to be considered as to why we have not been able to close on the elite recruits and transfers that have had us in their last 3 or 5, but yet went to the SEC or ACC. If they weren't that interested in Collen or Baylor we wouldn't get that far into the selection process.
Whatever you think of the talent we have this year or don't, one thing is for certain. We don't have the level we had with KM (a magnet coach) before NIL started and OUT left. Those are the biggest three reasons I see and regardless of who might replace CNC, Baylor can likely do nothing about the first and last of those three. First, we don't have a HOF coach. We know we are spending less money than the programs with which we use to compete for national recognition and thirdly we are in a conference that the top recruits only see as a last resort...unless the money is there for a year to lure them away from where they may want to get away from.
I'm sorry we don't see eye to eye on the talent thing. It can certainly be questioned as to why these players are not playing at a "high 4 star" level in college, but I don't think I am qualified to get into that discussion because I don't have the information that would be needed for an intelligent discussion. Perhaps it boils down to Campbell having the magic words and actions and Collen does not. But I suspect there is more to it than that. All I know is that I took in the pre-season your assessment and respecting your opinion I was enthused. But once I saw them on the court and looking back to last year, I just didn't think we would be as competitive.
I believe coaching matters but I also think other things matter as well....reasons, not excuses. Campbell might very well do better here than Collen, but I am skeptical that it would be much more than marginal because I just don't think the administration will commit (might even want to, but can't) to putting in the resources to make us competitive enough on the pay front to be at the top of our league in that respect, much less nationally. I don't know how Campbell would make much headway on that front unless he has connections to rich donors that would donate just because of him. The TCU administration and boosters may be more accommodative.
So I think you could replace Collen with anyone you choose that could reasonably be expected to come. I just don't think it would matter all that much. And that is not giving her performance a pass. She has not maximized the talent or for whatever reason not had the right mix of players, but I also believe there is a ceiling on what we can expect regardless of whoever stands on the sideline that is out of her control and that of any successor.
I've gone on way too long and will stop. I don't think I can add anything further to the conversation that I haven't already expressed.
