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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.

By Mark C. Moore
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.

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