Big 12 WBB Tipoff Wrap Up: POINT GUARD WILL BE KEY FOR LADY BEARS
10/16/2018 7:49:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Kalani Brown, Lauren Cox Good Place to Start for Otherwise Young Squad
DALLAS, Texas – From Kim "Yaya" Mulkey being asked about the birth of her grandbaby, to a group of second-graders doing the "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!" chant, to a class of third-graders asking Baylor's Kalani Brown and Lauren Cox if they're sisters, this wasn't your typical media day.
The league's preseason favorite for the ninth time in the last 13 years, the Baylor Lady Bears boast arguably the Big 12's top two returning players in 6-7 senior All-American center and 6-4 junior forward Lauren Cox.
"Without having a true point guard, as I've told many people, how difficult is it to tell somebody to throw the ball inside to a 6-5 and 6-4 kid and let them go to work?" said Mulkey, speaking Tuesday at the Big 12 Women's Basketball Tipoff at St. Philip's School and Community Center. "And we will do that a lot. Those two kids are as good a players as you will find in the country, and especially two that play together."
The reigning Big 12 Player of the Year, and the preseason pick to win it again, Brown averaged 20.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game last season and shot 65.0 percent from the field. Cox, a first-team All-Big 12 pick and the league's Defensive Player of the Year, averaged 15.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.7 blocks.
"It's not fair for Kalani Brown to wear high heels," OU coach Sherri Coale said.
As the team's lone senior, Brown "understands the sense of urgency, she understands this is her last chance."
"This is my last crack at it. I want to go as far as possible," Brown said. "We've been knocking at the door pretty much my whole career. I'm ready to get over that hump."
One of the keys for the Lady Bears will be finding a point guard from a list of candidates that includes grad transfer Chloe Jackson from LSU, junior Juicy Landrum, sophomore DiDi Richards and freshman Honesty Scott-Grayson.
"I've never gone into a season without a true point guard, but this will be a challenge for us," Mulkey said. "They're learning, they have to get comfortable, and I think they're adequate at it, but they know they're not true point guards. The thing about them is one quarter they may be playing point, then the next quarter I may have then at the off guard. They understand they're going to have to play multiple positions.
"I think they have a greater appreciation now of just how important that position is. That's your quarterback. That quarterback is responsible for everything, good or bad, that takes place on that floor. And they're going to have to embrace that. They have no choice but to embrace it. And if we have to do it by committee, we will."
As the veteran leaders, Brown and Cox know that they have to be more vocal on the floor, especially breaking in a new starter at point guard.
"Chloe's new to this program, so she's got to start from scratch," Brown said. "Then you have Juicy, who's touched on it a little bit, but she's not really a point guard. She's more of a shooting guard. And you've got Honesty, the freshman, and Didi. She's just throwing different combinations out there, and we're going to see who's most comfortable at it. But, I think Chloe's going to be right for the job once she gets the plays down."
Baylor, which opens the regular season with home matchups against Nicholls State (Nov. 6) and Saint Francis, Pa. (Nov. 8), has one of the toughest schedules in the country. The Lady Bears have road tests at Stanford and South Carolina, a showdown at home against UConn, a two-day tournament in Las Vegas and the "Showdown at the Rez" game versus Arizona State at the Navajo Reservation in Fort Defiance, Ariz.
"When that schedule was made, I thought we would have Alexis Morris at point guard," Mulkey said. "But, she's been dismissed, and it's going to make it that much tougher. I can't get them to go back and not play that schedule now."
Brown said she likes this kind of challenging non-conference schedule, because "I think we need to expose our freshmen early so they know what to expect down the line. . . . When those bright lights hit, I don't think they'll have that deer-in-the-headlights look."
Mulkey returns just five players from a 33-2 team that swept the Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles before losing to Oregon State in the Sweet 16. The six newcomers include Jackson, a second-team All-SEC pick who averaged 18.1 points per game at LSU, and a five-player freshman class that was ranked No. 1 in the country.
"As you can imagine, it's a lot of teaching," Mulkey said. "It's been a long time since I've had to teach this many new ones at the same time. Patience is something we're all going to have to be this year, because they're good, they're talented, they're going to be outstanding players. But, they're like all freshmen at this level, they have a lot to learn and there's a lot going on in their heads right now."
Just four days earlier, Mulkey became a grandmother. Kannon Reid Fuller, weighing 9 pounds, 1 ounce, and 22 inches long, was born last Friday, the son of former Baylor football player Clay Fuller and Makenzie Fuller, Kim's daughter and Baylor's associate director of operations. The proud grandmother goes by "Yaya."
"Kannon Reid was brought into, as my son says, this crazy world we live in," Mulkey said. "We've had a rough year, losing Scout, their first-born child (last November). And then them getting pregnant quickly, you were nervous. You're already nervous when you don't have the death of a child, but you're nervous for nine months. I think the emotion was hidden in all of us because we're all nervous until you actually bring him into this world."
Two weeks into practice, Baylor will have exhibition games against Langston (Oct. 26) and Texas A&M-Commerce (Nov. 1) before the season-opening doubleheader. The women face Nicholls State at 6 p.m., followed by the men versus Texas Southern at 8:30 p.m.
"We're always motivated in any game we have," Cox said. "But, those bigger games, they bring out I guess a new player in some people. We're definitely going to have to step up."
The league's preseason favorite for the ninth time in the last 13 years, the Baylor Lady Bears boast arguably the Big 12's top two returning players in 6-7 senior All-American center and 6-4 junior forward Lauren Cox.
"Without having a true point guard, as I've told many people, how difficult is it to tell somebody to throw the ball inside to a 6-5 and 6-4 kid and let them go to work?" said Mulkey, speaking Tuesday at the Big 12 Women's Basketball Tipoff at St. Philip's School and Community Center. "And we will do that a lot. Those two kids are as good a players as you will find in the country, and especially two that play together."
The reigning Big 12 Player of the Year, and the preseason pick to win it again, Brown averaged 20.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game last season and shot 65.0 percent from the field. Cox, a first-team All-Big 12 pick and the league's Defensive Player of the Year, averaged 15.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.7 blocks.
"It's not fair for Kalani Brown to wear high heels," OU coach Sherri Coale said.
As the team's lone senior, Brown "understands the sense of urgency, she understands this is her last chance."
"This is my last crack at it. I want to go as far as possible," Brown said. "We've been knocking at the door pretty much my whole career. I'm ready to get over that hump."
One of the keys for the Lady Bears will be finding a point guard from a list of candidates that includes grad transfer Chloe Jackson from LSU, junior Juicy Landrum, sophomore DiDi Richards and freshman Honesty Scott-Grayson.
"I've never gone into a season without a true point guard, but this will be a challenge for us," Mulkey said. "They're learning, they have to get comfortable, and I think they're adequate at it, but they know they're not true point guards. The thing about them is one quarter they may be playing point, then the next quarter I may have then at the off guard. They understand they're going to have to play multiple positions.
"I think they have a greater appreciation now of just how important that position is. That's your quarterback. That quarterback is responsible for everything, good or bad, that takes place on that floor. And they're going to have to embrace that. They have no choice but to embrace it. And if we have to do it by committee, we will."
As the veteran leaders, Brown and Cox know that they have to be more vocal on the floor, especially breaking in a new starter at point guard.
"Chloe's new to this program, so she's got to start from scratch," Brown said. "Then you have Juicy, who's touched on it a little bit, but she's not really a point guard. She's more of a shooting guard. And you've got Honesty, the freshman, and Didi. She's just throwing different combinations out there, and we're going to see who's most comfortable at it. But, I think Chloe's going to be right for the job once she gets the plays down."
Baylor, which opens the regular season with home matchups against Nicholls State (Nov. 6) and Saint Francis, Pa. (Nov. 8), has one of the toughest schedules in the country. The Lady Bears have road tests at Stanford and South Carolina, a showdown at home against UConn, a two-day tournament in Las Vegas and the "Showdown at the Rez" game versus Arizona State at the Navajo Reservation in Fort Defiance, Ariz.
"When that schedule was made, I thought we would have Alexis Morris at point guard," Mulkey said. "But, she's been dismissed, and it's going to make it that much tougher. I can't get them to go back and not play that schedule now."
Brown said she likes this kind of challenging non-conference schedule, because "I think we need to expose our freshmen early so they know what to expect down the line. . . . When those bright lights hit, I don't think they'll have that deer-in-the-headlights look."
Mulkey returns just five players from a 33-2 team that swept the Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles before losing to Oregon State in the Sweet 16. The six newcomers include Jackson, a second-team All-SEC pick who averaged 18.1 points per game at LSU, and a five-player freshman class that was ranked No. 1 in the country.
"As you can imagine, it's a lot of teaching," Mulkey said. "It's been a long time since I've had to teach this many new ones at the same time. Patience is something we're all going to have to be this year, because they're good, they're talented, they're going to be outstanding players. But, they're like all freshmen at this level, they have a lot to learn and there's a lot going on in their heads right now."
Just four days earlier, Mulkey became a grandmother. Kannon Reid Fuller, weighing 9 pounds, 1 ounce, and 22 inches long, was born last Friday, the son of former Baylor football player Clay Fuller and Makenzie Fuller, Kim's daughter and Baylor's associate director of operations. The proud grandmother goes by "Yaya."
"Kannon Reid was brought into, as my son says, this crazy world we live in," Mulkey said. "We've had a rough year, losing Scout, their first-born child (last November). And then them getting pregnant quickly, you were nervous. You're already nervous when you don't have the death of a child, but you're nervous for nine months. I think the emotion was hidden in all of us because we're all nervous until you actually bring him into this world."
Two weeks into practice, Baylor will have exhibition games against Langston (Oct. 26) and Texas A&M-Commerce (Nov. 1) before the season-opening doubleheader. The women face Nicholls State at 6 p.m., followed by the men versus Texas Southern at 8:30 p.m.
"We're always motivated in any game we have," Cox said. "But, those bigger games, they bring out I guess a new player in some people. We're definitely going to have to step up."
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