Alexis Morris dismissed by Lady Bears

[oldude]

This was mentioned in another thread, but I thought it was significant enough news to deserve it's own thread. Sophomore pg Alexis Morris was dismissed from the Baylor Lady Bears by Kim Mulkey. After an outstanding freshman season, where she eventually stepped in as a starter when Kristy Wallace was injured, Morris was set to run the offense as a key player in Baylor's title hopes this coming season.

Morris is one of the fastest pg's in the nation with an excellent ability to break down a defense, penetrate, score and dish off to teammates. Morris's dismissal, along with Natalie Chou's transfer, suddenly make Baylor's backcourt something of a mystery. Obviously, with Brown & Cox up front, Baylor will still be a very good team, but after reading through the Baylor forum, it's clear that there is a lot of angst among Lady Bear fans at this recent news.

 

[Undercovervol]

I'm disappointed by this: I was looking forward to watching Baylor this year with Alexis Morris. She was an impressive freshman who played with great confidence. Hopefully, she lands on another good team.

 

[bballnut90]

This was mentioned in another thread, but I thought it was significant enough news to deserve it's own thread. Sophomore pg Alexis Morris was dismissed from the Baylor Lady Bears by Kim Mulkey. After an outstanding freshman season, where she eventually stepped in as a starter when Kristy Wallace was injured, Morris was set to run the offense as a key player in Baylor's title hopes this coming season.

Morris is one of the fastest pg's in the nation with an excellent ability to break down a defense, penetrate, score and dish off to teammates. Morris's dismissal, along with Natalie Chou's transfer, suddenly make Baylor's backcourt something of a mystery. Obviously, with Brown & Cox up front, Baylor will still be a very good team, but after reading through the Baylor forum, it's clear that there is a lot of angst among Lady Bear fans at this recent news.

Definitely worthy of its own thread...thanks for posting.

Baylor’s lineup is still incredibly deep, they have Landrum, Jackson and Scott Grayson who can share duties. Might open up more time for Decosta or Smith on the wing too if Jackson or Landrum slide into the PG spot. Baylor will be fine but Morris had the makings of being a really good PG for Kim. Her 3pt shooting especially will be missed (46% on the year).

 

[CocoHusky]

I think this is huge loss for Baylor. Without guard play this puts Baylor behind ND, UCONN and Texas. Texas has sug Sutton returning and have added Danni Williams in the back court and have the size with White and Collier to match up with Cox and Brown.

 

[bballnut90]

I think this is huge loss for Baylor. Without guard play this puts Baylor behind ND, UCONN and Texas. Texas has sug Sutton returning and have added Danni Williams in the back court and have the size with White and Collier to match up with Cox and Brown.

I still think Baylor has a solid edge over Texas, but a lot of that comes down to Kim being a better coach than Aston. Neither has done well in the NCAA tournament for a while now though. Brown and Cox are also as good a post duo as you’ll find in WCBB. Both pass well, have midrange and can finish inside. Brown is likely a top 2 pick in the 2019 draft, Cox a top 4 pick in 2020.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

When it comes now, wow. What did she do? Dumb question. We'll never know. Maybe that guy from Miss State, yeah, that guy, will rake her in. Then that girl from UConn who was dismissed from UConn will get peeved and leave! Oh lordy!! As the world turns ....

 

[oldude]

Definitely worthy of its own thread...thanks for posting.

Baylor’s lineup is still incredibly deep, they have Landrum, Jackson and Scott Grayson who can share duties. Might open up more time for Decosta or Smith on the wing too if Jackson or Landrum slide into the PG spot. Baylor will be fine but Morris had the makings of being a really good PG for Kim. Her 3pt shooting especially will be missed (46% on the year).

It’s not that Baylor doesn’t have other players to step in, but Morris looked spectacular at times as a freshman, and was only going to get better this year.

 

[DEpup]

I think this is huge because Cox and Brown are really good but they are more traditional posts so there has to be a guard with good passing skills to get the ball into them. Without a solid PG, I could see their offense stalling in the half court resulting in shot clock violations and passing lane turnovers.

 

[Plebe]

I still think Baylor has a solid edge over Texas, but a lot of that comes down to Kim being a better coach than Aston. Neither has done well in the NCAA tournament for a while now though. Brown and Cox are also as good a post duo as you’ll find in WCBB. Both pass well, have midrange and can finish inside. Brown is likely a top 2 pick in the 2019 draft, Cox a top 4 pick in 2020.

I have a hard time imagining anyone going ahead of Brown in the draft. Greatness with size comes along rarely, and Kalani still has a ton of upside.

 

[tazmaz]

I'm disappointed by this: I was looking forward to watching Baylor this year with Alexis Morris. She was an impressive freshman who played with great confidence. Hopefully, she lands on another good team.

As quick and explosive as she showed I was disappointed in her lousy team play. I expected more out of her but didn’t realize she was more of an individual pg. She’s not only electric she hit 3 three pointers in closing minutes of Oregon St Sweet 16 game to give Baylor a chance to stay in it but Or St won it. She was their best player on the floor in the 4th quarter for Baylor. Brown was on the bench for most of the 4th in that game twittling her thumbs while Gulich heated up and showed some leadership. Lauren Cox fouled out so they were forced to bring in Brown. Brown is a liability when you’re playing from behind trying to force turnovers.

 

[tazmaz]

I think this is huge because Cox and Brown are really good but they are more traditional posts so there has to be a guard with good passing skills to get the ball into them. Without a solid PG, I could see their offense stalling in the half court resulting in shot clock violations and passing lane turnovers.

They have Landrum. The pg who is a year ahead of Morris. She’s fine.

 

[oldude]

They have Landrum. The pg who is a year ahead of Morris. She’s fine.

Landrum is a decent player, but largely used in a shooting guard role at Baylor. She’ll have to make a significant adjustment to fill the pg role. Landrum also doesn’t have Morris’s upside. Worth noting again that when Wallace went down Mulkey replaced her in the lineup with freshman Morris and continued using sophomore Landrum off the bench primarily in a 2-guard role.

 

[southie]

Landrum is a decent player, but largely used in a shooting guard role at Baylor. She’ll have to make a significant adjustment to fill the pg role. Landrum also doesn’t have Morris’s upside. Worth noting again that when Wallace went down Mulkey replaced her in the lineup with freshman Morris and continued using sophomore Landrum off the bench primarily in a 2-guard role.

My thoughts exactly.

Having watched Landrum in high school games a couple of times, she did play a lot of point guard. But, she was always the first option scoring-wise, whether it be 3-point shots or penetrating to the basket to finish; don't recall her being a "distributor" of the basketball.

 

[BroadwayVa]

When it comes now, wow. What did she do? Dumb question. We'll never know. Maybe that guy from Miss State, yeah, that guy, will rake her in. Then that girl from UConn who was dismissed from UConn will get peeved and leave! Oh lordy!! As the world turns ....

The guy from Ms St or the gal from SC or maybe the guy from Uconn (who has changed on the transferr thing) could "welcome" a good PG to backup a top level PG. With the pain Kim is having physically any infraction could seem big.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

The guy from Ms St or the gal from SC or maybe the guy from Uconn (who has changed on the transferr thing) could "welcome" a good PG to backup a top level PG. With the pain Kim is having physically any infraction could seem big.

She is a feisty little spark plug, isn't she. Tough too.

Spinal fusion C5-C7.

 

[CocoHusky]

Been meaning to ask the posters who have had experience with spinal surgery. What is a realistic time to expect Kim back coaching? Her surgery was around August 22nd . BTW that last spinal surgery seems to have done wonders for Tiger's game.

 

[oldude]

Been meaning to ask the posters who have had experience with spinal surgery. What is a realistic time to expect Kim back coaching? Her surgery was around August 22nd . BTW that last spinal surgery seems to have done wonders for Tiger's game.

I can’t speak to spinal fusion, but I had a microdiscectomy performed on L5 about 10 years ago. It hurt for one day so I took a pain pill and did nothing. The next day I started walking, and that’s about all I did for the next three months as my surgeon advised me not to do anything strenuous for 90 days while the hole he put in my spine was healing.

The good news about back surgery is that it’s gotten much better over the past 20 years. It’s far less invasive, recovery times are much shorter and outcomes have improved significantly.

 

[Carnac]

Would anyone here be surprised if South Carolina contacted her soon after this news broke? They do like to offer second chances to players dismissed from other programs.

Because in some cases talent trumps character, I'm sure in the next few days we'll be reading that another program has picked her up.

 

[oldude]

Would anyone here be surprised if South Carolina contacted her soon after this news broke? They do like to offer second chances to players dismissed from other programs.

Agreed. There is no shortage of programs that will line up to sign a player as talented as Morris. One likely exception will be UConn. Geno is highly unlikely to pursue a player that was dismissed. The last thing he wants to do is bring in a potential problem.

 

[UcMiami]

Been meaning to ask the posters who have had experience with spinal surgery. What is a realistic time to expect Kim back coaching? Her surgery was around August 22nd . BTW that last spinal surgery seems to have done wonders for Tiger's game.

With disc surgery the relief is generally immediate and as olddude experienced, walking and moving around is generally pretty immediate as well. With fusion surgery, the recovery time tends to be much longer because it involves the knitting together of bone to bone - so much more like the recovery for a broken bone.

 

[Millenial23]

I can’t speak to spinal fusion, but I had a microdiscectomy performed on L5 about 10 years ago. It hurt for one day so I took a pain pill and did nothing. The next day I started walking, and that’s about all I did for the next three months as my surgeon advised me not to do anything strenuous for 90 days while the hole he put in my spine was healing.

The good news about back surgery is that it’s gotten much better over the past 20 years. It’s far less invasive, recovery times are much shorter and outcomes have improved significantly.

Yes, anything with the spine is serious. I had spinal fusion last fall. I was out of work fully for I believe 6 weeks, and was part time with an increasing number of hours for the next month. My surgery was late October, I wasn't fully back to work until Christmas week (and then there were 2 short weeks luckily). It took me a month to be able to walk properly. Visiting PT for that first month, then continued PT at an office for nearly 2 more months. I'm in my mid/late 20s. So I would expect Kim Mulky to take at least 2 months to really be back. Although I will say, hers is her cervical spine. Mine was my lumbar, the last two vertabrae before my butt, so maybe her recovery will be a bit quicker, I'm not sure.

 

[hoopingcrane]

Been meaning to ask the posters who have had experience with spinal surgery. What is a realistic time to expect Kim back coaching? Her surgery was around August 22nd . BTW that last spinal surgery seems to have done wonders for Tiger's game.

I had the same operation 20 years ago. Relief from pain was immediate. Up and walking the same day. Wore a collar for a few weeks, but returned to work within a few days. She'll need to be careful about sudden movements for while but should be her old jacket throwing foot stomping self when the season starts.

 

[JDuro]

Would anyone here be surprised if South Carolina contacted her soon after this news broke? They do like to offer second chances to players dismissed from other programs.
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Because in some cases talent trumps character, I'm sure in the next few days we'll be reading that another program has picked her up.

Nope not players. Just one singular player in Te’a Cooper, who they previously recruited and also had a long relationship with the Cooper family going back to their recruiting and getting a commitment from her older sister Mia.

Now will they go after Morris? Possibly, But I don’t recall Morris being recruited by Dawn and since most of the transfers that have come to SC were ones they had previously recruited, I’m guessing it less likely.

 

[Huskee11]

Hopefully by January 3 she will be ready and raring to go........................................

 

[oldude]

Hopefully by January 3 she will be ready and raring to go..........

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If only jacket throwing were an Olympic sport...