Congrats to the Baylor Lady Bears - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

Drbio · 03-14-2005, 10:17 AM

Big XII Season Champions

Big XII Tournament Champions

#2 seed in what many call the toughest regional

Picked as a final four team by 6 of 8 ESPN analysts and the old Big Blue computer.

Sic' em Lady Bears!!!!

Drbio · 03-14-2005, 10:18 AM

Finished the year with 14 consecutive wins and won 27 games.

Beat Texas Tech 3 times (first time that has ever happened).

Has the #1 ranked post tandem in the nation.

giantbenmav · 03-14-2005, 10:36 AM

Young and Blackmon are absolute BEASTS ..... Neimann is also a top tier interior player, but she is even better on the perimeter ..... Baylor could take this whole thing when it is all said and done ...... How about Stanford getting a #2 seed, while being ranked the #1 team in the nation by some polls?

Drbio · 03-14-2005, 03:10 PM

Stanford got jobbed deluxe. I cannot believe they seeded Michigan State over Stanford (not taking away from MSU who had a fine year though).

This is the second time in NCAA history that a #1 ranked team (in the polls) failed to get a #1 seed i nthe tournament. It also happened to the Texas women back in the middle 80's...1985 I think ....too lazy to look it up.

Mandyahl · 03-16-2005, 03:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by: Drbio
Stanford got jobbed deluxe. I cannot believe they seeded Michigan State over Stanford (not taking away from MSU who had a fine year though).

This is the second time in NCAA history that a #1 ranked team (in the polls) failed to get a #1 seed i nthe tournament. It also happened to the Texas women back in the middle 80's...1985 I think ....too lazy to look it up.

glad someone recognized that we got completely jobbed. i was about to post that, but then doc brought it up for me. how we can be ranked #1 in the nation and then get the 6th seed overall is beyond me. i think the selection committee just has something against stanford...last year we were ranked 7th in the nation and somehow got only a 6th seed...but we overcame that and made it to the elite eight.

hopefully we can overcome the seeding screwup again this year and make it to the final four. if not, well, we have some good years ahead of us. our leading scorer and best player is a freshman guard, candice wiggins, who was recently named pac-10 player of the year. she's the first freshman in pac-10 history to have received the honor, and only the third freshman ever in any conference. from having been at/watched several of the womens games this season, this girl is damn good...just so much better than everyone else it's amazing. she also just turned 18 in february...so basically she's amazing. also one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. go cardinal!

Drbio · 03-16-2005, 03:09 PM

The selection committee does not use polls to rank the teams. Their explanation was that there were six teams (top 4 plus Stanford and Baylor) who were virtually equal. One loss each that Baylor and Stanford had were to non-top 25 teams. That was the difference. Nevermind that Baylor and Stanford were two of the best teams in the nation for wins versus ranked opponents. Who cares about that little detail though. Plus...Baylor's only losses were to #1 LSU and #11 Texas outside of the triple OT loss to #27 Nebraska. Not sure about Stanfords. I know we beat the ever loving crap out of ranked teams weekly.

Anyways....I thought Stanford should have gotten a #1 and take out MSU. I wasn't really all that much disappointed in my Bears not garnering a #1 because those other teams were so dadgum good. But....Stanford was screwed.

Drbio · 03-21-2005, 11:36 PM

WHOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Da' Bears are dancing in the Sweet 16!!!!!

Mandyahl · 03-22-2005, 01:39 AM

congrats to the bears.

the stanford women have also made in to the sweet sixteen after two absolutely dominating victories (both by over 20 points). and michigan state, who stole stanford's number one seed barely eked out a win over the usc lady trojans, or there would be three pac-10 teams that had made the sweet sixteen thus far.

Drbio · 03-27-2005, 06:35 PM

Another win! Minnesota is gone and the Bears play those pesky Tar Heels for the chance to advance to the Final Four!

Go Bears!!!!!

Mandyahl · 03-28-2005, 12:06 AM

and uconn's streak of three consecutive national championships is officially over! stanford was down at the half, but came out gunning in the second to win comfortably. next up, michigan state...

go cardinal!

Drbio · 03-28-2005, 12:24 PM

That was an amazing game by Stanford. Tennessee too. Tennessee was just a dominant team. I've never seen a womens team beat Texas Tech so badly and so easily. They were awesome.

What a great tournament.

Drbio · 03-28-2005, 04:03 PM

Baylor's Sophia Young

Early favorite for 2005-2006 Player of the Year according to many at ESPN.

Heck yeah!

Drbio · 03-28-2005, 08:59 PM

Chameka Scott is the games MVP!!!!!

Baylor on to the Final Four!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Drbio · 03-28-2005, 09:02 PM

Baylor totally dominated North Carolina in every phase of the game and proved that the seeding committee messed it up. An amazing victory.

Drbio · 03-28-2005, 10:23 PM

We may not win it all...I'm betting we do.....but the Bears are the first to punch their ticket to the Final Four and are being featured on ESPN.com's front page.

Sic 'em Bears!!!!!

kg_veteran · 03-28-2005, 11:59 PM

What a great day for Baylor athletics.

In the words of the immortal Grant Teaff: "Finish the job, Lady Bears!"

Drbio · 03-29-2005, 01:31 AM

Sophia Young was named the Regional MVP. Sophia, Stephanie Blackmon and Abiola Wabara all make the All Regional Team.

Greatness. If the year ends today this was greatness. But those gals are going for gold!

dalmations202 · 03-29-2005, 09:04 AM

Congrats

Wow, they really looked good yesterday....

Drbio · 03-29-2005, 09:01 PM

Whoa! Michigan State just upset Stanford. Holy cow. I sure hope Tennessee beats Rutgers and then Baylor and Tennessee meet i nthe finals. I want me some revenge for the crap call in last years Sweet 16.

kg_veteran · 03-30-2005, 03:16 PM

Quote:

I sure hope Tennessee beats Rutgers and then Baylor and Tennessee meet i nthe finals. I want me some revenge for the crap call in last years Sweet 16.

I agree. It will be sweet to watch the Lady Bears defeat Tennessee for all the marbles.

Drbio · 03-31-2005, 12:06 AM

Baylor jsut announced that we have reached a six year contract extension with Coach Kim. EXCELLENT!

Financial terms were not disclosed, but I think it is safe to say she is swimming in the benjamins.

chumdawg · 03-31-2005, 11:51 AM

I wonder if she makes more, or less, than a Baylor guy with three PhD's...

Drbio · 03-31-2005, 02:27 PM

Only Slightly more. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

Drbio · 04-03-2005, 08:12 PM

YEAH BAY-BEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Baylor Lady Bears are playing for the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP tuesday!!!!!!!!!!

LS-who?

Sic 'em Bears!!!!!!!!!!!

Drbio · 04-03-2005, 08:15 PM

WHOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!

Drbio · 04-04-2005, 12:41 AM

Man....I really wanted another shot at Tennessee, but I suppose we can beat up on Michigan State instead.

GO BEARS GO!!!!!!!

GP · 04-04-2005, 03:33 AM

Outstanding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Speedy · 04-04-2005, 08:30 AM

Gongratulations to Doc and his Lady Bears! What an amazing year for Baylor. One more game before the national champions return home to Waco.

kg_veteran · 04-04-2005, 09:26 AM

Fantastic game last night. The Lady Bears are bringing the title home on Tuesday night.

Murphy3 · 04-04-2005, 09:45 AM

Any of them hit the outside jumper? The Mavs needed a little help yesterday..

Congrats to Baylor.

Smiles · 04-04-2005, 01:27 PM

Congrads to the Lady Bears!

I'm glad I decided not to go to the unofficial LSU alumni watch party at Primos. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] They were kinda bummed, but I doubt it affected the party atmosphere. You know those tigers....

Kim's eyes scare me!

Drbio · 04-04-2005, 02:30 PM

Kim is pure greatness. You cannot imagine how much we needed her here.

By the way....this appears to be a year of destiny. When baylor knocks off Michigan State tomorrow night they will be the second group of Lady Bears to win a National Championship......

Hot-shooting SMS Lady Bears win WNIT

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BOX SCORE | RECAP
SPRINGFIELD, MO. (AP) -- Kari Koch had 23 points, Jenni Lingor added 20 and Southwest Missouri State rode a barrage of 3-pointers to the Women's NIT championship with a 78-70 victory Thursday night over West Virginia.

Southwest Missouri (25-8) from the Missouri Valley Conference used 11 3-pointers to down West Virginia (21-13) from the Big East and set an NCAA season record of 305 from beyond the arc.

"This is a great way to end the season for us, to win a national championship especially for our seniors," coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson said.

After trailing by as many as seven points in the first half and 36-35 at the break, Southwest Missouri took the lead at 40-38 on a 3-pointer by Lingor with 16:44 to play. Two free throws by Chakhia Cole tied the game.

But K.C. Cowgill's second 3-pointer of the night put Southwest Missouri ahead 43-40 with 15:10 left.

West Virginia went 5:27 without a basket until Meg Bulger hit a 10-footer with 13:32 left to make it 46-42. But five straight 3s by Southwest Missouri pushed its lead to 61-46 with 8:05 remaining.

Things got worse for the Mountaineers when Bulger, averaging 22 points in the tournament, picked up three fouls in less than a minute and had to go to the bench with 8:38 left.

Southwest Missouri went on a dry spell of its own, going more than three minutes without a basket while West Virginia went on a 6-0 run to get to within 62-52 with 4:33 to go.

Henderson said the Lady Bears hoped to hold Bulger to 12. But she finished with 16.

"Defensively, we needed to pick it up," Henderson said. "We were moving slow. We needed to move around more. I let them know Bulger couldn't hit her 3s."
Bulger left the game admiring SMS' shooting ability.

"They don't shoot 50 percent [from 3] for nothing," she said. "They have some of the best shooters I have ever seen.
Bulger is a sister to St. Louis Rams quarterback Marc Bulger, who was in the crowd at Hammons Center wearing a WVA hat and admiring her work.

"She's a player," he said, sitting in the front row behind his sister's team bench.

Bulger scored 11 first-half points, had two blocks and two steals in leading the Mountaineers their halftime lead. West Virginia led by as many as seven points before the break.

Cowgill finished with 18 points and Sarah Kalassan 10 for Southwest Missouri.

Yolanda Paige had 22 points for West Virginia and Cole finished with 17.

Drbio · 04-04-2005, 02:38 PM

My ladies are getting some national love......

INDIANAPOLIS -- Here's something nobody ever would have guessed when the Big 12 began in the 1996-97 season: That the league's first basketball title (men or women) might go to ... Baylor.

When you consider, in particular, the kind of great teams that Kansas and Oklahoma have had on the men's side, and Texas and Texas Tech have had on the women's side ... it's really almost surreal that no program in the Jumbo Dozen has broken through.

The way Michigan State has defied the odds, there's still a huge hurdle for Baylor to jump over to be the league's first hoops champion in the Big 12 era. But if Baylor does it, it will be because the program hired the right coach at the right time.

The idea of Baylor's women playing for a national title seemed preposterous in 1996. However, not long into Kim Mulkey-Robertson's first season at Baylor, 2000-2001, all of those who follow the Big 12 closely suspected it would only be a matter of time before she got her program to a Final Four.

Mulkey-Robertson has an indestructible confidence, and she passes it on to her players. Because of that, Baylor has been able to bounce back well after taking the hard hits almost every program has to endure on a climb to the top.

Sure, everyone knows about the ending against Tennessee in the Sweet 16 last year. But recall that Baylor also was upset at home by Drake in the second round of the 2002 NCAA Tournament.

Baylor lost Danielle Crockrom and Shelia Lambert after that season, the heart of both the inside and outside game. Mulkey-Robertson knew that 2002-2003 was -- to some degree -- going to be a case of making lemonade out of lemons. And that's what she did, getting Baylor to the title game of the WNIT.

Then last season, Baylor was the last Big 12 team standing before the controversial finish. But even before that, Baylor also had a hard-to-take ending in a defeat at Texas Tech and lost All-Big 12 post player Steffanie Blackmon to a knee injury during the Big 12 tournament.

The point is, through all the ups and downs, Mulkey-Robertson maintained a "we're on the rise" attitude that's a big part of why Baylor is here now.

During Saturday's media day at the RCA Dome, Mulkey-Robertson offered this self-critique: She though that she didn't do a good job as a coach after that Tennessee loss last season. She said she couldn't provide her team any comfort because she was so upset herself.

I'm not sure any coach with any amount of experience could have reacted much differently after that game. But it's an interesting insight into Mulkey-Robertson's personality that she thinks she should have.

Mulkey-Robertson played Little League baseball -- yes, baseball -- when she was kid. And Baylor's performance this season can be summed up with a baseball analogy. The best way to react to getting a brushback pitch is to park the next one in the seats. Not easy to do, obviously. Baylor channeled its frustration and anger about last season the most positive way: The team got even further in the NCAA Tournament this year. And is, in fact, one step away from what would be considered a "grand slam."

Baylor as a team this season plays almost exactly like Mulkey-Robertson did when she was a point guard at Louisiana Tech. It's a no-fear, whatever-happens-we'll-fight-to-the-end approach. Baylor doesn't have a complicated psyche.

Even with some very good teams, you get the feeling when they're struggling in a game that they're wobbling on a tight rope and could lose their balance. With this Baylor team, there's just never that feeling. Even in Baylor's three losses this year -- to LSU, Nebraska and Texas -- it was more, "OK, we know what went wrong there; let's fix it and move forward."

And Baylor has kept going that direction now 19 times in a row. A 20th time would be a momentous thing for the entire Big 12 conference.

Mechelle Voepel of The Kansas City Star is a regular contributor to ESPN.com's women's basketball coverage. E-mail her at mvoepel@kcstar.com.

chumdawg · 04-04-2005, 04:00 PM

I watched the game. Boy, it was a good one. The sense of defeat LSU had going to the half was palpable.

One thing about college sports...they do make for fun-to-watch celebrations.

One other thing: that Mulkey-Robertson is a badass. I'm sure she's the toast of Waco right about now, as well she should be. She represents Texas well. And she's a badass.

Drbio · 04-05-2005, 04:03 PM

Total Class Act of the Day:

The Baylor Athletic Department has announced that win or lose there will be a welcome back party at the Ferrell Center tomorrow. Doors open at 4pm and the team is expected to arrive at 5pm. Video clips will be shown of the entire year and interviews will be held with the players and coaches. And...I fully expect to get a nice look at the National Championship trophy too. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

I'm so proud of these young ladies.

Dooby · 04-05-2005, 04:43 PM

Good luck to Baylor.

chumdawg · 04-05-2005, 09:49 PM

RECOGNIZE!!!!!!!

grndmstr_c · 04-05-2005, 09:58 PM

Congrats on a dominating performance, girls!

Mavdog · 04-05-2005, 10:32 PM

You did Texas proud Lady Bears! way to go.

kg_veteran · 04-05-2005, 10:37 PM

WHOOOOO!!!!!!!

SIC' EM BEARS!!!!!!!

Dominance, baby. Dominance.