Clearly we need to get better. We are a top 15-20 team, but we aren't a top 10 team right now. I still contend we aren't that far off. A lot of our issues against Baylor are purely psychological. They are extremely physical, and it gets in our head.
What is frustrating to me is this bogus idea of "freedom of movement." If you aren't going to whistle the fouls against the best teams in women's college basketball in games that matter, don't make it a point of emphasis. I really think Lon & Sherri must be entirely frustrated because they have embraced change within college basketball and have adjusted their coaching styles to this supposed new era of "freedom of movement."
What Baylor continually gets away with in the BIG 12 Conference has to stop. They literally play defense by fouling and forcing officials to make every single call. They know full well, especially with Mulkey's tantrums, the officials can't possibly call everything.
Some things will never change. Mulkey intentionally coaches very physical defense, and until the officials make her change, she won't. It doesn't matter what they say the point of emphasis is.
Sherri has developed her offense and coached her team the way the sports was designed to be played. The problem is that it's not reality. If the officials aren't ever going to really change (and those were supposedly the "best" last night), then clearly Sherri needs to recruit a bit more muscle and start teaching kids to throw some elbows. Unless they get reviewed for 15 minutes on the replay, they won't get called.
I agree with most of this. I wonder if we won't have the talent next year to make the Final Four, at least the Elite Eight.
As I remember the evolution of the Baylor team, I rather liked the 2005 team. It played good basketball, and I loved watching Niemann and Sophia. Then, something happened.
We got Courtney. Suddenly, we swept Baylor in all three games because of a freshman post, and Kim begin to play games. She began with the elbows, especially Wabara, in an attempt to get position on Courtney. We also had the Hack-a-Courtney, including when Courtney was out of bounds. Certain of those fouls should have been technicals. I think Kim was determined never to let a freshman beat her championship team again.
We went through the Griner years which must have been disappointing. If you remember, her remarks when Griner was a freshman was that you had better beat us this year because it will be the last time. But, Griner's team only won one.
Then, we see this evolution, a combination of two things that had beaten her, interior size and the muggery Gary Blair's defense, which isn't really defense, just a deliberate determination to take advantage of the fact that officials don't call the game properly.
For two years, we have had orders from the NCAA committee to call games closer. If we don't stop them, Baylor won't show up in uniforms, but in riot gear. I think we saw Sherri's frustration and anger last night, and I suspect that that the NCAA rules committee will get an earful. Even a few other coaches, like Aston, may be ready to put an end to what Baylor is doing. I did notice that Kim was quiet last night.
It's time to stop the assault and battery on the court. Sherri was right. This isn't women's basketball. The men's game is called tighter.
