The Agony of March and the End of an Era

DENVER — As Keyonte George walked off the court for what I would bet my life will be his final time as a Bear, he was inconsolable. Tweety Carter, Jalen Bridges and others tried to pick him up. He’d given his all and come up short. 

Baylor fell to Creighton 85-76. I don’t believe there’s anything Baylor could have done to beat Creighton playing this well. Others can disagree. Several players did. “There’s definitely a difference,” LJ Cryer told me in the locker room about if Baylor could have done anything tonight. “It starts with myself. I missed a few box outs.” 

With all due respect to Cryer, I don’t believe Baylor — this iteration — could have beaten Creighton with how well the Bluejays shot. The talent gap in 2023 was nearly even. KenPom favored the Jays. Vegas favored them too. This figured to be a coin flip if both teams played at the same level. “They just did an excellent job knocking down shots,” Adam Flagler told me after. Ryan Nembhard could not miss. In one key stretch, Baylor pulled within five, then Nembhard hit the second of back-to-back threes to keep Baylor a little too far to tense the Jays up. 

Creighton went 22-of-22 from the free throw line. I asked Scott Drew if this just felt like the opposite of the 2014 Baylor-Creighton game, a night where the other team flirted too closely with perfection. Drew said, “Take the free-throw line, for instance; no one is guarding us there, and for them to go 22 for 22, felt kind of like their night tonight.” 

Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

To say “it was Creighton’s night” should not mask that this team had real flaws, and those flaws frame tonight's action. Baylor could not have beaten Creighton tonight. It’s a miracle this group got within 10 as Creighton hit its shooting apex. 

Baylor simply did not have a championship defense. The hope at the end of the season rested on winning a coin-flip game against Creighton, then beating an Ivy League team (Princeton) and maybe hoping that the struggles of whether Brandon Miller should even play basketball could catch up with Alabama. Then hope that things break your way in a hot shooting display in Houston. That was a lot to ask. 

The Bears, for a bevy of reasons, were not good defensively. Maybe the no-middle system has been solved. Maybe the guards weren’t long enough to pressure the ball. And maybe, with Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua limited, things weren’t going to work out like they did last season. I spoke to Tchamwa Tchatchoua in the locker room too. He said, “I play with a brace and I still don't know how to move with it. I still am getting caught on defense now and then.” 

This program has rightfully embraced championship expectations. Had Covid not canceled the NCAA Tournament, Baylor would have been a top-three seed in each of the last four dances. This is the first time since 2019 that Baylor can say it ended the season without at least a Big 12 title or national title.

That standard can rob men of joy. When success becomes that narrow misery is sure to follow. 

That’s why I think Flo Thamba had the right mindset after the game. I caught up with him and asked him how he was taking it. While some will look at the next quote as a sign Thamba didn’t buy in this season, I view it as a man who can enjoy life and understood sometimes things simply don’t work out. He told me, “Looking back, my journey was amazing. Cherish all the moments.
The reality is I won a national championship. I'm glad for the younger guys we got to experience coming back to the same tournament.” He went on, “I’ve always found the joy in everything.” 

Thamba’s quotes don’t mean that sadness is folly. Flagler had every right to feel devasated. So did George. To give everything means that sometimes you have to suffer everything. If you’ve cried when a relationship or any meaningful journey ends, it can signify that the joy you felt meant something because of the pain you experience. But Thamba has already gotten to where I think the rest of these men will one day arrive: fulfilled they got to play basketball and work around a collection of exceptional men. 

When something ends, the counterfactuals can never end. I regret that I’ll never write a long profile of George. I’d waited too long thinking the week before the Sweet 16 would be perfect it. But I’m glad I got the time to speak with him.

Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

He gave some magnificent quotes this week. I asked him about what would stick out about his time at Baylor, and he said, “There's so many things I could say about 10 (Adam Flagler). Overall I became a better basketball player because of him. I wouldn't change my decision at all especially knowing he was going to be here and play beside him. I kind of gave myself up and let him run the team. I got better as a basketball player but also as a person just because of the relationship we have and the way he carries himself. I'm blessed to be on the same team as Flag.” 

In the end, it’s the relationships that keep us coming back to watch a sport where almost every season we know it will end in misery. The losers that refer to it as “sportsball” don’t grasp what it means to have an event that brings people together. And for the men on this team, they lived that out directly. 

As I wrapped up what may well be the final time I talked to Flagler — which seems weird after all the hours I’ve spent talking to him over the last three seasons — I asked him what was going through his head. He told me, “Mixed emotions. Appreciation for everything. What Baylor has done for me. Coaching staff, teammates. Being able to come here from Presbyterian. Just the frustration that we weren't able to make it to the second weekend. I love these guys, and I'd go to war with them any day.” 

That’s the right mindset to have. He has those mixed emotions that I believe one day will match Thamba’s. But for now, George offered what we can only hope we think at the close of anything when doubt creeps in about whether it was worth it. He told me, “I'm just blessed to be a part of Baylor. I could have taken the easy route and gone to a blue blood. I took this route, going to Baylor, staying home. It's starting to become a big name. I love the decision I made, and I wouldn't change it.”