Baylor Basketball Coming Down the Stretch

As I mentioned before, the Bears have 5 games left to put together a tournament resume or at the very least, position themselves better for the conference tournament. The goal for conference position should be to stay out of the 8 and 9 seeds. These seeds lead to seeing OU in the 2nd round of the conference tournament. This is crucial when we will probably need a 2nd conference tourney win to enhance the resume. Right now, there are 5 teams ahead of us that we could conceivably (not probably) catch: Texas, Nebraska, OK State, aggie, K-State.

Here's what each of these teams face during this home stretch:
Texas- OU, Tech, @OK State, Baylor, @Kansas
Nebraska- Colorado, @Kansas, aggie, @K-State, Iowa State, @Baylor
OK State- @Tech, Baylor, @Colorado, Texas, K-State, @OU
aggie- @Tech, @Nebraska, Iowa State, @Colorado, Missouri
K-State- @Iowa State, @Missouri, Nebraska, @Oklahoma State, Colorado

Baylor finished with: @OK State, @Iowa State, Colorado, @Texas, Nebraska

Given the nature of this season so far, I wouldn't put any games in ink yet. The league is basically the top 3 teams (OU, KU, MU) followed by 6 mediocre teams and then the bottom 3. You can look at the schedules differently. The aggies get to play all 3 bottom-feeders but must also play one of the top teams (That MU game would look good on a tournament resume). Texas has to play 2 of the top teams and only 1 bottom team. Your Baylor Bears have games against 2 bottom teams and no top teams. However, OK State, Texas, and Nebraska aren't going to roll over for us. Our recent history against the Longhorns needs to change course for us to have a real shot making a move up the standings.

The bottom line here is that if we find a way to win out and finish 9-7, things get real interesting for the Baylor Nation. Finish 8-8 and I think we're NIT bound barring a conference tourney championship game appearance. I hope our Athletic Department sees this season at what can happen when you don't schedule at least one good true road game (not tournament or neutral site). We might finish 9-7 and not beat one of the top 4 teams in our conference. I think we'll be on the outside looking in. Hope I'm wrong.

Murph