Gameday Thread: No. 25 Baylor Travels to Face No. 2 Iowa State

Scott Drew can coach. He's proven that. What I'm starting to question is how good the 4 assistants are.

Josh O gets an A today. Everyone else gets an F-.

We'll beat the teams we should beat at home and maybe catch someone on the road once or twice that has some key players out and steal a win. Guessing a conference record just over .500. A 4-5 seed and with any luck win game 1.
Wash, rinse and repeat.

4-5 seed?! That feels like an absolute pipe dream as it stands right now.

bear2be2 said:

---

CHP Bear said:

---

There is a bright spot. They'll be out of Ames before the snow hits.

---

The only bright spot today is the play of Josh O. He was the only player who showed up ready to play his role today.

---

Your are right. I probably should have said, "As a team we really …..." But we did beat the snow.

We kept it under 20!

Quality loss.

Held them to their lowest point total..so there's that..

As we were held to ours too.

11-9 conference record.win a game in conference tournament..that's 20-12..nine teams ranked in conference in top 39 of NET.

That's probably a solid 5 seed.

Big12Fan2024 said:

---

We kept it under 20!

---

Yep! I was worried that the game might turn into a rout at the 8 minute to go mark.

It is literally almost impossible to lose a game when you get 15 more shots than your opponent, much less lose by 19. Unless you can't hit the broad side of a barn I guess.

That's probably fair. Still think 11-9 in conference is a pipe dream barring an incredible turnaround

IowaBear said:

---

That's probably fair. Still think 11-9 in conference is a pipe dream barring an incredible turnaround

---

A streaky shooting team will struggle to get to 10 wins. Won't surprise me to see Cincinnati take it at us Tuesday night at Foster. The experts who put us as one of the Top 10 teams in the nation and had me believing our bus was headed to the Final Four didn't tell me I was gonna end up with 4 flat tires, a broken down transmission, two broke windows and a muffler dragging the ground by early January.

Time to face that our staff just isn't good right now. Jakus was solid on offense and we lost him. The defensive coaches have been terrible for years now. Terrible defensive teaching for years at this point. Our offense is regressing with Jakus gone and with our roster construction. Needed a real change last offseason yet more of the same.

The program is starting to look an awful lot like girl's BB and Football (until 6 games ago).. permeating through the athletic department. Soft and mediocre. Need a shift very quickly.

If you look at nothing but the roster you see a top 10 team.
It was obvious after the Zags game this team was oozing red flags. I'll be happy making the tournament. Pretty low bar these days. Cincy and likely both games in Arizona are losses. Hopefully the Bears make me eat crow

Big12Fan2024 said:

---

IowaBear said:

---

That's probably fair. Still think 11-9 in conference is a pipe dream barring an incredible turnaround

---

A streaky shooting team will struggle to get to 10 wins. Won't surprise me to see Cincinnati take it at us Tuesday night at Foster. The experts who put us as one of the Top 10 teams in the nation and had me believing our bus was headed to the Final Four didn't tell me I was gonna end up with 4 flat tires, a broken down transmission, two broke windows and a muffler dragging the ground by early January.

---

Cincy isn't that good (don't care about their ranking) so I doubt it. But with this staff, anything is possible.

Cincy isn't that good.. neither is Baylor.

Physically they were much better. We couldn't finish at the rim and obviously couldn't hit any open looks either. They were bigger and pushed us around a lot. Josh O did play well and that was good to see but everyone else was sub par. I hate that we will have to hit shots at a high rate to beat anybody because it looks like we will get pushed around with this line up.

Stefano DiMera said:

---

11-9 conference record.win a game in conference tournament..that's 20-12..nine teams ranked in conference in top 39 of NET.

That's probably a solid 5 seed.

---

We're in a weird place as a program, and it's important to keep some perspective.

It's not that our program is bad. We have a very good, high-floor program. We're ranked every year and are a virtual lock to make the tournament and usually win a game in it once we get there. Those are good things, especially within the context of our program's history.

It just feels like our program has completely stagnated since the national title. And our current recruiting strategy makes for some frustrating (and low-ceiling IMO) basketball to watch.

I don't think it's possible to maintain an elite program rebuilding your roster every single year. And I'm about to the point where I don't even think you can build a great team using one-year players unless you're willing to massage those players into the optimal roles for your team -- and on-court accountability has never been Scott Drew's strong suit.

It just feels very much like we are spinning our wheels right now. We're doing the same things year after year and getting the exact same results. It's a very frustrating to place to be.

I'm not so sure we're that good either.

I've posted on the team being borderline scrub right now.. so I know. But this league isn't that good and its at home. Home and Away is night and day in this league. If they lose to Cincy at home.. game over.

IowaBear said:

---

If you look at nothing but the roster you see a top 10 team.
It was obvious after the Zags game this team was oozing red flags. I'll be happy making the tournament. Pretty low bar these days. Cincy and likely both games in Arizona are losses. Hopefully the Bears make me eat crow

---

I disagree with your first sentence. When I look at this roster, I see two playable bigs, and no team that's that light in the front court is doing anything of note IMO.

I don't understand why we we spent money and a roster spot on Celestine when we obviously needed another big. This team has plenty of guards. It needed a true forward, and we completely whiffed on filling the role Bridges vacated.

I said the same thing.. I was begging for another big. Like I mentioned earlier. We're likely looking at replacing 6 of the 8 this off season who seen meaningful minutes this year. That's never a recipe for success.

Agree, I think a 9 seed is where this team is best case.I don't think Love or Celestine changes that as they aren't currently brining anything to help on D.

bear2be2 said:

---

Stefano DiMera said:

---

11-9 conference record.win a game in conference tournament..that's 20-12..nine teams ranked in conference in top 39 of NET.

That's probably a solid 5 seed.

---

We're in a weird place as a program, and it's important to keep some perspective.

It's not that our program is bad. We have a very good, high-floor program. We're ranked every year and are a virtual lock to make the tournament and usually win a game in it once we get there. Those are good things, especially within the context of our program's history.

It just feels like our program has completely stagnated since the national title. And our current recruiting strategy makes for some frustrating (and low-ceiling IMO) basketball to watch.

I don't think it's possible to maintain an elite program rebuilding your roster every single year. And I'm about to the point where I don't even think you can build a great team using one-year players unless you're willing to massage those players into the optimal roles for your team -- and on-court accountability has never been Scott Drew's strong suit.

It just feels very much like we are spinning our wheels right now. We're doing the same things year after year and getting the exact same results. It's a very frustrating to place to be.

---

It feels like Drew and his staff had kinda figured out the loophole in the system when they constructed the national championship team (and even a little earlier), where he was able to use the redshirt concept better than almost any coach in the country and it helped supplement high school recruiting. And we were poised to do really well for a long period of time under that system.

Where I think we've struggled is the new age of NIL and transfer portal and what do with it, coupled with the fixation on highly rated freshmen. Drew is a basketball and sports nut at its highest and even he has admitted on various podcast interviews that he enjoys the notoriety it gives the program to sign 5 stars. Unfortunately, I don't think he's figured out how to mix the 5 star (or high 4 star recruit) with all the other necessities (transfers and existing roster development) so far during the transition to transfer portal/NIL times. So as you and others have said there have been issues with roster construction, particularly this year. I think a lot of coaches are still trying to figure this out. They basically have a budget and they're trying to figure out how to best use that budget, something that they didn't have before. And, given no constraints on that budget, he's battling in a murky world.

And when I say struggled take it with a grain of salt. I don't mean we've become a bad program. Most programs would kill to even be at our level. We've struggled in the sense of the national championship put us on a visible plateau with other elite programs, but that reputation is slowly starting to melt away now that we are 4 years away from the championship. It's tough to stay at that level which is why so few programs do it.

bear2be2 said:

---

Stefano DiMera said:

---

11-9 conference record.win a game in conference tournament..that's 20-12..nine teams ranked in conference in top 39 of NET.

That's probably a solid 5 seed.

---

We're in a weird place as a program, and it's important to keep some perspective.

It's not that our program is bad. We have a very good, high-floor program. We're ranked every year and are a virtual lock to make the tournament and usually win a game in it once we get there. Those are good things, especially within the context of our program's history.

It just feels like our program has completely stagnated since the national title. And our current recruiting strategy makes for some frustrating (and low-ceiling IMO) basketball to watch.

I don't think it's possible to maintain an elite program rebuilding your roster every single year. And I'm about to the point where I don't even think you can build a great team using one-year players unless you're willing to massage those players into the optimal roles for your team -- and on-court accountability has never been Scott Drew's strong suit.

It just feels very much like we are spinning our wheels right now. We're doing the same things year after year and getting the exact same results. It's a very frustrating to place to be.

---

Yep. I may have my head in the sand in the NIL era, but I believe consistent culture is what makes a strong team. Maybe if we could be patient and get a solid core, we could allocate some of the NIL spend on retention. "Hey sophomore 3rd thru 8th man. You know your role here and it is significant; there are no guarantees you will be significant elsewhere. Here's a good amount of cash. Appreciate your hustle and timely contributions.

This game played out like I expected, sadly. I went to the Zags game and it was a total train wreck and we paid good money to go. This felt like a similar game. Our defense is just awful. We get switched to a terrible matchup almost every defensive possession. I am going to have to reset my expectations for this year, like most of us on this board. We are not a "team". Iowa State is a team, they play tough d, play together and are looking for their teammates, not playing iso ball.

U ain't beatin anybody shooting 29% from 3s and fgs while lettin opponents shoot 49%…pathetic,,,,

Need word limit ,,,,

It's the way Iowa State built their roster. In a way it's old school. You find guys that are top 200 recruits nationally but need 3-4 years in a system and build from really good mid-major programs . Like an Adam Flagler type player. Having top 50 recruits that are only in it for a year is not going to get it done. You have one of those guys, tops.

oldbear69 said:

---

Need word limit ,,,,

---

Unfortunately, the things that need to be fixed are limitless.

All good points. You almost have to use a money ball approach where you look at stats for sophomores in college that have two years of eligibility and build off positional need. I don't know what our budget looks like compared to other conference teams or SEC/Big 10 schools but imagine we are top 25 ish. This of course is based on zero data.
I'm not sure who the GM is of the program is, I think David Kaye? But that might be the most important position short of the head coach.
I think VJ is great, but I would trade him with 2 or 3 of Iowa States 3 star guys that are playing as junior/seniors. All the VJ excitement is based on projections. Sure, he will have some great plays here and there, but he just not here long enough to see how that plays out. Frankly, Walter and George were more college ready than VJ is. I'm sure he will be a nice player in the NBA, but his potential is pretty far out there. Again, I think he is a great team player and puts out the effort, he is just young to have a starting role when he does not have a mature shot.
Asemota is not a Baylor guy from what I can tell. His body language sucks. He wants to do more than his leash allows for and that's why he is on the bench most of the time. His high school real looked the same. He was standing around clapping for the ball in a lot of the highlights I saw. We need guys that are hungry and want to play any role they can to stay on the court.

We just can't shoot.

I don't care that we were 38% on 3 and 49% overall coming into this game. That was inflated against bad teams.

This is the worst outside shooting team we've had in years.

I've actually seen a pulse and defensive improvement...but our shooting...

Big12Fan2024 said:

---

Norchad is my favorite player on the roster but at some point someone's gotta tell the guy shooting 23% from 3 to stop chucking the damn ball and get in the paint.

---

The offensive sets were all messed up today with Love and Celestine out. Forced many more minutes for Josh (I think he had his best game of the season) but moved Omier outside the 3 point line much more than normal. To ISU's credit, they recognized this and let him shoot.