Baylor coach Austin Clark knows his Red Raiders out-rebounded Ooltewah in a 54-41 win Saturday in the opening round of the Times Free Press Best of Preps tournament.
But he doesn’t know how many more rebounds his players grabbed.
He knows his team shared the ball and had a bushel of assists. But he doesn’t know how many.
Clark knows his team had a few turnovers, not too many, but he isn’t sure of that, either.
He’s never sure of such basic statistics after any game. He said he doesn’t care about them and has never delved into numbers during his 34 years on the Baylor campus.
“I’m bad. I don’t keep any stats,” Clark said. “The only stats I keep are how well we played and W’s and L’s. I just never have, but I probably should.”
For the record, the Red Raiders won and improved to 3-5 for the season.
In an age when some assistant coaches have roles of keeping up with rebounds, assists, turnovers, free throws, steals, 3-pointers and statistics that have been around for decades, Clark doesn’t care. Let alone the advanced metrics that are available today such as effective field goal percentage.
The official box score showed that Gage Upshaw led Baylor with 14 points, Jaylon Baker scored 11 and Beyaun Hendricks added 10. Kevin McCauley led Ooltewah (2-9) with 13 points.
“Gage did a nice job rebounding, taking care of the ball against the press and running the offense,” Clark said. “He was a basketball player with a very well-rounded game.”
Clark’s aversion to statistics goes back to his days of playing for coach Ray Mears at the University of Tennessee.
“Coach Mears had stats for everything, and I could see guys crumble when their shooting percentage dropped and it would make them get into funks,” Clark said. “I just want my guys to make the next one.
“I know enough about the game to tell you who rebounds well and who doesn’t, and I can tell you who makes shots and who doesn’t. I don’t need charts.
“I can almost tell you exactly how well we shot 3s, and we didn’t make very many.”
The Red Raiders made three.
“I thought we rebounded the ball well,” Clark said. “I didn’t think we finished some of the layups around the rim that we should have.”
Ooltewah coach Tank Montgomery is a little more modern when it comes to statistics. But he and the Owls are dealing with a much bigger issue – one that Montgomery said impacted Saturday’s game – a lack of depth and experience going forward.
Three experienced Ooltewah players were dismissed from the team for hazing a younger player during the Smoky Mountain Classic in Gatlinburg at the first of the week. The Gatlinburg Police Department is investigating the incident, which resulted in the younger player requiring emergency surgery.
Montgomery said he could not comment on the incident or investigation. Yet he spoke about the impact on his team, himself and Saturday’s loss, pausing at times to choose the right words.
“What we’ve discussed is believing in each other and understanding that we’re going to have to rely on each other, learn different positions and be ready in any way you can,” Montgomery said. “I think they’re OK mentally. Me (nine-second pause), I’m good.”
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP