Postgame Podcast & Thoughts: Baylor 78, Washington 69

Baylor men’s basketball (2-0) defeated Washington (2-1) in Foster Pavilion on Sunday night by a score of 78-69. Here are Ashley Hodge’s main takeaways!

Positives

• The Bears hold Washington to under one point per possession (0.97), which is always a great number defensively. The rotations and communication were good; you can see a big difference in effort on the defensive side of the ball. KenPom now has the Bears No. 23 in defensive efficiency at the time of this article.  
• Cut down on the turnovers. There was a terrible stretch in the second half where the Bears turned it over on three straight possessions, but outside of that, the Bears did an excellent job keeping the turnovers under 10 (9 on the night).  
• Bench production was tremendous with Caden Powell (12 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks) and Isaac Williams (12 points, 2 steals, 0 turnovers) having huge impacts on the game.  
• Michael Rataj gave Baylor a great game, especially in the first half (11 points and 4 rebounds). He finished with a 153 offensive rating.  
• Cameron Carr started the game strong (3-5 on 3-pointers), but had a tough stretch in the middle of the game with turnovers and fouls. Despite the rough patch, he sure finished with great defense, rebounding and making free throws. 
• He has 16 points and six rebounds on the night.  

Needs Work

• The shot selection left a lot to be desired. Tounde Yessoufou, in particular, took a handful of bad shots. But you love the energy and effort from him.  
• Baylor got outrebounded 42-33. One of the goals is to be a great defensive rebounding team. The Bears got outworked at times on the glass (Washington had 16 offensive rebounds), but some of it was bricks being hard to rebound on missed 3s. Hannes Steinbach is a great rebounder; he’s tough to keep off the glass.  
• Obi Agbim has to give the team more in big games. You love the seven assists, but I’m not sure we can survive many two-point outings from him. He’s a scorer who is struggling to adjust to the athleticism of high-major teams.