Baylor-Oregon State thread

[Nuyoika]

Yesterday I said on here in this thread: http://the-boneyard.com/threads/oregon-state.90490/ my gut was telling me that if Oregon St was good enough to win that many games while only averaging 67 points a game that their defense is either stellar or they haven't played any good offensive teams. I gave their defense the benefit of the doubt and predicted an upset. What is surprising is that Mulkey hasn't learned her lesson. My two major knocks on her have always been her players flopping (which I didn't see too much of that yesterday) and her willingness to allow her teams to become overly reliant on one player. She did it with Griner, Sims, and now Johnson. I said it over and over again in this thread as well as long as it's the Alexis Jones show Baylor won't win. Baylor played right into the hands of Oregon State. Oregon State wanted a slow deliberate game. They weren't going to out score Baylor but if they could bleed the clock on offense and get Baylor to bleed theor own clock by letting Jones dribble dribble dribble dribble then they had a real shot. Mulkey actually played right into this running plays for Jones in the final 4 minutes. Entire possessions where no one other than Jones touches the ball, why? All year long Johnson has been the glue to the Baylor offense. Oregon St forced Jones to be the point guard for the night and left Johnson to be the shooting guard (which she is not). I mean Rueck might be a genius. Even though I predicted it I was still amazed it happened. They say the only reason they lost that one game this year was because Niya was out well... she was out last night too, she had 1 assist. The crazy part is Jones could have had just as many points if she had allowed Johnson to create easy looks for her. This was a major coaching blunder in this case. I have seen quite a few coaching blunders this tourney actually.

 

[Dillon77]

How was it 3 points? Weisner hit just 1 of the 2 tech FTs.

Pretty sure OSU scored on the ensuing position after the FTs....

 

[Plebe]

Pretty sure OSU scored on the ensuing position after the FTs....

Yeah, but it was already OSU's ball anyway. The technical didn't take the ball away from Baylor.

 

[Ron and Vida]

If UCONN were down at the half like Baylor was ESPN would have been screaming and yelling upset. No such talk in this game.

If it were UCONN and Carolyn Peck had a jacket on she would have taken It off and swung it around and around over her head

 

[Dillon77]

Yeah, but it was already OSU's ball anyway. The technical didn't take the ball away from Baylor.

Thx...had forgotten OSU had the ball in the first place.

 

[TheGOAT23]

I watched the game and I still don't know how Baylor lost the game. OSU didn't hit a 3 point shot in 2nd half and OSU's guards seemed almost afraid to take a shot. They passed up open looks ot pass the ball into middle resulting in TO's. This was a game the Baylor players have to wonder how they lost. This was a home game for Baylor. Alexis Prince was a non factor and for the most part so was Nina Davis.

They lost because Niya Johnson was too scared to shoot. I couldn't believe the cushion that OSU gave her. 4 years in college and your coach doesn't help you develop a jumper....that's insane. She was the assist leader this year, yet she only had 1 assist last night in 40 minutes of play. Unbelievable. Nina only had 2 rebounds and she's usually a rebounding machine.

I don't know what Wiese was thinking as she drove to the basket a few times unguarded and passed the ball to someone who was being defended. Those were WTFT (what the french toast) moments.

 

[sarals24]

After watching Mulkey's histrionics last night, my husband turned to me and asked "Why would anyone want to play for that lady?"

My thoughts exactly. I just don't get the appeal.

 

[BRS24]

After watching Mulkey's histrionics last night, my husband turned to me and asked "Why would anyone want to play for that lady?"

My thoughts exactly. I just don't get the appeal.

Both hubby and I were talking about the histrionics of KM. This is not meant to be sexist, as we both said the same thing - why do/did KM and Summit get passes for antics on the sideline, and when Geno tries to defend his kids, he gets T-ed up?

 

[easttexastrash]

All credit to Oregon St. They played a great game and deserved to win. I had said earlier in the year that FTs were going to be the difference at some point and sure enough this team's inability to make FTs doomed them in the end. FTs are nothing more than a lot of practice and it would appear that Baylor did not put in the time to improve their FT shooting. Shoot a mere 70% and you win the game. Shoot 43% and you lose the game.

 

[toadfoot]

After watching Mulkey's histrionics last night, my husband turned to me and asked "Why would anyone want to play for that lady?"

My thoughts exactly. I just don't get the appeal.

Because her histrionics are a calculated effort to"work" the officials and not genuine outrage. Officials need to "T" her up when she goes into one of her "hair on fire" demonstrations, which is almost always in the first 5 minutes. That would put a complete stop to her nonsense. I'm sure her players feel like she's defending them.

 

[j66kicker]

All credit to Oregon St. They played a great game and deserved to win. I had said earlier in the year that FTs were going to be the difference at some point and sure enough this team's inability to make FTs doomed them in the end. FTs are nothing more than a lot of practice and it would appear that Baylor did not put in the time to improve their FT shooting. Shoot a mere 70% and you win the game. Shoot 43% and you lose the game.

I was disappointed with Baylor's loss - was looking forward to Baylor-UCONN matchup. FF doesn't seem like it has the 'real' competitors this year

 

[easttexastrash]

Yesterday I said on here in this thread: http://the-boneyard.com/threads/oregon-state.90490/ my gut was telling me that if Oregon St was good enough to win that many games while only averaging 67 points a game that their defense is either stellar or they haven't played any good offensive teams. I gave their defense the benefit of the doubt and predicted an upset. What is surprising is that Mulkey hasn't learned her lesson. My two major knocks on her have always been her players flopping (which I didn't see too much of that yesterday) and her willingness to allow her teams to become overly reliant on one player. She did it with Griner, Sims, and now Johnson. I said it over and over again in this thread as well as long as it's the Alexis Jones show Baylor won't win. Baylor played right into the hands of Oregon State. Oregon State wanted a slow deliberate game. They weren't going to out score Baylor but if they could bleed the clock on offense and get Baylor to bleed theor own clock by letting Jones dribble dribble dribble dribble then they had a real shot. Mulkey actually played right into this running plays for Jones in the final 4 minutes. Entire possessions where no one other than Jones touches the ball, why? All year long Johnson has been the glue to the Baylor offense. Oregon St forced Jones to be the point guard for the night and left Johnson to be the shooting guard (which she is not). I mean Rueck might be a genius. Even though I predicted it I was still amazed it happened. They say the only reason they lost that one game this year was because Niya was out well... she was out last night too, she had 1 assist. The crazy part is Jones could have had just as many points if she had allowed Johnson to create easy looks for her. This was a major coaching blunder in this case. I have seen quite a few coaching blunders this tourney actually.

Mulkey reverted to the Odyssey Sims offensive game plan, which was to ask Jones to do it all by herself toward the end of the game. You would think she would have learned by now that isolating one player on each play is really not going to work. But, Mulkey is stubborn with that habit of trying to isolate one player and giving her the ball.

Next season Baylor will have 5 players on the floor who can score. Niya Johnson has been a great PG but when the competition has increased has proven to be an offensive liability.

Baylor would have been better off without Johnson on the floor last night since Mulkey wanted the ball in Jones' hands. We would have been better off with Prince and Wallace on the wings as they are both shooters. But instead, Mulkey puts the ball in Jones' hands and has Johnson, who is not an offensive threat, on the wing, basically leaving her with only 4 offensive threats.

 

[easttexastrash]

I was disappointed with Baylor's loss - was looking forward to Baylor-UCONN matchup. FF doesn't seem like it has the 'real' competitors this year

Yeah, this FF has very little luster. Will probably be one of the least watched FFs in recent years, which is a shame considering that UCONN is on the verge of something never done before and that alone deserves to be seen.

 

[Nuyoika]

I was disappointed with Baylor's loss - was looking forward to Baylor-UCONN matchup. FF doesn't seem like it has the 'real' competitors this year

Let's not count out Oregon State... while I think we will win I don't think it will be or look easy at all. It could be a full on brawl from the looks of last night. If we don't rebound better than we did yesterday it could be closer than 20 points.

 

[toadfoot]

Mulkey reverted to the Odyssey Sims offensive game plan, which was to ask Jones to do it all by herself toward the end of the game. You would think she would have learned by now that isolating one player on each play is really not going to work. But, Mulkey is stubborn with that habit of trying to isolate one player and giving her the ball.

Next season Baylor will have 5 players on the floor who can score. Niya Johnson has been a great PG but when the competition has increased has proven to be an offensive liability.

Baylor would have been better off without Johnson on the floor last night since Mulkey wanted the ball in Jones' hands. We would have been better off with Prince and Wallace on the wings as they are both shooters. But instead, Mulkey puts the ball in Jones' hands and has Johnson, who is not an offensive threat, on the wing, basically leaving her with only 4 offensive threats.

I generally agree with you. I didn't see Baylor play a lot during the year, but Wallace appears to be a streaky shooter and what Baylor desperately needed last night was a shooter.
KM is without question a terrific recruiter, but my impression of her as a an X's and O's coach and developer of players is that she's mediocre at best. How do Baylor fans view her?

 

[toadfoot]

I was disappointed with Baylor's loss - was looking forward to Baylor-UCONN matchup. FF doesn't seem like it has the 'real' competitors this year

Interesting. My view is completely opposite. For one, I'm not sure the pollsters and the experts have had it right all year long about just who the 'real' competitors were, but even as a fan of the prohibitive favorite how can anyone not love the Cinderella aspect to this year's FF? What if the tournament had gone exactly the same except that UConn had lost and ND or SC had not. Wouldn't you as a UConn fan be glued to the TV pulling for Cinderella?

 

[Gabbyfan]

yes, Kim was a raving maniac for most of this game....they say it is because she is so competitive and hates to lose....well, from her body language and facial expressions at the end of the game, I would say she was relieved at not having to face the prospect of playing the Huskies (the east coast version) and be annihilated on national TV. It protects her image and saves face for next year when she surely believes she will be able to compete with Uconn. I saw the same look on the faces of Muffet and Dawn earlier in the tournament.

 

[UcMiami]

All credit to Oregon St. They played a great game and deserved to win. I had said earlier in the year that FTs were going to be the difference at some point and sure enough this team's inability to make FTs doomed them in the end. FTs are nothing more than a lot of practice and it would appear that Baylor did not put in the time to improve their FT shooting. Shoot a mere 70% and you win the game. Shoot 43% and you lose the game.

ETT - tough loss. I thought Kim and the players were great in the post game press conference. And lots of respect to Oregon State - as Kim said, not exactly sure how they do it defensively, but they sure are tough. Baylor didn't play their best game, but OSU had a lot to do with that, and Baylor did play a tough gritty game down to the wire.

 

[ochoopsfan]

So referee Kyle "Bacon" T'd up Kim "Ham" Mulkey for tossing her jacket. That certainly wasn't Kosher

 

[Plebe]

Mulkey reverted to the Odyssey Sims offensive game plan, which was to ask Jones to do it all by herself toward the end of the game. You would think she would have learned by now that isolating one player on each play is really not going to work. But, Mulkey is stubborn with that habit of trying to isolate one player and giving her the ball.

Next season Baylor will have 5 players on the floor who can score. Niya Johnson has been a great PG but when the competition has increased has proven to be an offensive liability.

Baylor would have been better off without Johnson on the floor last night since Mulkey wanted the ball in Jones' hands. We would have been better off with Prince and Wallace on the wings as they are both shooters. But instead, Mulkey puts the ball in Jones' hands and has Johnson, who is not an offensive threat, on the wing, basically leaving her with only 4 offensive threats.

That's a good, sober assessment. Alexis Jones was pretty effective in the first half playing one on one, or driving and dishing to a big, and that probably convinced Mulkey that it was her best game plan down the stretch. Baylor seemed to have a ton of makeable shots that just rolled or rimmed out. It was really a tough loss.

 

[housekeys]

Baylor would have been better off without Johnson on the floor last night since Mulkey wanted the ball in Jones' hands. We would have been better off with Prince and Wallace on the wings as they are both shooters. But instead, Mulkey puts the ball in Jones' hands and has Johnson, who is not an offensive threat, on the wing, basically leaving her with only 4 offensive threats.

Good observation. Wallace reminds me of Kelly Ferris on defense and she has a better offensive game. Mulkey made some questionable decisions last night, I think.

 

[UcMiami]

ETT - I really like Kim and she has Baylor humming along, so don't take this the wrong way, but ...
I think she needs to tone down her sideline act (not the clothing - I love her wardrobe.) It almost appears like she is doing a performance and making the game about her and not the actual game. I understand that it is a performance and she is trying to instill fire in her team and to some degree get the refs attention, but I don't think it really works the way she wants it to:

1. You want your team to play with 'controlled fury' or 'harnessed energy' or 'tempered fire', and her frantic performance on the sideline too often leads to frenetic action from her team and a loss of control. If you show no control on the sideline, what is your team supposed to think?

2. You want to make a specific point to a ref or to the whole crew and maybe you want to get a technical, but her tantrums end up being 'unfocused' and she didn't get her technical making a forceful point to a ref who blew a call, she got it because she did her strip routine and tossed her coat. Curse a ref for making a bad call or missing an obvious foul, and you get the same T but the ref actually knows what you beef is and maybe he thinks about it the next time a similar play occurs.

 

[easttexastrash]

ETT - I really like Kim and she has Baylor humming along, so don't take this the wrong way, but ...
I think she needs to tone down her sideline act (not the clothing - I love her wardrobe.) It almost appears like she is doing a performance and making the game about her and not the actual game. I understand that it is a performance and she is trying to instill fire in her team and to some degree get the refs attention, but I don't think it really works the way she wants it to:

1. You want your team to play with 'controlled fury' or 'harnessed energy' or 'tempered fire', and her frantic performance on the sideline too often leads to frenetic action from her team and a loss of control. If you show no control on the sideline, what is your team supposed to think?

2. You want to make a specific point to a ref or to the whole crew and maybe you want to get a technical, but her tantrums end up being 'unfocused' and she didn't get her technical making a forceful point to a ref who blew a call, she got it because she did her strip routine and tossed her coat. Curse a ref for making a bad call or missing an obvious foul, and you get the same T but the ref actually knows what you beef is and maybe he thinks about it the next time a similar play occurs.

Are you asking that I have a talk with her?

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Are you asking that I have a talk with her?

Maybe the team trainer could slip a 5 mg Xanax into her pregame meal?

 

[easttexastrash]

Interesting. My view is completely opposite. For one, I'm not sure the pollsters and the experts have had it right all year long about just who the 'real' competitors were, but even as a fan of the prohibitive favorite how can anyone not love the Cinderella aspect to this year's FF? What if the tournament had gone exactly the same except that UConn had lost and ND or SC had not. Wouldn't you as a UConn fan be glued to the TV pulling for Cinderella?

Had the tournament gone as expected then the fan interest would have been greater. Since nobody thinks that any of these teams has a shot at UCONN interest will be mild, at best.