Different layers of motivation will serve No. 11 Baylor and Texas Tech when the two longtime rivals wrap up the rugged Big 12 Conference regular season on Saturday evening in Lubbock, Texas.
Both teams almost certainly will be in the NCAA Tournament field, each with double-digit victory totals in the league regarded as one of the toughest in the country. Both teams have an upper hand at a double-bye for the Big 12 tournament next week in Kansas City, with the Bears (22-8, 11-6) alone in third place and the Red Raiders (21-9, 10-7) in a fourth-place tie with Kansas — but with a tiebreaker advantage.
A victory on Saturday, though, will remove any NCAA doubt for the winning team heading into the conference tournament.
None of that matters to first-year Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland, whose team has gotten on track with back-to-back road wins against the league’s co-cellar dwellers since a swoon knocked it out of the running to compete for the league crown.
“I’m not using any energy on trying to figure out anything past how we win the game on Saturday,” said McCasland, a Baylor graduate and longtime assistant under Bears coach Scott Drew.
“How we get better. … Because that will have a positive impact on the direction of our program.”
The Red Raiders have gotten better in the last week, particularly after falling behind 20-4 at West Virginia. Texas Tech surged back with a decisive road win, then never trailed at Oklahoma State on Tuesday en route to one of the most dominant Big 12 road wins in program history, 75-58.
Pop Isaacs showed promising signs of thawing out of a monthlong shooting slump at Oklahoma State with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field. He leads the Red Raiders with an average of 15.9 points a game.
Baylor has some recent first-hand experience dealing with a hot shooter after a 93-85 comeback win against Texas on Monday. The Bears erased an 11-point deficit with just over 13 minutes left with a 21-2 run.
Texas’ Max Abmas was a thorn in Baylor’s side with 33 points, but the Bears seized command with 34-of-42 shooting from the free-throw line.
“Credit Texas for starting out and putting us on our heels,” Drew said. “I thought our guys did a great job fighting back.”
Baylor has been one of the Big 12’s most prolific offensive teams this season, averaging 82 points a game. Freshman Ja’Kobe Walter paces the Bears with 14.7 points a game, and two-time transfer RayJ Dennis contributes 13.5. Another freshman, 7-footer Yves Missi, has played big this season with 11.1 points and 5.7 rebounds a contest and 44 blocked shots.
“There’s a lot of opportunity in this game,” McCasland said. “(Baylor is) the best offense in the league right now and (is) sharing the ball and getting to the free-throw line. They are playing as good as anyone in our league.”
–Field Level Media
