By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
The RJB is suffering from baseball fan battered syndrome. That’s commonly known by its acronym BBFBS. Owners and players do their best to try and ruin this beautiful game. But when it’s back in season, it manages to put the off-the-field frustrations in the glove compartment.
It was said in this space that when baseball returned, the RJB would probably forget it immediately.
And sufficed to say, that’s exactly what has happened. With apologies to the Astros fans on this site, the RJB almost automatically dismissed the labor strife when it learned Carlos Correa was signing with the Twins.
Baseball returns this Thursday. The RJB is eager to track it from first pitch to last out. It’s a marathon not a sprint.
A tradition of this event is when the RJB pulls out the gem from the Ken Burns iconic series Baseball. There are several versions of “Take me out to the Ballgame.’’
However, the RJB’s favorite is from one of his triplet favorite female artists. We give you the great Carly Simon.
****
Who do you have in the National Championship Game? Kansas? North Carolina?
This is the 12th all-time meeting between these Blue Bloods. North Carolina leads, 6-5. However, Kansas has won four of the six meetings in the NCAA tournament.
For history buffs one of the signature NCAA title games was the 1957 meeting. The Tar Heels beat the Jayhawks and Wilt Chamberlain, 54-53, in triple overtime.
Baylor knows these two very well. The Bears split with Kansas and eventually shared the Big 12 championship. They lost an epic overtime second round game to the Tar Heels, 93-86.
UNC, which eliminated Duke 81-77 in one of the all-time classics between these two and the NCAA tournament in Coach K's farewell, has great momentum is looking for its seventh title. Kansas might be playing the best and is looking for its fourth.
With Kansas making this appearance, this is the third straight year the Big 12 has a team in the final game, Texas Tech in 2019, there was no tournament in 2020, Baylor winning it all last year and now the Jayhawks. This is the fourth straight year the Big 12 has a team in the Final Four as KU was in it in 2018.
Flip of a coin, but I think I’m going with the Jayhawks.
****
We’re officially into the dog days of the spring football season. Now, that sounds a little extreme given that there are just 15 practices and Baylor spaces them out between Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Obviously, there’s a lot of other work that goes on during the other days. However, the emphasis is to get a healthy portion of the offense and defense installed now so when it’s time for fall camp, there won’t be much remedial football being coached or taught.
Dave Aranda’s program was going through a lot of basics and looking for bodies to take on roles because he had to craft and guile his way through 2020. And it showed at 2-7 and a season filled with COVID-19 outbreaks.
And remember the 2021 spring was Aranda’s first. This second spring has the look, the sound and the feel of a program that knows its way around the block.
Really, it didn’t take a 12-2 season that featured a Big 12 and Sugar Bowl championship to make this spring look easy. It may look that way with a lot of veterans returning. But football players and coaches are creatures of habit. They need to get into that familiar environment.
Once they do, things fall into place.
That’s why when I asked Aranda at Saturday’s post scrimmage presser about the quarterback situation and if he still felt like he could name a starter by the end of spring, his answer revealed someone who didn’t flinch. He said yes.
Now, he gave himself a little bit of an out that if it was still up in the air, they could take the competition between Blake Shapen and Gerry Bohanon into fall camp. Aranda doesn’t want to do that.
Here’s why: the search for finding a starting running back and starting wide receivers is a process. But when you have four-fifths of the offensive line returning along with the tight end (Ben Sims) you’re always going to be in position to strike.
If you consider that teams predicted to do well usually are because most of their fronts are returning, they will have the advantage over teams that have a good number of skill guys back but might be a little hmmm with the fronts.
Maybe the exceptions are programs like Alabama, Georgia and a couple of others. But there are not many who just earn that benefit of the doubt regardless of what they lost from the previous season.
Had Connor Galvin, Jacob Gall and Grant Miller decided they were ready to move on to the NFL or just move on, we would be having much different conversations about this team and the expectations.
Consider what you just read. At this time last year could you have imagined reading this? Did I think I would be writing something like this?
The answer to both questions is probably not. As bad as the offensive line had been in previous seasons, there was only the hope that both Gall and Miller would help just make this unit credible and nothing more.
Then we watched what we watched. The script has taken a 180. Now, we’re looking at the offensive line as being a rock. Funny how that works, doesn’t it?
As Aranda, Shawn Bell and Jeff Grimes evaluate this Bohanon-Shapen race, there is quiet sense of urgency to make this decision. Like Aranda said, they want to hit the ground running when fall camp opens.
They know they have a one-year window to make a statement to repeat as Big 12 champions and perhaps create some noise in the college football playoffs. The history of the playoff suggests that outside of Alabama, Clemson and Georgia the margin to play in them is razor thin and so many things have to break right for it to happen.
Before anyone suggests that 2023 could be better than 2022, let’s just get through spring ball first because if you know what’s going to happen in 2023 before 2022 even begins, you need to be in Las Vegas laying it all on the Twins to win the World Series (Ha!).
****
I’ll have more on LSU transfer portal linebacker Josh White and his visit to Baylor on Saturday coming up soon.
But Baylor made a great impression. No surprise there. I can tell you that outside of White, Baylor really doesn’t have anyone else from the portal that it’s considering.
That follows the track record of what Baylor has done since the portal has become a thing. The Bears don’t load up just to load up. The staff will make strategical decisions.
Last year, it was Gall, Miller, wide receiver Drew Estrada and Apu Ika. So far, it’s just Tulsa defensive tackle and Waco Midway product Jaxon Player – who Aranda said is having a great camp – and that’s it.
Maybe White comes on board. It’s not a slam dunk. Some work to do here. Baylor should know where it stands by the end of April.
****
It was disappointing to see that associate director of player development Brian Nance has moved on to Texas Tech.
I got word late Thursday about this. By 8:00 a.m. on Friday, he was gone. It did sound like some matters between his role and how it was going to work with new Associate Director of Player Development Tyler Foster, Director of Recruiting Larry McDonald and Assistant AD of scouting Aaron Hunt could not get resolved.
Plus, Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire has known Nance for the years they were together here. Once you get an offer to move on to an opportunity that you think betters you, then you take it.
As deep followers of the program, the other thing you have to realize is that coaching is a transient business. The support positions like Nance are no different. They are all nomads. They are stewards for a period of time before they move on to the next job.
Obviously, Nance kinda stings because he played for Baylor and Baylor gave him his first opportunity to get into this business. He will forever be grateful. Doesn’t mean that if there is a chance to improve himself elsewhere, he won’t do it.
****
Now, let’s take a look at other Baylor sports…
>The Naismith Hall of Fame, in association with the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, named Baylor senior NaLyssa Smith the winner of the Katrina McClain Award on Sunday as part of the Hoophall Starting Five Awards.
Smith was named the nation's top power forward after leading the Bears to their 12th-straight regular-season Big 12 title and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. She became one of seven Bears to reach the 2,000-point / 1,000-rebound mark in her career.
The Converse, Texas, native also received the McClain Award last season, becoming the second person in the award's history to repeat (Ruthy Hebard, Oregon).
Smith beat out four other finalists for the honor, including Aneesah Morrow (DePaul), Angel Reese (Maryland), Naz Hillmon (Michigan) and Cameron Brink (Stanford).
>At the Baylor Invitational at Clyde Hart Track and Field Stadium, with the Bears won seven field events, 14 on the track and setting a stadium record in the men's javelin. Baylor will compete in the 44 Farms Invitational next weekend in College Station before hosting the Michael Johnson Classic April 22-23.
> Baylor men's golf gave the home fans some drama with a pair of wins over Abilene Christian and UTSA to capture the inaugural Bear Brawl at Ridgewood Country Club on Monday. Baylor hosted its first event since 2005.
The Bears will compete in the Aggie Invitational at Traditions Golf Club in Bryan April 9-10.
>No. 4 Baylor men's tennis fell to No. 3 TCU in a close match on Sunday afternoon at the Hurd Tennis Center, 4-3. However, the Bears (19-3, 1-1) opened with a 6-0 win over No. 11 Texas. The Bears will return to the Hurd on Friday, April 8, for a 6 p.m. matchup with Oklahoma State.
>No. 1 Baylor acrobatics & tumbling extended its winning streak to 12 with a 24.38-point win over No. 7 Hawaii Pacific on Saturday night in the Ferrell Center, 279.775 – 255.395.
The Bears improved to 7-0 on the season with the win over the Sharks, including a 3-0 record in the Ferrell Center. BU overtook HPU in every event, only dropping two heats. Baylor will head out to face No. 4 Oregon on April 10 with a start time of 4 p.m. CT to close out the regular season.
>Baylor Softball fell in its series finale against No. 6 Oklahoma State, 7-2, Sunday afternoon at Getterman Stadium. Baylor (17-17, 0-6) has lost seven straight games. The Lady Bears play host to Lamar on Wednesday before traveling to Kansas for a 3-game series Friday-Sunday.
> Baylor equestrian has earned the No. 6 seed for the upcoming 2022 National Collegiate Equestrian Association (NCEA) National Championship, as announced Tuesday by the organization.
This year's national event is set for April 14-16 at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fl.
Let’s make it a great week!
Publisher
The RJB is suffering from baseball fan battered syndrome. That’s commonly known by its acronym BBFBS. Owners and players do their best to try and ruin this beautiful game. But when it’s back in season, it manages to put the off-the-field frustrations in the glove compartment.
It was said in this space that when baseball returned, the RJB would probably forget it immediately.
And sufficed to say, that’s exactly what has happened. With apologies to the Astros fans on this site, the RJB almost automatically dismissed the labor strife when it learned Carlos Correa was signing with the Twins.
Baseball returns this Thursday. The RJB is eager to track it from first pitch to last out. It’s a marathon not a sprint.
A tradition of this event is when the RJB pulls out the gem from the Ken Burns iconic series Baseball. There are several versions of “Take me out to the Ballgame.’’
However, the RJB’s favorite is from one of his triplet favorite female artists. We give you the great Carly Simon.
****
Who do you have in the National Championship Game? Kansas? North Carolina?
This is the 12th all-time meeting between these Blue Bloods. North Carolina leads, 6-5. However, Kansas has won four of the six meetings in the NCAA tournament.
For history buffs one of the signature NCAA title games was the 1957 meeting. The Tar Heels beat the Jayhawks and Wilt Chamberlain, 54-53, in triple overtime.
Baylor knows these two very well. The Bears split with Kansas and eventually shared the Big 12 championship. They lost an epic overtime second round game to the Tar Heels, 93-86.
UNC, which eliminated Duke 81-77 in one of the all-time classics between these two and the NCAA tournament in Coach K's farewell, has great momentum is looking for its seventh title. Kansas might be playing the best and is looking for its fourth.
With Kansas making this appearance, this is the third straight year the Big 12 has a team in the final game, Texas Tech in 2019, there was no tournament in 2020, Baylor winning it all last year and now the Jayhawks. This is the fourth straight year the Big 12 has a team in the Final Four as KU was in it in 2018.
Flip of a coin, but I think I’m going with the Jayhawks.
****
We’re officially into the dog days of the spring football season. Now, that sounds a little extreme given that there are just 15 practices and Baylor spaces them out between Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Obviously, there’s a lot of other work that goes on during the other days. However, the emphasis is to get a healthy portion of the offense and defense installed now so when it’s time for fall camp, there won’t be much remedial football being coached or taught.
Dave Aranda’s program was going through a lot of basics and looking for bodies to take on roles because he had to craft and guile his way through 2020. And it showed at 2-7 and a season filled with COVID-19 outbreaks.
And remember the 2021 spring was Aranda’s first. This second spring has the look, the sound and the feel of a program that knows its way around the block.
Really, it didn’t take a 12-2 season that featured a Big 12 and Sugar Bowl championship to make this spring look easy. It may look that way with a lot of veterans returning. But football players and coaches are creatures of habit. They need to get into that familiar environment.
Once they do, things fall into place.
That’s why when I asked Aranda at Saturday’s post scrimmage presser about the quarterback situation and if he still felt like he could name a starter by the end of spring, his answer revealed someone who didn’t flinch. He said yes.
Now, he gave himself a little bit of an out that if it was still up in the air, they could take the competition between Blake Shapen and Gerry Bohanon into fall camp. Aranda doesn’t want to do that.
Here’s why: the search for finding a starting running back and starting wide receivers is a process. But when you have four-fifths of the offensive line returning along with the tight end (Ben Sims) you’re always going to be in position to strike.
If you consider that teams predicted to do well usually are because most of their fronts are returning, they will have the advantage over teams that have a good number of skill guys back but might be a little hmmm with the fronts.
Maybe the exceptions are programs like Alabama, Georgia and a couple of others. But there are not many who just earn that benefit of the doubt regardless of what they lost from the previous season.
Had Connor Galvin, Jacob Gall and Grant Miller decided they were ready to move on to the NFL or just move on, we would be having much different conversations about this team and the expectations.
Consider what you just read. At this time last year could you have imagined reading this? Did I think I would be writing something like this?
The answer to both questions is probably not. As bad as the offensive line had been in previous seasons, there was only the hope that both Gall and Miller would help just make this unit credible and nothing more.
Then we watched what we watched. The script has taken a 180. Now, we’re looking at the offensive line as being a rock. Funny how that works, doesn’t it?
As Aranda, Shawn Bell and Jeff Grimes evaluate this Bohanon-Shapen race, there is quiet sense of urgency to make this decision. Like Aranda said, they want to hit the ground running when fall camp opens.
They know they have a one-year window to make a statement to repeat as Big 12 champions and perhaps create some noise in the college football playoffs. The history of the playoff suggests that outside of Alabama, Clemson and Georgia the margin to play in them is razor thin and so many things have to break right for it to happen.
Before anyone suggests that 2023 could be better than 2022, let’s just get through spring ball first because if you know what’s going to happen in 2023 before 2022 even begins, you need to be in Las Vegas laying it all on the Twins to win the World Series (Ha!).
****
I’ll have more on LSU transfer portal linebacker Josh White and his visit to Baylor on Saturday coming up soon.
But Baylor made a great impression. No surprise there. I can tell you that outside of White, Baylor really doesn’t have anyone else from the portal that it’s considering.
That follows the track record of what Baylor has done since the portal has become a thing. The Bears don’t load up just to load up. The staff will make strategical decisions.
Last year, it was Gall, Miller, wide receiver Drew Estrada and Apu Ika. So far, it’s just Tulsa defensive tackle and Waco Midway product Jaxon Player – who Aranda said is having a great camp – and that’s it.
Maybe White comes on board. It’s not a slam dunk. Some work to do here. Baylor should know where it stands by the end of April.
****
It was disappointing to see that associate director of player development Brian Nance has moved on to Texas Tech.
I got word late Thursday about this. By 8:00 a.m. on Friday, he was gone. It did sound like some matters between his role and how it was going to work with new Associate Director of Player Development Tyler Foster, Director of Recruiting Larry McDonald and Assistant AD of scouting Aaron Hunt could not get resolved.
Plus, Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire has known Nance for the years they were together here. Once you get an offer to move on to an opportunity that you think betters you, then you take it.
As deep followers of the program, the other thing you have to realize is that coaching is a transient business. The support positions like Nance are no different. They are all nomads. They are stewards for a period of time before they move on to the next job.
Obviously, Nance kinda stings because he played for Baylor and Baylor gave him his first opportunity to get into this business. He will forever be grateful. Doesn’t mean that if there is a chance to improve himself elsewhere, he won’t do it.
****
Now, let’s take a look at other Baylor sports…
>The Naismith Hall of Fame, in association with the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, named Baylor senior NaLyssa Smith the winner of the Katrina McClain Award on Sunday as part of the Hoophall Starting Five Awards.
Smith was named the nation's top power forward after leading the Bears to their 12th-straight regular-season Big 12 title and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. She became one of seven Bears to reach the 2,000-point / 1,000-rebound mark in her career.
The Converse, Texas, native also received the McClain Award last season, becoming the second person in the award's history to repeat (Ruthy Hebard, Oregon).
Smith beat out four other finalists for the honor, including Aneesah Morrow (DePaul), Angel Reese (Maryland), Naz Hillmon (Michigan) and Cameron Brink (Stanford).
>At the Baylor Invitational at Clyde Hart Track and Field Stadium, with the Bears won seven field events, 14 on the track and setting a stadium record in the men's javelin. Baylor will compete in the 44 Farms Invitational next weekend in College Station before hosting the Michael Johnson Classic April 22-23.
> Baylor men's golf gave the home fans some drama with a pair of wins over Abilene Christian and UTSA to capture the inaugural Bear Brawl at Ridgewood Country Club on Monday. Baylor hosted its first event since 2005.
The Bears will compete in the Aggie Invitational at Traditions Golf Club in Bryan April 9-10.
>No. 4 Baylor men's tennis fell to No. 3 TCU in a close match on Sunday afternoon at the Hurd Tennis Center, 4-3. However, the Bears (19-3, 1-1) opened with a 6-0 win over No. 11 Texas. The Bears will return to the Hurd on Friday, April 8, for a 6 p.m. matchup with Oklahoma State.
>No. 1 Baylor acrobatics & tumbling extended its winning streak to 12 with a 24.38-point win over No. 7 Hawaii Pacific on Saturday night in the Ferrell Center, 279.775 – 255.395.
The Bears improved to 7-0 on the season with the win over the Sharks, including a 3-0 record in the Ferrell Center. BU overtook HPU in every event, only dropping two heats. Baylor will head out to face No. 4 Oregon on April 10 with a start time of 4 p.m. CT to close out the regular season.
>Baylor Softball fell in its series finale against No. 6 Oklahoma State, 7-2, Sunday afternoon at Getterman Stadium. Baylor (17-17, 0-6) has lost seven straight games. The Lady Bears play host to Lamar on Wednesday before traveling to Kansas for a 3-game series Friday-Sunday.
> Baylor equestrian has earned the No. 6 seed for the upcoming 2022 National Collegiate Equestrian Association (NCEA) National Championship, as announced Tuesday by the organization.
This year's national event is set for April 14-16 at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fl.
Let’s make it a great week!
