You remember the 1987 Academy Award and Golden Globe blockbuster film “Summer School”? You know that one starred Mark Harmon, Kirstie Alley, Carl Reiner and Courtney Thorne-Smith?
Well, maybe blockbuster was a stretch. But it was a careless summer film that centered on a P.E. Teacher forced to teach remedial English to the dregs of the high school. They had to pass this skills test in order for them to move on and Harmon’s character, Freddy Shoop, to earn tenure.
The RJB’s selection is from the signature song from that completely soundtrack. It was from noted voice and character actress E.G. Daily. When you see her, you may remember her. She’s known for her versatility. So when you hear this, you may react, “Oh yeah’’ or “Never heard it until now.’’
But that’s what the RJB is for. In this selection we play the cheesy video. It’s not all bad because Reiner makes a cameo.
On another matter, as we were going through the list of the female artists who caught our attention – Belinda Carlisle, Nancy Wilson, etc. – maybe we missed the boat on Daily.
****
The phrase you can’t tell the players without a scorecard used to be true.
Used to be true.
When you look at a roster of Baylor basketball, football or your favorite professional team, it can only be summed up with,
Football recruiting has changed and we may not even know it. Basketball recruiting changed a long time ago and we never saw it.
With players being moved around by positions on rosters or being recruited at multiple positions in either sport, we have entered an era of positionless recruiting.
Rivals doesn’t tag certain football players as an athlete because our service has no idea. A player literally is being looked at different positions by different schools or different positions by the same schools.
Look at Baylor recent Mississippi offer to athlete Raydarious Jones. When I talked to him about what position he was being recruited as, he said half the schools see him as a quarterback. The other see him as a defensive back – and he’s never played the secondary in his life.
There is a host of other examples out there. Even offensive linemen aren’t immune from it. Some are viewed as a center, others a guard and others a tackle. It’s positionless within the position.
Defensive ends could be seen as outside linebackers by one school and defensive ends as others. Running backs may be linebackers. Linebackers may be running backs. Wide receivers could be viewed as defensive backs.
In basketball, it’s even tougher. Look at Baylor’s current roster right now. It hasn’t been updated with the recent movement. However, look at the positions. All you see are Gs (guards) and Fs (forward). No one is a point guard. No one is a shooting guard. No one is small forward. No one is power forward. Heck, even 7-0 Jo Lual-Acuil was listed as a forward.
Here’s the little deal on that. When you get labeled into a certain position, that automatically changes how you’re viewed internally and externally.
From an internal standpoint, people think you’re the point guard and so you make all the decisions. There’s no flexibility to think otherwise. From an external standpoint, ball handling guard recruits – notice we’re not calling them point guards – recruits are going to see PG next to a player on the Baylor roster and say, “Well scratch Baylor, they already have someone. I’m never or rarely going to get the ball in my hands.’’
If you’re the Baylor coaches and you have established a pretty strong line with a recruit, you don’t want the letter “P” to be the deal killer. As long as you have gained his trust that he will figure into the equation some way but get him to accept the fact that he will be rewarded if he works to get there, then you’ve just increased your chances to sign him. That’s how Baylor landed JUCO guard Devonte Bandoo.
And keep in mind that when some of you have asked which guard was going to play the point for Baylor in 2018-19, I said Yes. I meant it. Baylor will likely see three primary ball handlers between Bandoo, Jake Lindsey and Mason Makai.
Should a 6-7 player who transferred last summer on this roster be viewed as a guard? In all reality, probably not. I think you know who I’m talking about. But he’s on this team and that’s all that matters. His role will be defined as the offseason continues and as the heavier work begins in October. He may get a shot at playing the point if all heck is breaking loose.
You want Baylor to compete for the best players and get them to Waco. A coach has to get the material. It’s going to be his job to look at what he gathered and create the most successful scenario. Which players can fill which roles the best.
Back in the day, I subscribed to the philosophy if you have a quarterback by committee, you have no quarterback. I subscribed to the philosophy if you have a point guard committee you have no point guard. I subscribed to the philosophy of if you have a closer by committee you have no closer.
I haven’t moved away from that line of thinking. Establishing roles is key. Players want to know what’s being asked. Coaches want to play to the strengths. It’s kind of like Blake Lynch who has been shifted around. He split his first two years between wide receiver and cornerback. But during the 2017 season, Matt Rhule talked about Lynch playing safety. He just couldn’t because of need.
Now Lynch is at safety. If he stays there and blossoms like Rhule and his defensive staff think he will, then it will be a great story.
The danger, of course, is if you have a roster of really talented players who are kind of good at some things and you can’t figure it out, a coach could ruin what he has.
However, I think we’re seeing a gradual shift in the committee situation…at least in basketball. The point guard scenario in basketball is getting to a point where so many ball handlers have played so many games over the years they understand just about every scenario including crunch time.
We’re not there in football yet. We may never get there. That game is a little more fenced in at the higher levels.
But what did we see with the 2018 signing class? Princeton Pines is listed as a defensive lineman. He’s going to play offensive guard. Mark Milton is listed as a wide receiver. The plan is he will be a defensive back. It was brought to my attention last week about Kalon Barnes possibly playing defensive back when he gets to Baylor. He may or may stay at wide receiver.
Then we saw the note on the Blitz thread of the rumor about Gerry Bohanon and the idea he could be shifted from quarterback to linebacker in 2019.
The bottom line to all of this is that when you see a position attached to a recruit, nod your head, smile and understand that the shoe may eventually end up on the other hand.
****
If you missed this in the podcast last week, I mentioned why Davion Hall didn’t ever live up to the expectations that were attached to him.
You know I had said that I believed that he when he played for Baylor, he was one of the top five athletes on the roster. I still believe that.
So why didn’t it work out? Well, for one, Baylor coach Art Briles had to play the game. If Briles was going to win the recruiting battle, Baylor had to recruit Hall as a wide receiver and promise him the opportunity to play the position. Hall was determined to play that because he thought he was good enough to play that.
Well, those who follow Baylor realized that Hall was better off playing safety. He was too natural of an athlete to be anything else. The instincts at safety were there.
The first mistake was that Briles didn’t have the heart to heart chat with Hall after the 2014 season and tell him that he would be better served and so would the program if he played safety.
That conversation took place after the 2015 season. Several months later Briles was gone. And while the defensive staff for the 2016 season remained intact, there was an acting head coach (Jime Grobe) and the season was just an out-of-body experience anyway.
Then that staff was gone. Enter Matt Rhule and his defensive coaches and a new way of playing defense. Hall just didn’t translate to the college game. Perhaps he simply didn’t get it.
I think it’s fair to say that some of this was not his fault. He was moved a year too late to safety. He had three different head coaches in his career. He had two different approaches to secondary play in those last two seasons. If he has the same staff for the last two years, I tend to think the epilogue on his Baylor career is different.
Unfortunately, he will fall on the long list of players who never reached what was hoped.
However, give Hall credit because he did accomplish one thing – he graduated.
****
On Wednesday, I will have preview of the baseball team’s situation at the Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma City. The No. 5 seed Bears will open against No. 4 seed Oklahoma. The Bears (32-19) have won 18 of their last 21. And you could say they owe the Sooners. Oklahoma swept a 3-game series the last weekend in March in Norman, OK. That’s the really earning morning start at 9:00 a.m.
****
Now, a look at other Baylor sports….
>For a school-record third consecutive season, the Baylor men's golf team is headed to the NCAA Championship. The Bears earned one of five bids awarded at the NCAA Bryan Regional by claiming third place in a 13-team field with a 54-hole total of 7-under-par 857.
The Bears shot 1-under 287 in Wednesday's final round. BU (-7) placed behind only No. 2-ranked tournament host Texas A&M (-27) and No. 14 Clemson (-18). No. 29 UCLA (+2) and No. 23 Kentucky (+10) also earned NCAA Championship berths, as the top-five seeds at the Regional all advanced.
Baylor heads to the 2018 NCAA Championship, which runs May 25-30 at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla. The Bears will be making their eighth all-time NCAA Championship appearance, including a school-record three consecutive seasons.
>Baylor men’s tennis junior Johannes Schretter has been selected to participate in NCAA individual championship action starting May 23 in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Originally the sixth alternate for the singles draw, Schretter will now enter the 64-person draw along with his at-large bid with partner Will Little in the doubles draw. Schretter’s selection marks the 17th-consecutive year that the Bears have had at least one competitor in the NCAA singles draw.
The NCAA Singles & Doubles Championships will be held at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex May 23-28 in Winston-Salem, N.C., following the conclusion of team championship play. All matches will be the best-of-three sets. No-ad scoring and a 7-point tiebreaker at six-games-all will be used for all matches. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set.
>Baylor's track and field teams will be represented by 35 entries and 27 athletes at the NCAA West Preliminary Championships next week at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento. Baylor's participation in the NCAA West Preliminary Championships will begin on Thursday, May 24, at 2 p.m. CT
> Baylor women’s golf improved by 18 strokes and carded a 7-over-par 295 in Saturday’s second round at the NCAA Championship, climbing five spots into a tie for 16th place at 32-over-par 608. The Bears had the second-best round of the 12 teams in the afternoon wave and the eighth-best round in the 24-team field. Baylor is paired with Arkansas and Texas for Sunday’s third round, and those groups will begin from the 10th tee at 12:15 p.m. CT
Let’s make it a great week!
Well, maybe blockbuster was a stretch. But it was a careless summer film that centered on a P.E. Teacher forced to teach remedial English to the dregs of the high school. They had to pass this skills test in order for them to move on and Harmon’s character, Freddy Shoop, to earn tenure.
The RJB’s selection is from the signature song from that completely soundtrack. It was from noted voice and character actress E.G. Daily. When you see her, you may remember her. She’s known for her versatility. So when you hear this, you may react, “Oh yeah’’ or “Never heard it until now.’’
But that’s what the RJB is for. In this selection we play the cheesy video. It’s not all bad because Reiner makes a cameo.
On another matter, as we were going through the list of the female artists who caught our attention – Belinda Carlisle, Nancy Wilson, etc. – maybe we missed the boat on Daily.
****
The phrase you can’t tell the players without a scorecard used to be true.
Used to be true.
When you look at a roster of Baylor basketball, football or your favorite professional team, it can only be summed up with,
Football recruiting has changed and we may not even know it. Basketball recruiting changed a long time ago and we never saw it.
With players being moved around by positions on rosters or being recruited at multiple positions in either sport, we have entered an era of positionless recruiting.
Rivals doesn’t tag certain football players as an athlete because our service has no idea. A player literally is being looked at different positions by different schools or different positions by the same schools.
Look at Baylor recent Mississippi offer to athlete Raydarious Jones. When I talked to him about what position he was being recruited as, he said half the schools see him as a quarterback. The other see him as a defensive back – and he’s never played the secondary in his life.
There is a host of other examples out there. Even offensive linemen aren’t immune from it. Some are viewed as a center, others a guard and others a tackle. It’s positionless within the position.
Defensive ends could be seen as outside linebackers by one school and defensive ends as others. Running backs may be linebackers. Linebackers may be running backs. Wide receivers could be viewed as defensive backs.
In basketball, it’s even tougher. Look at Baylor’s current roster right now. It hasn’t been updated with the recent movement. However, look at the positions. All you see are Gs (guards) and Fs (forward). No one is a point guard. No one is a shooting guard. No one is small forward. No one is power forward. Heck, even 7-0 Jo Lual-Acuil was listed as a forward.
Here’s the little deal on that. When you get labeled into a certain position, that automatically changes how you’re viewed internally and externally.
From an internal standpoint, people think you’re the point guard and so you make all the decisions. There’s no flexibility to think otherwise. From an external standpoint, ball handling guard recruits – notice we’re not calling them point guards – recruits are going to see PG next to a player on the Baylor roster and say, “Well scratch Baylor, they already have someone. I’m never or rarely going to get the ball in my hands.’’
If you’re the Baylor coaches and you have established a pretty strong line with a recruit, you don’t want the letter “P” to be the deal killer. As long as you have gained his trust that he will figure into the equation some way but get him to accept the fact that he will be rewarded if he works to get there, then you’ve just increased your chances to sign him. That’s how Baylor landed JUCO guard Devonte Bandoo.
And keep in mind that when some of you have asked which guard was going to play the point for Baylor in 2018-19, I said Yes. I meant it. Baylor will likely see three primary ball handlers between Bandoo, Jake Lindsey and Mason Makai.
Should a 6-7 player who transferred last summer on this roster be viewed as a guard? In all reality, probably not. I think you know who I’m talking about. But he’s on this team and that’s all that matters. His role will be defined as the offseason continues and as the heavier work begins in October. He may get a shot at playing the point if all heck is breaking loose.
You want Baylor to compete for the best players and get them to Waco. A coach has to get the material. It’s going to be his job to look at what he gathered and create the most successful scenario. Which players can fill which roles the best.
Back in the day, I subscribed to the philosophy if you have a quarterback by committee, you have no quarterback. I subscribed to the philosophy if you have a point guard committee you have no point guard. I subscribed to the philosophy of if you have a closer by committee you have no closer.
I haven’t moved away from that line of thinking. Establishing roles is key. Players want to know what’s being asked. Coaches want to play to the strengths. It’s kind of like Blake Lynch who has been shifted around. He split his first two years between wide receiver and cornerback. But during the 2017 season, Matt Rhule talked about Lynch playing safety. He just couldn’t because of need.
Now Lynch is at safety. If he stays there and blossoms like Rhule and his defensive staff think he will, then it will be a great story.
The danger, of course, is if you have a roster of really talented players who are kind of good at some things and you can’t figure it out, a coach could ruin what he has.
However, I think we’re seeing a gradual shift in the committee situation…at least in basketball. The point guard scenario in basketball is getting to a point where so many ball handlers have played so many games over the years they understand just about every scenario including crunch time.
We’re not there in football yet. We may never get there. That game is a little more fenced in at the higher levels.
But what did we see with the 2018 signing class? Princeton Pines is listed as a defensive lineman. He’s going to play offensive guard. Mark Milton is listed as a wide receiver. The plan is he will be a defensive back. It was brought to my attention last week about Kalon Barnes possibly playing defensive back when he gets to Baylor. He may or may stay at wide receiver.
Then we saw the note on the Blitz thread of the rumor about Gerry Bohanon and the idea he could be shifted from quarterback to linebacker in 2019.
The bottom line to all of this is that when you see a position attached to a recruit, nod your head, smile and understand that the shoe may eventually end up on the other hand.
****
If you missed this in the podcast last week, I mentioned why Davion Hall didn’t ever live up to the expectations that were attached to him.
You know I had said that I believed that he when he played for Baylor, he was one of the top five athletes on the roster. I still believe that.
So why didn’t it work out? Well, for one, Baylor coach Art Briles had to play the game. If Briles was going to win the recruiting battle, Baylor had to recruit Hall as a wide receiver and promise him the opportunity to play the position. Hall was determined to play that because he thought he was good enough to play that.
Well, those who follow Baylor realized that Hall was better off playing safety. He was too natural of an athlete to be anything else. The instincts at safety were there.
The first mistake was that Briles didn’t have the heart to heart chat with Hall after the 2014 season and tell him that he would be better served and so would the program if he played safety.
That conversation took place after the 2015 season. Several months later Briles was gone. And while the defensive staff for the 2016 season remained intact, there was an acting head coach (Jime Grobe) and the season was just an out-of-body experience anyway.
Then that staff was gone. Enter Matt Rhule and his defensive coaches and a new way of playing defense. Hall just didn’t translate to the college game. Perhaps he simply didn’t get it.
I think it’s fair to say that some of this was not his fault. He was moved a year too late to safety. He had three different head coaches in his career. He had two different approaches to secondary play in those last two seasons. If he has the same staff for the last two years, I tend to think the epilogue on his Baylor career is different.
Unfortunately, he will fall on the long list of players who never reached what was hoped.
However, give Hall credit because he did accomplish one thing – he graduated.
****
On Wednesday, I will have preview of the baseball team’s situation at the Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma City. The No. 5 seed Bears will open against No. 4 seed Oklahoma. The Bears (32-19) have won 18 of their last 21. And you could say they owe the Sooners. Oklahoma swept a 3-game series the last weekend in March in Norman, OK. That’s the really earning morning start at 9:00 a.m.
****
Now, a look at other Baylor sports….
>For a school-record third consecutive season, the Baylor men's golf team is headed to the NCAA Championship. The Bears earned one of five bids awarded at the NCAA Bryan Regional by claiming third place in a 13-team field with a 54-hole total of 7-under-par 857.
The Bears shot 1-under 287 in Wednesday's final round. BU (-7) placed behind only No. 2-ranked tournament host Texas A&M (-27) and No. 14 Clemson (-18). No. 29 UCLA (+2) and No. 23 Kentucky (+10) also earned NCAA Championship berths, as the top-five seeds at the Regional all advanced.
Baylor heads to the 2018 NCAA Championship, which runs May 25-30 at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla. The Bears will be making their eighth all-time NCAA Championship appearance, including a school-record three consecutive seasons.
>Baylor men’s tennis junior Johannes Schretter has been selected to participate in NCAA individual championship action starting May 23 in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Originally the sixth alternate for the singles draw, Schretter will now enter the 64-person draw along with his at-large bid with partner Will Little in the doubles draw. Schretter’s selection marks the 17th-consecutive year that the Bears have had at least one competitor in the NCAA singles draw.
The NCAA Singles & Doubles Championships will be held at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex May 23-28 in Winston-Salem, N.C., following the conclusion of team championship play. All matches will be the best-of-three sets. No-ad scoring and a 7-point tiebreaker at six-games-all will be used for all matches. In doubles, a 10-point match tiebreaker will be played in lieu of a third set.
>Baylor's track and field teams will be represented by 35 entries and 27 athletes at the NCAA West Preliminary Championships next week at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento. Baylor's participation in the NCAA West Preliminary Championships will begin on Thursday, May 24, at 2 p.m. CT
> Baylor women’s golf improved by 18 strokes and carded a 7-over-par 295 in Saturday’s second round at the NCAA Championship, climbing five spots into a tie for 16th place at 32-over-par 608. The Bears had the second-best round of the 12 teams in the afternoon wave and the eighth-best round in the 24-team field. Baylor is paired with Arkansas and Texas for Sunday’s third round, and those groups will begin from the 10th tee at 12:15 p.m. CT
Let’s make it a great week!
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