Big 12: Baylor falling off the Tournament radar

It was one of the feel-good stories of this college basketball season, and writers around the country lined up to tell it.

It was the story of how Baylor rose from the ashes left by disgraced coach Dave Bliss in the wake of Patrick Dennehy’s 2003 murder.

It was the story of how fresh-faced coach Scott Drew, who took over for Bliss that August, only weeks after it all started to unravel, persevered even as he endured scholarship restrictions and had an entire nonconference season taken away. It was the story of how he quietly put together a talented team with a deep backcourt, and how, for the first time, that team was ready to compete with the best the Big 12 Conference had to offer.

It was a story that had a happy ending, with the Bears, after a 16-2 start, destined to play in their first NCAA Tournament in two decades.

Problem is, Baylor might not be on the guest list for the Big Dance, after all. Not after dropping six of its last seven games to fall below .500 in conference play and plummet to sixth in the Big 12 standings.

“We’ve been better,” Drew said when asked how he was doing on Monday morning, even before his team’s latest setback. “We went through a tough stretch. Out of seven games, we had five of them on the road. Obviously, that’s tough. You come home, and you’ve got four home games and three roads, but you’re playing Texas at home, which is a top-10 team. … We’ve got to get things going in the right direction.”

The Bears had seemed to on Tuesday night at Oklahoma. They rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit in the final three minutes of regulation to force overtime, then were less than 10 seconds away from snapping their three-game losing streak in the extra period when the collapse occurred.

With Baylor clinging to a 91-88 advantage, senior guard Aaron Bruce was whistled for a foul on Sooners guard Tony Crocker, just as he was rattling in a 3-pointer with 7.3 seconds remaining. Crocker, who double clutched before making the 3, converted the four-point play, and suddenly the Bears’ three-point lead was a one-point deficit.

But Baylor still had a chance to escape with 1 second remaining as junior guard Curtis Jerrells drew a foul and went to the free-throw line with two shots to give the Bears the victory. Jerrells, a 74-percent free-throw shooter who’d made 6-of-7 in the game up to that point, thought both attempts were good when they left his hand, but neither dropped through the net. Same for Kevin Rogers’ tip-in attempt just ahead of the final buzzer as Baylor lost 92-91, its fourth straight game.

“Any loss is difficult but this one, we knew it would mean a lot to us,” Jerrells told reporters afterward. “It would have been nice if we'd have came up with the win.”

Especially with another bitter loss so prevalent in the Bears’ collective memory. That one came on Saturday against Texas. They battled back from a 14-point deficit in the last three minutes of that game, taking advantage of seven missed free throws by the Longhorns to pull within one.

With Baylor trailing 77-76 with 28 seconds left, Bruce was called for a technical foul when while inbounding the ball he tried to call a timeout the Bears didn’t have. Even after A.J. Abrams made a free throw to pad Texas’ advantage, freshman LaceDarius Dunn had a 3-pointer that could have given his team the lead. Only it, like all but eight of Baylor’s 31 3-point attempts, didn’t drop.

So the Bears lost their 22nd straight game against the Longhorns, two of which came during their recent slide. It began with a 77-71 home loss to the Sooners on Jan. 26, just three days after Baylor had survived an unforgettable quintuple-overtime affair with Texas A&M. Then came the first loss to the Longhorns on Feb. 2.

Things didn’t look so bad for the Bears just then. They handled Texas Tech at home on Feb. 6 and scored 90 points against fourth-ranked Kansas on Feb. 9, albeit in a 100-90 loss at Allen Fieldhouse. But then Baylor fell behind by 20 points at halftime against an 11-12 Oklahoma State team and couldn’t recover in time to avoid a 93-83 loss at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater. Next came the losses to Texas and Oklahoma.

With Kansas State, 24th-ranked and suddenly desperate after an upset loss at Nebraska, visiting Waco on Saturday, the Bears are in danger of seeing their Tournament hopes slip away.

It hasn’t happened yet. Baylor, now 5-6 in Big 12 play, still owns a solid overall record of 17-8. It has quality wins against Notre Dame and Texas A&M and is in the top half of the third-ranked conference — in terms of RPI — in the country. The Bears’ own RPI is 42, which still has them very much in the mix for an at-large bid. If they can pull out of their downward spiral.

“We have had two heartbreakers and a lot of teams could fold from here on out,” Drew told reporters after the loss to Oklahoma. “I think we are going to get on a roll. I am really proud of our team. I think we are going to bond from this and I think we are going to grow from this.”

Rising Team: Texas

The Longhorns are still streaking. They’ve run their winning streak to six games after holding off Baylor for their 22nd straight victory in that series, then avenging an earlier loss to Texas A&M with a 77-50 thumping on ESPN’s Big Monday telecast. Texas has moved into a tie with Kansas for first place in the Big 12 standings. They also hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Jayhawks in what, with Kansas State’s recent road struggles, could turn into a two-team title race.

Falling Team: Baylor

Of course, it’s the Bears for all the reasons detailed above.

But Kansas State is also struggling, despite the 37-point whipping they delivered to Missouri on Saturday in Manhattan, Kan. The Wildcats (18-7, 8-3) have lost back-to-back road games against far less-talented foes in Texas Tech and Nebraska. The fact that they didn’t play a true road game during the nonconference schedule seems to be catching up to first-year coach Frank Martin and his freshman-laden roster. K-State has lost three straight road games to fall to 2-3 away from home in league play.

Player of the Week: Michael Beasley, F, Kansas State

Beasley tied former Syracuse star Carmelo Anthony for the NCAA freshman record for double-doubles on Wednesday night with his 22nd of the season, but he played perhaps his worst game of the conference schedule, finishing with “just” 17 points and 10 rebounds in a 71-64 loss at Nebraska. He was bottled up by the Cornhuskers’ 2-3 zone, which held him scoreless in the first nine minutes, and by Kansas State’s own guards, who did the same over the final five, failing to get him the ball with enough regularity. But even a sub-par performance on Wednesday couldn’t cost Beasley player-of-the-week honors because it came just four days after he scored 40 points and ripped down 17 rebounds in 27 minutes as the Wildcats throttled visiting Missouri on Saturday.

Freshman of the Week: Blake Griffin, F, Oklahoma

The Sooners’ standout has been overshadowed by Beasley all season long, but he might be just as valuable as the K-State star. He scored 29 points and pulled down 15 rebounds in Oklahoma’s overtime win against Baylor, and he had nine points and 17 rebounds in OU’s 66-64 victory over Texas Tech on Saturday. For the season, Griffin, himself a future lottery pick, is averaging 15.2 points and 9.1 rebounds while shooting 56 percent from the field.

Stats of the Week

6 for 13: What Texas shot from the free throw line in the final 2:07 of Saturday’s game against Baylor. That doesn’t include the three times the Longhorns missed the front end of 1-and-1 opportunities. Somehow, UT still escaped with an 82-77 victory.

11: Iowa State’s halftime offensive output against Nebraska on Saturday. That set a Big 12 record for fewest points scored in a half of a conference game. The Cyclones still fought back to win 60-52.

22: Michael Beasley’s tally of double-doubles this season, which tied Carmelo Anthony’s NCAA freshman record.

61: The number of steals by Kansas guard Mario Chalmers this season. That total leads the Big 12. If he stays in the top spot, he’ll become the first player to lead the league in steals for three straight seasons.

64.5: The average scoring total for Texas’ opponents during the Longhorns’ six-game winning streak.

They Said It

“I think they’re two different players. They were two different players in high school. They’ve had two different frames of mind as players. Kevin was more wired to score as a high school player. … Unbelievable hands, a lot like Mike. Unbelievable competitor, a lot like Mike. Mike has started to accept being a focal point offensively here over the past year. … But he’s always been a secondary player on every team he’s been on up until a year ago.” — Kansas State coach Frank Martin on the all-too-prevalent comparisons between former Texas standout Kevin Durant and current K-State phenom Michael Beasley

“We battled and battled, got it to one (with 4:51 left), then we go brain-dead and don’t let him touch the ball four straight times down the floor.” — Martin told reporters after Beasley was held to scoreless in the last final minutes of a 71-64 loss to Nebraska on Wednesday night

“Yeah. Who wouldn’t? From that deep. He’d only hit one shot the whole game. … You’ve got to play the percentages, and you’ve got to give the kid credit. He hit a hell of a shot. It wasn’t like it twanged around the rim or bounced way high and went in. It was nothing but net.” — Texas Tech coach Pat Knight when asked if he’d still be willing to take his chances letting Oklahoma senior David Godbold hoist a potential game-winning 3-pointer from 26 feet away after seeing him make one in the closing seconds to sink the Red Raiders on Saturday

“The way he’s played the last two games, he’s just had total control of the game at both ends. Offensively, he’s played with a lot of poise, a lot of confidence, dictated the tempo of the game and played the way that I envisioned him playing when we recruited him back out of Lincoln High School in Dallas his senior year. He’s never quite lived up to what I thought he could be and what I think the OSU fans thought, but there’s still time left.” — Oklahoma State coach Sean Sutton on junior point guard Byron Eaton, who averaged 21 points in wins against Baylor and Texas A&M, the latter the Cowboys’ first on the road in 20 games

Key Upcoming Games

Saturday, Feb. 23
Oklahoma at Texas
The Red River Rivalry comes to Red River Street in Austin, Texas, as the Sooners and Longhorns will tip off inside the Frank Erwin Center. It’s also a matchup of the Big 12’s hottest teams. OU and UT have combined to win nine in a row.

Kansas State at Baylor
While the hottest teams are playing in Austin, two of the ones struggling the most will meet about 90 minutes north on I-35 in Waco, Texas. The Bears are desperate for a victory after dropping four straight and six of their last seven to fall below .500 in Big 12 play. The Wildcats have lost three in a row away from home and another one could destroy their chances of winning the Big 12 title.

Monday, Feb. 18
Texas at Kansas State
A national television audience on ESPN will get to watch this battle of the two best players in the Big 12 Conference: Kansas State freshman forward Michael Beasley and Texas sophomore guard D.J. Augustin. Beasley seems destined to win Big 12 player-of-the-year honors, but Augustin’s got a better supporting cast — especially with sophomore forward Damion James and junior guard A.J. Abrams — and that might be enough to win in what should be a raucous environment inside Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kan.

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