Deadspin
The College Basketball Closer is written by the gang at Storming the Floor.
The ups and downs of this season have been tough on the Baylor Bears. When the Big 12 season began, they were riding high at 12-2, having only lost to then-No. 6 Washington State and Arkansas. The conference slate was going their way as well - they even won an epic 5 OT game against Texas A&M. But after that, things began to fall apart. The Bears lost seven of their next eight to fall below .500 in the conference and needed a recent three-game win streak to climb back onto the NCAA tourney bubble. It's the kind of thing that can drive a fan wild, until you realize that this is the best thing that's happened to them in a long, long time.
Baylor has actually won two NCAA titles - one in men's tennis, and one in women's basketball. But in marquee sports like basketball and football, they fall woefully short time and time again. Hoops-wise, they went 477-651 in the old Southwest Conference. When that league went belly-up, they joined the newly-formed Big 12 and rolled up a putrid .256 win percentage prior to this season. Throw in the odd teammate-on-teammate murder and coaching coverup, and you've got yourself a pretty damn sad representative of your church-sponsored University. It's almost enough to make a feller cuss and drink beer.
The Bears have made the tournament four times in their history, with three of them coming before the Eisenhower administration. The most recent was in 1988, when they lost to a Memphis team that never made it out of the round of 32. But this year's team has 20 wins, talent, and a cornball optimist for a head coach in Scott Drew (of the Valparaiso Drews). Even after losing to A&M at home last night, Baylor has a good chance to go from scandal-rocked outcast two years ago to the postseason. Ask St. Bonaventure how easy that is to do.
Shan, come back! Shan!!! Vanderbilt 86- Mississippi State 85 (OT). Well, that's one way to neutralize Varnado's shot-blocking skills. Shan Foster (42 points) was a blazing 9-15 from the three-point line in this one, including the winning points with .01 left on the clock in OT. Even more amazingly, the Commodores were a perfect 11-11 from the free-throw line as well, though only four Vandys total made it to the stripe.
NIT One, Pearl Two. Tennessee 89- Florida 86. OK, I'm going to go ahead and move the Volunteers into "lock" status for this season. Ha, whew, that joke never gets old. JaJuan Smith was so busy scoring (23 pts) that Forward Tyler Smith ended up leading the team in assists. Florida's Nick Calathes led all scorers with 24 points, and all assisters with 9, but it was not enough to keep the Gators on top all game long.
A Tale of Two Halves. Miami (FL) 74-Boston College 61. After scoring just 20 points in the first half, Frank Haith's Hurricanes found the Eye of the Tiger and damn near tripled that in the second stanza, putting up 54 to inch a little bit higher on the bubble.
Minute Made Men. UMass 100-LaSalle 63. This might be the one that puts the Minutemen in the driver's seat for the second bid in the Atlantic XIV. Each UMass starter scored in double figures, and the bench put in the remaining ten points to lay an even C on Balls State.
Fair To Middlin'. Oklahoma 67-Oklahoma State 56. These two teams sit smack in the middle of the Big 12 geographically and record-wise. The Sooners reached the 20-win plateau despite a season full of injuries, and might be able to eke into the big dance if they can put together a run in Kansas City.
Tonight's Big Game
Stanford (24-4) at UCLA (26-3). Through a quirk of scheduling, it's been more than two full months since the last time these teams played, a 76-67 Bruin victory. If the Cardinal can somehow pull off a win at Pauley, these two teams will end the evening tied atop the Pac-10.
Eric Angevine writes about college basketball for Storming the Floor and CAAZone. He can be reached at stormingthefloor@gmail.com.
Comments
No mention of a floor that was actually stormed last night? Big 10 champs!
Crazy happenings in the Patriot League tourney. 2 seed Navy lost in 3OT, and 1 seed American escaped by 2 points in the first round. That league has play-in game written all over it.
You've got yourself a pretty damn sad representative of your church-sponsored University.
Well, at the Jesus people have Notre Dame football to fall back on.
Oops.
Guy on left's expression: "I'mma sodomize that white boy."
Guy on right's expression: "I'm getting sodomized".
Baylor's past should be weighed in their favor if they are on the bubble. Coming back from the whole mess under the previous coaching staff to respectability. It would a great story and I'm betting that CBS will be in the Selection Committee's ear.
Ned?
@ghostsoftheSCupcountry: If CBS couldn't get an Indiana-Texas Tech matchup last year when Indiana was a 7 seed and TTech was a 10, I'm pretty sure they can't get Baylor in (if they were out, which I don't think they are).
@MattinglysSideburns: UFIA?
I thought the kid from Juno just ran track- didnt know he could ball...
@chilltown: I think they're in too. I had forgotten about the TT/Indy matchup not happening. Of course, that may have something to do with Miles Richards, too. I'm betting that the NCAA has more pull than CBS.
I'm really looking forward to the upcoming Deadspin tournament capsules so that I can get a fresh perspective on Baylor from a true die-hard fan of the team. Thankfully, it's being written by...Will Leitch...wait, what?
[deadspin.com]
Miami (FL) needs to be in your lock column. RPI in the low 20s, they're in.
Florida must have taken the gaspipe last night, they were up big in the first half.
@chilltown: Dont remind me. That triple overtime game nearly gave me a heart attack....
@Dead Wrestlers Society: STF has Miami(FL) as a lock in todays "breakfast of champions"
Baylor will probably make it...win at Texas Tech and win at least one game in the big 12 tourney and it's all but guarenteed.
@ghostsoftheSCupcountry: Dur...that should be MILES BRAND...sorry, I shouldn't try to multi-task before noon.
@Its The Beer Talking: I still want to know how Will figures Illinois will make the tournament.
That post probably set a record for most words ever written about Baylor basketball for a publication not located in Waco. If it didn't set the record, then it's definitely top 10.
A sullen Eric Murphy (far right) wonders why he was never allowed to join this entourage.
No love for the Big 10 champs? like ITBT said, the floor was actually stormed last night! Whats a team gotta do to get a mention, huh?
Ursus Maritimus will own the Big 10 tourney
@drewheyman: {Non-Murder category}
Enjoy it while it lasts, Baylor fans, before the NCAA starts sniffing around Coach Drew.
Foster went 9-15 from behind the arc the hard way. He missed his first 6.
@jmjonesjr: He was 9 for 9 in the second half and overtime. Most of them came with him being guarded, and a few were from 30 ft. Unreal.
@Dead Wrestlers Society: I think Miami's probably in. But I leave the guessing to Lunardi.
@drewheyman: Sorry, ESPN.com put me to shame earlier in the year. They had a full article on it in the basketball section. They love redemption even more than I do.
@jmjonesjr: SEC Player of the year if there's a God.
@UeckersEats: You're not selling me with that. We wrote a whole list of floor storming rules over at the site, and "really good team wins regular-season title" wasn't on the list.
I still see no reason whatsoever why Baylor should be in the Big 12 over TCU.
@UNC_Samurai: Yeah, I'm not sure what went into that decision. Basketball-wise, it would have been a wash (at the time), but football-wise, a huge improvement.
Dear Nick Calathes and Chandler Parsons,
Just for future reference, those Vanilla Ice haircuts? Not such a good idea.
--Karma
@Storming the Floor: (checks list) Right you are! But still, I was just hoping for a mention for my beloved Badgers. I bleed red , you know...
What's that? Everyone does? Oh. Well then, nevermind.
@UNC_Samurai: Ann Richards was governor of Texas when the Big XII was formed, and a Baylor alumna. There you go.
Start a discussion:
Login with your username and password below. Or comment on this post via email.
Forgot your username or password? New User?