By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
The thing about this Baylor team is it wants to complete a trilogy of books to have the storybook(s) finish that it seeks.
This isn’t about one novel.
The first book it completed was Sunday afternoon at the Ferrell Center. Days after the Big 12 regular season championship had been clinched, the Bears closed out Senior Day in fine fashion with an 88-73 victory at the Ferrell Center. This Baylor team went 11-0 at home and was the first team to play 1,000 percent basketball since the 1947-48 team.
The second book would be winning the Big 12 tournament next Saturday in Kansas City. The third book would be finished on April 5 in Indianapolis if it wins the NCAA tournament.
Those can wait. It became a day to celebrate.
Texas Tech gave the Bears all they wanted through the first 30 minutes. But when this team became epic from 3-point range (15-24) and MaCio Teague went for a career-high 35, set a Big 12 record for 3s in a game (10) and tied a school record for bombs, it became clear the Red Raiders were just delaying the inevitable.
“We’ve been second several times,’’ Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “It’s sure nice to be first and see the guys be able to celebrate all their hard work. We’ve been in the conference tournament finals three times and seen the other team celebrate. We’ve finished second three times in the regular season and seen the other team celebrate. It’s nice that we finally had our turn.’’
Baylor waited to cut down the nets, blast the confetti and wear the championship T-shirts and hats after this game. There wasn’t any rush to do it at West Virginia or this past Thursday after Oklahoma State. Wait until everything was done and then relish what had been done.
“We won the Big 12, that was one of my goals,’’ senior forward Mark Vital said. “I told coach Drew that when I committed that I was going to get one. And I got one and that’s why it was so emotional.”
It should be. You have to appreciate what these mean. We’re in a society where winning conference titles or division titles are de-valued or overlooked in favor of always winning the big one. And if you don’t win the big one, no one cares.
That’s not right. Winning conference championships should be treated with enormous pomp and circumstance. Baylor did this right by letting all of the emotions flow on Senior Day.
This team took the time to appreciate what it did and what no other Baylor team had done in 71 years.
Yet there will not be a hangover from this celebration. Once this team goes back to work this week before traveling to Kansas City, it will put the celebration behind it and look ahead.
Here’s the other motivation for the Big 12 postseason tournament. No Texas team has ever won it.
“I didn’t know that,’’ Vital said. “Now that’s motivation right there, of course. I want to do that. Let’s do that. I’m glad you said that, you got me motivated.”
Baylor was in a funk against Iowa State and Kansas, started to emerge from it against West Virginia, cleared a little more against Oklahoma State and then looked downright nasty against a Texas Tech team that allows teams to score only 62 points per game and shoot 33 percent from beyond the arc.
Texas Tech is a solid team. Baylor is just a special team. And special teams can make solid teams look ordinary.
That’s why the projections for this team to play the national championship are what they are.
“Coaches would all prefer to go into March on a roll. It doesn’t mean you have to do that,’’ Drew said. “There’s nothing that says you have to, but I know all coaches feel when you’re winning and you’re confident, that’s a much better way to go into the NCAA tournament.”
Well Baylor is winning and it is confident. Now, it’s on to the next book.
Publisher
The thing about this Baylor team is it wants to complete a trilogy of books to have the storybook(s) finish that it seeks.
This isn’t about one novel.
The first book it completed was Sunday afternoon at the Ferrell Center. Days after the Big 12 regular season championship had been clinched, the Bears closed out Senior Day in fine fashion with an 88-73 victory at the Ferrell Center. This Baylor team went 11-0 at home and was the first team to play 1,000 percent basketball since the 1947-48 team.
The second book would be winning the Big 12 tournament next Saturday in Kansas City. The third book would be finished on April 5 in Indianapolis if it wins the NCAA tournament.
Those can wait. It became a day to celebrate.
Texas Tech gave the Bears all they wanted through the first 30 minutes. But when this team became epic from 3-point range (15-24) and MaCio Teague went for a career-high 35, set a Big 12 record for 3s in a game (10) and tied a school record for bombs, it became clear the Red Raiders were just delaying the inevitable.
“We’ve been second several times,’’ Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “It’s sure nice to be first and see the guys be able to celebrate all their hard work. We’ve been in the conference tournament finals three times and seen the other team celebrate. We’ve finished second three times in the regular season and seen the other team celebrate. It’s nice that we finally had our turn.’’
Baylor waited to cut down the nets, blast the confetti and wear the championship T-shirts and hats after this game. There wasn’t any rush to do it at West Virginia or this past Thursday after Oklahoma State. Wait until everything was done and then relish what had been done.
“We won the Big 12, that was one of my goals,’’ senior forward Mark Vital said. “I told coach Drew that when I committed that I was going to get one. And I got one and that’s why it was so emotional.”
It should be. You have to appreciate what these mean. We’re in a society where winning conference titles or division titles are de-valued or overlooked in favor of always winning the big one. And if you don’t win the big one, no one cares.
That’s not right. Winning conference championships should be treated with enormous pomp and circumstance. Baylor did this right by letting all of the emotions flow on Senior Day.
This team took the time to appreciate what it did and what no other Baylor team had done in 71 years.
Yet there will not be a hangover from this celebration. Once this team goes back to work this week before traveling to Kansas City, it will put the celebration behind it and look ahead.
Here’s the other motivation for the Big 12 postseason tournament. No Texas team has ever won it.
“I didn’t know that,’’ Vital said. “Now that’s motivation right there, of course. I want to do that. Let’s do that. I’m glad you said that, you got me motivated.”
Baylor was in a funk against Iowa State and Kansas, started to emerge from it against West Virginia, cleared a little more against Oklahoma State and then looked downright nasty against a Texas Tech team that allows teams to score only 62 points per game and shoot 33 percent from beyond the arc.
Texas Tech is a solid team. Baylor is just a special team. And special teams can make solid teams look ordinary.
That’s why the projections for this team to play the national championship are what they are.
“Coaches would all prefer to go into March on a roll. It doesn’t mean you have to do that,’’ Drew said. “There’s nothing that says you have to, but I know all coaches feel when you’re winning and you’re confident, that’s a much better way to go into the NCAA tournament.”
Well Baylor is winning and it is confident. Now, it’s on to the next book.
