Blog ‘Our time’ | Bears face adversity in game
Episode 6 of the ESPN+ series “Our Time” documents Baylor’s resounding loss to Kansas.
WACO, Texas – For the first time in the series, we saw the men of Baylor go through some adversity in the latest episode of Our Time: Baylor Basketball.
The sixth episode of the ESPN+ docuseries focused heavily on the Bears’ journey to take on then-No. 10 Kansas on Feb. 5. Half of the episode featured this particular game.
In it, we saw the Bears’ game plan, their understanding of what it’s like to play inside Allen Fieldhouse as a visiting team and most importantly, Scott Drew’s fiery speech at the half time.
Drew’s passion for the game, for its program and for its players comes through in that halftime talk and is the most compelling part of the entire episode.
I liked it. He doesn’t tear his players apart, he just gets loud because he knew they could play better than they did in the first half. It was everything I loved about my coaches when I was playing, and a big part of what made Baylor so successful under Drew.
From the female team of this episode, we got a glimpse of the relationship between post star NaLyssa Smith and star guard Sarah Andrews. The two have a strong bond that is visible when playing and I think the episode did a decent job of showing us why.
“Out of seven days a week, I think we see each other seven,” Smith joked in the episode.
After that, he focuses entirely on Sunday’s win at Texas and completely glosses over the loss to Oklahoma and the home win over Texas.
In my opinion, Oklahoma’s victory could have easily taken half that time. The Sooners had travel issues, arrived late at the Ferrell Center and came from behind to beat the Bears. There was adversity that the show should have shown.
It was the first leg of a three-game, five-day series, the first time the Sooners had beaten Baylor in back-to-back matchups since 2010, and we don’t talk about it in the episode. This seems like a glaring hole to me.
I understand wanting to show the celebration with Collen after Texas’ second win, but there was so much going on and it wasn’t worth nine to ten minutes into the show, for me, given the events of the week.
Editor’s note: Here is the blog of our time this week. You can also watch the commentary on YouTube!
