Baylor Bears & Scott Drew are ranked 6th in the nation

[historyman]

Not too shabby for the former Valpo coach.

http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/college/games/no-baylor-dunks-past-bethune-cookman/article_0277bd50-8331-5353-885c-0ddf3341c8d9.html

[valpotx]

It's a nice accomplishment to win 25 non-conference games in a row, but I would look into those opponents.  There are some pretty bad opponents he has put on his schedule the last few years.  I imagine that is because they have a hard conference schedule each year, but the only halfway decent team they have played this year is San Diego State.  They do finally have some quality games againt BYU, MS State, WVU and Saint Mary's coming up though.  Must be nice to be able to schedule 80%+ home games in non-conference too 

[valporun]

I'll agree with valpotx, some of this year's schedule looks really cupcake. I did look at their roster, and based on the amount of sophomores, how much of this easy wins November/December schedule is due to the young roster Scott has? Also, December 4th at Northwestern was the Bears first road game of the season. Everything else was a major guarantee game for the little school that traveled to Waco to get blown out. Yes, the Northwestern game was a proverbial blowout, like usual with the Wildcats, but they have some players at NU now. The upcoming games will get them more prepared to play the Big 12 season, unlike playing all of the better games in November, then cupcakes all of December. I shouldn't like it, but with a young roster, I'll accept padding the record in November, then bringing in some more difficult games in December to really see what your rotations have learned about winning and playing together.

[historyman]

I think you laugh off the 6th ranked team in the country at your own risk. Do you think all the voters in the poll are that wrong?

[valpopal]

Andy Katz of ESPN today:

• Baylor coach Scott Drew is going to have great fun coaching this team. The Bears' frontcourt provides plenty of highlights and is as good a watch on the fast break as any this season.
• I've met countless people over the last 22 years covering this sport. Drew's father, Homer, a prostate cancer survivor who is aiding his wife, Janet, in her own cancer struggle, is at or near the top. The former Valparaiso coach is as classy and real as any person associated with college basketball.


http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/katz_andy/id/7356923/news-notes-country-college-basketball

[valpotx]

No one is saying anything about their talent, just calling out their cupcake schedule in the early going.

[valporun]

I didn't say anything about their talent specifically, valpotx, just maybe providing a little explanation for the early cupcakes.

The rankings this early are a joke, when most of your top ten is playing "no names" or in the prime "tournaments" that ESPN has some grip on. I mean did the Coaches vs. Cancer, Maui, and some of the other holiday tourneys need "sub-regionals" to put the four main teams into the main site for the tournament? I think the rankings could start right around now, after the Big East, ACC, and Ohio St., Kansas and the likes play out their cupcakes in November.

[StlVUFan]

http://rushthecourt.net/2012/01/09/scott-drew-correct-in-comments-to-decourcy-critics-are-wrong/

[historyman]

An Indiana - Baylor match up would be a great game to watch in the NCAA tourney.

[vu84v2]

Baylor will be 3rd in the nation when today's rankings come out.

Tonight's game is fascinating.  Baylor, undefeated with a boatload of talent, come into the hardest place to play in the country with an environment that will be deafening.  Self is probably doing his best coaching job ever with this team, since besides Thomas Robinson (national POY so far) and the undisciplined Tyshawn Taylor they have a bunch of role players playing more than 10 minutes per game for the first time in their Kansas' careers.

Having moved to Big 12 country, I have heard the comments about Scott Drew.  People do say that he negatively recruits, plus he sometimes does things that are either rude or naive.  One example is that he pulled his team off the floor two years at in Lawrence when Kansas was introduced - then he claimed he just wanted some quiet to talk with his team.  There is no denying, however, that he has done a great job at Baylor.

[vuweathernerd]

i think they win by 8-10 tonight at phog allen. the fun then continues saturday when mizzou visits. mizzou's been notoriously flat on the road this season, but i'd expect them to turn that around in waco on saturday.

[vu84v2]

Winning by 8-10 at the Phog would be quite an accomplishment and quite a surprise.  Kansas is playing very well and the home court advantage frankly has to be worth 10 points.  I have never seen anything like it.

[valporun]

I haven't been watching the game, but I just saw that the game went to halftime with Kansas leading, 39-29. What I'm seeing on Twitter is that Phog Allen Fieldhouse is mind-numbingly loud.

[vu84v2]

Ears still ringing and I saw on ESPN's website that they measured 114 dB at various times during the game.  You cannot fathom how loud that place is for a big game and how tightly they pack in 16,000 unless you go there.  Kansas just feeds off the intensity and has bursts where they are unstoppable....and this is not that talented of a team beyond Robinson and Taylor.

[vuweathernerd]

I haven't been watching the game, but I just saw that the game went to halftime with Kansas leading, 39-29. What I'm seeing on Twitter is that Phog Allen Fieldhouse is mind-numbingly loud.

not too long before that, baylor was up i believe 29-24. which means that ku closed the half on a 15-0 run. the bears led for a bit in the second half as well, but down the stretch, kansas got the better of them. now i just have to hope that they don't go out to prove something against my tigers on saturday in waco.

[vu84v2]

Baylor cut it to 5 in the second half, but never came close to getting the lead back.  Frankly, Baylor was settling for too many jump shots while Kansas continually worked the ball (especially in the second half where they shot over 60%).

Baylor-Missouri is an interesting matchup.  Missouri seems to play very good team ball and gets (and makes) a lot of open shots.  Missouri however plays four guards and Ratliffe, while Baylor is huge up front.  My guess is guard play will be the key.

The upcoming Kansas-Missouri games should be very intense given both teams contending for the title and this being Missouri's last season in the Big 12 (not too mention the utter hatred between many of the fans of the two schools).  As a (new) Kansas fan, I would love the conference to come down to the Missouri at Kansas game in late February.

[vuweathernerd]

do the drew boys hate timeouts at the end of games or something? i just looked up from my homework to see that scott is down to 2 with 12 to play in waco. and i know that bryce on several occasions has burned his before we hit the last media timeout. (granted, i haven't watched much of baylor this year - but it seems odd that he would burn timeouts like that when his team's playing pretty well.)

[valporun]

nerd, some of the use of timeouts might just be the need for an extra breather before the media timeout. Bryce tends to use this effectively, depending on the opponent.

[vuweathernerd]

nerd, some of the use of timeouts might just be the need for an extra breather before the media timeout. Bryce tends to use this effectively, depending on the opponent.

okay, i guess i can buy that in scott's case today against such a quick oppenent. one of mizzou's biggest strengths is their ability to wear teams down. but there's been a couple times where bryce seemed to have burned them unnecessarily. i honestly hadn't thought about your point, run. thanks.