Many Thoughts on Baylor’s 75-65 Loss to Iowa State

Baylor’s going to have to make a 2014 like run to make the tournament. I think 8-10 would do it, which requires a 7-6 finish. Baylor is currently 1-4 in the league, with a home loss to TCU and a road loss to Iowa State.

Here are a host of thoughts on the game:

*Baylor’s offense goes as Manu Lecomte goes— He was excellent in non-conference. He’s been very bad in conference play. He went 2-of-12 and 0-of-7 from deep. The Bear’s offense created several good looks for him. He just missed them. That happens sometimes. It’s happened a lot lately. Lecomte is a good player. He’s been an excellent shooter for three years. He has to become that again for the Bears to have a shot at the NCAA Tournament.

*The rotation may need to shrink- It’s understandable Baylor doesn’t want to play Lecomte, Jake Lindsey and King McClure 100 combined minutes a game, but they may need to. After going 14-of-21 at the end of non-conference from deep, Nuni Omot has been unable to create or make anything on offense. Tyson Jolly’s a solid defender, but the blood clot issues and his inexperience have killed the Bears on offense.

*The front-court gives hope— Tristan Clark, Terry Maston and Jo Lual-Acuil were fantastic on the offensive glass. Maston’s shooting is still giving him fits. He worked hard and added seven offensive rebounds. Baylor needs his shot to start falling too. There’s hope with those three.

*Iowa State made some tough shots, Baylor missed pretty good ones— The Cyclones didn’t shoot well either—finishing 32% from deep and 41% from the field. But they made them late. Most of those looks weren’t great.

The Bears created open looks for Lecomte and got close shots near the hoop. They just missed.

Baylor didn’t do a good job defensive rebounding at the end. Solomon Young grabbed an easy board because the Bears stayed glued to players on the weak-side. Baylor’s talented enough that they should have never been in that spot, but they’ve been shooting worse than anyone could have imagined.

Fank also says it well: