Baylor Loses #8 in Big 12 Play, 88-72 to Oklahoma

Tonight, Baylor managed the somewhat impressive feat of being outscored by exactly 8 points in both halves.  There's a beauty in the symmetry of it that you only see once you get past the revulsion of losing 8 of your first 10 conference games. 

Listen, I don't know why this team stinks.  It's easy to see that they do, losing game after game by double digits.  They lose at home in front of our fans.  They lose on the road.  Venue doesn't seem to matter; they just stink.  I'm comfortable saying that because it's borne out by the facts.  Everything else, whether it's "heart," "desire," "want," or even "effort", though that last one is easier than the rest, is mostly meaningless to me.  Our men's basketball team isn't very good.  I tend to think it's a combination of relatively poor coaching, a team that doesn't fit well together (we have exactly one player who can make his own shot and he's been on a milk carton in conference play), and players that probably aren't as good as we expected them to be.  In this case, for whatever reason, the whole isn't more than the sum of its parts.  It's less.  I'd rather talk about that than venture into baseless psychoanalysis about who wants to win or who doesn't.  If wanting was all it took, I'd throw 99 miles an hour.  I can't.  If wanting was all it took, there'd be a statue of Phil Tran outside McLane Stadium.  There won't be.

We stink.  I'd love to hear from someone who knows more about basketball than I do -- and that's most, probably -- why.  I don't really have an answer.  But I did find a gif of this season.