Kansas backed it’s way into its 9th consecutive Big 12 title with a less than stellar loss to Baylor on Saturday, March 9, 2013. Baylor played like its NCAA tournament life depended on it and KU played as if they knew they already had the title lined up and it was a formality to play Baylor. Kansas State lost to Oklahoma State earlier in the day, guaranteeing KU a share of the Big 12 title whether they won or lost to Baylor. With the loss and tieing K-State in the Big 12 standings, Kansas shares the 2013-2013 title.
Kansas was led in scoring by Ben McLemore with 23 points which was his highest total in a road game this season. He also passed Danny Manning (496) to become the all-time leading freshman scorer in Kansas history with 517 points during the regular season.
Kansas twice pulled within two points. The Jayhawks were just one basket from tying the game after a Withey free throw made it 30-28, but Baylor responded to each charge. KU was reduced to lobbing up prayer attempts from 3 point range in the closing minutes allowing Baylor to run the ball down the court for easy layups off KU missed shots.
Kansas lost the rebounding edge, points in the paint and scored 0 fast break points. The Jayhawks appeared to have lost any passion or desire to win the game and settled for a lopsided loss going into tournament time. This ill-timed dive into lackluster play does nothing but hurt the Jayhawk’s chances and hopes for an overall 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Bill Self has his work cut out to find the right buttons to push to get this team fired up to play to its potential in the following weeks. KU can ill afford to come out flat and lose another game in one-and-done situations.
By virtue of its regular season sweep of the Wildcats, Kansas will be the No. 1 seed in next week's Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship in Kansas City's Sprint Center and will play the 2 P.M. game in Thursday's first session against the winner the contest between No. 8 West Virginia and No. 9 Texas Tech.
Check out the final stats.
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