NCAAB Pick: Baylor -2 (-108) at Heritage Sports (visit our Heritage Sports Review)
Baylor is in a foul mood following a loss over the weekend and Kansas State comes in feeling good after a big win. It makes for an intriguing college basketball pick for the matchup Tuesday between a pair of 20-win squads who are just a game apart in the Big 12 standings.
Baylor Bears vs. Kansas State Wildcats
Tuesday, February 21, 2023 – 07:00 PM EST at Bramlage Coliseum
If you tune into ESPN2 on Tuesday night and notice fewer smiles on the faces of the Baylor Bears while Kansas State players are all smiles, chalk it up to a case of the Bears and Wildcats coming off contrasting results this past weekend.
Saturday’s defeat set the Bears back in the Big 12 race while costing them a little on the college basketball futures market, and the Wildcats’ win allowed them to keep pace in the tight conference standings with just two weeks to go in the regular season.
Whether they both won or lost is irrelevant since every game in the Big 12 is a must-win for the top 7 clubs. Kansas assumed the top perch with a win on Monday, Texas is a half-game behind with Baylor 1.5 back in third and Kansas State tied with Iowa State for fourth, 2.5 behind.
Rivalry Notes & Betting Trends
We can only hope the rematch is half as exciting as the show Baylor and Kansas State put on in their January 7th game in Waco, the game going into overtime before the Wildcats pulled off the 97-95 upset as 7.5-point underdogs at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review).
Baylor swept the season series a year ago, picking up a couple of comfortable covers in the process. The Bears broke a tie at intermission with a huge second half in the game at Bramlage, posting a 75-60 win behind a near-perfect effort from Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua.
- Kansas State’s win in January halted a 7-game win streak in the series for Baylor and left the Bears with a 25-24 edge in the all-time series.
- The Bears have won their last two trips to Manhattan, and are 6-4 at Bramlage Coliseum since the Wildcats joined the Big 12.
- ‘Over’ bettors have returned to the pay window in 6 of the last 8 meetings.
Bears Blow Big Lead, Bow to Jayhawks
The loss to Kansas State back in January came at the end of a 3-game skid by Baylor to begin conference play. The Bears managed to keep up with the hot-shooting Wildcats by pulling down 15 offensive boards and outscoring Kansas State 29-18 at the free-throw line.
Scott Drew’s squad should be in a particularly surly mood after falling to the Wildcats’ Sunflower State rival Kansas this past weekend when the Bears let a golden opportunity for a rare win in Lawrence slip through their hands.
Baylor was getting 4.5-5.5 on the NCAAB odds and broke away from the Jayhawks seven minutes into the contest to take a 13-point lead into halftime. Kansas came out of the locker room with an 18-4 run to open the second half, and ultimately cruised to an 87-71 dubya.
‘Cats Have Covered Last 5 at Home
While Baylor was seeing its 4-game win streak come to an end against the Jayhawks, the Wildcats were busy stopping a 2-game mini-skid with a 61-55 decision at home over Iowa State. Kansas State closed as 4-point chalk at the best sportsbooks.
Jerome Tang credited his crew with protecting the basketball and limiting turnovers to 11 on the game, well under the 14.4 season average per game the Wildcats entered the game with. Kansas State trailed by 8 at the half, but Markquis Nowell scored 18 of his 20 in the second half to spark the comeback.
It was the second time in the last few weeks that Kansas State won to stop a 2-game losing streak, and the victory helped the Wildcats avenge an 80-76 loss at Iowa State in January when they allowed the Cyclones to shoot better than 57% from the field.
BU the Best Bet
Betting particulars for this matchup have been anything but uniform since first going out. One shop opened the game as a pick, and now has Baylor favored by 3, while some other Texas betting sites started the Bears -1 before overnight trading shifted it to -2.
The total has also been on the move since it was first introduced at 149 points. That number is now down to 145.5-146. Both teams enter the contest with identical 14-13 O/U records.
This one hinges almost entirely on how well Drew can get his Bears to forget about Saturday’s loss in Lawrence. Winning in Manhattan is no small task under normal conditions, but I believe the Bears can get it done and avoid the Sunflower State sweep.
NCAAB Pick: Baylor -2 (-108) at Heritage Sports
NCAAB Pick: Over 146 (-105) at BetOnline
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
