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Can't ask for a better day to walk campus #SicEm pic.twitter.com/YOCqWGTD17
— Baylor Bearmada (@BaylorBearmada) April 9, 2017
Today’s Events
- Baseball, at Texas Tech, 2:00 PM, Listen
- Softball, vs Iowa State, 12:05 PM, Watch, Listen
- Men's Tennis, vs Oklahoma State, 2:00 PM
- Women's Golf, vs Ping ASU Invitational, All Day
Lady Bears Basketball
- A crowd of more than 800 gathered at the Ferrell Center Thursday night to honor a Baylor Lady Bear senior class that won 134 games and a combined seven Big 12 championships and reached the Elite Eight four straight years. Complete story by Baylor Bear Foundation’s Jerry Hill at Baylor Bears dot com.
Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades said seniors Khadijiah Cave, Nina Davis, Alexis Jones and Alexis Prince “have left an unbelievable legacy,” while interim President Dr. David Garland said, “this was the best darn team in the country and the champions of our heart.”
This year’s team finished 33-4, set 16 school records and two NCAA all-time records and made it to the Elite Eight for the fourth straight year before falling in overtime to eventual national runner-up Mississippi State, 94-85.
Reminding the crowd of how hard it is to win a national championship – the Lady Bears won it all in 2005 and again in 2012 – Mulkey said, “We will continue to play for championships at Baylor.”
“The passion I have is not for me,” she said. “My passion is for these young ladies to experience what I’ve experienced.”
Sharing team MVP honors were 6-7 sophomore post Kalani Brown and the 5-11 Davis, who picked up the award for the third straight year. Brown led the team in scoring (15.4), rebounding (8.2) and blocks (2.0) and ranked second nationally in field goal percentage (67.9).
“I told Kalani, ‘Play like a bear, not like a teddy bear,” associate head coach Bill Brock said of the WBCA All-American and first-team All-Big 12 selection.
A two-time consensus All-American who took on a lesser role as a senior, Davis was described as the ultimate team player. She averaged 13.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game and became just the fifth player in program history to tally over 2,000 points (2,433) and 1,000 rebounds (1,074).
“How in the world do you describe Nina Davis if you’ve never seen her play,” Mulkey said. “I’m not going to tell you she’s got the prettiest shot, but it goes in. So why am I going to mess with it?”
Baylor's Alexis Jones will take part in the #WDraft17 in NYC April 13! She's one of players invited: https://t.co/1f2DT8AGvM #SicEm pic.twitter.com/CbC8RCBANI
— Baylor Lady Bears (@BaylorWBB) April 6, 2017
Based on YOUR vote, we can declare Kalani Brown the #D1WBB Player of the Year!
— HERO Sports WBB (@HEROSportsWBB) April 6, 2017
--> https://t.co/2GSTfWZDjN #SicEm #NCAAW pic.twitter.com/ywNmym74Ji
#Baylor Lady Bears get ready for the WNBA draft #Sicem
Track & Field
- Track & Field Captures Eight Baylor Invitational Event Titles - Baylor Official Athletic Site, Baylor track and field athletes recorded eight event wins at the Baylor Invitational Saturday inside Clyde Hart Track & Field Stadium. Wil London captured the 2017 quartermile crown in 45.46, the second fastest NCAA time this year.
45.46 seconds is also the average wait time in security at Waco Regional Airport. Congrats to Waco's own @Wil_WL3! https://t.co/ZfcVQGHUc1
— Waco Reg Airport (@WacoAirport) April 9, 2017
Football
Out here tripping. This spot is - waco pic.twitter.com/Xby97z64Sj
— Trevon Lewis™ (@Tre98_24) April 8, 2017
#Baylor Spring Practice #10 Matt Rhule interview #SicEm
- Baylor coach Matt Rhule shocked a lot of people when he signed a 27-player recruiting class in February after all the fallout from the sexual assault scandal. Complete story by WacoTrib’s John Werner at BearsExtra.
Many observers questioned if he could pull together a solid class since the Bears had just one commitment – Stafford defensive back Jalen Pitre – when Rhule became Baylor’s coach in December.
Rhule and his staff not only found much needed recruits at positions across the board, the class is highly regarded since it’s ranked No. 32 nationally by Rivals.com.
Four of those recruits graduated from high school early to enroll at Baylor in January including Pitre, Lake Travis quarterback Charlie Brewer, Abilene running back Abram Smith and Cypress Ranch wide receiver R.J. Sneed.
“They should be at the prom right now,” Rhule said. “They should be sitting in home room right now. They are really mentally and physically light years ahead of where you would think a kid in that time frame would be. I think the biggest thing is those are really high-character kids.”
Baylor Football: Tenth Spring Practice Recap [2017]
Had a Great Time at The University of Baylor Today pic.twitter.com/ZWgl8ZqH6l
— The Chase Taylor (@ChaseTaylor10) April 8, 2017
- Versatile '18 standout Vernon Jackson puts Baylor in top five, Boling's Vernon Jackson could play a multitude of different positions in college.
- Baylor's tight ends evolving under new assistant coach Joey McGuire, Baylor's tight ends are undergoing a major overhaul under new coaching staff, with former Cedar Hill coach Joey McGuire leading the way.
- Tennessee transfer Jalen Hurd takes in Baylor practice, talks with Rhule, Tennessee transfer has already visited Louisville, Cal and Ohio State.
- Ex-Tennessee RB Jalen Hurd reportedly set to visit Baylor | CollegeFootballTalk, Highly-productive back has already visited Cal, Louisville, Ohio State.
Softball
Thanks to our senior leaders for sharing their testimonies on Faith and Family Day! #SicEm pic.twitter.com/YxJujHbYCW
— Baylor Softball (@BaylorSoftball) April 8, 2017
- No. 13 Baylor Softball Clinches Series with Win over Iowa State - Baylor Official Athletic Site, No. 13/14 Baylor softball (34-6, 7-1 Big 12) clinched the series win over the Iowa State Cyclones (15-26, 0-8 Big 12), taking a 7-0 win on Saturday afternoon at Getterman Stadium.
Baylor Softball: Highlights vs. Iowa St. (Sat)
- Rodoni, No. 13 Lady Bears romp last-place Cyclones, 7-0 | Baylor Softball | wacotrib.com, Before stepping out to play Iowa State, Baylor pitcher Gia Rodoni told team sports psychologist Don Corley that she was going to throw a no-hitter.
Baseball
- Baseball Drops Back and Forth Game to No. 6 Texas Tech - Baylor Official Athletic Site, Baylor baseball suffered a back and forth loss to No. 6 Texas Tech on Saturday afternoon at Griffin Park. The Bears (19-12, 2-6) held three different leads . . .
- Baylor baseball falls to Texas Tech, Bears drop 3rd straight Big 12 series | Baylor Baseball | wacotrib.com, Call it the worst kind of walk-off loss for the Baylor baseball team.
- #6 Tech Downs Baylor in Game 2 - Story | EverythingLubbock, The No. 6 Texas Tech baseball team pieced together a 5-3 series-clinching win over No. 29 Baylor in front of another sold out Rip Griffin Park on Saturday afternoon.
Tennis
Baylor Tennis (W): Highlights vs. SMU
Rico Gathers
Former #Baylor Basketball player Rico Gathers From hardwood to the gridiron #Sicem
Jonathan Motley
College Basketball Awards-#Baylor's Jonathan Motley-Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year #SicEm
Golf
- Womens Golf in Third Place at Ping/ASU Invitational - Baylor Official Athletic Site, Baylor womens golf is in third place after shooting 9-over-par 297 in Saturdays second round at the Ping/ASU Invitational. The Lady Bears sit at 1-under 575, nine strokes back of the lead entering Sundays final round at the ASU Karsten Golf Course.
Acrobatics & Tumbling
- A&T Earns League-High 15 Academic All-Big 12 Choices - Baylor Official Athletic Site, No. 1 Baylor acrobatics & tumbling garnered 15 of the 39 selections for the 2017 Academic All-Big 12 At-Large Team, the league announced Tuesday.
- No.1 A&T Gets Home Win Over No. 2 Oregon - Baylor Official Athletic Site, The top-ranked and defending national champion Baylor Acrobatics & Tumbling team (5-1) defeated the second-ranked Oregon Ducks 289.745-286.050, at the Ferrell Center on Sunday, April 2.
Baylor A&T will close out the regular season with a road meet at Azusa Pacific on April 11 and then return to Azusa, Calif., for the NCATA National Championships April 27-29.
Scandal Fallout
- Last week Bears for Leadership Reform joined calls to legally force Baylor University to throw open the doors of its long-cloistered regents meetings. Full story by Bill Whitaker at WacoTrib.
The group of BU alumni, donors and past regents formed amid controversy over Baylor’s questionable handling of sexual-assault cases and governance decisions. And now it has backed state legislation that would use Tuition Equalization Grants to strategically strike at embattled Baylor leadership.
Admittedly, Bears for Leadership Reform chose a bizarre way to do this, calling on regents to support the legislation. That’s like asking Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to support transparency regarding his use of chemical weapons. But then requests for transparency over many months have come to little while matters have worsened.
“Every week we’re seeing new accusations, new leaks,” BLR President and major Baylor donor John Eddie Williams said. “It’s a drip-drip-drip of bad news with no end in sight. We find ourselves in a situation where we have a Texas Rangers investigation [of Baylor] in Waco, we have Title IX investigators [from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights] on campus, we have the accreditation agency looking into issues at Baylor, we have several bills in front of the Texas Legislature calling for open meetings and then we have lawsuits where the depositions and discovery should begin soon and even more lawsuits possible on the horizon.”
The Legislature’s creation of the Tuition Equalization Grant in 1973 was warmly welcomed in communities with private, religiously oriented institutions of higher learning. This taxpayer-funded financial assistance sought to level the field so students of modest means seeking to attend expensive private schools could better afford the cost. Yet this grant understandably troubled some. While private schools across Texas were more than happy to accept taxpayer money, they remained exempted from the state’s public-meetings law, coincidentally passed by legislators the same year they created TEGs. While public colleges and universities have had to demonstrate considerable transparency in such areas as trustee meetings, their private equivalents are allowed to skirt such scrutiny.
Now ongoing calamity at Baylor is fueling a gutsy legislative proposal to end closed governance meetings there and elsewhere. That can’t make Baylor too popular among private universities. As shrewdly written, the bill requires such transparency only of Baylor — Texas’ oldest continually operating institution of higher learning — and University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, which just happened to fall within the legislation’s narrow and punishing parameters. But that could well change.
Last month’s Senate Higher Education Committee hearing was ostensibly focused on state Sen. Kel Seliger’s bill demanding private universities and colleges accepting more than $5 million annually in Tuition Equalization Grants have governance meetings open to the public — in short, Baylor and UIW. However, the hearing quickly became an inquisition over Baylor’s handling of its sexual-assault controversy, all directed at its interim, low-key president, David Garland, whose explanations were peppered with nervous reminders he was not privy to the Pepper Hamilton law firm’s now-infamous oral presentation of its investigation to regents. He mentioned he was on sabbatical during much of the time in question.
From the outset, Seliger has made clear his legislation is all about Baylor regents’ reluctance to furnish sufficient accountability for their actions in matters directly involving students and public safety. Criticism focused not only on regents’ May 2016 decision to remove a winning head football coach, athletic staffers and a popular president after the Pepper Hamilton report but also on whether other officials contributing to the scandal were still working on campus. Key thrust: Regents’ closed-door meetings had contributed mightily to Baylor’s widening problems.
#SicEm pic.twitter.com/ZYynnZ4hoG
— Baylor Bearmada (@BaylorBearmada) April 9, 2017
Steppin’ Out Day
More than 2,000 Baylor Students were out and about the Waco area for service projects Saturday. Story with Video by Channel 6 KCEN TV’s Kurtis Quillin at KCEN TV dot com.
It was part of Baylor’s "Steppin' Out" Day.
Baylor students build a prayer garden, put on an Easter egg hunt, and took part in Keep Waco Beautiful projects.
At Tennyson Middle School, they painted lockers, helped organize the library, and took care of more extensive gardening. Laura Lilley, a Tennyson Middle School teacher talked about how nice it was for the students to help.
“Just to have a great group of Baylor students who don’t seem to have a stop button doing whatever they can to help,” she said.
The students said it’s all a part of keeping with Baylor’s mission.
Baylor Student Emma Beaird said part of being in a caring Christian community is investing the Waco community outside of Baylor.
“So we’re really glad that we’re able to pour into the local Waco community,” she said. “Get outside of Baylor and really serve in places that need service.”
The events purpose is to enhance student awareness, interaction, and collaboration with the community.
For Baylor Student Haley Fenn, she said they live in a community that really supports them as a university so it is really nice as a student to get to know the Waco community.