Iowa is 24 in Kenpom, so what's your point? That Iowa didn't perform as expected? Iowa's D is 24 and O is 44, so using your standards, the game should have been much closer last night than it was.
1- It should have been. I certainly didn't expect the margin that ensued.
2- Efficiency stats are good for estimating season-long abilities and probabilities. A bad set of matchups can easily make outliers for them.
3- My point is Baylor was a good team that caught some bad breaks and the efficiency numbers tend to back that up. A team that is poorly coached doesn't generate those numbers and a team without motivation doesn't pull off some of the wins BU did like OSU at home, KU by 23, and others. I was responding to your asinine coaching and motivation quote.
And I can use the exact same close game logic. Iowa lost 7 games by 5 points or less this year. Much like Baylor, the bounces didn't go Iowa's way.
4- You can apply the same logic. Never said it was exclusive to just the NIT champ. The cutoff is probably around the top 4-5 NIT teams though.
The difference is, Baylor started what, 3 future NBA players last night? The fact that BU was in the NIT at all is why Drew is considered a great recruiter but a sub-par coach.
I have no problem admitting Baylor was the better team last night. They were. But with the talent and experience gap on the court last night, don't you find it a little embarassing that BU was left playing the NIT vs. the NCAA?
Baylor has 3 future NBA guys I can think of:
Jackson- His upside is JJ Barea who is far from an elite NBA guard. His downside is Europe. Size is a big concern.
Jefferson- He's projected as a late 2nd rounder. Not an elite prospect and certainly not anything teams don't see a fair amount of over the course of a power league season. He also had not played that much and took a while to hit his stride.
Austin- He's going to be drafted on POTENTIAL. He's producing at a Junior level right now but lacks strength, good court awareness, and other developmental issues. If he was drafted off how good he is NOW he'd be late 2nd round as well as he's got a long way to go. If he leaves I see at least a little D League in his future.
The rest of the team is:
-2 defensive guys (a PG & SF) who can't shoot very well
-a 3 point specialist who can't produce without getting open looks and can't create for himself
- 2 average backup PG's who can do a few things but not at an elite level
- 2 young freshmen with potential at the 3 & 4 spot that are very raw
Not exactly last year's Kentucky squad huh?
That's a team that probably makes the tourney if they catch breaks. Give us a scorer at the #2 guard and we'd have something to be embarrassed about.
You act like we have NBA all stars! We simply are a team with 3 standouts with limitations surrounded by one dimensional role players that can't seem to score effectively without the big 3 paving the way.
Last year we had a ton of talent and it would be an embarrassing outcome as we'd replace 2 freshman role players and Austin with Acy, Miller, and Perry Jones. This year it's simply not anywhere as balanced or good of a team.
Why couldn't Baylor produce at that level all season long?
With nobody established to help score we had Jackson do too much. Jefferson and Austin took a while to get going and Heslip (who I still think isn't 100%) was gone with an injury for a while. So for much of the year we're depending on mostly a young lineup and it tends to take time with that.