By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
Welcome to another edition of Single Digit Flashback. Playing off Baylor’s new and popular tradition of awarding numbers 0-9 to those deserving players who have become leaders on the team, we have our 10 thoughts about anything that is related to Baylor and may not be related to Baylor.’
Another of the signature tracks of the 1980s came right in the middle of it. Tears for Fears formed in 1981 in Bath, England and became one of the mainstream groups of the decade.
The duo of Roland Orazbel and Curt Smith found near instant success with their second album “Songs from the Big Chair”. One of their No. 1 hits detailed became a song that has stood the test of time over the decades and remains very popular.
It’s theme reflects on people’s deep rooted for control and power.
In a twist of irony that reflects the recent times at Baylor, the RJB presents TFF’s most noteworthy.
>0. In our sports following lifetime, we have seen what happened with former Baylor women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey before.
The abrupt and unceremonious departure of a long-standing iconic figure is sobering. No longstanding glowing tributes. No nostalgia. No farewell tour. Nothing.
You could call this a Viking funeral farewell.
Mulkey joins a list that includes Bob Knight, Nolan Richardson, Ted Williams, Joe Paterno, Tom Landry, Woody Hayes and Jerry Tarkanian.
Now, before anyone jumps off the chair and protests Mulkey being associated with these others because of the circumstances for how some of them left, keep in mind the premise. One day you’re there. The next day you’re not.
Obviously, Mulkey was just as successful as them. Her record speaks for itself. But with any split like this, you just know it wasn’t good. In fact, it appears that everything got progressively worse especially in the final days. Add in the fact that the only decision was “When does she tell LSU she’s taking the job?” tells you more.
For someone as outspoken as Mulkey is, you can tell that her silence (maybe on the advice from others until her presser at LSU Monday) and Baylor’s respectful yet very benign parting statements put the best face on a difficult situation. Both sides share blame. However, I think Mulkey earned the bulk of it. I think we can all agree that when you have a big personality like she does and you have tremendous success, you sometimes think you’re made of Teflon and you forget that you have a boss. The same thing happened with Knight.
That’s where this fell apart between her and Mack Rhoades and Dr. Linda Livingstone.
Look at the reaction some of you have had. You immediately side with her over Baylor because she won…a lot. And I get that. She appeared to treat her players very well. Top-rated recruits wanted to come here and did.
And some were willing to absolve the behavior because she won. But had she not won big like she did, people would be a little more upset about those things she said. This is what fans do.
It’s really a shame to have this conclusion given the dynasty Mulkey had built on The Brazos. When you play poker, you better have a full house rather than a hand of nothing.
Mulkey’s sudden departure reminds us we sometimes don’t get the storybook finish we want.
Yet life moves on.
>1. I’ll do what I can to track the search for the replacement. I mentioned Georgia coach Joni Taylor. What I do think will happen is that Rhoades will find a coach that has the same kind of history as Taylor. Someone who is established at the P5 level and has a pretty solid track record. Mulkey made this a Top 5-10 job and should be made to stay that way.
If San Antonio Spurs assistant Becky Hammon is truly a candidate, she would meet all of the qualifications that you would want. I have no intention of getting into her personal story. She looks like she’s a really good coach.
Regardless of the timing, Mulkey was going to leave the bar pretty high for any successor. The expectations would be and now will be extraordinary.
And that’s not fair to Baylor’s next women’s basketball coach. Whoever that is, she must be given the right to be herself and establish her philosophy of running a program externally and internally even if that’s 180 of how Mulkey ran her program.
If Baylor fans fall into the line of thinking and publicly express, “Well, Kim did it this way…”, then her successor will fail.
>2. As for the Scott Drew and the men’s basketball program, it wouldn’t be a shock to me if we see him get some kind of extension from Baylor at some point. Would it be something similar to what Bill Self got at Kansas – a lifetime contract? Possible. Drew would certainly be in line for something like that. If this happens, you’re probably going to have to wait a while for the fervor of the Mulkey situation to die down. Optics.
>3. No announcement to declare for the NBA from Jared Butler yet. But I wouldn’t read too much into that. He graduates in May. And as far as MaCio Teague, just from things I’ve picked up over the recent days, he will not return to Baylor. He said it back on March 7 as well. But I know there was some lingering talk out there. He’s getting himself ready for a professional career. With Matthew Mayer, Baylor is anticipating him returning. But there is a plan should he make the bold decision to stay in the draft.
>4. If there was on sequence that pretty much summed up the Green and Gold game on Saturday at McLane Stadium, this was it. Stephen did a great job capturing the sequence of NT Apu Ika devouring RB Qualan Jones in the end zone for a safety. It was the gold’s second possession of the scrimmage. And as I shared with you, Ika’s first step is phenomenal. Lightning quick. This play never had a chance.
>5. I’m still trying to decide if what I saw from the offense on Saturday – or even last Saturday April 17 for that matter – was a product of an offense struggling or an offense facing a really good defense. The comment that tight end Christoph Henle made in the presser makes me lean a little toward the latter.
“If you go against a defense that struggles at times you may look really good, but you don’t know how good you really are because you go against a struggling defense. I mean that defense was really good last year but they’ve improved tremendously over this offseason and the spring. Going against such a good defense every day, iron sharpens iron, it’s something that has made our offense better.”
>6. Having said the above, I’m just not sure what to think about the QB situation. I wanted to see something from Jacob Zeno that would tell me he will eventually be the starter. But I never did. Throwing picks on your first two series on really bad decisions just stuck with me. Plus, I think he holds it too long in the pocket. Now, he ended it well on about a 30-yard TD pass to R.J. Sneed. That’s fine. Then I see Blake Shapen who is given point blank range on his first possession (the Green’s 22-yard line following an INT) and his unit goes backwards and has to settle for a field goal. What I don’t want him to become is a guy who bails if the first read isn’t there and then free-lances all the time. But Shapen is a freshmen and they tend to do that. He’s going to have to reach a point where he can go through his progressions.
>7. Really, Gerry Bohanon was the best of them with his true duel threat action. As much as I thought Bohanon would be third in this 3-man race, I have no idea what to think anymore. He was the one getting guys fired up. Plus, I thought he threw the ball better in this game than I have ever seen it in his time at Baylor. At this point, you can make the argument for all three to be the starter. However, I will still stand by my comment from a week ago that more than one of these QBs is going to take significant snaps in the fall. For me, it’s just trending this way.
>8. If you missed the podcast, I think I understand where this offense could be going. It wants to be a physical group with the way the running between the tackles is being stressed. Once that part is established, I believe the rest of the wide zone will fall into place. That’s why Abram Smith was moved over there and likely will stay there. I think Dave Aranda and offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes understand you have to have a foundation of “this is what we want to be.” And because the QB race is so up for grabs, not a lot will be put on the QB dujour’s plate to start the season. To use a term the QB will be a “game manager” and be asked to make some throws and won’t be asked to go out and win the game. The defense will be asked to win the game.
>9. The “this is what we want to be” goes back to the offensive line becoming that physical unit and have that presence. That’s going to be a tough ask given that the same people who really struggled in recent years are still here. I will always give credit to the “coach them up’’ argument because once someone gets on campus, that’s the goal anyway. I saw some times where the offensive line created some good running lanes. These guys beat up on themselves for a month. Time to recess and get away from it for all of May and then come back in June
>10. (Bonus) – The NFL draft starts Thursday. The only Baylor angle to watch here is grad transfer defensive end William Bradley-King. However, if you’re tuning into the draft for just Baylor coverage, you’re likely going to have to wait until Saturday. WBK is projected a 3rd-day selection. I’ve seen mocks where he could go as high as the 4th round to the 6th.
Now a look at other Baylor sports…
>We’ll keep you posted on the men’s tennis team playing Texas for the Big 12 championship. It starts at 2:00 pm Monday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
>Ackera Nugent and Howard Fields III made jumps towards the top of the NCAA lists to highlight a busy Saturday for Baylor Track & Field at the LSU Alumni Gold in Baton Rouge, La.
"Overall it was a good meet," head coach Todd Harbour said. "We competed hard. I think we came out of it fairly healthy, and got some good work in. We got some PBs and national marks. It wasn't perfect, but I think we got some good things accomplished."
Nugent posted a career-best time of 12.87 to win heat two and place third in the 100-meter hurdles. The freshman from Kingston, Jamaica, will see a significant climb from the No. 31 spot in the NCAA that she held this past week as only five athletes had run faster than 12.87 heading into the weekend.
"Ackera's mark in the 100-meter hurdles was big," Harbour said. "That was a good time for her this early right now. She hasn't had that many opportunities to run the 100 hurdles, and she was battling a little bit of an injury from last week, so that was a big one for her."
Howard Fields III posted a personal-best time of 45.37 in the 400 meters to place third. That time would have held the No. 9 spot nationally heading into this weekend.
"Trey's quarter was big," Harbour said. "He executed a really good race. That was a fast quarter, and he was on the outside. He ran a good race and did an excellent job, and it was nice to see him come away with a PB today."
Mikayla Deshazer got the day started in a big way with her first-career outdoor victory, taking the discus title with a throw of 174-02.25 (53.09m).
>Gia Rodoni pitched a gem as Baylor softball (24-13, 5-4) clinched the series win with a 4-1 victory over Iowa State Sunday afternoon at the Cyclone Sports Complex.
The sixth-year senior threw her 39th career complete game and allowed just one run off seven hits with seven strikeouts and no walks. Rodoni struck out four of the first six batters she faced as the Baylor defense retired the first 10 Cyclone batters in order.
Baylor returns home to host No. 1 Oklahoma in a doubleheader on Tuesday. First pitch is slated for 4 p.m. (CT) and both games will be nationally broadcasted on ESPNU.
Publisher
Welcome to another edition of Single Digit Flashback. Playing off Baylor’s new and popular tradition of awarding numbers 0-9 to those deserving players who have become leaders on the team, we have our 10 thoughts about anything that is related to Baylor and may not be related to Baylor.’
Another of the signature tracks of the 1980s came right in the middle of it. Tears for Fears formed in 1981 in Bath, England and became one of the mainstream groups of the decade.
The duo of Roland Orazbel and Curt Smith found near instant success with their second album “Songs from the Big Chair”. One of their No. 1 hits detailed became a song that has stood the test of time over the decades and remains very popular.
It’s theme reflects on people’s deep rooted for control and power.
In a twist of irony that reflects the recent times at Baylor, the RJB presents TFF’s most noteworthy.
>0. In our sports following lifetime, we have seen what happened with former Baylor women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey before.
The abrupt and unceremonious departure of a long-standing iconic figure is sobering. No longstanding glowing tributes. No nostalgia. No farewell tour. Nothing.
You could call this a Viking funeral farewell.
Mulkey joins a list that includes Bob Knight, Nolan Richardson, Ted Williams, Joe Paterno, Tom Landry, Woody Hayes and Jerry Tarkanian.
Now, before anyone jumps off the chair and protests Mulkey being associated with these others because of the circumstances for how some of them left, keep in mind the premise. One day you’re there. The next day you’re not.
Obviously, Mulkey was just as successful as them. Her record speaks for itself. But with any split like this, you just know it wasn’t good. In fact, it appears that everything got progressively worse especially in the final days. Add in the fact that the only decision was “When does she tell LSU she’s taking the job?” tells you more.
For someone as outspoken as Mulkey is, you can tell that her silence (maybe on the advice from others until her presser at LSU Monday) and Baylor’s respectful yet very benign parting statements put the best face on a difficult situation. Both sides share blame. However, I think Mulkey earned the bulk of it. I think we can all agree that when you have a big personality like she does and you have tremendous success, you sometimes think you’re made of Teflon and you forget that you have a boss. The same thing happened with Knight.
That’s where this fell apart between her and Mack Rhoades and Dr. Linda Livingstone.
Look at the reaction some of you have had. You immediately side with her over Baylor because she won…a lot. And I get that. She appeared to treat her players very well. Top-rated recruits wanted to come here and did.
And some were willing to absolve the behavior because she won. But had she not won big like she did, people would be a little more upset about those things she said. This is what fans do.
It’s really a shame to have this conclusion given the dynasty Mulkey had built on The Brazos. When you play poker, you better have a full house rather than a hand of nothing.
Mulkey’s sudden departure reminds us we sometimes don’t get the storybook finish we want.
Yet life moves on.
>1. I’ll do what I can to track the search for the replacement. I mentioned Georgia coach Joni Taylor. What I do think will happen is that Rhoades will find a coach that has the same kind of history as Taylor. Someone who is established at the P5 level and has a pretty solid track record. Mulkey made this a Top 5-10 job and should be made to stay that way.
If San Antonio Spurs assistant Becky Hammon is truly a candidate, she would meet all of the qualifications that you would want. I have no intention of getting into her personal story. She looks like she’s a really good coach.
Regardless of the timing, Mulkey was going to leave the bar pretty high for any successor. The expectations would be and now will be extraordinary.
And that’s not fair to Baylor’s next women’s basketball coach. Whoever that is, she must be given the right to be herself and establish her philosophy of running a program externally and internally even if that’s 180 of how Mulkey ran her program.
If Baylor fans fall into the line of thinking and publicly express, “Well, Kim did it this way…”, then her successor will fail.
>2. As for the Scott Drew and the men’s basketball program, it wouldn’t be a shock to me if we see him get some kind of extension from Baylor at some point. Would it be something similar to what Bill Self got at Kansas – a lifetime contract? Possible. Drew would certainly be in line for something like that. If this happens, you’re probably going to have to wait a while for the fervor of the Mulkey situation to die down. Optics.
>3. No announcement to declare for the NBA from Jared Butler yet. But I wouldn’t read too much into that. He graduates in May. And as far as MaCio Teague, just from things I’ve picked up over the recent days, he will not return to Baylor. He said it back on March 7 as well. But I know there was some lingering talk out there. He’s getting himself ready for a professional career. With Matthew Mayer, Baylor is anticipating him returning. But there is a plan should he make the bold decision to stay in the draft.
>4. If there was on sequence that pretty much summed up the Green and Gold game on Saturday at McLane Stadium, this was it. Stephen did a great job capturing the sequence of NT Apu Ika devouring RB Qualan Jones in the end zone for a safety. It was the gold’s second possession of the scrimmage. And as I shared with you, Ika’s first step is phenomenal. Lightning quick. This play never had a chance.
>5. I’m still trying to decide if what I saw from the offense on Saturday – or even last Saturday April 17 for that matter – was a product of an offense struggling or an offense facing a really good defense. The comment that tight end Christoph Henle made in the presser makes me lean a little toward the latter.
“If you go against a defense that struggles at times you may look really good, but you don’t know how good you really are because you go against a struggling defense. I mean that defense was really good last year but they’ve improved tremendously over this offseason and the spring. Going against such a good defense every day, iron sharpens iron, it’s something that has made our offense better.”
>6. Having said the above, I’m just not sure what to think about the QB situation. I wanted to see something from Jacob Zeno that would tell me he will eventually be the starter. But I never did. Throwing picks on your first two series on really bad decisions just stuck with me. Plus, I think he holds it too long in the pocket. Now, he ended it well on about a 30-yard TD pass to R.J. Sneed. That’s fine. Then I see Blake Shapen who is given point blank range on his first possession (the Green’s 22-yard line following an INT) and his unit goes backwards and has to settle for a field goal. What I don’t want him to become is a guy who bails if the first read isn’t there and then free-lances all the time. But Shapen is a freshmen and they tend to do that. He’s going to have to reach a point where he can go through his progressions.
>7. Really, Gerry Bohanon was the best of them with his true duel threat action. As much as I thought Bohanon would be third in this 3-man race, I have no idea what to think anymore. He was the one getting guys fired up. Plus, I thought he threw the ball better in this game than I have ever seen it in his time at Baylor. At this point, you can make the argument for all three to be the starter. However, I will still stand by my comment from a week ago that more than one of these QBs is going to take significant snaps in the fall. For me, it’s just trending this way.
>8. If you missed the podcast, I think I understand where this offense could be going. It wants to be a physical group with the way the running between the tackles is being stressed. Once that part is established, I believe the rest of the wide zone will fall into place. That’s why Abram Smith was moved over there and likely will stay there. I think Dave Aranda and offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes understand you have to have a foundation of “this is what we want to be.” And because the QB race is so up for grabs, not a lot will be put on the QB dujour’s plate to start the season. To use a term the QB will be a “game manager” and be asked to make some throws and won’t be asked to go out and win the game. The defense will be asked to win the game.
>9. The “this is what we want to be” goes back to the offensive line becoming that physical unit and have that presence. That’s going to be a tough ask given that the same people who really struggled in recent years are still here. I will always give credit to the “coach them up’’ argument because once someone gets on campus, that’s the goal anyway. I saw some times where the offensive line created some good running lanes. These guys beat up on themselves for a month. Time to recess and get away from it for all of May and then come back in June
>10. (Bonus) – The NFL draft starts Thursday. The only Baylor angle to watch here is grad transfer defensive end William Bradley-King. However, if you’re tuning into the draft for just Baylor coverage, you’re likely going to have to wait until Saturday. WBK is projected a 3rd-day selection. I’ve seen mocks where he could go as high as the 4th round to the 6th.
Now a look at other Baylor sports…
>We’ll keep you posted on the men’s tennis team playing Texas for the Big 12 championship. It starts at 2:00 pm Monday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
>Ackera Nugent and Howard Fields III made jumps towards the top of the NCAA lists to highlight a busy Saturday for Baylor Track & Field at the LSU Alumni Gold in Baton Rouge, La.
"Overall it was a good meet," head coach Todd Harbour said. "We competed hard. I think we came out of it fairly healthy, and got some good work in. We got some PBs and national marks. It wasn't perfect, but I think we got some good things accomplished."
Nugent posted a career-best time of 12.87 to win heat two and place third in the 100-meter hurdles. The freshman from Kingston, Jamaica, will see a significant climb from the No. 31 spot in the NCAA that she held this past week as only five athletes had run faster than 12.87 heading into the weekend.
"Ackera's mark in the 100-meter hurdles was big," Harbour said. "That was a good time for her this early right now. She hasn't had that many opportunities to run the 100 hurdles, and she was battling a little bit of an injury from last week, so that was a big one for her."
Howard Fields III posted a personal-best time of 45.37 in the 400 meters to place third. That time would have held the No. 9 spot nationally heading into this weekend.
"Trey's quarter was big," Harbour said. "He executed a really good race. That was a fast quarter, and he was on the outside. He ran a good race and did an excellent job, and it was nice to see him come away with a PB today."
Mikayla Deshazer got the day started in a big way with her first-career outdoor victory, taking the discus title with a throw of 174-02.25 (53.09m).
>Gia Rodoni pitched a gem as Baylor softball (24-13, 5-4) clinched the series win with a 4-1 victory over Iowa State Sunday afternoon at the Cyclone Sports Complex.
The sixth-year senior threw her 39th career complete game and allowed just one run off seven hits with seven strikeouts and no walks. Rodoni struck out four of the first six batters she faced as the Baylor defense retired the first 10 Cyclone batters in order.
Baylor returns home to host No. 1 Oklahoma in a doubleheader on Tuesday. First pitch is slated for 4 p.m. (CT) and both games will be nationally broadcasted on ESPNU.
