By Wendell Barnhouse | wendell@big12sports.com
Big12Sports.com Correspondent
WACO, Texas - We hold these truths to be self evident: The sun rises in the East ... politicians have a loose relationship with facts ... college football is unpredictible ...
And you can't finish what you don't start.
Baylor got its women's basketball season off to a championship beginning Sunday. The top-ranked Lady Bears defeated No. 2 Notre Dame, 94-81, in the title game of the Preseason WNIT. The Fighting Irish lost to Texas A&M in last year's NCAA championship game and have a team fully capable of making a return trip to the Final Four.
That's where Baylor wants to be in early April. To make that point perfectly clear, the pre-game introduction played on the Ferrell Center video board features coach Kim Mulkey giving a fiery speech about the accomplishments of last year's team. But the Lady Bears lost to Texas A&M in the Dallas Regional - one victory short of the Final Four.
"That's real," Mulkey said of the video. "We might not win a national championship but it's time to put it out there and motivate them. We'll acknowledge this (WNIT championship). We don't ever want to take something like this for granted. But we didn't cut the nets down. There's a championship net we don't have yet."
For what it's worth, the voters believe that Baylor could be clipping strings in Denver. In its first three games, the Lady Bears were allowing 36.3 points per game with opponents shooting 21.9 percent from the field and .150 from 3-point range. Those are sick numbers. Notre Dame (3-1) managed more than doubled what Baylor had been allowing but still shot 38.9 percent (28-of-72) from the field and 16.7 percent (3-of-18) from 3-point range.
The football team has RG3. Waco was still buzzing after Robert Griffin III and the Bears stunned No. 5 Oklahoma Saturday night. And the Lady Bears have BG1.
Brittney Griner was named the most valuable player of the WNIT. Against Notre Dame she had - for her - a ho hum 32 points, 14 rebounds and five blocked shots.
"We tried a couple of looks against Griner and nothing really worked," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. "We came in expecting that she would score but I was disappointed how we guarded the other players and put them on the line too much. Defensively we really played poorly and that's also disappointing."
Sophomore Odyssey Sims didn't start. Mulkey said it was a "coach's decision." Asked by Mulkey if the benching was effective, Sims answered, "Yes, ma'am." The point guard finished with 25 points, six steals, six assists and two turnovers. Her pesky defense helped disrupt Notre Dame's half-court offense.
"You have to credit their defense." said sophomore All-American point guard Skylar Diggins, who finished with 27 points but committed seven of Notre Dame's 17 turnovers. "I think it was a little bit of both. When we attacked the basket we got better shots. Credit their pressure defense. They blitzed us on the ball and forced some turnovers."
Baylor took control during the last 10 minutes of the second ahlf with a 22-8 run. While Griner and Sims put up big numbers, senior guard Terran Condrey is becoming the Lady Bears' glue girl. She finished with seven points, six rebounds, six assists and five steals. She forced two Irish turnovers during the first-half blitz.
"She's a quiet player who helped us out a lot today," said Griner, who made 14 of 18 shots. "She does it each game. Teams definitely need a player like that."
Baylor's 16-point first half lead slipped to a 53-51 edge in the first four minutes of the second half. Instead of calling a timeout to calm things - the Lady Bears committed four turnovers on their first six possessions - Mulkey let her players figure it out on their own.
"Last year they would have hung their heads, gotten down on themselves," Mulkey said. "It was, 'Go out and fix it yourself,work your way through it.' "
Notre Dame was averaging 23 steals a game and was out-rebounding its opponents 36-30. Baylor had a 13-9 edge in steals and a whopping 52-37 rebounding edge. The Lady Bears had 52 points in the paint and 21 second-change points.
National championships in basketball aren't won in November. It will be over four months before we know who clutches the crystal basketball ball. Clearly, Baylor's intention is to finish what it has started.