Baylor coach Scott Drew had an interesting afternoon on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
With a record of 1-14 in the venue entering Saturday’s Top-10 showdown with 5th-ranked Kansas, Drew and the 9th-ranked Bears had about as good of an opportunity to pick up win No. 2 on KU’s home floor as they’ve had in his time at Baylor.
That was before the game. And then they started playing, and the Bears’ chances increased significantly.
Playing with the confidence of a conference champ and national title contender, Baylor went up by six midway through the first half, then pushed the lead to a dozen and eventually to 17 (42-25) before heading into the locker room at halftime with a 13-point cushion and a clear path to victory.
More of that would do it, and it also might move Baylor into the conversation for a No. 1 seed in next month’s NCAA Tournament.
Everything had gone Baylor’s way in that first half, and the Jayhawks looked dead. They lacked energy. They looked frazzled. And they played a brand of basketball that allowed Baylor guards LJ Cryer, Adam Flagler and Keytone George to score 42 consecutive Baylor points on a combination of layups, dunks, 3-pointers and free throws.
“They were unbelievable the first half,” KU coach Bill Self said after the game. “That’s the hardest team to guard there is.”
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PHOTO GALLERY: Kansas basketball vs. Baylor
Box score: Kansas 87, Baylor 71
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Drew has been to Allen Fieldhouse enough to know that a 13-point halftime lead was hardly enough. So, there he was working the officials, fighting for calls and hyping up his players throughout the first half, much of it coming with his team holding a double-digit lead.
Still, for as bad as Kansas played and as good as the Bears were, Drew had to know it wasn’t over.
After all, this was the same guy who always had told his teams that in order to win at Allen Fieldhouse they better be up by 10 with 3 minutes to play or less.
Up 13 at the half was nice, but it was a far cry from up 10 with 180 seconds remaining, so the Bears had work to do and the Jayhawks had time.
It was those two factors that led to the wild second-half comeback by the Jayhawks that left Baylor a little shell-shocked on their way out the door.
Kansas junior Jalen Wilson, who led the Jayhawks with 18 points and 13 rebounds, sparking the second-half surge with his attention to getting stops and rebounds, emphasized after the victory that KU’s comeback was possible because his team focused on how much time they still had and concentrated on cutting into Baylor’s lead in four-minute increments rather than by trying to bite off big chunks.
“We just had to gain some composure a little bit,” Wilson said. “Obviously, it wasn’t the way we wanted to start off. It’s such a long game though, and we’re never going to quit.”
While Baylor’s 45-32 halftime lead had to feel good in the visiting locker room, it hardly stood up to the 55-point second-half explosion by the Jayhawks or the suffocating Kansas defense that limited BU to 36% shooting, including 1-of-11 from 3-point range, in the second half.
All in all, Drew was gracious in defeat. He didn’t have much choice but to be, really. But he’s been known to carry his frustration with the game’s officiating into postgame press conferences at Allen Fieldhouse in the past.
No such griping this time.
“As good as we were the first half (was) as bad as we were the second half,” Drew said after Saturday’s loss. “But a lot of that had to do with the intensity with which Kansas played.”
All of it, really.
Baylor didn’t all of a sudden forget how to play basketball. Cryer, Flagler and George did not lose their skills.
The Bears just ran into a Kansas team that was frustrated by the way it played in the first half and bound and determined to do something about it in the second half.
Both Drew and Self praised the proper parts of each team’s performance on Saturday, and both teams were deserving of praise.
Baylor’s first half was as good of a first half as I can remember seeing this season. Kansas’ second half was better than that and certainly up to the standard created by last season’s title team, which made a living out of flipping the switch and bringing more than the necessary fire to save a game and secure a big win.
Saturday’s win was big for Kansas. The Jayhawks are in great shape in the Big 12 title chase, and a win like this one can go a long way toward securing that No. 1 seed — perhaps the overall No. 1 seed if things break right — no matter what happens in the Big 12 race.
Drew was able to see that and communicate it effectively.
“It was a great game for the Big 12 because you could see the first half what we’re capable of and the second half what Kansas was capable of,” Drew said. “The goal from coaches is to get 40 minutes of that.”
Both Baylor and Kansas are good enough that if either — or both — are able to play like that for 40 minutes, adding to their recent NCAA championship trophy haul is a real possibility for both programs.
