Coming into this game Baylor has had a really poor season. They’re 11-9 on the year, 1-7 in Big 12 play, and neither their offense or defense look particularly impressive which has not been the case for Baylor teams in the past. After getting our ass kicked by Arizona and squeaking one out against Kansas State we really need a statement win here. More importantly, we absolutely cannot lose this game because if we do, our March Madness dreams will surely be over. Our biggest obstacle? Playing down to our competition.
You know, just ONCE I would love to be wrong about that, but the last 25 years of being a fan has conditioned me into believing that this is just the status quo. In the first half we couldn’t get anything going AND we couldn’t stop them. I will say that at the very least we are trying; Treysen Eaglestaff and Brenen Lorient ended the half with 9 and 8 points respectively, but Honor Huff has not been able to get anything going.
I can’t really pinpoint anything that Baylor is doing to make our lives more difficult; I just think that we’re rushing things. We’re getting shots up early in the shot clock which I feel is hindering us from finding a groove offensively. Outside of that? The team stats look fine. We’re shooting 40% from 3 and we haven’t turned the ball over a lot. Baylor, on the other hand, is shooting 54% from 3, they have more points in the paint, and they are killing us on the boards.
I’m just hoping that we get our shit together because I really don’t want our March Madness chances to be dashed in January. We’re down 38-30 but there is still a lot of basketball left to play.
There were a few different points in the second half where I felt the energy might shift. I felt like we were always a possession or two away from going on a run to close the gap, take the lead, and bury the Bears. That moment, ultimately, never came.
Every time that we got a defensive stop we couldn’t convert on the other end. Every time we hit a big shot they had a big shot of their own. At no point in this entire game did I feel like we were in control; at best we were just fighting for our lives. I’ve said it countless times this season that we can’t play like this and expect to compete with the Titans of this conference. To top it off the further we get from the “upset” Kansas win, the more I start to believe it was a fluke victory.
This team is in need of some serious change. The way we operate as a unit is dysfunctional at its best and inoperable at its worst. Our point guard isn’t aggressive enough on offense and outright refuses to shoot the ball when the defense is all but begging him to, we have no low post creators on the team, our 1B guy has nights like tonight where he only shoots 7 times and goes scoreless in the second half, and like I’ve said about 300 times this year WE DON’T HAVE ANYBODY WHO WE CAN COUNT ON WHEN HONOR HUFF DOESN’T HAVE IT GOING.
This is an incredibly sad way to lose this game. Baylor is not a good basketball team, we should not have been in this kind of game with them, and we should still be considering our path to March Madness at this point in the year. However, more likely than not, we’re going to have to shift our focus to participating in the NIT. Had we not lost to Clemson and Xavier back to back, had we not lost to Ohio State, and had we had better showings against teams like Kansas State, Colorado, and Cincinnati, maybe our dreams would still be alive. I could be proven wrong but I find it very unlikely that anyone on the selection committee could look at this loss and think that we should go dancing.
Just a heartbreaking way to end the evening. It’s safe to say that the rest of the season is just for our pride. I would gladly accept the invitation to the NIT right now if we could because that’s what I’ll be focusing on for the rest of the year. If we end up hanging a banner, I’ll count this season as a success. For right now? I’m going to go pout for a bit.
The Roundball Big 3 of the Game:
Brenen Lorient – 19 points, 1 block
Chance Moore – 9 points, 4 rebounds
Treysen Eaglestaff – 9 points, 3 stocks
I’m going to try and sleep this one off because we have a rematch with Cincinnati on Thursday and something tells me that it’ll be a tougher game than last time. I love you, Dad. I miss you. I’ll see you soon.
Round The Game 
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