It's getting harder and harder to watch these guys, as it's clear their confidence is devastated and they expect Murphy's Law will be in full effect no matter what they do. Given that Baylor is a pretty good team, certainly NCAA-tournament worthy, losing to the Bears is no big shame, but at some point we have to step up and protect our home court against good teams. Also, being down double-digits and losing by 18, at home, is not acceptable. I'll give the team and coaches credit, as it appeared they fought til the end, rather than giving up like they did in Lincoln, but at some point we have to figure out a way to play well in the first half of a game.
What I liked... ...the clear change in offensive philosophy after about the first 10 or 15 minutes. Baylor packed it in with a 2-3 zone from the start, and our guys seemed content to throw a few passes around the perimeter and then chuck a three from Council Grove or Salina or wherever. Toward the end of the first half, it appeared that Frank threatened to take off his shirt and fight anyone who tossed another brick from 20 feet, as the players started driving into the land and, shockingly, scoring some points. Stephen Bardo noted at one point that it seemed like every time we got to the Big 12 logo in the paint, we scored. It really is surprising that, as you get closer to the hoop, your percentage chances of scoring go up. ...the quietly efficient offensive play of Dominique Sutton and Jamar Samuels. Sutton went 5-8 from the field for 12 points, without launching a single three-pointer. Samuels was 3-4 from the field for eight points. These guys both need more minutes and, more importantly, more touches. With Pullen and Clemente again combining to shoot below 40 percent (9-27 combined), we need to get the ball in the hands of guys who are actually likely to score. What I didn't like... ...getting outrebounded by Baylor. What in the hell? One of the smaller teams in the conference outrebounded us. Hell, they had three putback dunks in the first 10 minutes of the game alone. ...not being able to find ...another deficient game defensively. For the second game in a row, our opponent shot better than 50 percent from the field and from three-point range. We won't win any more games if this pattern continues. What it means and where we're going... Right now, this team looks completely lost. Neither the players nor Martin can shoulder all the blame, there's plenty to go around. For whatever reason, Martin can't get these guys to buy into what he wants them to do. For whatever reason, the players don't seem to realize that their unwillingness to play within the parameters of Martin's system is the reason they're losing games. I could maybe understand that if they were putting up big numbers, but they're not. Clemente was our leading scorer yesterday with 17, while Pullen had another atrocious game and scored only nine. We know these guys can be good players, but at some point they're going to have to get things together. In the near term, we're on our way to Boulder on Saturday for a showdown of winless conference foes. Something's gotta give, and if that something is us, oh my, what a trainwreck we will have on our hands. Henry Dugat LaceDarius Dunn. It's like our guys had never seen someone make a lot of three-pointers before. Of course, given our own woes from distance - we shot 26.7 percent from range last night - that may not be surprising. Dunn came into the game averaging about 16 points per game. If we hold him to that average, we suddenly have a very different ball game.
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