>Let's give a shout out to the men's tennis team, which captured a third consecutive Big 12 championship over the weekend. Congratulations to Matt Knoll and his second-ranked crew for taking care of business with a 4-1 victory over No. 16 Texas Tech Saturday at the McLeod Tennis Center.
>Let's also give another shout out to the women's tennis team, which won its second consecutive Big 12 championship this past weekend. Joey Scrivano's second-ranked squad shut out Kansas State, 4-0, at the Hurd Tennis Center. The victory gave Baylor (22-6, 8-1) its 11th Big 12 regular season trophy and the No. 1 seed at next week's Big 12 Championships. It was the program's third-straight Big 12 regular season crown and the ninth in the last 10 years.
***
As was noted, Lancaster athlete Tyrell Alexander committed to Oklahoma State over the weekend. It stings for Baylor because this staff really wanted him.
But as he shared with me late Sunday night that he really saw himself playing offense - that's what Oklahoma State was selling - than playing defense - that's what Baylor was selling. He said the Baylor coaches wanted him in the secondary. I can see that with the glut and talent of receivers coming into the program.
However, I don't think this recruitment if over. I still think it's going to be tough. But Baylor had has a history of collecting classmates from the same school. We'll see how this goes.
Don't forget, the coaches are back out on the road for evaluations starting today. We'll keep you posted.
***
The Big 12 football coaches will be going through their conference call on Tuesday discussing everything they saw from their teams in the just concluded spring seasons.
To what extent each will reveal anything of significance will be anyone's guess. But as we look ahead to the 2015 season, this reminds me a lot of the 2013 season. There are so many questions at quarterback surrounding this league you have to wonder if this is just a cycle the conference is experiencing.
Outside of TCU (Trevone Boykin) and Oklahoma State (Mason Rudolph), you really have a situation where the rest of the conference members aren't going to know what they have until September. I say that with the notion that Texas Tech probably has confidence in Pat Mahomes and Baylor feels pretty good about Seth Russell.
Does Texas feel the same about Tyrone Swoopes? It sounds like he's keeping the starting job but that's going to be down-to-down experience. I jokingly asked an Oklahoma alum friend of mine who was playing quarterback in Norman. He dead-panned, "I have no idea. I don't trust Trevor Knight. That game against TCU last year did it for me.''
Then you have Kansas State, Kansas and West Virginia looking at new faces. Iowa State is probably going to stick with Sam Richardson.
But the strength and national reputation of a league is led by its quarterback play. If there is certainty in that position, stability for the rest of the team follows. If there's not, there's doubt. So there's about six or seven programs asking themselves what they really have there. Oklahoma is going to have to send somebody out to play in Knoxville. Texas is going to have to cross its fingers when it plays at Notre Dame. Tech has to hope Pat Mahomes can handle it in the hills of Northwest Arkansas.
If the conference has strong quarterback performances in those road games, then the league may be even more interesting to watch.
***
OK so everybody is beating up on Baylor's non-conference schedule. But did you happen to see Kansas State's murderer's row OOC for this fall: home against FCS South Dakota, at UT-San Antonio and then home to Louisiana Tech. I respect Bill Snyder for everything that he has accomplished in college football. And perhaps the Wildcats won't even land in any preseason Top 25 rankings like Baylor will.
That said, Kansas State is getting a pass from the media. The Wildcats have been known to do this in other years. It draws the occasional snicker drive-by comment. But that's about the extent. I get they just finished a home and home against Auburn. However, let's be consistent if you're going to criticize a schedule.
Back to the out of conference schedule for Baylor. The decision to add Incarnate Word spurred this constant national onslaught. It became a dogpile phenomenon. Heck, even most Baylor fans jumped on it and attacked their own athletic department for it.
I know I've written this before, but when you want to revise schedules that have been made years in advance - and it doesn't matter if you have FCS teams on it - you've got to really locate someone in the same predicament AND be a willing participant.
This schedule through 2019 is what it is. It's not changing. The Baylor family is just going to ride it out. But what we forget is that as much abuse this program took for September, it didn't impact how it played in October and November either. Those two pieces of hardware and the championship signage throughout the campus are pretty easy on the eyes don't you think?
I do not believe that the OOC cost Baylor a chance to play in the national playoffs. Ohio State 59, Wisconsin 0 did. Mix in the Big 12's screwed up tiebreaker system and there you have it.
But don't worry about that.
***
Right now, Kendal Briles is on the road like the rest of the Baylor coaches going through the evaluation period. Yet I wonder how settled he has become as offensive coordinator.
By no means is it a criticism. Call it curiosity. He's five months into his new job creating this express offense in his image. While you may not notice much on the field, you don't expect Briles to follow exactly what Phil Montgomery did before he left for Tulsa.
That would be bad for Briles and bad for the Baylor offense. I expect there to be some wrinkles. If you think Baylor was throwing the deep ball a lot in recent years you ain't seen nothin' yet.
The Cotton Bowl offered some of that. But I get the sense that Briles wants to exploit the speed of this team and should he create the matchups he wants, then you could see even more. And you'll see that in situations where the running game can do that led by Johnny Jefferson.
Having said that, I do think the Cotton Bowl gave Briles a lot to learn. Yes, it was a record-setting offensive performance. But I also believe that Briles knows that he can grow from that game. The major lesson is if you can establish the running game enough to keep the defense honest, it will work to your advantage in crunch time.
That's where Baylor got caught short against Michigan State. The Bears were not consistent enough with the running game to make it a useful tool in the fourth quarter. I have heard too many times that the way Michigan State was lined up and yada, yada, yada that Baylor was forced into this predicament.
Complete nonsense.
You have five 300-pound plus guys along that offensive line. If you're suddenly telling me that Michigan State's defensive line was all of the sudden better than Texas' front four (Texas' defense was good) and Oklahoma's front four, then I'm the King of Norway. No doubt, MSU defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi (now the head coach at Pittsburgh) is a great coach, but if Baylor actually conceded something, that would be news to me. Baylor had 52 passing attempts and 22 rushing attempts. That's completely out of whack.
This offense in predicated off what the running game does. It doesn't matter if the national media doesn't get that. As Baylor followers, we get that. We've see this week after week. In 2014, Baylor ran 1,138 plays. Of those, 619 were on the ground. That's 54.4 percent. While it was fun through the first three quarters at AT&T Stadium, that's NOT Baylor football.
Look, the Bears didn't run it enough or try to establish it enough to make Michigan State respect it. So Briles will look at that, take what he learned, be better for it and use it very well this fall. If you're not learning, you're not growing.
***
If Baylor basketball is going to get Manu Lecomte or Anthony Collins, I wouldn't look for either to make a huge impact in terms of scoring. Either will serve a role, add some points and that's about it. The bulk of the scoring for 2015-16 is probably going to come from Taurean Prince, Rico Gathers and Al Freeman. I also believe King McClure will make the transition to the college game pretty well and be a part of the scoring. I can see him averaging double figures next year. Low double figures.
***
OK, so we all need our little outlets. I'm not a reality TV person. My wife and girls are still fans of Survivor. I quickly run into the room. But before I do, I ask them if this is the episode where the Typhoon comes ashore and wipes out the island (but everybody survived).
Anyway, there's a train wreck that I can't stop watching. It's called Southern Charm on Bravo. It comes on at 9:00 pm on Mondays. This show is about 10 people in their late 20s and early 30s and 40s living in Charleston, S.C. and acting like they have no concept of the world.
You have a guy in Thomas (I think he's about 48) trying to run for Lindsay Graham's senate seat. He's an independent but he has served time in prison for a white collar crime. He's not married but has a baby with a woman half of his age. And he's serious about running for the senate. I'm sure the Graham people are going, "Really? This is our opponent?"
Sound good so far?
Then you have a law clerk who keeps putting off preparing to take the bar because he wants to be a model. There's a guy named Whitney who is also in his 40s. He is a trust fund baby trying to serve at Thomas' campaign manager putting together TV ads that are completely inappropriate. Oh, and Whitney's mom is the queen bee, who can't get off her duff to do anything. She calls her butler from her upstairs bedroom to bring her a glass of water. And she says it in the most snobby tone.
Then you have the realtor who seems to have the most sense of all of these people. I can't remember her name but I guess the producers of the show are trying to bring some balance.
But this is what happens when you go through life without any direction and like to create drama more than anything useful.
This is so bad and I'm personally stunned that I got sucked into this. Unless this thing takes a complete warped turn, then I'm going to finish the season if only to see how screwed up this campaign becomes.
***
Really cool seeing K.D. Cannon run in the 100 and put up a respectable number in his heet Saturday at the Michael Johnson Classic. If you didn't see it, he was 10.66. But ma nature got the best of the meet and wiped it out.
I do expect more and more Baylor athletes to participate in the track season once the spring football season ends. Heck that might be another reason why spring football ended so early. The coaches want to give their guys, who can run track, a chance to do it.
***
Let's take a look at the other sports:
>The Big 12 men's golf championships are April 27-29 at the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa - a one-time home for the U.S. Open.
> The No. 2 seeded Baylor equestrian team fell short in a 10-6 loss to South Carolina in the NCEA Championship semifinals Saturday at the Extraco Center.
Baylor fell behind again and looked to the horsemanship team for the second-straight day to pull them out of a hole. South Carolina led 8-6 heading into the final event, but when the Gamecocks won the first two points, the meet was sealed.
The Big 12 champs finished with a 14-5 final record on the season. Baylor opened the season with 11 straight wins before dropping the last four meets on the road. The Bears defeated TCU and K-State to win the Big 12 championship for the first time since 2010.
> No. 5 Oklahoma returned the favor to Baylor Saturday with an 11-3 run-rule win over the Bears at Hynes Field to take the Big 12 series two games to one.
Lauren Chamberlain hit her NCAA tying 90th career home run, and Erin Miller and Shelby Pendley homered in the Sooners win.
Shelby Friudenberg's solo home run for Baylor (31-11, 6-3) cut the OU (38-6, 11-1) lead to 3-2 in the top of the fourth, however, the Sooners scored seven run in the bottom half of the inning and eventually went on for the run-rule win.
>Baylor baseball finishes its weekend series at Oklahoma State on Monday with the completion of Sunday's suspended game followed by the third game.
***
Also, we can't leave this weekend behind without remember April 19 and tragic Oklahoma City federal building bombing back in 1995. May those who perished or were impacted in other ways be comforted with our prayers.
Let's make it a great week!
This post was edited on 4/20 10:05 AM by K Lonnquist
>Let's also give another shout out to the women's tennis team, which won its second consecutive Big 12 championship this past weekend. Joey Scrivano's second-ranked squad shut out Kansas State, 4-0, at the Hurd Tennis Center. The victory gave Baylor (22-6, 8-1) its 11th Big 12 regular season trophy and the No. 1 seed at next week's Big 12 Championships. It was the program's third-straight Big 12 regular season crown and the ninth in the last 10 years.
***
As was noted, Lancaster athlete Tyrell Alexander committed to Oklahoma State over the weekend. It stings for Baylor because this staff really wanted him.
But as he shared with me late Sunday night that he really saw himself playing offense - that's what Oklahoma State was selling - than playing defense - that's what Baylor was selling. He said the Baylor coaches wanted him in the secondary. I can see that with the glut and talent of receivers coming into the program.
However, I don't think this recruitment if over. I still think it's going to be tough. But Baylor had has a history of collecting classmates from the same school. We'll see how this goes.
Don't forget, the coaches are back out on the road for evaluations starting today. We'll keep you posted.
***
The Big 12 football coaches will be going through their conference call on Tuesday discussing everything they saw from their teams in the just concluded spring seasons.
To what extent each will reveal anything of significance will be anyone's guess. But as we look ahead to the 2015 season, this reminds me a lot of the 2013 season. There are so many questions at quarterback surrounding this league you have to wonder if this is just a cycle the conference is experiencing.
Outside of TCU (Trevone Boykin) and Oklahoma State (Mason Rudolph), you really have a situation where the rest of the conference members aren't going to know what they have until September. I say that with the notion that Texas Tech probably has confidence in Pat Mahomes and Baylor feels pretty good about Seth Russell.
Does Texas feel the same about Tyrone Swoopes? It sounds like he's keeping the starting job but that's going to be down-to-down experience. I jokingly asked an Oklahoma alum friend of mine who was playing quarterback in Norman. He dead-panned, "I have no idea. I don't trust Trevor Knight. That game against TCU last year did it for me.''
Then you have Kansas State, Kansas and West Virginia looking at new faces. Iowa State is probably going to stick with Sam Richardson.
But the strength and national reputation of a league is led by its quarterback play. If there is certainty in that position, stability for the rest of the team follows. If there's not, there's doubt. So there's about six or seven programs asking themselves what they really have there. Oklahoma is going to have to send somebody out to play in Knoxville. Texas is going to have to cross its fingers when it plays at Notre Dame. Tech has to hope Pat Mahomes can handle it in the hills of Northwest Arkansas.
If the conference has strong quarterback performances in those road games, then the league may be even more interesting to watch.
***
OK so everybody is beating up on Baylor's non-conference schedule. But did you happen to see Kansas State's murderer's row OOC for this fall: home against FCS South Dakota, at UT-San Antonio and then home to Louisiana Tech. I respect Bill Snyder for everything that he has accomplished in college football. And perhaps the Wildcats won't even land in any preseason Top 25 rankings like Baylor will.
That said, Kansas State is getting a pass from the media. The Wildcats have been known to do this in other years. It draws the occasional snicker drive-by comment. But that's about the extent. I get they just finished a home and home against Auburn. However, let's be consistent if you're going to criticize a schedule.
Back to the out of conference schedule for Baylor. The decision to add Incarnate Word spurred this constant national onslaught. It became a dogpile phenomenon. Heck, even most Baylor fans jumped on it and attacked their own athletic department for it.
I know I've written this before, but when you want to revise schedules that have been made years in advance - and it doesn't matter if you have FCS teams on it - you've got to really locate someone in the same predicament AND be a willing participant.
This schedule through 2019 is what it is. It's not changing. The Baylor family is just going to ride it out. But what we forget is that as much abuse this program took for September, it didn't impact how it played in October and November either. Those two pieces of hardware and the championship signage throughout the campus are pretty easy on the eyes don't you think?
I do not believe that the OOC cost Baylor a chance to play in the national playoffs. Ohio State 59, Wisconsin 0 did. Mix in the Big 12's screwed up tiebreaker system and there you have it.
But don't worry about that.
***
Right now, Kendal Briles is on the road like the rest of the Baylor coaches going through the evaluation period. Yet I wonder how settled he has become as offensive coordinator.
By no means is it a criticism. Call it curiosity. He's five months into his new job creating this express offense in his image. While you may not notice much on the field, you don't expect Briles to follow exactly what Phil Montgomery did before he left for Tulsa.
That would be bad for Briles and bad for the Baylor offense. I expect there to be some wrinkles. If you think Baylor was throwing the deep ball a lot in recent years you ain't seen nothin' yet.
The Cotton Bowl offered some of that. But I get the sense that Briles wants to exploit the speed of this team and should he create the matchups he wants, then you could see even more. And you'll see that in situations where the running game can do that led by Johnny Jefferson.
Having said that, I do think the Cotton Bowl gave Briles a lot to learn. Yes, it was a record-setting offensive performance. But I also believe that Briles knows that he can grow from that game. The major lesson is if you can establish the running game enough to keep the defense honest, it will work to your advantage in crunch time.
That's where Baylor got caught short against Michigan State. The Bears were not consistent enough with the running game to make it a useful tool in the fourth quarter. I have heard too many times that the way Michigan State was lined up and yada, yada, yada that Baylor was forced into this predicament.
Complete nonsense.
You have five 300-pound plus guys along that offensive line. If you're suddenly telling me that Michigan State's defensive line was all of the sudden better than Texas' front four (Texas' defense was good) and Oklahoma's front four, then I'm the King of Norway. No doubt, MSU defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi (now the head coach at Pittsburgh) is a great coach, but if Baylor actually conceded something, that would be news to me. Baylor had 52 passing attempts and 22 rushing attempts. That's completely out of whack.
This offense in predicated off what the running game does. It doesn't matter if the national media doesn't get that. As Baylor followers, we get that. We've see this week after week. In 2014, Baylor ran 1,138 plays. Of those, 619 were on the ground. That's 54.4 percent. While it was fun through the first three quarters at AT&T Stadium, that's NOT Baylor football.
Look, the Bears didn't run it enough or try to establish it enough to make Michigan State respect it. So Briles will look at that, take what he learned, be better for it and use it very well this fall. If you're not learning, you're not growing.
***
If Baylor basketball is going to get Manu Lecomte or Anthony Collins, I wouldn't look for either to make a huge impact in terms of scoring. Either will serve a role, add some points and that's about it. The bulk of the scoring for 2015-16 is probably going to come from Taurean Prince, Rico Gathers and Al Freeman. I also believe King McClure will make the transition to the college game pretty well and be a part of the scoring. I can see him averaging double figures next year. Low double figures.
***
OK, so we all need our little outlets. I'm not a reality TV person. My wife and girls are still fans of Survivor. I quickly run into the room. But before I do, I ask them if this is the episode where the Typhoon comes ashore and wipes out the island (but everybody survived).
Anyway, there's a train wreck that I can't stop watching. It's called Southern Charm on Bravo. It comes on at 9:00 pm on Mondays. This show is about 10 people in their late 20s and early 30s and 40s living in Charleston, S.C. and acting like they have no concept of the world.
You have a guy in Thomas (I think he's about 48) trying to run for Lindsay Graham's senate seat. He's an independent but he has served time in prison for a white collar crime. He's not married but has a baby with a woman half of his age. And he's serious about running for the senate. I'm sure the Graham people are going, "Really? This is our opponent?"
Sound good so far?
Then you have a law clerk who keeps putting off preparing to take the bar because he wants to be a model. There's a guy named Whitney who is also in his 40s. He is a trust fund baby trying to serve at Thomas' campaign manager putting together TV ads that are completely inappropriate. Oh, and Whitney's mom is the queen bee, who can't get off her duff to do anything. She calls her butler from her upstairs bedroom to bring her a glass of water. And she says it in the most snobby tone.
Then you have the realtor who seems to have the most sense of all of these people. I can't remember her name but I guess the producers of the show are trying to bring some balance.
But this is what happens when you go through life without any direction and like to create drama more than anything useful.
This is so bad and I'm personally stunned that I got sucked into this. Unless this thing takes a complete warped turn, then I'm going to finish the season if only to see how screwed up this campaign becomes.
***
Really cool seeing K.D. Cannon run in the 100 and put up a respectable number in his heet Saturday at the Michael Johnson Classic. If you didn't see it, he was 10.66. But ma nature got the best of the meet and wiped it out.
I do expect more and more Baylor athletes to participate in the track season once the spring football season ends. Heck that might be another reason why spring football ended so early. The coaches want to give their guys, who can run track, a chance to do it.
***
Let's take a look at the other sports:
>The Big 12 men's golf championships are April 27-29 at the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa - a one-time home for the U.S. Open.
> The No. 2 seeded Baylor equestrian team fell short in a 10-6 loss to South Carolina in the NCEA Championship semifinals Saturday at the Extraco Center.
Baylor fell behind again and looked to the horsemanship team for the second-straight day to pull them out of a hole. South Carolina led 8-6 heading into the final event, but when the Gamecocks won the first two points, the meet was sealed.
The Big 12 champs finished with a 14-5 final record on the season. Baylor opened the season with 11 straight wins before dropping the last four meets on the road. The Bears defeated TCU and K-State to win the Big 12 championship for the first time since 2010.
> No. 5 Oklahoma returned the favor to Baylor Saturday with an 11-3 run-rule win over the Bears at Hynes Field to take the Big 12 series two games to one.
Lauren Chamberlain hit her NCAA tying 90th career home run, and Erin Miller and Shelby Pendley homered in the Sooners win.
Shelby Friudenberg's solo home run for Baylor (31-11, 6-3) cut the OU (38-6, 11-1) lead to 3-2 in the top of the fourth, however, the Sooners scored seven run in the bottom half of the inning and eventually went on for the run-rule win.
>Baylor baseball finishes its weekend series at Oklahoma State on Monday with the completion of Sunday's suspended game followed by the third game.
***
Also, we can't leave this weekend behind without remember April 19 and tragic Oklahoma City federal building bombing back in 1995. May those who perished or were impacted in other ways be comforted with our prayers.
Let's make it a great week!
This post was edited on 4/20 10:05 AM by K Lonnquist
