Daily Bears Report 9/8

Today’s Events

Sport: Women’s Volleyball

Event: at Florida State

Time: 5:00 p.m. CT

Volleyball

Fanning the Flames, Rising Sophomore Gains Confidence, Experience with USA Volleyball. Baylor Bears dot come has this story.

Shelly Fanning didn’t get anywhere close to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the Olympics. But, the Baylor sophomore did suit up for USA Volleyball this summer.

The 6-foot-2 Fanning, a sophomore Houston product, survived a February tryout at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., to nab one of 36 spots for the U.S. National Collegiate Team that trained and competed in Indianapolis in July.

“The coaching was amazing,” said Fanning, a second-team All-Big 12 pick who was also named to the Big 12 All-Freshman team last season. “It was a lot of the same coaching words that (Baylor coach Ryan McGuyre) uses. It was really cool to see what he says is how the USA is training . . . just to know that what I’m learning was the best of the best. Practice makes perfect, obviously, and I got the chance to work on different mentalities with each skill.”

Lady Bears Basketball

Women’s Tennis

Baylor women’s tennis and head coach Joey Scrivano released the 2016-17 schedule Wednesday afternoon. Thirteen home dual matches headline the Bears’ strong spring slate. From Baylor Bears dot com.

"Our schedule is always one of the strongest in the nation," Scrivano said. "We are going to embrace the challenge again this year. It will be entertaining for fans to watch and also allow our players to learn and grow. I'm looking forward to seeing our team improve this fall and be ready to compete from start to finish."

Baylor opens its fall schedule at home on Sept. 16, hosting the Bush's $50,000 Waco Showdown Wildcard. The event, which runs through Sept. 18, is a qualifier for the Bush’s $50,000 Waco Showdown on Nov. 6-13.

Student-athletes selected on Sept. 9 for the Rivera/ITA All-American Championship will head to Los Angeles, California on Oct. 1-9 to compete, while others will play in the Under Armour/H-E-B Kickoff in Waco on Oct. 7-9. The kickoff features players from top programs, including Mississippi State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State.

Athletes in Deed

Tailgate Concert Series

Baylor’s free pre-game tailgate performer for this Saturday’s football game will be Wade Bowen. The concerts which are held outside the stadium begin immediately following the Bear Walk, last about an hour and finish in time to find your seats before the game.

Surprise Tweet found by Aqua

Twitter Quotes

"They played us close the whole game, just about. There's a lot of improvement there." - Hawthorne on 2015 SMU game

"We need to improve in some areas. We lost the penalty battle. Lost the turnover battle, but did help ourselves field position wise."- Grobe

"The thing that stands out to me is their footspeed. I like them on defense, the way they chase the football." - Coach Grobe on SMU

"It's really tough. Hopefully by the time we need him he's healthy and ready to go." - Grobe on Johnny Jefferson

"Being well-liked is part of being a leader. He's always upbeat with a smile on his face." - Grobe on Lynx Hawthorne

Football Special Teams

Special teams looks promising this season. From WacoTrib:

“I think our kicking game, we had a lot of hidden yardage that we picked up. For me personally, that was the most rewarding part more than anything else,” Grobe said. “We just stressed to the team that it was going to be really important.”

Baylor Bears in the NFL

Here’s a link to a list of Baylor Bears that survived the cuts in the NFL.

Scandal

Talk of Baylor’s sexual assault scandal ain’t gonna go away soon. We’ve got to deal with that. When the reality of the allegations of Baylor harboring a serial rapist (Tevin Elliot) on it’s football team finally sank in, I think we all were pretty ticked off, sad and embarrassed at the same time. In this article from Fox Sports they ask the question of how we are all going to deal with this going forward. They also say “there’s no right answer.”

Baylor won 10 games last year. there’s no reason that the Bears can’t win 10 games again this year.

How will we handle that? How do you cheer for the players who had nothing to do with any wrongdoing while also acknowledging the harm that was done in the wake of the team's success in years past?

There’s no right answer. We might not develop one this season, or next, but it’s a question we’ll likely have to grapple with soon. Baylor should move to 2-0 this weekend and then 3-0 the following Friday. If they beat Oklahoma State Sept. 24, they’re likely to be undefeated until Oct. 29, which will, in all likelihood, put them in the Top-10 of the rankings late in the season. They'll be in the national football conversation.

No matter how much we’d like Baylor to stay out of the spotlight for anything positive, we’re going to have to attack this moral quandary soon. We might as well start contemplating it now.

All That Jazz

The Baylor Jazz Ensemble’s annual fall-opening trip down memory lane is creating a history of its own as its “Moonlight Serenade” tribute to the big band era marks its 10th anniversary at 7:30 p.m. Tonight at Jones Concert Hall in Baylor’s McCrary Music Building. From WacoTrib:

The concert features the 22-player ensemble performing a cross section of 1940s swing music and big band standards from such well-known bandleaders as Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Harry James and others. The ensemble plays, when possible, the original charts from those big band hits.

Baylor singers Heather Boswell, Addison Patillo and Jenna Davies will provide Andrews Sisters-styled vocal harmonies on several numbers. Baylor music faculty members Michael Jacobson (saxophone), Mark Schubert (trumpet), Kent Eshelman (tuba), Horace Maxile (piano), Jun Qian (clarinet) and Edward Taylor (drums) will play with the student jazz group.

Football is Saturday

This Baylor vs. SMU pre-view from The Best College Sports News Network is an easy read, should help you turn your inner hype on, and a great way for me to say “Sic ‘em Bears!”

One of the longest running college football rivalries in the Lone Star State will add another entry to the history books on Saturday as the Baylor Bears welcome the SMU Mustangs to McLane Stadium in Waco for a clash of former SWC members.

SMU hails from the American Athletic Conference, a league that has already given the Big 12 a headache this season, thanks to Houston tearing apart Oklahoma in a Week 1 contest on national TV. Not many expect the Mustangs to be able to replicate Houston's success in SMU's game in Waco, but head coach Chad Morris has seen his team steadily improve in the offseason.