WRONG ROUT
Coach denies running up score in 140-32 win
ADVANCE to the rear!
Given the fact Baylor University stands accused of running a football program populated by young men inclined toward sexual assault — two rape convictions with many more facing accusations — one would expect the school — churchaffiliated, no less — would be eager to demonstrate some public selfawareness, some civilized restraint.
But its women’s basketball team, ranked No. 3 in the nation, Thursday defeated visiting Winthrop by the ungodly score of 140-32, thus becoming the latest entry into high school and college record books packed with ill-gotten gains and unsavory achievement under the direction of adults.
And, once again, we were challenged to believe what we were told, ignoring what we saw.
As the nightly FOX Sports Southeast studio show anchor carried word that Baylor coach Kim Mulkey “said they emptied the bench, tried to do everything they could do to keep it somewhat respectable,” video aired that violated such a claim.
We saw Baylor score a fast-break basket, force a fourth-quarter turnover with a half-court press and a Baylor player hit a 3-pointer to make it 132-29. That same player, apparently with Mulkey’s blessings, took nine 3-point shots, making four. And though Winthrop did not score in the fourth quarter, the play-by-play sheet shows Baylor running and gunning — shooting and mostly scoring every few seconds — throughout the game.
Mulkey, in fact, pleaded total innocence: “I tried to play tons of people, in and out of the lineup, tried to get people off the floor.”
Yeah, poor thing, what’s a coach to do to prevent such slaughter and humiliation of young women? As if she doesn’t know: You don’t press. You run down the clock by slowing it down on offense, no fast breaks after rebounds or steals — don’t even attempt any steals — and no 3-point shots. What she couldn’t prevent from courtside we could have prevented by telephone! Or are we too stupid to know that?
There was no good reason Baylor had to sacrifice both teams’ dignity.
But if the general public was inclined to believe Mulkey’s plea of failed benevolence, the initiated knew better. Mulkey, 15 years coaching Baylor, is known as a stomper. She apparently instructs her recruited student-athletes in the joy and artistry of kicking opponents when they’re way down — in the good name of now-let’s-shake-hands student-athletics, of course.
And Baylor doesn’t seem to mind a bit.
Baylor’s previous women’s game? A 90-24 squeaker against Texas State. Last season, over five successive games, Mulkey’s team won 102-41, 101-60, 99-43, 96-42, 108-64.
Wins the season before included 102-41, 101-60, 99-43, 96-42 and 108-64. In a 105-46 win over McNeese State, Mulkey allowed four starters to play at least 24 of 40 minutes; one played 30.
In consecutive games in 2013, her Baylor team beat Grambling, 110-55, then won 111-58 over Nicholls State.
In 2011, her women in two weeks beat Howard, 82-28, Chattanooga, 91-31, Yale, 109-59, and Texas Southern, 91-39.
The crowd for Thursday’s record-breaker game was announced as 6,400, enough of them approving of the needless slaughter they were witnessing to create applause. But most disturbing was an Associated Press report that the crowd was “boosted by a large contingent of kids from elementary schools.”
And what a lesson they learned.