Baylor
Lost Kenny Chery and Royce O’Neal to graduation. Deng Deng decided to leave.
Gained King McClure, Wendell Mitchell, Jake Lindsey. JUCO addition Jo Acuil was recently diagnosed with a heart condition and will sit at least 8 weeks for study. Manu Lecomte, transfer from Miami, won’t be eligible until 2016-17.
Chery was an excellent PG, but Baylor returns Lester Medford, who can perform in a very similar role. Undersized, quick, able to get in the paint, good distributor. His a/t ratio was 24/4 in the four games Chery missed in late November and early December, and that was against good but not stellar competition (Memphis, Illinois, Tx. So., Vandy). Medford’s weakest attribute as a pg is ft shooting, just 62.1% last year.
The loss of Acuil and Deng makes Baylor very thin on the front line. Motley and Gathers are the only reliable players at 5 and 4. I don’t care if the Naismith Hall of Fame put Taurean Prince on the Karl Malone Award watch list. Prince is more of a 3 than a 4 despite all the minutes he played at 4 last year. He is liable to have to come off the bench again, since Baylor starting Motley, Gathers, and Prince would leave only Terry Maston to sub for Motley and Gathers. Unless Maston has really, really, really improved his game, he won’t be a viable alternative. Maston did produce some very good offensive rebound numbers in the scant minutes he played as a freshman, but the sample size is way, way too small to put any reliance on it. That’s be like saying Danny Newsome will be a major rebounding force for Texas this year.
Freeman will get a big jump in minutes due to the loss of O’Neale, but Ish Wainright has to be something more than the disappointment he was as a sophomore (just 9.6 mpg and 2/10 bta).
Baylor starts the year with 3 new players, all freshmen guards.
1) King McClure, a one time recruiting rankings topper who slowly slid down the charts but remained in the top 100. McClure was once thought of as the second coming of Marcus Smart, but while he is a much more accomplished shooter, he isn’t that level of defender. He probably isn’t anywhere near Smart's level of dickishness, either. McClure has had two hs seasons cut short with knee problems and was diagnosed with a heart condition but has been cleared by medical staff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGP_3JFPaOo
2) Wendell Mitchell, who has a wide range of offensive skills and NBA three point range but who will need some time to adjust to the level of play after feasting for years against 3A competition;
http://www.hudl.com/athlete/3615127/highlights/121149375/v2
3) Jake Lindsey, who . . . well, he kind of looks like Jimmy Chitwood. He has very good ball handling skills for his size and a very good shooting touch, but take what I said about Mitchell adjusting to Division 1 play and double it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWrS_uXPUfs
These will all be productive players, but they are rather redundant. McClure isn’t a true PG, so we’re talking about a recruiting class that is entirely made of SGs, even if they have somewhat different body types and skill sets.
Baylor has some real problems with depth; however, Drew has been pretty notorious about playing 7 and 8 man rotations, so it isn’t like he isn’t used to having depth problems or just not using whatever depth he had. Drew will have the same headache as last year of having no options on the front line after Motley, Gathers, and Prince get in foul trouble.
Baylor will again be without shot blocking, might be weak on defensive glass, and so will be suspect in interior defense. Baylor has often been turnover prone. Losing Chery and O’Neale won’t help with the this, but Gathers has ridiculously strong everything, including hands, and commits very few turnovers in the paint, and Medford is pretty reliable. If the freshmen guards can play under control, Baylor might not be too turnover prone this year.
Finally, Baylor may prove to be horrible at the line. It was bad last year (67.4%), and lost its top two ft shooters (Chery 82.4% and O’Neale 77.3%). The returning players shot 64.2%.
Preseason evaluations for Baylor seem inconsistent. It polls well, placing behind KU, ISU, and OU in the polls, coming in 21st in the USA today coaches poll and 19th in CBS’s rankings 1-351. AP isn’t out yet. On the other hand, it generally gets pushed down in conference previews. Athlon has it fourth in the conference, but:
5 Big 12 coaches (behind Texas)
6 Lindy’s (behind Texas and WVU)
5 TSN (behind WVU)
I don’t know quite what to expect again from Baylor, which is what I usually have to say about any team in October. It played better than anyone expected last year before flaming out against Georgia State in the NCAA first round, committing 21 turnovers to throw away its 40-22 board advantage and good shooting performance (.500 2-pt, .368 3-pt, .846 ft). What has been a lot more frequently seen in Waco is a team that underachieves during conference play but performs well in the tournament. I guess that couldn’t go on forever.
We should get a very good idea early on if Baylor is going to be a challenger this year. It starts the year with SFA and then goes to Oregon, but as usual, Drew has scheduled a bunch of crap, and Baylor is not in any exempt early season tournament this year. It will host Vandy, NMSU, and Georgia, the last being the Big 12-SEC Challenge game, and it will go to A&M, but the rest of it is SWAC, MEAC, Sunbelt, and Southland teams. Oh, and let's not forget Division III Hardin-Simmons.
Lost Kenny Chery and Royce O’Neal to graduation. Deng Deng decided to leave.
Gained King McClure, Wendell Mitchell, Jake Lindsey. JUCO addition Jo Acuil was recently diagnosed with a heart condition and will sit at least 8 weeks for study. Manu Lecomte, transfer from Miami, won’t be eligible until 2016-17.
Chery was an excellent PG, but Baylor returns Lester Medford, who can perform in a very similar role. Undersized, quick, able to get in the paint, good distributor. His a/t ratio was 24/4 in the four games Chery missed in late November and early December, and that was against good but not stellar competition (Memphis, Illinois, Tx. So., Vandy). Medford’s weakest attribute as a pg is ft shooting, just 62.1% last year.
The loss of Acuil and Deng makes Baylor very thin on the front line. Motley and Gathers are the only reliable players at 5 and 4. I don’t care if the Naismith Hall of Fame put Taurean Prince on the Karl Malone Award watch list. Prince is more of a 3 than a 4 despite all the minutes he played at 4 last year. He is liable to have to come off the bench again, since Baylor starting Motley, Gathers, and Prince would leave only Terry Maston to sub for Motley and Gathers. Unless Maston has really, really, really improved his game, he won’t be a viable alternative. Maston did produce some very good offensive rebound numbers in the scant minutes he played as a freshman, but the sample size is way, way too small to put any reliance on it. That’s be like saying Danny Newsome will be a major rebounding force for Texas this year.
Freeman will get a big jump in minutes due to the loss of O’Neale, but Ish Wainright has to be something more than the disappointment he was as a sophomore (just 9.6 mpg and 2/10 bta).
Baylor starts the year with 3 new players, all freshmen guards.
1) King McClure, a one time recruiting rankings topper who slowly slid down the charts but remained in the top 100. McClure was once thought of as the second coming of Marcus Smart, but while he is a much more accomplished shooter, he isn’t that level of defender. He probably isn’t anywhere near Smart's level of dickishness, either. McClure has had two hs seasons cut short with knee problems and was diagnosed with a heart condition but has been cleared by medical staff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGP_3JFPaOo
2) Wendell Mitchell, who has a wide range of offensive skills and NBA three point range but who will need some time to adjust to the level of play after feasting for years against 3A competition;
http://www.hudl.com/athlete/3615127/highlights/121149375/v2
3) Jake Lindsey, who . . . well, he kind of looks like Jimmy Chitwood. He has very good ball handling skills for his size and a very good shooting touch, but take what I said about Mitchell adjusting to Division 1 play and double it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWrS_uXPUfs
These will all be productive players, but they are rather redundant. McClure isn’t a true PG, so we’re talking about a recruiting class that is entirely made of SGs, even if they have somewhat different body types and skill sets.
Baylor has some real problems with depth; however, Drew has been pretty notorious about playing 7 and 8 man rotations, so it isn’t like he isn’t used to having depth problems or just not using whatever depth he had. Drew will have the same headache as last year of having no options on the front line after Motley, Gathers, and Prince get in foul trouble.
Baylor will again be without shot blocking, might be weak on defensive glass, and so will be suspect in interior defense. Baylor has often been turnover prone. Losing Chery and O’Neale won’t help with the this, but Gathers has ridiculously strong everything, including hands, and commits very few turnovers in the paint, and Medford is pretty reliable. If the freshmen guards can play under control, Baylor might not be too turnover prone this year.
Finally, Baylor may prove to be horrible at the line. It was bad last year (67.4%), and lost its top two ft shooters (Chery 82.4% and O’Neale 77.3%). The returning players shot 64.2%.
Preseason evaluations for Baylor seem inconsistent. It polls well, placing behind KU, ISU, and OU in the polls, coming in 21st in the USA today coaches poll and 19th in CBS’s rankings 1-351. AP isn’t out yet. On the other hand, it generally gets pushed down in conference previews. Athlon has it fourth in the conference, but:
5 Big 12 coaches (behind Texas)
6 Lindy’s (behind Texas and WVU)
5 TSN (behind WVU)
I don’t know quite what to expect again from Baylor, which is what I usually have to say about any team in October. It played better than anyone expected last year before flaming out against Georgia State in the NCAA first round, committing 21 turnovers to throw away its 40-22 board advantage and good shooting performance (.500 2-pt, .368 3-pt, .846 ft). What has been a lot more frequently seen in Waco is a team that underachieves during conference play but performs well in the tournament. I guess that couldn’t go on forever.
We should get a very good idea early on if Baylor is going to be a challenger this year. It starts the year with SFA and then goes to Oregon, but as usual, Drew has scheduled a bunch of crap, and Baylor is not in any exempt early season tournament this year. It will host Vandy, NMSU, and Georgia, the last being the Big 12-SEC Challenge game, and it will go to A&M, but the rest of it is SWAC, MEAC, Sunbelt, and Southland teams. Oh, and let's not forget Division III Hardin-Simmons.
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