Our Daily Mailbag 4/25- Football, Hoops, and More!

The mailbag returns to discuss spring football and some random topics. If you missed it, Wright Thompson has a profile of Pat Riley. He’s the best sports writer, so I’m recommending that without having even read it.

This is a tough question, but I think he will. He’s 24, which should give him a 3 or 4 year window to get the most out of his talent. I don’t think he’ll play in the NBA next season, but Isaiah Austin will play in the NBA by 2019. There aren’t a lot of 7’1 guys that can shoot 3s and block shots. He’ll get a shot.

They make me slightly less worried. Baylor still needs a steady top wide receiver. With the loss of K.D. Cannon and Ish Zamora, Baylor is losing a ton of talent, but I think Baylor will have a solid wide receiving corps. Blake Lynch will be Baylor’s top wide receiver, and Chris Platt will be the second best. Or at least that’s what I think in April.

I've seen season predictions predominantly between 6-10 wins, but I've also seen some people saying it takes at least a year or two to install a new coaches schemes. With how much Rhule and staff are trying to install and with how much more detailed there schemes are, is 6-10 wins a little pre mature and should we temper our expectations?- Lance Smith

If Baylor has incredible injury luck, it’s possible to see this as a 10 win team. My expectation is that Baylor will hit a rough patch with injuries sometime this season. The Bears still have big problems with depth at certain positions. The coaching staff is implementing a new scheme. And the Big 12 is as good as it’s been top-to-bottom in years.

The Bears have a shot to win 10 games. Expecting that is another thing. My belief is that as long as the team reaches a bowl, then the staff can continue to recruit well and build the program.

I will break this down by football and basketball because there is a huge difference between the two. Some schools are great in one sport and terrible in the other. The atmosphere, players and fans are way different—even for the same school—when comparing football and basketball. From most hated to least hated:

Football:

Texas, TCU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Iowa State, West Virginia, Kansas State and Kansas.

Basketball:

Texas, Kansas, Iowa State, TCU, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Kansas State and Oklahoma.

I could write 10,000 words explaining this, and a lot of it would be the subjective experiences of one man. Someone else may have had an Iowa State basketball fan give them a kidney, or someone else may have had their man or woman stolen by an Oklahoma basketball player. I didn’t have those experiences.

I have had positive and negative experiences with nearly all these fans in every sport. But #HexTex.

On offense, it was how much Baylor mixed schemes and plays. I’m still not positive what the new Baylor offense will do.

On defense, I was really impressed with K.J. Smith and Bravion Roy. I thought both of those guys would be good, but Baylor’s defensive line should be excellent.

Dia 2012. I could write 10,000 words on that day. What a time to have been alive.

We’ll return the mailbag to Thursday next week. And if you didn’t get a question in the mailbag this week, next week could be the time for freedom.

You can submit questions to ourdailybears@gmail.com or tweet @OurDailyBears. Sic ‘Em!