- November 20th, 2009, 6:51 pm
#286823
As a guy who lives several hours away and just started following Liberty basketball over the last few years, I’m sure I don’t have much room to make any points in here. Like I said, I live several hours away so when I venture over to watch the boys play I make the most of it by watching practices, shoot arounds, and, of course, the games. I know we haven’t seen much of Baker in full health, but from all I’ve seen SuperJon is correct – dude’s a leader. And he had a real desire to help the team this year. It sucks bad that this happened to him. This is no knock on either of the other bigs, I love Carter (he’s worth getting excited about as he develops) and Pat (his heart and hustle, when the game catches his raw skills, he’s gonna be fun to watch battle), but Baker had potential to be huge for LU in his senior year. From the games I’ve watched he’s battled bigger guys in the post and sealed like the coaches have asked; imagine if they got to a point where the lineup had Carter at the 5 and Tyler at the 4, and there was a fluid offense in which he had a few opportunities to shoot the three ball.
I know my being a fan of Baker’s makes me biased in all this, but it’s been frustrating to read people downplay (directly or indirectly) Tyler’s role and potential on this team, as well as even hinting at a joke about his injury. I was excited for his senior year, and now, no matter how it goes, I know that Tyler’s still gonna be a leader – a guy who will be there for his teammates, challenge them, encourage them, mentor them, pray for them… That’s one huge quality Tyler brings to the team. Apologies if I rambled on there.