Baylor ThoughtZ™

[RichZ]

1. Hi guys! At least for the moment, I'm back from the MIA list. Been sick. Doctors can't seem to agree what I had or have. But it's finally clearing up enough that I can do more than sleep and lose weight without trying. Anyway, Baylor was only the 2nd game I've been able to watch. Or was it the third? Last couple and a half weeks have been pretty fuzzy.
2. Felt like we got out-played offensively in the paint, early in both halves. First half especially, it seemed like they could drive through our matador defense at will.
3. Like I said, missed most of the season so far, but I have been checking the box scores. Was this the first game that Mahaney's 3 has looked good?
4. Seemed like Baylor scored off an awful lot of offensive boards. Considering we played two centers together much of the night, we still gave up way too many layups.
5. McNeeley with 7 was our only player with more than 4 boards. Our two centers only had 4 each, which seems about the norm for Johnson, but Reed should be good for more.
6. Speaking of 2 centers, has Hurley been playing them both at the same time a lot through my absence? That seemed to work pretty well at times last night.
7. Thank God Diarra's a decent FT shooter. Our FT shooting in general was pretty good last night, but Diarra's closeout performance from the line was a big part of the final outcome. We were 26 of 33 from the line all told, to Baylor's 12 of 19. We actually won this game from the line, as Baylor out shot us by about 3 percentage points from 3 and from the field in general. They made 6 more Field goals than us, but we made 14 more FTs than them(!) and a couple more threes.
8. Can't help but be concerned about our interior D going forward. And about how easily the Baylor guards got by our guards to get into the paint in the first place. Yeah, not having Alex didn't help any, but we can't allow anywhere near as many uncontested or barely contested shots from 6 feet and less going forward.

 

[Huskybass]

Hi Rich,
I believe last night was the first time Johnson and Reed played together. It was also the first time I came away thinking the "5" might be a strength of this team. Maui was a shitshow, the rest of the games have been against sub 300 Kenpom teams.

I hope you feel better and enjoy the rest of the season.

 

[Hurleyman216]

Hi Rich,
I believe last night was the first time Johnson and Reed played together. It was also the first time I came away thinking the "5" might be a strength of this team. Maui was a shitshow, the rest of the games have been against sub 300 Kenpom teams.

I hope you feel better and enjoy the rest of the season.

The only reason we played 2 bigs was because Baylor had Omier who is a big strong guy at the 4 spot and also had a lanky 7 foot center. Our choices were to play both our bigs to try to match up defensively, or we would have had to have Stewart guarding Omier most of the game or have Reed on Omier and Stewart guarding a 7 footer. If we had AK last night we might have seen more of a traditional lineup letting AK and Stewart take turns matching up with Omier.

I doubt we see the double bigs a lot this year, it was more dictated by the opponent and the fact we were missing our starting power forward.

 

[Mooch82]

Yeah the double big won't be something I expect to see often, but worked against Baylor since they start double bigs. Omier is a center on 99% of teams but starts at the 4 for them. Was a nice adjustment by Hurley and worked because our big guys were largely out of foul trouble for once (even though Samson Johnson did eventually foul out).

 

[nashusky109]

Hope you’re back to 100% and more @RichZ! Appreciate your thoughtz! Agree that rebounding has to get better. One thing everyone has to consider is the last two years have been an unreal run. We’ve been the best team in the tournament over 12 straight games. That’s unheard of and we should appreciate it. This team is different though. No MOP Sanogo or Newton back to back, no most impactful player in the NCAA in clingan and no killers like cam and Andre. New team that has to grow into that. Hurley and the coaching staff have clearly shown they expected more but it’s not there. Let’s see the No1 coaching staff in the country work their magic over the course of a long season!

 

[Jaydumo20]

They covered it. Glad you're back on the board. Rest up for Texas!

 

[Dove]

I hope by Christmas you are 100% back on trackZ.

 

[Dogfish]

Rich, glad to hear that you are feeling better. Miss the "other" reports also. I wonder if it wasn't a blessing in disguise that Karaban was out. It gave a Hurley a chance to experiment with the two bigs. At the very least, it showed Hurley where Sampson could play without being exposed, as well, Sampson. It also let McNeeley go into beast mode as his "big brother" was out and he probably felt compelled to pick up the slack.

 

[ctchamps]

Glad you're feeling better Rich.

Maui was a shyster show. In the first game against Memphis we received 31 fouls to Memphis's 21. Hurley lost it, received a technical in OT on a controversial foul on McNeeley when the game was tied which ended a gritty comeback by our team and resulted in a loss.

The foul discrepancy continued through the remainder of the tournament. We lost three games because of the foul differential. Memphis had 29 pts. to our 19 on FTs, Colorado 18 to our 10 and Dayton 27 to our 7.

Since returning home Hurley has made a conscious effort to refrain from attacking the refs plus staying composed on the sidelines and it appears the players are being coached to reduce their fouling. Consequently what was bad defense from our guards on the perimeter has become even worse. The perimeter defense is letting their players get to the rim without contesting them and our bigs are being blocked and are not being as aggressive for position so it's hard for them to contest shots as well.

At least in the Baylor game it worked with UConn making 26 pts. on free throws with Baylor making 12. Of course other factors were in play that make it premature to know if this strategy will work in the future. Baylor had injuries to players that if they played could have changed the foul discrepancy. And we probably received some home cooking especially given the crowd was fantastic.

 

[TerryBoyz]

Hope you are on the mends RichZ.
I don’t recall Samson being a good free throw shooter. He went 5-6 from the other night. That was a bonus.

 

[RichZ]

I hope by Christmas you are 100% back on trackZ.

Thanks. Feeling 90% normal now. GP (oops, they're PCPs these days, I guess) put me on a massive dose of two different antibiotics, and that seemed to clear it pretty quick. Either that, or it was just running its course and would have gone away on its own at the same time.

 

[RichZ]

Hope you are on the mends RichZ.
I don’t recall Samson being a good free throw shooter. He went 5-6 from the other night. That was a bonus.

He shot 43% last year. But the year before he shot 100% from the line! Which may have been based on a single FT for all I remember. He only played 4 minutes a game in 12 appearances that year.