Many considered the Big 12 the best conference in the country this season. I wouldn’t disagree. While previewing the conference for USA Today Sports this fall, I looked at team after team — Iowa State to Oklahoma State to West Virginia — and thought “Wow, the Big 12 may get eight teams in the Big Dance this year.” Missing on Kansas State, I was off by just one.
Considering all the talent in this stacked conference, you may be surprised that only one Big 12 player averaged a double-double. In fact, only one really came close.
Well, take a good long look at Rico Gathers and his unmistakable physique, and let your doubts dissipate as to how he pulled down 3.4 rebounds more than anyone else.
Men, women, and children gawk at Gathers like he’s from another planet where lifting weights is drinking water. He’s told every day that he should help out the Baylor Bears football program, with coach Art Briles even offering him a place in his rotation along the defensive line.
That’s life at 6’8″, 275 pounds with cartoon muscles.
Gathers seems equal parts flattered and annoyed by the fascination with his body — on the one hand, a critical aspect of his basketball game, yet on the other, a distraction from the fact that he is actually a highly skilled player.
After a pair of seasons learning behind upperclassmen, Gathers took his starter’s minutes and ran off with them. He was fourth in the NCAA in rebounding (11.6) — and, with all due respect, the three young men ahead of him played nowhere close to the grueling conference schedule Baylor did. He is making roughly twice the free throws as he did in past seasons, and at a higher clip. He averages 2.2 stocks (blocks/steals) per game. His fouls per 40 minutes are down by more than two since becoming a starter.
His game is mature, polished and deliberate. You watch Gathers discern when to call for the ball and when to hold his ground effortlessly. No team could ask for a better power forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBNwzdrh1sQ
Gathers led the Big 12 in win shares (5.5) and defensive win shares (2.5), per sports reference, and gathered (I had to) 22.4 percent of total rebounds when he was on the floor — more than DeMarcus Cousins does for the Sacramento Kings.
(Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
But he missed the dunk.
In a matter of hours, Gathers went from celebrating the Baylor Bears earning a No. 3 seed in the Big Dance to being ousted by a No. 14 seed on a buzzer-beating shot. There are many reasons why Baylor dropped Thursday’s game, not the least of which was committing 21 turnovers and blowing a 10-point lead over the final six minutes.
With 25 seconds left on the clock, Baylor was ahead, 56-53, when Gathers found himself with the ball underneath the basket. A dunk would have likely been a nail in the coffin.
Instead, Gathers missed it, and seconds later Baylor unceremoniously put Georgia State on the line, as the Panthers set up their victory prayer for their final possession.
“It’s just devastating to know that the season is over for my teammates,” Gathers managed after the game. “For the seniors mostly.. Just to see all the emotions built up behind that one game. They had such a great season, and that one game they will always remember.”
Gathers, himself, isn’t one of the seniors he has chagrin over, and yet you can feel the regret he’s now carrying, just minutes removed from a loss that many are already starting to blame on him. “If Gathers had just made that dunk…”
Gathers doesn’t need me to come to his defense, but (a) no game truly comes down to a single play (except for February’s Superbowl) and (b) Gathers had performed up to his own rigorous standards the entire game. The forward nearly had a double-double (9 points, 10 rebounds), and while he left some shots on the board, he played 33 minutes of exceptional defense and was the main culprit in the Bears doubling the Panthers on the glass.
The Panthers scored just 57 points, not exactly an offensive explosion. It was the Bears, meanwhile, that connected on just 19 field goals in the game — that in addition to their unforgivable carelessness with the ball. Baylor was the Big 12’s top 3-point shooting offense and second in assists per game; this is an experienced, battle-tested team. I’m not sure Gathers, outside of one missed opportunity in the closing seconds, could have done much more for a Baylor team that performed so underwhelmingly on Thursday.
(Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
A third-year college player, Gathers is already 21 — an age that can only be considered “old” when paired next to 19-year-old freshmen — and he is a bit short for the next level. He doesn’t shoot 3s, period. Much of what makes Gathers the perfect power forward for a 24-win Baylor team are the same reasons Gathers won’t be selected near the top of the NBA Draft, whenever he decides to go pro.
Gathers gets that part, that he doesn’t look like a professional starting forward. But his dreams are far from dashed. As he told the Dallas News, he models much of his game after Paul Millsap, a two-time All-Star power forward at 6’8″, who could win a ring this June. I also see Amir Johnson, a guy who worked his tail off, made his bones and earned a starting spot with a good, young team. He’s undersized too.
Let’s be real for a second: Gathers isn’t going pro this spring, or if he does, he’s passing up an opportunity, potentially, to bolster his stock. Baylor is losing its two best players, seniors Royce O’Neale and Kenny Chery. Gathers and Johnathan Motley should return as the Bears’ frontcourt, with Taurean Prince stepping into the O’Neale play-making wing role. Others, like seniors Deng Deng and Lester Medford and sophomore Al Freeman, will step up. The Bears might be a notch below their No. 3 seed resume from 2014-15 but next season’s team should contend for an NCAA birth. (And, then again, what did that No. 3 seed get them anyway?)
At the forefront of next year’s efforts will be Gathers. If he repeats his rebounding output from this season, he will go down as one of the Big 12’s greatest rebounders. And if he ups his offensive production, Gathers could be next year’s Rakeem Christmas — a senior big man who throws up his biggest season, turning heads all over the country, and placing himself on mock drafts around the Internet.
Whether Gathers completed the dunk on Thursday or not, it was likely he was returning to school. That gives him another year to earn a chance at the next level. Will Gathers have to cut some weight? Probably. But his arms — his gigantic, titan arms — and his ability to create space that was otherwise occupied by living, breathing men, that is as much a skill as shooting or dribbling.
If all 30 teams pass on him at the draft, this year or next, so be it. If it takes multiple summer league stints, so be it. Like his opponents that he moves around so effortlessly, I can’t see any obstacle getting the better of Gathers — the cousin of the late Hank Gathers — for too long.
