Seeking a major upset against loaded Baylor
Cal head coach Lindsey Gottlieb said she didn’t need to watch video of Baylor to grasp the challenge facing her team. She did it, anyway. “They’re like a WNBA team,” Gottlieb said during a news conference Sunday. “They have pros on the floor. They’re in sync with one another and they do a great job. They don’t have real weaknesses, and they do a great job of playing to their strengths.
“The inside game is unreal. They’re bringing in the next big body after the next big body, and, at the same time, their guard play is good. Just digging into the film, obviously, they’re as legit as I thought they were.”
Ninth-seeded Cal (2013) is facing a monster in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and, just for fun, the Bears get to play top-seeded Baylor (31-3) on its home court in Waco, Texas.
Of course, Cal’s season has been defined often by doing the improbable. The Bears managed to make the tournament after going 6-12 in Pac-12 play, then they pulled out a three-point victory over LSU in the first round Saturday.
“We study film for hours and hours and hours, and you try to find things to take away and ways to attack them, and I’ve never been as excited to practice as I am today, because, why not?” said Gottlieb, who picked up her 138th career win with Cal on Saturday, putting her in sole possession of second place in program history. Gooch Foster had 279.
“Why not take a shot at being able to make history or bring this team in here and do something that’s unexpected? They’re supposed to win. They’re supposed to go to the Final Four. They’re a legit national-championship contender, but we’re going to come out here and try to play our best 40 minutes.”
Gottlieb did a pretty thorough job of explaining a dominant Baylor team that is coming off a historic first-round victory over Texas Southern. Baylor won 119-30, smashing the record for margin of victory and setting records in points in regulation, rebounding margin (plus-41) and opponent’s field-goal percentage (13.8).
Baylor, which has won the Big 12 regular-season title seven straight times and has been a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament five times during that stretch, is looking to advance to the Sweet 16 for the ninth consecutive season.
Led by head coach Kim Mulkey, Baylor won national titles in 2005 and 2012, and is again one of the country’s most dominant teams. Baylor led the nation in scoring margin (plus-34.2 points), rebounds per game (51.8), blocked shots per game (8.1) and opponents’ field-goal percentage (30.9).
“I thought their intensity, their focus was just so much better than the last game,” Mulkey said after Saturday’s thrashing of Texas Southern. “They understood, you’ll come out of the game if you don’t get in passing lanes. You’re going to come out of the game, if you allow people to go to the offensive boards.”
Baylor subbed liberally, with 12 players logging at least 12 minutes, all of them recording at least two points and a rebound. Baylor assisted on 35 of the team’s 48 field goals.
Cal had a much more competitive first-round game. The Bears needed Asha Thomas’ six threepointers and a gamesaving block and two late free throws from Kristine Anigwe to stave off LSU.
“More nerves, bigger game,” Anigwe said. “All their fans come out, all the people come out, and their band. It’s their house. It’s their home court. We’re just going to try to do everything we can to be calm and steady … just always be level-headed.”
That might be tough after seeing the Baylor video.