Big 12 Tournament 2014 | Baylor Bears vs. Iowa State Cyclones Game Thread

vs

Baylor (24-10) vs. Iowa State (25-7) March 15, 2014 | 8:00 p.m. CT Kansas City, Mo. | Sprint Center (18,972) TV: ESPNWeb Video: WatchESPN Radio: ESPN Central Texas

Baylor Radio | Gametracker | Tickets | BU Notes

Took a look over at the lasted updated KenPom rankings a few minutes ago, and this game is actually much closer now than it was before.

Iowa State KenPom: 25, AdjO: 17, AdjD: 55, Tempo: 12, Luck: 37
Baylor KenPom: 28, AdjO: 5, AdjD: 110, Tempo: 328, Luck: 133

If you click on the team names and have a KenPom subscription, you can see the full profiles.

Baylor now has the #5 offense in the country despite being ranked 328th in tempo. That is almost certainly a reflection of low turnovers and outstanding offensive rebounding.

These two teams split their games in the regular season with each taking their home game by double digits. That could point the needle toward Iowa State, who will have by far the bigger crowd in attendance, but it is worth noting that Baylor's trip to Ames came in the opening weeks of the Big 12 conference schedule. This is a very different team than the one that played that night. It's also probably a very fatigued team, since they're playing their 4th game in 4 nights. If they win, they'd be the first to do so in that scenario, a product of being the first seed over #3 to win the tournament.

Statsheet.com's preview of the game has us listed as a 2-point underdog for this game, one point above KenPom's 77-76 prediction that has Iowa State winning. Also from their preview:

Baylor is trying to join a very exclusive group tonight of teams to win their conference in football, basketball, and women's basketball. To do so, they'll have to overcome their own tired legs, stop Iowa State from riding the wave of a hostile (to Baylor) crowd to another dynamite shooting performance, and keep either Melvin Ejim or DeAndre Kane (or both!) in check. Hopefully the game looks more like the 13-point Baylor win from 11 days ago than the 15-point Iowa State win from January 7.

Sic 'em.