Daily Bears Report 1/6/17 - Former Baylor Regent Accused of Pulling Puppet Strings

He’s good at pranks and basketball:

Lady Bears

If you really think about (i.e. you think about it for less than a second with 0% effort), this win from Baylor was pre-ordained. Bears eat hikers all the time, and this game was just a reaffirmation of what we already know to be true. From Swish Appeal.

The Bears came in with the best defense in the country, allowing less than .649 points per possession (PPP), and with the best offense, too, scoring a whopping 1.201 PPP. West Virginia has a great defense, too, ranking third in defensive points per possession, but their offense is only 21st; still very good, but not enough against a team like Baylor.

This game was a more a coronation of Baylor than a condemnation of the Mountaineers; Baylor really is just that good, and perhaps is the only team that will be able to take out Connecticut, should they meet in the championship.

Man Bears

When Baylor’s Scott Drew, coach of the provisional new No. 1 team in men’s college basketball, signed off Thursday on the Big 12 teleconference, he offered the media a little tip. From My Statesman dot com.

“I’ll leave everyone with the Big 12 nugget of the week,” Drew said. “The last five games have come down to one possession. So that’s what kind of league it’s going to be this year.”

Should unbeaten Baylor (14-0) handle Oklahoma State (10-4) on Saturday night in Waco, the Bears are in line to top the polls after No. 1 Villanova was upset by Butler 66-58 about an hour before Baylor held off Iowa State 65-63 Wednesday night. The Bears are an all-time high No. 2 right now.

College basketball's regular season was supposed to be predictable. Instead, it's chaos. - SBNation.com, The more things change, the more impossible it gets to accurately forecast anything that's going to happen in college basketball.

Five Final Four-caliber teams you're probably not taking seriously enough - CBSSports.com, Baylor is absolutely a Final Four threat even though the Bears got zero Top 25 votes in the preseason polls.

When All Else Fails, Pound the Podium

Steve Prohm pounded the table that served as the postgame interview podium Wednesday night. The Iowa State basketball team he coaches had the country on upset alert. From the Des Moines Register.

Mighty, unbeaten, No. 3 Baylor was on the verge of going down.

The score read 61-55 Cyclones with 5-1/2 minutes to play. It was 63-61 Iowa State with 2:22 left.

The team a lot of people felt could lose by 20 points, according to Monte Morris, was a couple of good possessions from a national shocker.

Then stuff happened. Baylor’s Manu Lecomte made a fadeaway shot over Matt Thomas with 8 seconds left that resulted in a 65-63 Baylor lead (and later, a victory).

And then stuff really happened.

Morris streaked to Iowa State’s offensive end. Nick Weiler-Babb was about to pass him the ball for a quick layup, but ...

Officials killed any momentum. They stopped play to check the clock after Lecomte’s shot. Continue Reading, post game video . . .

Clippings from Baylor Bears dot com.

• No. 2 MBB Improves to 14-0 with 65-63 Win over Iowa State - Baylor Official Athletic Site, The Official Athletic Site of the Baylor University - Manu Lecomte made a short high-arching jumper over a defender with 8 seconds left and No. 2 Baylor remained undefeated with a 65-63 victory over Iowa State in the Bears' Big 12 home opener Wednesday night.
• No. 2 WBB Dominant in Win Over No. 17 West Virginia - Baylor Official Athletic Site, The Official Athletic Site of the Baylor University - Alexis Jones scored 21 points, Kalani Brown had 16 points and 11 rebounds and No. 2 Baylor beat No. 17 West Virginia 91-56 on Wednesday night.

Lady Bear Nina Davis

Baylor women’s basketball forward Nina Davis is one of 30 candidates for the 2016-17 Senior CLASS Award, the organization announced Thursday. From Baylor Bears dot com.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.

Eligible candidates must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community classroom and competition.

Davis, a two-time consensus All-American and three-time All-Big 12 first team performer on the court for Baylor, is highly involved in the Waco community. She gives back each year, speaking to youth at prisons, reading to elementary school students, visiting hospital patients and babies in the NICU and sharing her love for Christ through Fellowship of Christian Athletes in addition to annual team events like Feed My Starving Children and the Care Bear Drive. The Memphis, Tenn., native also goes on summer mission trips to Brazil each year.

It is the second community-based award of the season for Davis, as she was named a 2017 Allstate WBCA Good Works Team nominee on Nov. 30, 2016.

The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2017 NCAA Women’s Final Four this spring. To view the full list of candidates, visit www.seniorCLASSaward.com.

Man and Lady Bears game highlights from Baylor Athletics

Man and Lady Bears Post game interviews

Iowa State at Baylor in 30 minutes and Big XII Digital Highlights

ISH Wainright is the Difference Maker

ODB’s TopSeededAmateur and Kendall_Kaut each provide us with this link to SI’s Powerrankngs. According to SI’s Luke Wynn, who by the way gives Baylor a No. 1 ranking, Ish Wainright provides for Baylor a 42% increase in efficiency whenever he is on the floor.

Ish Wainright: “We still suck.”

Motley Post Game Interview

Random Lady Bear Highlights

Moments of Pride and Optimism Usher in 2017

From an editorial in WacoTrib dot com.

Whatever you think of Baylor University’s beleaguered board of regents, football program (past and present) and snarled interpretations of Title IX, we can surely celebrate the Associated Press’ No. 2 rankings of Baylor’s basketball teams, both women’s and men’s.

We expected nothing less from the Lady Bears, but the men’s team has been playing phenomenal ball lately, evident in Friday’s 76-50 win at Oklahoma. Its ranking represents not only a notch in school history but sustained talent, as seen in victories over contenders such as Louisville and Michigan State. Baylor went nearly four decades before the men’s team under coach Scott Drew made an AP ranking several years ago. And if the Lady Bears’ victory over the Kansas Jayhawks is any indication, the team under Kim Mulkey has a credible shot at a national championship.

The new year opens with Baylor regents and alumni increasingly at odds, with little concession or meaningful communication one way or the other regarding leadership. Title IX policy on sexual violence promises to become only more confusing as the U.S. Department of Education falls under new oversight Jan. 20. And various lawsuits, including one by former head football coach Art Briles that might elicit some answers, await resolution. But Baylor’s push to impress upon students the gravity of sexual violence and the basketball victories at least offer some hope for a better 2017.

How to Pronounce “Baylor”

What you missed sitting at home.

Preview Baylor vs. Oklahoma State this Saturday

More Scandal News, Cause “It Ain’t Going Away”

Former Baylor University Board of Regents Chairman Neal “Buddy” Jones is accused of influencing current regents’ personnel decisions amid the school’s sexual assault scandal, according to a lawsuit filed by former Baylor associate athletics director Tom Hill, who was fired by the university in May. From WacoTrib.

Jones was recently added as a defendant in Hill’s lawsuit against Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton LLP, which conducted a nine-month investigation into how Baylor handled sexual assault complaints. Pepper Hamilton attorneys Leslie M. Gomez and Gina Maisto Smith, who conducted the investigation on behalf of the firm, are also listed as individual defendants.

Jones, who left the board in 2013, did not reply to multiple requests for comment, nor did a Pepper Hamilton spokesman.

“Buddy Jones pulled puppet strings on members of that board of regents even after he was (off the board),” said Hill’s lawyer, Don Riddle, citing investigative evidence.