MBB: Baylor 59, Texas 44 Postgame Podcast & Thoughts

Well done.

I know the cows had recruited really well, but 9 of their 13 man roster are top 75 recruits.......wow!

Guys played well. Love the intensity. I liked the switch to Mayer/Bandoo when we needed some offense in second half. Good minutes by Thamba. Everyone seems to contribute in their own way.

It was good to see Clark make a strong move to the bucket and score. TV crew said he is not practicing to keep knee swelling down and ease back into shape.

Well done on the list of 10.

I regret that Clark is having residual problems with his knee, and that it restricts his time both in practice and in the games. That has to be a source of frustration for him, and one can only hope that in the course of the season he will heal sufficiently to play both more extended and more effective minutes.

I think that Coach Drew learned something from the game against Washington and that was that Clark is not ready to play very many minutes at this stage of his recovery and that his physical condition and probably his mental state, as well, precludes any attempt to run the offense through him on a consistent basis.

If Tristan had entered the season in reasonably good health we would be undefeated and ranked #1. Even though Kegler's loss was a jolt, it is Clark who could put us in the Final Four, a goal that is not at all beyond the capability of the present group, even though they do not have Kegler and Clark is so very limited.

This is extraordinary to contemplate. How does a team lose its top interior player and its top wing forward and just chug along with a guard oriented offense and largely the same at the defensive end? Their success confirms both the quality of the perimeter players and that of the coach. The role of Gillespie and that of Vital as interior defenders and rebounders is also remarkable.

As Huggins pointed out last year in an interview prior to the Baylor game, Vital has a transformative impact on the game whether he scores at all -- he is the most disruptive force in the conference. Huggins did not know that he was just a sophomore when he was discussing him in such glowing terms, and was dismayed when he found that out, knowing that he would have to deal with him two more years.

Gillespie has very quietly become as consistently good as a defender/rebounder that we have had in the past several years. I don't know where we would be without him. He is a better scorer than his statistics show, because he rebounds and looks for an open teammate rather than taking an ill advised shot. His touch out to ten feet is very good, and he knows his limitations and stays within them. His basketball IQ has become one of his greatest assets, and credit must be shared with his coaches for that development.

This team has been assembled and molded by a veteran coach who knows his personnel and how to put them in a favorable position to succeed. I look at the role Bandoo plays as an example of a player who plays within the system, sacrifices minutes and shooting opportunities to make his teammates better, but is capable of hitting the timely shot or getting a needed rebound against taller players, just the things a leader does and does it without demonstration or need for credit. He is one of my all time favorite bench players at Baylor, a player whose level of talent is far greater than most of the fans recognize but I think that most of them are aware that he is a factor in the success of this team.

Clearly, we are dealing with a team that is largely unselfish, one where each player recognizes his role, one that is understood by the other players, and at both ends of the floor we see the results of this collective sense of responsibility. I love watching these young men work at their craft in the process of defeating opponents who are well within if not above the talent range of the Baylor team as individuals, but certainly in most cases, not above them collectively. This is a real team we are watching and what should scare our rivals in the conference, they should be even better next year despite the loss of Gillespie and Bandoo.

Every word on this page is golden! Couldn't agree more. Well, maybe not every word (i.e. "page").

Setshot nails it, as usual.