We will not doubt Baylor again. We will not doubt Baylor again. We will not doubt Baylor again.
Write it on a blackboard 500 times, if that’s what it takes.
It’s become almost a yearly occurrence now that Scott Drew’s Baylor squads are underrated heading into a season. The Bears perennially are undersold. They don’t have blueblood status steeped in decades of tradition. They just may not ‘look’ like a top 20 team in a modern game that values guards upon guards and has little use for teams defined by a quirky defense. Maybe it’s just the bad highlighter uniforms.
Whatever the reason, it’s an error that needs to be corrected. Baylor has become a legitimate year-in, year-out top-20 program, something it showed again in the CBE Hall of Fame Classic the past two days. The Bears topped Wisconsin in a hotly contested semifinal on Monday, and last night they rallied from 12 points down to defeat Creighton 65-59 in the championship to improve to 5-0 this season.
It seems there are always Baylor players popping up from outside one’s conscious to suddenly become keys, and King McClure is the latest, scoring 19 points in the final. Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. is another, and he had 15 points and 15 rebounds on the way to tournament MVP honors.
The real story about the Bears, though, is often their defense, and that was the case again last night. Baylor’s 1-1-3 zone shut down a potent Bluejays offense to the tune of 5-for-30 from three-point range. Populated by long, rangy athletes all over the place, the Bears’ defense can seem like the 1985 Chicago Bears at times, tough to shoot over and ready to swat any shot into the eighth row if one gets inside.
Baylor famously went from unranked to No. 1 in the country last year before splitting its final 14 games and eventually being eliminated convincingly by South Carolina in the NCAA tourney Sweet 16. Similar underwhelming finishes have also been part of the last four years. In the first half of the season, though, few programs can touch Baylor of late. It only we can remember as much by the beginning of next season.
Side Dishes:
- The Maui Invitational semifinals doubleheader used to be one of the greatest nights of the entire college basketball season. Used to be. Again displaying its increasing lack of interest in college basketball, ESPN ridiculously decided a college football playoff ranking/hype show and a soccer game are more important on its mothership network in primetime, so the tourney switched its format to get both semis on ESPN 1, with the first game starting at 8:30 a.m. local time in Hawaii. Wichita State wore down Marquette to win 80-66 in the morning semifinal. The nightcap was a dud as Notre Dame drubbed LSU 92-53, putting some damper on the Tigers’ win over Michigan the night before. It does set us up for what should be a fantastic championship game, though, between the Fighting Irish and Shockers.
- The Legends Classic goes to Texas A&M, which held off Penn State 98-87 as the Aggies’ five scoring in double figures trumped the Nittany Lions’ Tony Carr (31) and Lamar Stevens (25) combining for 56 points. A&M shot 61.1% in this one.
- UCLA topped Wisconsin 72-70 in the CBE Hall of Fame Classic consolation game. Aaron Holiday beat the buzzer with his game-winning layup, and the Badgers now have dropped three straight close ones against quality competition.
- The Cayman Islands Classic is left with Cincinnati and Wyoming in the final after the Cowboys outdid Louisiana-Lafayette 70-61 and Cincy drilled Richmond 75-48. Also notable here was Iowa losing for a second straight time, this one to South Dakota State 80-72. The Hawkeyes now play for seventh place, and do so against a solid team in UAB, which lost to Buffalo 96-91 in overtime.
- The Gulf Coast Showcase title game is set with what is quietly a very appealing final. Undefeated Georgia Southern moved to the championship game with a tougher-than-expected time win over Missouri-Kansas City, 78-75. The Eagles will face Towson in a good one in the final after the Tigers beat Pennsylvania 79-71.
- In the Cancun Challenge semifinals, Louisiana Tech was in charge in a 77-64 win over George Mason to improve to 4-0. Most expected Fresno State to meet Tech in a battle of Bulldogs in the final, but Evansville spoiled that with a 59-57 win over Fresno as high-scoring Ryan Taylor (21 points; fourth time with 21+ this year) hit the game-winner with eight seconds left. The Purple Aces are now 5-0, and Marty Simmons is doing a nice job with UE again early in the season.
- Outside of tournament play, Alabama nipped Texas-Arlington 77-76, coming back after a red-hot first half by the Mavs. Collin Sexton scored 29 points in an outstanding game, albeit one with some curiously soft calls down the stretch in the home team’s favor and a foul differential that suggests UTA got the full road game treatment. The Mavericks still had chances to win late, but Kevin Hervey-superb with 24 points-missed a gimme putback layup late, and a chance to win in the final 20 seconds did not produce a good shot.
- In the first of an excellent home-and-home this year, Middle Tennessee State rolled over Florida Gulf Coast 85-72. Nick King continues to be a scoring machine for the Blue Raiders-he had 25 points in this one-and point guard Tyrik Dixon had a sweet stat line with 12 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.
- An anticipated game out West saw Nevada able to slow down Davidson, 81-68. Caleb Martin scored 26 and added eight rebounds and five assists, and the Wolf Pack shot 55.6% while holding the Wildcats to 41.1% shooting, not nearly enough even as they hit 13 three-pointers.
- A result that won’t get much notice but should: Southeastern Louisiana knocked off Kent State on the road 70-66 for the Golden Flashes’ first loss. Two similar results out West, both of them bad news for the Mountain West: Pacific won at Air Force 83-71, a winless team (0-3 coming in) over a previously undefeated (3-0) one on the road. A nice win for Damon Stoudamire’s young Tigers program. Also, plucky Tennessee Tech earned a 104-96 overtime victory at New Mexico. The Golden Eagles will be a darkhorse in the OVC this year.
- Don’t look now, but Valparaiso is now 5-0 after pulling away for an 88-67 win over Samford. The schedule has been quite accommodating, but the Crusaders are winning by an average of 31.6 points per game.
- Off the court, the big news of the day was the announcement that Missouri freshman Michael Porter will have back surgery and is expected to likely miss the rest of the season. The injury obviously is a blow to the Tigers, who played well without him in the opener against Iowa State and their second game against Wagner, but looked awful in a loss at Utah and then a narrow win over NCAA Division II Emporia State on Monday. There’s still enough talent on the team to win its share of games this season, but it needs to mesh better than it has of late. As for Porter as a collegian; we hardly knew ye. He played two minutes against Iowa State, and unless he returns late this season or for a second year in college, that will be the extent of his collegiate career. His impact goes beyond playing-he put Mizzou in the news again and made it a cool place for recruits, in an NBA superteam sort of way. The Missouri program received a nice jolt that shouldn’t entirely go away. The sport of college basketball, as a whole, will be just fine going forward, but one has to feel for him as a young person.
- Illinois State forward Milik Yarbrough has been suspended one game for violation of team rules, per ISU beat writer Jim Benson of the Bloomington Pantagraph. He’ll miss the Redbirds’ contest tonight against Division II Quincy (Ill.).
Today’s Menu:
- Championship games in the Maui Invitational, Gulf Coast Classic, Cayman Islands Classic, Cancun Challenge and MGM Grand Main Event. Most anticipated will be Notre Dame against Wichita State in Maui (10 p.m. Eastern, ESPN2), and we noted above a good Georgia Southern-Towson final in the Gulf Coast event. Wyoming gets a crack at a signature win when it plays Cincinnati in the Cayman Islands. Also, check out Evansville’s motion offense against Louisiana Tech in Cancun (8:30 p.m., CBSSN), and Utah is against UNLV in the MGM Grand final (12:30 a.m., ESPN2) as two former WAC and Mountain West rivals square off.
- The Battle 4 Atlantis opens with a good field, but not as loaded as some of its previous ones, with three heavies surrounded by quite a few relative question marks. Quarterfinals include Tennessee against Purdue (noon, ESPN2), Western Kentucky meeting Villanova (2:30 p.m., ESPN2), North Carolina State vs. Arizona and SMU taking on Northern Iowa.
- The 40th and final Great Alaska Shootout opens Wednesday, with several changes for this year’s edition. For one, none of the tourney will be televised nationally, a horrible blunder by CBS Sports Network and any other networks not understanding there will be some nostalgia for this year’s last rodeo. The other big change is all four quarterfinals will now be played Wednesday, and then the winners will not play again until Friday while Thursday will include a pair of consolation games. Not exactly the glory one associates with this tourney and Thanksgiving. The headliner in this year’s field is College of Charleston, which won the event in 2002 (defeating Wyoming, Oklahoma State and Villanova in healthier years for the tourney). The Cougars open with Cal Poly, while other quarterfinals include Central Michigan vs. Sam Houston State, Idaho against Santa Clara and Cal State Bakersfield playing host Alaska-Anchorage.
- Belmont continues its preseason gauntlet with a trip to face Providence (7 p.m., FS1). The Bruins are notorious 3-point bombers, but the Friars are shooting an obscene 54.4% from beyond the arc early on.
- There’s potential for a good game when Toledo goes to Syracuse. The Rockets score a lot of points and shoot 48% from the field early, though much of that has come inside given a relatively poor 34.7% rate from long range. Maybe not a good sign against the Orange zone, but it’s a good offensive team capable of a surprise.
- A nice matchup in the South has Troy against East Tennessee State, a pair of NCAA tourney teams this past spring. Another quality game of similar ilk has Monmouth at UNC Asheville.
- Stephen F. Austin takes it first shot at an SEC team this season when it goes to Mississippi State. We’ll know a lot more about the Lumberjacks after this than from their previous three games over St. Edward’s, Le Tourneau and Howard Payne.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving eve.
