If there ever was a sign that it wasn’t Auburn’s day in Waco, it happened around the nine-minute mark in the second half when a tipped ball popped right to Baylor’s Matthew Mayer on the top of the key and the forward drained a three-pointer.
It definitely wasn’t the difference as the second-ranked Bears, a team full of veterans, came out and imposed their will on the still-learning Tigers, but it showed that when you are good, the bounces are likely going to go your way.
The end result was a 84-72 defeat that was never in question after the Bears came out of the locker room in the second half and made their first four field goal attempts while Auburn struggled to even try and keep pace.
Yet this was what many expected to happen. Baylor isn’t undefeated and ranked No. 2 in the nation for nothing. The team is built for a national championship run under Scott Drew and, with a starting lineup that Bruce Pearl half-jokingly said was older than that of the Chicago Bulls, the Bears know how to punish young teams still learning. That is exactly what this Auburn team is: a group that are still trying to find their way, the best way to use their talents within the team and a group that is more green than Baylor’s away uniforms.
There were some positives of course to take out of it and that doesn’t even include the chance to battle against a team that is one of the favorites to win it all this year. That is a lesson that the Tigers will take from this loss. If you can battle this team for 20 minutes and stand toe-to-toe? Nothing will scare these guys in the future.
Sharife Cooper battled his heart out as well despite getting checked by bigger players. A “bad” game for the freshman turned into 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists against a defense surely focused on taking him out of his game no matter the consequences.
The Tigers never quit, either. It would have been easy to throw in the towel while down 20 in the final 10 minutes but, let’s face it, Bruce Pearl wouldn’t allow that. Neither would this team.
There’s no shame in losing this game no matter how lopsided the score became. When Baylor catches fire like they did in the first 12 minutes of the second half, no one, not even Gonzaga, may be able to stay with them. They are just that good and you just have to tip your hat to them. It was a display of pure dominance for a while and even shots that were contended ended up going in.
Take the loss for what it was. Learn from it. Build on it. That is all you can possibly do.
With the future of this team so bright, we may look back at this game as one of the building blocks for a lot of victories.