Losing from time to time is a part of life.
Nobody's perfect.

There is a noticeable gap between the top tier teams, usually the top six or eight teams in the country, and the second tier, the next ten. Remove a key player due to injury and the gap narrows, while elevating the other top teams in tier one or two. Lauren's injury happened at a time when we were going on the road to play a three game in three days tournament against solid competition. The timing was great for South Carolina and not good for the Lady Bears, as it negated the advantage that Baylor enjoys when Cox is on the floor. Add into that the poor shooting night for Baylor, some of that due to fatigue and the good defense and stellar rebounding of South Carolina, and the loss, which was not as bad as the score indicated to those unable to follow the game, resulted.

Mulkey found out out what she needed to know about her team and she will address it up ahead. The defense was not what we have come to expect, the interior is undersized against the top tier teams and at this time DeGrate does not seem to be quite ready to play effectively at that pace and that level, and Bickle is just too small for the role that she had thrust upon her in that game. We know that Egbo, for whatever reason, has always had the tendency to foul and it kept her on the bench in the summer 19 and Under World Tournament, despite very good statistics when she was on the floor. Smith had a poor game against Indiana, but did well against South Carolina. She was not as good, however, as she needs to be in the absence of Cox, and she probably knows that. She will get even better as the season goes along.

Baylor experienced the same thing against South Carolina that other teams experienced against us the last three years, and that was dominance in the paint and critical rebounding at both ends of the floor, but particularly at the offensive end at critical points. We were bullied in the same manner as we bullied other teams with Brown and Cox, and in the absence of Cox we just did not have the size or the personnel to do much about it. South Carolina got too many second chance points and too many easy looks at the hoop, and forced us to work hard for our own baskets. Against Indiana Boston accumulated fouls that sent her to the bench for long periods, but the early departure of Egbo enabled her to stay on the floor against Baylor and that was the difference in the game. We lost our starting center for much of the game, they kept theirs.

Many fans of the Lady Bear team were over rating the recruiting class from last year, as it had too many players falling into the same general range of size and skill and no one over 6'3", and no pure point guard to replace the departed Morris. Cooper has to perform at a more prolific pace than she demonstrated in this tournament if the Lady Bears are going to be a dominant team. Without a dominant presence inside of the kind we have had in the past, the perimeter players have to defend and score. Landrum is a high quality three point shooter but does not seem to look for her shot unless left wide open, and that hurts a team that is in need of perimeter shooting in order to open up the middle for penetration and for our interior players to operate.
We saw South Carolina, not a particularly capable three point shooting team, hit three shots from beyond the arc in the first quarter and that put the Lady Bears back on their heels and they never really recovered their defensive balance.

Didi and Lauren are two of the best defenders in the women's game. Lauren was out due to injury and Didi was for some reason not herself in this game. Give South Carolina credit for the latter, as they played at what was probably their highest level and held the Baylor women off each time they began to surge toward a lead. The end of the game was disappointing because the Lady Bears let it get out of hand. Mulkey could not have been pleased with that, and neither I am sure, are the players. They will be a better team as a result of this loss, but clearly Lauren has to return in shape to play well if this team is to be among the elite teams in the game. I apologize for stating the obvious, but it has not been as obvious before as this game made it appear to be.

So true. CKM is brilliant, hence the 3 national titles. God bless Coach Mulkey! We certainly are blessed to have her at Baylor.

historian said:

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So true. CKM is brilliant, hence the 3 national titles. God bless Coach Mulkey! We certainly are blessed to have her at Baylor.

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We are blessed to have her - but lets give a shout out to Alex Olson here as well - He is the one who is tasked with tapping Mulkey on the shoulder and telling her she is ready to go. Lauren trusts him and so does her family. We are blessed to have him as well

Lauren is no longer wearing a boot. That has to be a good sign.

I posted this ib the thread, "When Cox comes back! but though it was good enough news to post here also.
Looks like Lauren is practing with no boot as of Wednesday, Dec 11, 209

"

Lauren Cox Injury Update
Dec 17, 2019

"Mulkey said on Tuesday that preseason All-American forward Lauren Cox is close to being back on the court. But Cox will watch the Arkansas State game from the bench.

"She has been cleared to play, but I'm not going to play her until we get back," Mulkey said. "What good would (playing against Arkansas State) do? We're leaving after the game tomorrow. Then we'll be off for a little while and come back and play Morehead State. Hopefully, she'll be ready to go and in enough shape to where she feels like she can contribute."

- Chad Conine, Waco Tribune-Herald