Seventh-seeded Baylor will look to improve its probability to do the NCAA tournament when it fights No. 10 Seed Kansas State on Wednesday evening in a BIG 12 Conference tournament of the second round in Kansas City, Mo.
Kansas State advanced with a victory 71-66 over 15-seeded Arizona State in the opening round on Tuesday. The winner of Baylor-Kansas State will meet No. 2 Frö Texas Tech on Thursday in the quarterfinals.
The Bears (18-13) goes to BIG 12 tournament game after a loss of 65-61 at home to the conference’s usual season champion Houston on Saturday. VJ Edgecombe picked up 23 points and three steals for Baylor.
Norchad Omier added 13 points and 16 returns and Langston Love had 10 points in the loss. Bears ended the usual campaign with four losses in his last six matches.
Omier played in all 31 matches for Bears this season and on average a double double (15.6 points and 10.7 returns). Edgecombe, which on Tuesday was named Associated Press Big 12 Freshman of the Year, was an average of 15 points per match.
Baylor is likely to make the NCAA tournament as a big choice regardless of the result on Wednesday. However, Bears coach Scott Drew said that there is still plenty of the line for the team in this tournament.
“When it comes to the NCAA tournament? I would say that our resume speaks for itself,” Drew said. “We have good non-conferences. We went .500 at one of the best conferences in the country. So I feel that is good enough? Yes, but we always want to leave no doubt and we want to improve our seeds if possible.”
Wildcats (16-16) received a season high 26 points from Coleman Hawkins in Tuesday’s victory over Arizona State. Dug McDaniel added 14 and Brendan Hausen and Max Jones each had 10.
This production needed to compensate for the almost absence of David N’Guessan, the team’s leading goal score this season. The N’Guesan, which on average was a team best 13.3 points and 7.2 returns per match during the regular season, was limited to five points while handling foul problems.
“I loved Colemen’s aggressiveness – I loved all the guys’ aggressiveness,” said Kansas State coach Jerome Tang. “I thought they took advantage of how we prepared for this and some of the things we did and some of the things we did not. So I thought they gave us the game needed to play in March.”
Kansas State ended the regular season with losses in five of the last eight matches.
Baylor beat Kansas State with eight points at home on January 22. After that loss, Wildcats went on a winning line of six matches that included victories over four ranked teams.
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