After last weekend’s quartet of marquee top-10 matchups, this Saturday was more about teams on either side of the NCAA tournament cut line needing to take advantage of résumé-boosting opportunities. Six top-10 teams faced unranked teams on the road — environments where highly ranked teams have consistently struggled all season. This group doesn’t include the likes of Marquette, which was hosting a St. John’s team in need of a win, or Kentucky, which was at home against a desperate Gonzaga squad. Michigan State, Colorado, Cincinnati, Florida were also all in need of a victory to boost their NCAA tournament hopes. Who could close the deal and get a win?
With just one month left in the regular season, bubble teams are running out of time to pick up wins that will matter on Selection Sunday. Saturday provided some clarity, and ESPN’s Myron Medcalf, Jeff Borzello and Joe Lunardi accordingly have some thoughts.
Medcalf: Baylor’s challenges at Allen Fieldhouse continue. The Bears are now 1-18 in their past 19 games at Kansas. And they had never had a better chance to steal a victory over Bill Self in a hostile venue. No Kevin McCullar Jr. due to injury. Dajuan Harris Jr. injured his ankle late in the game. Instead of adding a signature win to boost their tournament seed, the Bears couldn’t stop the short-handed Jayhawks.
The game also highlighted the Big 12’s superiority. Three of the four teams that joined the league this season — Houston, BYU and Cincinnati — are all top 35 on KenPom. The fourth (UCF) has wins over Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Ten teams overall in this conference are in the top 40 in the NET rankings.
In this league, a good team like Baylor — one of America’s most offensively efficient teams, first in the country in 3-point shooting though subpar defensively — could win a league title with a run down the stretch, or end the season in the middle of the pack. Or worse. The competition is that tough.
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No. 13 Baylor misses two tying 3-pointers in closing seconds vs. No. 4 Kansas
Baylor misses two open game-tying 3-pointers as they fall 64-61 to Kansas.
Borzello: On the one hand, Kansas beating a top-15 team without McCullar, with Harris banged up late and with Hunter Dickinson sidelined with foul trouble and struggling for long stretches of the game is flat-out impressive. The Jayhawks scored 17 points off 21 turnovers and got a couple of big shots from Nicolas Timberlake — which is a great…
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