[Wigington]

Baylor is in the unique position of playing its' very first game of the season tomorrow (at Tx Tech.) They've done nothing but practice for the past 89 days, and are obviously chomping at the bit to finally play a game. HC Scott Drew has two recruiting classes under his belt, and he's done an amazing job to this point. Hoopscoop ranked his 2005 class as 17th best in the nation (Rivals put it at 11th,) and his '04 class as 10th best in the nation. Impressive.

BU returns seven players that got at least 10 starts last year, including four of its' primary starters from a year ago. All that was lost were three walk-ons and a rarely used guard that all together combined for 6.1 ppg and 3.3 rpg. Many of you will remember Aaron Bruce, a 6'3" guard that led all freshmen in scoring last season at 18.2 ppg. This guy spent his summer leading (he was the captain) his Austrailian under-21 team to a 4th place finish in the 12-country World Basketball Tourney. He's the Big 12's leading returning scorer, deadly shooter, etc, etc, etc. You could go on and on about this kid. His likely starting backcourt mate will be senior Kevis Shipman. Shipman started 19 games last year, averaging 4.8 ppg. He'll get his fair share of minutes early in the season, but BU has two true frosh guards (Jerrells, Dugat) ranked in the top 100 freshmen in the nation that will play
huge rolls.

Tim Bush, a 6'6" 235 lb junior, will be one of the starters in the frontcourt. Bush started all 24 games last season after becoming eligible following his transfer from LSU. Bush averaged 12.7 ppg and 5.4 rpg, and was named to the All Big-12 Newcomers team. He played most of last season at the 4 spot, but the influx of big men will let him spend a lot af time now at the 3 where he should thrive. The other starting forward, Patrick Fields, is a 6'6" junior that averaged 11.1 and 3.9 last season. Like Bush, Fields transfered in from a more prestigious D-1 school (Ole Miss.) Starting at center will be Tommy Swanson, the lone holdover from the Bliss era. He's a 6'10" senior that averaged 11.9 and 5.8 last year.

BU's bench is young, but seriously talented. The aforementioned (6'1") Curtis Jerrells and (6'0") Henry Dugat are on the preseason top-100 true frosh list. Jerrells was ranked the 7th best player in the state of Texas by Texas Roundball after leading Del Valle (Austin) HS to a 29-5 record, averaging 20.2 ppg. Dugat should have an immediate impact as he was ranked the 74th best recruit in the nation by Rivals. He averaged 25.5 ppg as a senior last year. Kid is a skywalker that is sure to be a crowd favorite in Waco. Kevin Rogers, a 6'9" 235 lb forward, was dubbed the #1 Big 12 recruiting coup by Lindy's and Rivals. Street and Smith tabbed him (yet another!) top 100 freshman. Rogers is Baylor's highest-rated recruit in recent history (maybe ever.) Seven-footer Mamadou Diene, a redshirt freshmen, is reported to be the Bears' most improved player, and should get plenty of minutes at center (allowing Swanson to get some time at the 4 spot.) Diene, a native of Senegal, had a bout with malaria and was down to 200 lbs early last season, but he has recovered nicely and is back at 240 lbs (most of it muscle.) Drew raves over his rebounding skills and his touch on the offensive end. Jari Vanttaja, a 6'10" forward from Finland, is yet another quality big man recruit. Vanttaja, a veteran of international competition, was a top international signee. He draws comparison to fellow Finn Hanno Mottola, a former Utah Ute and Atlanta Hawk.

Make no mistake, Drew has these guys on the fast track to respectability. I think that the negative perception of Baylor's mens program, coupled with the lack of non-conference action, will lead to some value in the BU lines over the next few weeks. I see that Texas Tech opened as 13.5 pt chalk in tomorrow's game, and that number might just already qualify as value. In an effort to get ready for this belated season, Drew took his team to Dallas where they had an intra-squad scrimmage at the A-A Center, complete with Big 12 officials. Will they be rusty early in this season? Of course. Will they surprise the shit out of some people? Absolutely.


Pat and Bobby (Knight) were on the radio this morning lamenting the fact they have no worthwile tapes to look at. Said that last year's tapes help a little, but that BU had nothing off the bench last year. Not true this season. They expect plenty of new/diff sets on both sides of the ball.

Also, some of you may not know that Tech's fourth leading scorer, Terry Martin, who had not too long ago worked his way into the starting lineup, quit the team a few days ago. He's the second player (Drew Coffman the other) to leave the team over the winter break. This forces true frosh Michael Prince (2.7 ppg) into the starting lineup. He'll be making his second career start. The only real viable option off the bench now for Coach Knight is (another true frosh) Dior Lowhorn (7.9 ppg.) No one else on that bench is contributing more than 2 pts/gm. The Red Raiders' depth is now as bad as Baylor's was last year.