Game Thread: Baylor Basketball Takes on Tarleton at Foster Pavilion

Well the bad D was back - primarily caused by giving them 2,3,4 attempts- my gosh, just rebound the basketball and win by 25. If we can't improve rebounding and giving up easy bunnies, we are going to get rocked next week.

having powell would've helped, but also looks like he has the flu

Big12Fan2024 said:

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bear2be2 said:

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Johnny Bear said:

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Not a good sign that somebody like Tarleton State has absolutely destroyed us on the boards.

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Powell being limited to eight minutes had a lot to do with that. But rebounding is probably going to be a constant struggle for this team.

Losing Bodo Bodo sucks so bad. I think we'd be really good with him healthy.

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We need another big body. I don't see how we make it through a Big 12 schedule with just Powell. Too many physical teams. A little disappointed that Rataj isn't more of a pounder. I just never saw him play much at Oregon St. Carr, Skillings, Tounde -- all good at what they do, but they just don't have the physical bodies to do that. I will be interested to see how Sanchez gameplans for Ejiofor in two weeks.

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Yeah, we really do need another big. I just don't know where one comes from currently.

Rataj was always more of a finesse forward than a banger, but I've been kind of shocked by his utter lack of athleticism.

I still think he'll find ways to contribute and will have some big games, but he's not the caliber of player I thought we were getting when we signed him. Part of that may be playing out of position on both ends, though, so I don't want to crucify the guy.

WA Jim said:

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Well the bad D was back - primarily caused by giving them 2,3,4 attempts- my gosh, just rebound the basketball and win by 25. If we can't improve rebounding and giving up easy bunnies, we are going to get rocked next week.

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The D wasn't great, obviously. But I do think tonight was a product to some extent of a player having a career night. Johnson couldn't miss, whether he was defended well or not.

The rest of their team scored 39 points on 16-of-40 shooting. Johnson just single-handedly killed us.

Bearsalwayswin said:

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having powell would've helped, but also looks like he has the flu

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That would explain his apparent sluggishness. Hopefully, he gets well soon. We need him badly.

bear2be2 said:

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The D wasn't great, obviously. But I do think tonight was a product to some extent of a player having a career night. Johnson couldn't miss, whether he was defended well or not.

The rest of their team 39 points on 16-40 shooting. Johnson just single-handedly killed us.

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Although it was hard to put this in perspective while watching because it was a little frustrating, I think this is the proper take. The first portion of the 40+ had a lot to do with poor defense on our part as he continually drove to the basket with ease and no bigs underneath for back help to swat any of his shots. The other half of the 40 in the 2nd half was reasonably characterized as a scorer who got hot and couldn't miss, even when we had a hand in his face.

We looked like a team learning a new defense and focusing on the technical patterns and concepts rather than being able to play fluidly tonight. I don't think that should come as a surprise to any team after only playing 3 games. I suspect we'll see several more up (Washington) and down (tonight) performances during the non-conference portion of the schedule as we get more comfortable playing together and knowing where teammates are.

bear2be2 said:

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WA Jim said:

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Well the bad D was back - primarily caused by giving them 2,3,4 attempts- my gosh, just rebound the basketball and win by 25. If we can't improve rebounding and giving up easy bunnies, we are going to get rocked next week.

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The D wasn't great, obviously. But I do think tonight was a product to some extent of a player having a career night. Johnson couldn't miss, whether he was defended well or not.

The rest of their team scored 39 points on 16-of-40 shooting. Johnson just single-handedly killed us.

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But we got our ass handed to us on the Boards -embarrassing actually.

Watched some today.. not a good performance. Something was really off with Powell and without him (plus injuries) we just aren't going to be able to maintain physicality. Hopefully he isn't playing hurt.

Would have liked to see Tounde and Rataj hyper focused on getting in there to make up the difference. Our young guards for all their flaws have all been great rebounders.. Tounde is probably best suited for it but hasn't done it yet. Still early but need it badly

Rataj simply needs to be much, much better in every aspect of the game. Should have known he would start poorly with how much hype the staff and this site had on him. He played enough high level ball to do it.. should eventually translate. His first two years were played against a full high major schedule.

Baylor guard Cam Carr tells us that he’s been measured as a borderline 7-3 wingspan.

Carr scored 25 points on 12 shots against Tarleton State, including 3-6 from three. pic.twitter.com/a3SbPRCpxl

— Shehan Jeyarajah (@ShehanJeyarajah) November 15, 2025

I didn't watch any of the game last night… But this was nice

No surprise here 🤷‍♂️@cameroncarr43 checking in on tonight's #SCTop10#SicEm | #CultureofJOY pic.twitter.com/pGvfV4riXN

— Baylor Men’s Basketball (@BaylorMBB) November 15, 2025

Rataj hasn't been good and to a lesser extent Tounde has been a disappointment. We need to give these guys a 10 game sample size to gel together before passing judgement. And hope Bodo somehow gets healthy enough to help us.

Cool angle

Gotta see this one again 🤯#SicEm | #CultureofJOY pic.twitter.com/79HWONgyAO

— Baylor Men’s Basketball (@BaylorMBB) November 15, 2025

I think Tounde will be fine. I agree on Bodo, unfortunately he's the key that opens up this team's potential. Don't see it without a big.

Credit to Drew, had Bodo and Perez been healthy, that would have been very, very interesting. Great idea with the roster, he's just seen some improbable injury juju.

Or open the vault and bring in a high level euro big.. not just a body.

His skill set is raw and he is getting by on his athleticism and strength against inferior athletes. Struggling from the perimeter and limited play making skills. His athleticism is good but not great by NBA standards. He will be one and done based on his raw athleticism, but will have to develop more basketball skill to stick at the next level.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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His skill set is raw and he is getting by on his athleticism and strength against inferior athletes. Struggling from the perimeter and limited play making skills. His athleticism is good but not great by NBA standards. He will be one and done based on his raw athleticism, but will have to develop more basketball skill to stick at the next level.

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All true, but I'll repeat my question: what exactly were you expecting?

Nothing in particular. I had not seen him in full game footage before his games with us.