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Kansas State blows out Baylor in Manhattan 81-61

After closing to 43-41 in the second half, Baylor was outscored the 38-20 the rest of the way and ended up dropping the fifth game of the conference schedule this season by a lopsided score. This one definitely isn't going in the season highlight video.

USA TODAY Sports

I'm most upset at this point not at the result from the game-- we were a heavy underdog and never really seemed likely to win at any point-- but the end of Pierre Jackson's streak where he scored in double figures in rather ignominious fashion. I hate that for him because he's probably going to place a lot of the blame for the game's result on that fact. Note to Pierre-- this was hardly your fault. Take your turnovers out and we still have 16 to their 6. They still shot 44% on 3s for the game as a whole. You weren't the reason we were giving up uncontested dunks and wide-open shots after getting so close. This game was not your fault.

This game was much more about a defense charitably described as porous, an offense that committed turnover after turnover after turnover, and a team that simply had no answer to the problems they faced. I don't want to make this into a larger indictment of the team as a whole because blowouts happen. Kansas State is clearly an upper-echelon team in our league and probably one of the 10 best in the country this season. Right now, though, we are probably on the outside looking in for a tournament spot and need to start winning games. Here's our schedule moving forward, and we're sitting at 16-9 (7-5). We have six games total remaining.


Bears Basketball Schedule

Next 5 Games

Iowa St. Wed 02/20 8:00 PM CST
@ Oklahoma Sat 02/23 4:00 PM CST
@ West Virginia Wed 02/27 7:00 PM CST
Kansas St. Sat 03/02 6:00 PM CST
@ Texas Mon 03/04 8:00 PM CST

Last 5 Games

@ Kansas St. Sat 02/16 L 61 - 81
West Virginia Wed 02/13 W 80 - 60
Texas Tech Sat 02/09 W 75 - 48
@ Oklahoma St. Wed 02/06 L 67 - 69
@ Iowa St. Sat 02/02 L 71 - 79

Baylor will probably be favored against WVU and Texas, even with Myck Kabongo back from his suspension. Winning those two games gets us to 18. I think we need at least 20. The only other game on our schedule not reflected there is the season-ender at home against Kansas. They're still a good team, regardless of their current relative malaise. So in all likelihood we're going to need two wins out of a set where we get ISU, KSU, and KU at home and OU on the road.

Of those four, @OU and at home against ISU seem the most likely possibilities. Earlier this season we lost to ISU by 8 in Ames and beat OU by 3 at home. Win those two and we can get there. Lose them and it's going to take a miracle, or at the very least an extremely strong showing, in the Big 12 Tournament. I hope I'm wrong.