Postgame Podcast & Thoughts: Duke 89, Baylor 66

Baylor (20-15) closes out the 2024-25 season with a loss to No. 1-seed Duke (33-3) in the Round of 32, 89-66. The Bears now look to the transfer portal to remake their roster for next season. VJ Edgecombe (Fr.) led the Bears in a losing effort with 16 points and six rebounds.  

Positives:

• Baylor competed hard in the first half and led 24-23 heading into the under-eight media timeout. In the next four minutes, Norchad Omier (5Sr.) picked up fouls his second and third personal fouls, and the Bears saw things spiral downward after that.  
• Baylor held its own on the glass; it was 32-29 in Duke’s favor. The Bears grabbed 18 offensive rebounds.  
• Bears only had five turnovers.

Flaws

• Obviously, the defense left a lot to be desired. You aren’t going to win games when you allow an opponent to shoot 64% from the field.  
• I mentioned the shot quality metric in the post-game podcast. Shot quality had the score 72-66 Baylor based on the quality of shots taken. But this is a misleading metric in some regards. It seems to be a result of a lack of size and wingspan. Shots are easier when you don’t have length to shoot over and harder when you do. Duke has it, Baylor doesn’t. Scott Drew & Co. needs to get back to Wingspan next year. I hope Rob Wright (Fr.) is the only player under 6-foot-3.  

Baylor has a great NIL budget; it needs to do a better job of allocating it. The coaching staff will learn from past mistakes and reverse the trend of the last four years of not making it out of the first weekend.