Friday, January 26, 2007

Things should start to return to normal

I have had a crazy last couple of months.

Job search, holidays, etc have kept me busy. And Baylor athletics haven't exactly been inspiring me. It's probably a good thing that I wasn't posting daily updates, as this thing could have spiraled out of control fast.


But let's take a look at what's going on with the different sports.

FOOTBALL:


Signing day is fast approaching and the class is wavering between coming together and falling apart. I think this class will certainly be one of the best classes in recent history, but the loss of Lonnie Edwards stings. I really can't believe the guy would go play for an OL coach that hasn't coached the position since New Hampshire and had a poor stop at La Tech as the HC.

Now Baylor hasn't put a lineman into the NFL in a while, but if Morriss just started coaching the position last year and Jason Smith looks like he is well on his way to the league, and he was fresh off the TE position. I don't think there's any question that Morriss is far more trustworthy when it comes to developing lineman than Bicknell. Let's hope that Morriss can get this across to Lonnie and get him back in the fold. It'd be a mistake to waste all that talent out there in West Texas where nobody cares about you.

The rest of the class looks very promising, though. Rex McDougald and Leon Freeman are already on campus and that's good news for the DLine. John David Weed and Machen are already on campus and that should give us immediate help at QB. I would expect Weed to win the starting job this spring, though Machen has talent and has produced at the D1 level.

There are some serious athletes coming in like Stacy Williams, Larry Rosebud, Romie Blaylock and many more. These guys are going to have no problem stepping into their roles, and probably will do so early.

I'll have a full write-up about the signing class on Signing Day, but there is a lot going on with recruiting right now and it seems like the staff is working very hard on closing out the class right.


MEN'S BASKETBALL:

Well, huh. Been pretty disappointing lately, honestly.

The last two games haven't been pretty at all, and there aren't many valid excuses.

The good news is that this is still a young team, they are still getting better and finding their roles and I think we still have a good shot at 6 wins this year.

Demond Carter is showing that he was very much underrated coming into Baylor, especially as a handler and distributor of the ball. He's sporting a better than 2-1 A/TO average and is scoring 9.4 points per game.

Kevin Rogers is still the surprise of the season, averaging 12.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg, and better than a block per game. If he was a bit more consistent with his scoring, then this team could really take off.

There is no question that the team has been disappointing so far this year, but I think that they will start to come together as the year goes on and we could still be looking at an NIT berth, if they can come together quickly. We need at least 7 wins in conference and a win in the Big XII tournament to get to the NIT, though. I'm not sure if that is doable, but we'll see.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL:

I was one of the people that thought this was going to be a big down year for the girls. I thought losing Sophia Young was huge and that we were going to be so young that it was going to be difficult to keep up what has become our normal performance. With Bernice Mosby stepping up though, that hasn't been the case at all. With only 3 losses on the season and back into second place in the conference, it looks like the girls are ready to make a lot more noise this year.

The most interesting game of the year will be at Oklahoma in the last regular season game. I think it might be too much to hope that OU might lose two games by then so that it could be a battle for 1st place, but winning that game could go a long way to giving our young girls the confidence to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament.

Another Sweet 16 appearance would be a HUGE accomplishment for this young team. Remember that this team was picked 4th in the Big XII and didn't receive any first place votes. A&M and Texas were picked ahead of Baylor in the polls.

There is still a lot of room for improvement, but with talent like Darrett and Wilson coming on strong in just their freshman year, I think this team has a ton of potential and it will be great to see how it develops over the rest of this season and in the next few years.