Gameday Thread: #13 Baylor (17-5; 6-3) at #4 Kansas (18-5; 6-4)

OU and WV on deck this week. Need a sweep

bear2be2 said:

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Guitarbiscuit said:

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I thought we would lose this by 8 to 10. The fact it was close means this Baylor team fights. And because it fights, I think we will be very good come March. Potential Sweet 16 good, perhaps Elite 8 if Missi begins to realize that he may be one of the best players in basketball. He was awesome today. Very excited to follow his future development.

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Missi is the truth. His improvement this season has been remarkable.

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There's something about that guy. And he hits free throws when they matter too.

bear2be2 said:

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Frustrating loss. Kansas tried to give it to us and we absolutely refused to take it.

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Pretty much the same story for all 4 of our conference losses thus far. Frustrating.

boognish_bear said:

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Guitarbiscuit said:

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I thought we would lose this by 8 to 10. The fact it was close means this Baylor team fights. And because it fights, I think we will be very good come March. Potential Sweet 16 good, perhaps Elite 8 if Missi begins to realize that he may be one of the best players in basketball. He was awesome today. Very excited to follow his future development.

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Missi is a special talent. What a get by our staff.

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If he's not a top 8 draft pick, I'm going to eat a packaged tuna sandwich.

As good as misi is becoming, JaKobe is doing the exact opposite.

Quinton said:

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Figures two wide open looks and clank both. This team has no closing gene.

Missi is developing before our eyes. Free throw makes were great. Guy carried us.

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No closing gene yet, but we are better in that area than we were 2 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago we lose this game by 8. But you are correct, no "nail in coffin" ability as of yet.

Johnny Bear said:

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bear2be2 said:

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Frustrating loss. Kansas tried to give it to us and we absolutely refused to take it.

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Pretty much the same story for all 4 of our conference losses thus far. Frustrating.

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Texas and TCU played well. Those losses don't bother me.

Neither Kansas State or Kansas played particularly well. We just let those games get away from us. Those are the ones that frustrate me.

If the we are Baylor is who you are … *** are you wasting your valuable time watching "we are Baylor "

Crawfoso1973 said:

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Tonight the Missi play that jumped out at me was he had a great assist to a cutter for a layup (can't remember to whom). Every game it seems he shows a new wrinkle or nuance in his game. He is extremely intelligent and absorbs everything the coaches are throwing at him.

Someone remarked a few games back that this team lacks a leader, I think Missi is turning into that. He plays with a fire and a competitive edge this teams has lacked since Sochan left.

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BUCANDOIT82 said:

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Crawfoso1973 said:

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Tonight the Missi play that jumped out at me was he had a great assist to a cutter for a layup (can't remember to whom). Every game it seems he shows a new wrinkle or nuance in his game. He is extremely intelligent and absorbs everything the coaches are throwing at him.

Someone remarked a few games back that this team lacks a leader, I think Missi is turning into that. He plays with a fire and a competitive edge this teams has lacked since Sochan left.

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All he did today is move up the draft board…He outplayed Dickinson.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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Tonight the Missi play that jumped out at me was he had a great assist to a cutter for a layup (can't remember to whom). Every game it seems he shows a new wrinkle or nuance in his game. He is extremely intelligent and absorbs everything the coaches are throwing at him.

Someone remarked a few games back that this team lacks a leader, I think Missi is turning into that. He plays with a fire and a competitive edge this teams has lacked since Sochan left.

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His skill level just continues to improve and improve.

He's still raw, but he's becoming a much better basketball player and relying less on his elite athleticism.

I love the kid. He's right there with Sochan for me. He's mature beyond his years and is earning every opportunity he'll have in the future with his play.

IvanBear said:

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As good as misi is becoming, JaKobe is doing the exact opposite.

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I agree unfortunately. Walter will have to make tremendous strides in the next month to be a real asset in the tournament. It's not out of the question he could progress, but he's running out of time. At least this team got to see Missi play really well before bolting. 1 of 2 ain't bad.

Walter didn't play that bad. He just sucks at shooting 3's.
Dennis straight crapped the bed today. 3 pts 6 TO's

Sorry we lost, but pleased we almost got the rock to the top of the hill before it rolled back down. Headed for the salt/pepper. KU +3 beats my KU +10/15.

Two air balls, 5 turnovers, 2-9 from 3 and 5-12 overall.

He was More likely to turn the ball over by bad shot selection or just a real turnover today than he was to do anything else with the ball. He's getting close to Lohner level liability on offense.

TT hanging out in Broddus Texas rocking chair granddad

IowaBear said:

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For a guy who loves to spell check others you sure do butcher sentences.

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Actually I rarely spell check. It's the school teacher in me.

But I do make too many mistakes myself. Most of it is because of autocorrect & autocomplete. I don't always proofread.

And your thoughts on Dennis play? Or Nunn? bridges? None of upperclassmen stepped up when we needed them most. And that's happened multiple times this year

To sum it up, there was way too much playing scared tonight.

Guitarbiscuit said:

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historian said:

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Played great in the toughest environment in the country and everyone is nitpicking about his terrible our team is. The ESPN announcers think better off our players than do Baylor fans here!

You know that game in Waco is going to be a huge one. And probably a lot more exiting!

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This loss today by Baylor gave me some hope, more so than their last 3 wins. A closer look at this game shows Kansas has a lot to worry about as the season progresses, and Baylor has a lot more upside than Kansas does. They should be worried, and Baylor should be hopeful that those 21 turnovers will turn into more like 11 by the time the Conference Tournament is over.

There is something about this team I really do like. Multiple things in fact:

1. We can drive well to the basket.
2. We are good at offensive rebounding.


I like this team.

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Agreed 100%

The fact that we were in this one from beginning to end is very heartening. They didn't give up. They didn't let the Phogg bother them too much. I would even go so far to say that playin 5 on 8 (as usual in Lawrence) is almost like a win in the sense anywhere else it probably is a win.

If we can reduce the turnovers, force more of our own, limit the fouls (real ones, not phantom calls), be sounder in defense, or make a few more shots we win (all else being equal). For a loss, it was a solid performance.

It's still disappointing and frustrating but ever since UCF this team is looking better & better.

Oh Dennis was awful. I don't expect him to play well at this point when he's up against high level talent. He can be a monster against seasoned players like ISU but he's just not gifted enough to handle true talent.

Nunn has been what he has all season, mediocre to bad with an ability to drive the basket.

It's silly though saying Walter played fine. He was a massive liability on the court today, and he would have been riding the bench a lot of this game if love was healthy. Over the last month and especially tonight, he's clearly been the weakest link of all the starters.

We're getting better as a team right now because we've been able to get away from having to rely on him.

40% shooting and 21 tovers ,, I guess refs kept us in this game at ft line ,,

He was absolutely not the weakest link tonight…. Nunn and Dennis straight up were garbage tonight.
I'm as hard on JaKobe as anyone. I've said a million times I think he's overrated (as a pro prospect) but he was only part of the issue tonight. Dennis was a much larger issue

A better game out of Dennis at best gets us more missed shots by Jakobe.

You can't be the starting shooting guard and go 5-12 and 2-9 from 3, and jacking up air balls. The loss is on you at that point.

You keep excusing RayJs utterly garbage performance. Jakobes overrated by this fanbase. He also had a lot less to do with this loss than the 5yr PG

I think Rayj as mid as a player. Like I said he's not going up look good against a high star loaded talent team, but he wasn't going to win us this game if he played better.

JaKobe time and time again in this game had the opportunity to put it away and win it for us and did not. Hold the guy with the talent to do it responsible for not showing up.

I'd like to think this, but it's starting to be questionable at best.

I like him personally and love his attitude, and I know he won't quit or check out like past 1 and dones.

But he's not getting better he's getting guarded less because he's not the threat he was projected to be. I'm worried the talent isn't there at this point. Is that or he's got to mentally rebuild his entire game.

Ku without McCullar is anything but loaded with talent. Only Bu and Ku have potentially "high level " talent but Ku has less than usual and without McCullar they don't really have that.

Dennis just completely tanks at times, often on the road against solid comp. Nunn is the one who really struggles against any semblance of talent although he was good the last week.

My two cents, FWIW:

It's very hard to win at Kansas. Sometimes because Kansas usually plays better, often because Kansas gets calls to help them (which in my opinion is one reason Kansas often doesn't get far in the Tournament - they are not used to playing where they don't get a foul advantage), and often because visitors are intimidated by the place. The fans, the history, everything works to add to the stress level for the visitors.

Baylor was supposed to lose tonight by 7, and many predictions had KU winning by 10. So for everything that went wrong, I'd suggest the team did better than expected, and let's not forget the Bears were down by 13 halfway through the first half, and down by 11 with 8:41 to go in the game.

So the Bears fought back multiple times from some bad situations, and were in a position to win. This is unlike the other losses, where the Bears let leads disappear. It's easy to find mistakes if you want to see them, but don't forget this is a tough sport in a really tough league.

You want to *****, go ahead and vent. I don't like the loss and I'm not making any excuses, but I would suggest the Bears should focus on the positives, build confidence, and get back on a new winning streak.

He's been shook in a freshman wall for over a month now. Either conditioning and/or overwhelmed mentally is my guess. His skill are breaking down. I think he still has potential but he's not showing some of those signs George was on offense before his injury.

Auburn was the flash and then no semblance of taking over games since. Strange