The Big XII Basketball Troika Is Tied Again, Recapping the Saturday That Was

Well that was a nice little Saturday we just had, wasn't it?

It would have been enough for me that Baylor managed to hold off an upset-minded Cowboys team for its first win in Stillwater since 2003 despite shooting and missing about 9000 3-pointers, but then Mizzou delivered in the nightcap with a comeback win over Kansas to knot the three teams with 8 games to play. Where Baylor was just two weeks ago left for dead in the conference race by yours truly, it now quite literally controls its own destiny; if Baylor can win all of its remaining games it will guarantee itself at least a share of the Big XII title in basketball for the first time in program history. Baylor (now 21-2, 8-2 on the season) is just racking up program bests left and right.

Before we get to today's game, let's talk about the conference race as it is shaping up. Over the next three weeks, fans of Baylor, Kansas, and Missouri are going to see the true value of a double round-robin. Instead of your season coming down to the luck of the draw in either having to play Kansas in their godforsaken voodoo palace or getting them at your place (they are an entirely different team on the road), you get to play both. Same for Missouri and Baylor. You don't have to worry about the vagaries of the scheduling gods doing you in with an unlucky matchup. Interestingly enough, none of the three teams are done with each other yet. Each still has to play the other two. Baylor gets Kansas at home and Missouri away, Kansas gets Missouri at home and Baylor away, and Missouri obviously gets Baylor at home and Kansas away. It really could shape up where each team loses one and wins one and the conference championship (in the regular season) comes down to something like Kansas at Kansas State or Baylor at home versus Iowa State.* Weird, wild, and crazy stuff is ahead for sure. The only downside I see to the arrangement now is that Baylor has to play both Kansas and Missouri in the same week. And that week happens to be this coming one.

*Did you know Iowa State is 7-3 and in second place in the Big XII? Yes, this year. I know, right? I think I forgot all about them because we haven't played them yet, but they seem to be doing pretty well. They're the ones that beat Kansas last week and I accidentally attributed it to someone else.

But enough about that, let's talk about the game today. Normally when I do this, it's relatively soon after the game has been played and I don't have the benefit of recaps already being available for me to link. Lucky for me that I couldn't do it right away because they are available now. Lucky for you because, and I'm not going to lie to you, I didn't actually get to watch all of it. I missed most of the first half.

So, here are links to a few recaps/reactions to the Baylor game today. I'll do an abbreviated version of my normal spiel below the jump in case you want to check it out.

• Road Warriors: Men's Hoops Ends Streak at Oklahoma State - Baylor Bears Official Athletic Site - BaylorBears.com- Perry Jones III had 16 points and 11 rebounds, Quincy Acy provided the go-ahead basket and a key offensive rebound down the stretch and No. 6 Baylor edged Oklahoma State 64-60 on Saturday.- VIDEO.
• Baylor Bears vs. Oklahoma State Cowboys - Recap - February 04, 2012 - ESPN- NCAA Men's Basketball Recap: Final statistics from the Baylor Bears vs. Oklahoma State Cowboys game played on February 04, 2012.
• NCAA College Basketball Recap - Baylor Bears at Oklahoma State Cowboys - Feb 04, 2012 - CBSSports.com- Perry Jones III had 16 points and 11 rebounds, Quincy Acy provided the go-ahead basket and a key offensive rebound down the stretch and No. 6 Baylor edged Oklahoma State 64-60 on Saturday.
• Baylor vs. Oklahoma State - Recap - February 04, 2012 - College Basketball - SI.com- Baylor vs. Oklahoma State recap from game played on February 04, 2012.
• The Associated Press: No. 6 Baylor edges Oklahoma State 64-60
• 16 Thoughts On Baylor | Pistols Firing- OSU blog, but I thought it was funny.

Player of the Game: Perry Jones III. 16 points and 11 rebounds (7 offensive) in an efficient performance when the rest of the team couldn't hit the broad side of Rosie O'Donnell. Hint: That's every side of Rosie O'Donnell. If you take out PJIII's 7-13 from the field, the rest of the team was 17-46. That's ... not good. Of course most of that was due to Pierre Jackson apparently attempting to play the first half blindfolded (CITATION NEEDED) and going 7-17 for the game. So Jones offset Jackson's craziness. He also managed to avoid the second half Houdini act that has been plaguing him lately by scoring 6 points and pulling down 7 rebounds, and his performance on the offensive glass all game was probably the best we've ever seen from him. By my count he had 4 offensive rebounds lead to tip-ins or dunks. And that was in a game where we inexplicably decided to shoot 482 3-pointers.

Ice-Cold Canadian of the Game: Brady Heslip, who, with Baylor up 1 and just under a minute on the clock, pulled down a defensive rebound, got fouled, hit both of his foul shots, stole a pass on the next possession, got fouled again, and then hit both of his free throws again. Baylor went from up 1 to up 5, which meant that Markel Brown's sick 3 the next time down didn't tie the game.

Play of the Game: Quincy Acy's offensive rebound on Heslip's missed FT with seven seconds left and the pass out of the corner to Anthony Jones, who then put the game away finally from the FT line. That was a huge offensive board with the lead only 2 and a play we're going to miss next year when Acy is gone. That he managed to do it while roaring repeatedly (as evidence by the picture above) is a testament to his greatness and splendor.

The Whaaaaaaa Moment of the Game: Every time we took another 3 when we should have pounded the ball inside and exploited Oklahoma State's lack of size. I honestly started wondering if this was the gameplan:

Step 1: Shoot a ton of 3s against an undersized team.

Step 2: ??????

Step 3: Profit!

The "I Have a Sad For You" Player of the Game: We should probably just retire this in A.J. Walton's name and get it over with.

I Can't Figure Out How... Quincy Miller had 5 rebounds in the first 18 minutes of the game and none in the last 22. Drew actually brought him off the court for Heslip's last trip to the line in favor of Anthony Jones, who has never seen a rebound he didn't want to miss. I'm guessing it's Jones's wily veteranocity.

I'll have more in tomorrow's (now today's) DBR. Until then, sic 'em, Bears!