3.4.2012 Weekend Recap: WBB Goes Undefeated, MBB Drops to the 4 Seed, and More...

March came in like a lion for Baylor's major spring sports programs, all of whom saw action this weekend. Our Lady Bears capped off the first undefeated regular season in Big XII history (undefeated overall, not just in conference play) at 31-0 and will go into the conference tournament next week. Baylor's first game of the tournament will be Thursday morning at 11:00 AM against the winner of Texas-Texas Tech. That game tips off at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, so the Lady Bears should know who they play by 8 that night. Baylor will be heavily favored no matter the opponent in that game. Here is the complete WBB tournament schedule from the official Big XII schedule, and here is the article about it from BaylorBears.com.

I've long felt like Baylor fans (who are representative of all of college sports fans in this respect) don't pay enough attention to women's sports. It's entirely understandable given that football lords far above all else in the fall and MBB with March Madness does the same in the spring. Those sports bring in so much money and prestige that there's really no other way for things to work. Recognizing that WBB, as fantastic as it is, will never reach those same heights (and that's not a slight against the ladies whatsoever; it's a fact), we can still appreciate greatness when we see it and give credit where credit is due.

So far, the 2011-2012 Baylor Lady Bears have been nothing short of great. Brittney Griner, the unstoppable junior center for that team, has been undoubtedly the best player in the country. She's doing everything that Robert Griffin III did for our football team and she has the talent around her, particularly sophomore PG Odyssey Sims, to keep it from being a one-woman show. You can say it is that she is so much bigger than anyone around her the game isn't even fair; you can make crass jokes about her that you would never want made about one of your own players; you can do whatever you want to do to try to discount what she's done this season. The fact remains, however, that she will be the National Player of the Year in NCAA Women's Basketball-- and just like Robert's Heisman she would be the first ever for Baylor-- and she anchors the best team in all the land. Baylor fans are spoiled in that we get to see two incredibly special individual performances in the same athletic year.

Let's head below the jump to see what else happened this weekend.

I managed to get this far into the post without actually sharing any links, so we should get that out of the way for WBB. Here is the writeup from BaylorBears.com of the game with highlights. They focus (predictably) on Griner's career-best 40-point performance on Senior Night for the Lady Bears.

53 IOWA STATE (18-11, 9-9) Rank: NR/NR

1ST 2ND F 32 21 53 32 45 77 Box Score | Quotes | Notes | AP Photos Baylor Photos | Highlights | Postgame Waco, Texas • Attendance: 9,435

77 BAYLOR (31-0, 18-0) Rank: #1/1

MBB Falls to the #4 Seed in the Big XII Tournament:

Saturday evening was not so kind to our men's team as the morning to the women; Baylor fell at Iowa State by the score of 80-72 despite a herculean performance from PG Pierre Jackson, who scored a career-high 35 points against the Cyclones.

72 BAYLOR (25-6, 12-6) Rank: #9/10

1ST 2ND F 37 35 72 30 50 80 Box Score | Notes | Photos | Highlights Ames, Iowa • Attendance: 14,376

80 IOWA STATE (22-9, 12-6) Rank: RV/RV

I'm not going to mince words about this game, the official write-up of which you can find here (again, with highlights). Baylor should have won. I know it is difficult to win on the road, that Iowa State is probably a better team than I'm giving them credit for being, and that I went a little homertastic on twitter during the second half. I get all of that. I'm not trying to start a discussion about Scott Drew's future here like the one that occurred last night on Baylor's 247Sports board (although there are posters over there whose opinions I absolutely trust). I'm not going to launch into a thousand word tirade about how Scott Drew needs to hire a coach to help him instill proper fundamentals (though I do think that). I will say that Baylor is a more talented team that Iowa State as evidenced by the blowout in Waco earlier this season, Baylor played a terrible second half last night and gave away the game with stupid mistakes and poor decisionmaking, and that, after having watched the game again off my DVR earlier this evening, the officiating in this game was questionable at best.

Here we are, though, with Baylor firmly ensconced as the fourth seed in the Big XII Tournament by virtue of Iowa State's win earlier this season over Kansas (that's the tiebreaker after conference records-- records against similar opponents) and staring at Kansas State on Thursday morning at 11:30 on ESPN2. The winner of that game will almost certainly play Kansas at 6:30 on Friday.

Another link about the game from ESPN (with a more extensive box score).

For slightly better news, I am glad to see Quincy Acy's senior season recognized as he was named to the All-Big XII second team today. 4 Baylor players were honored today, and you can read the post on BaylorBears.com here.

2012 BIG 12 POSTSEASON HONORS
Quincy Acy
All-Big 12, second team (coaches)
Big 12 All-Defensive Team (coaches) – unanimous selection

Pierre Jackson
All-Big 12, first team (Kansas City Star)
All-Big 12, second team (coaches)
Big 12 All-Rookie Team (coaches) – unanimous selection

Perry Jones III
All-Big 12, second team (Kansas City Star)
All-Big 12, third team (coaches)

Quincy Miller
Big 12 Co-Freshman of the Year (coaches)
All-Big 12, honorable mention (coaches)
Big 12 All-Rookie Team (coaches)

Baylor Baseball Wins 2, Loses 2 in QTI Baylor Classic:

I'm just going to give you the links on this one since I didn't see any of the games and there is someone lurking about who can give you a much better picture than I.

Friday:

2 UC IRVINE (5-4) Rank: NR

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 7 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 4 7 2 Box Score | Quotes | Highlights Waco, Texas • Attendance: 2,636

4 BAYLOR (8-2) Rank: #25

Turley Pitches Baseball to 4-2 Win vs. UC Irvine - Baylor Bears Official Athletic Site - BaylorBears.com
Baylor's offense scored four early runs, and Josh Turley allowed only one run in 7.0 innings, as the 25th-ranked Bears knocked off UC Irvine, 4-2, on Friday night at Baylor Ballpark.

Saturday:

Baseball Beats UC Irvine, Loses to Lamar - Baylor Bears Official Athletic Site - BaylorBears.com
Baylor dropped its first game of the day against Lamar, 8-0, but the Bears bounced back in the nightcap to take a 6-1 win against UC Irvine during the second day of the QTI Baylor Classic on Saturday night at Baylor Ballpark.

LAMAR 8, BAYLOR 0 Box Score

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E 0 1 1 1 3 0 1 1 0 8 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 1

BAYLOR 6, UC IRVINE 1 Box Score | Quotes | Photos | Highlights

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 X 6 12 0

Sunday:

Baseball's Rally Falls Short in 8-7 Loss - Baylor Bears Official Athletic Site - BaylorBears.com
Baylor rallied from an early 6-0 deficit to cut Lamar's lead to one, but the Bears left the potential tying run on second base in the ninth inning of an 8-7 loss on Sunday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark.

8 LAMAR (4-6) Rank: NR

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E 5 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 8 10 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 2 0 7 7 0 Box Score | Quotes Waco, Texas • Attendance: 2,464

7 BAYLOR (9-4) Rank: #25

Baylor Softball Wins the First 2, Drops Last 3 in Weekend Series:

The Lady Bears played 5 games this weekend and this post is long enough already, so I'll give you the links to the recaps and you can go from there.

No. 10 Baylor Sweeps Ranked Opponents - Baylor Bears Official Athletic Site - BaylorBears.com
The No. 10 Baylor softball team (14-2) used great pitching and timely hitting to knock off a pair of ranked opponents, defeating No. 18 Oregon (9-3) 2-1 before beating No. 24 North Carolina (12-4) 2-0 in the nightcap of the 2012 Citrus Classic.

No. 10 Softball Drops Pair - Baylor Bears Official Athletic Site - BaylorBears.com
The No. 10 Baylor softball team (14-4) fell behind and couldnt mount enough of a comeback, falling to No. 14 UCLA (13-5) 10-6 and Illinois State (9-10) 6-4 on day two of the 2012 Citrus Classic.

No. 10 Softball Falls To Syracuse 2-1 - Baylor Bears Official Athletic Site - BaylorBears.com
Two solo home runs from Syracuse (9-6) were enough to knock off No. 10 Baylor (14-5) Sunday morning on day three of the Citrus Classic at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla.