Daily Bears Reports 8/18: Baylor Olympian Britney Griner; New Assistant Coach; 2016 Baylor Legends

Baylor Tennis Gets a New Assistant Coach

Baylor men's tennis head coach Matt Knoll announced the hiring of Michael Woodson as assistant coach Wednesday. From Baylor Bears dot com.

Prior to coming to Waco, Woodson had been a member of the Valparaiso men’s tennis coaching staff since the 2012-13 season, after concluding a three-year career on the court for the Crusaders.

"Michael is a phenomenal young coach that is well-respected by his coaching peers," Knoll said. "His work ethic is unmatched and his success at Valparaiso is a true testament to that. His teams always play hard and compete for him and each other. His immediate impact on the Valparaiso squad makes him a perfect choice for our program here, and I look forward to working with him as we continue to build toward another national championship."

Legends

2016 Baylor football legends were announced Wednesday.

Five former Baylor football players will be honored as Baylor Football Legends during select 2016 home football games, Baylor officials announced Wednesday.

Each honoree or honoree representative will be introduced on the field during their respective game, while a short video details their playing career for the Bears.

2016 Baylor Football Legends: Sept. 2 vs. Northwestern State – Steve Grumbine; Sept. 10 vs. SMU - John Westbrook; Sept. 24 vs. Oklahoma State - Jason Smith; Nov. 5 vs. TCU - Jordan Lake; Nov. 19 vs. Kansas State - Joe Pawelek.

Football Can Win

CBS Sports Dennis Dodd says Baylor can win despite its current depth.

The Baylor squad that heads into the third week of August has approximately 70 scholarship players, 15 below the maximum. To fill up the rest of the roster, Grobe has all but put a "vacancy" sign for any and all walk-ons.

"We really need to respect them," Grobe said. "I tell our scholarship players, 'Whenever you get a chance, put your arm around those non-scholarship guys because they're playing just because they love the game.'"

And paying a lot of money to do it. Tuition approaches $55,000 annually (room, books, board, etc.).

Olympian

Former Baylor Lady Bear Britney Griner and the US Women’s Olympic Basketball Team take on France in the semifinals this evening at 6:00 p.m. ET. SB Nation’s bulletsforever has the preview and game thread.

The USA Basketball women’s national team defeated Japan 110-64 on Tuesday. However, they were only leading by 10 at the end of the first half and looked quite vulnerable until they went on an 8-0 run to be up 56-46 at halftime. The Americans also had to play much of of the game without Sue Bird who suffered a knee injury.

Newsday breaks down how this 2016 US Women’s Basketball Team is outperforming the 1996 team.

So, at this point, it’s time to start considering this group as perhaps the greatest team in U.S. women’s basketball history. But, to be fair, the U.S. still has two games to go to claim gold, even though the road got somewhat easier after Australia’s stunning quarterfinal loss to Serbia on Tuesday.