WBB | Big 12 Tourney: 2nd Round vs. Jayhawks

Who: Baylor Bears (26-4, 16-2) vs. Kansas Jayhawks (13-18, 5-13)
When: 1:30 p.m.
Where: Oklahoma City, Okla. - Chesapeake Energy Arena
TV/Radio: Fox Sports 1 - 92.9 FM/1660 AM

The real journey to another National Championship starts right here in Oklahoma City. The 4-time consecutive Big 12 Tournament Champions, your Lady Bears look to defend their titles. In their way are eight other teams that want to take Baylor down. It won't be nearly as easy like the seasons before this one. However, led by Odyssey Sims, the Lady Bears have all the tools to do it again.

We watched as Baylor rolled through a good part of the Big 12 regular season. There was two blips on the radar this season. It's the most losses in conference play for the Lady Bears since 2009-10 regular season. It's really just a compliment to the strength of the Big 12 this season. Because of the strength of the conferece, that's why the Lady Bears are 9-3 vs. Top 25 teams and 11-3 vs. Top 50 teams.

This will be the third meeting against the Jayhawks this season and not all have been sunshine and rainbows. The Jayhawks actually beat the Lady Bears back on January 19th. That loss ended the 44-game regular season winning streak. However, it woke up Baylor after that. Baylor won their next five games by the average of 20 points per game.

The Jayhawks (13-18) are coming off a very surprising overtime victory over Kansas St. Wildcats in the first round of the 2014 Big 12 Women's Tournament. Super senior, Chelsea Gardner was pivotal in the Jayhawk come back. Kansas was down by 16 points in the first half, but fought back and won in overtime.

If the Lady Bears can get contributions from others in the game and not just Sims, they'll have a solid chance of blowing out the Jayhawks like their first meeting. Baylor head coach, Kim Mulkey is renowned for her ability to put together quality game plans. It should be very interesting to see how she defends Gardner.

The tournament is in Baylor's hands. They have the Player of the Year and the Defensive Player of the Year in Sims. Teammate Nina Davis was named Freshman of the Year to top off the awards Baylor has won.

Kansas and Baylor have met 28 times over their histories. Their meetings date back to 1978. Baylor leads the Jayhawks overall 19-7. Kansas as said before, beat the Lady Bears this season, so splitting the season series. They've met three times at the Big 12 Championships, with the Lady Bears leading 2-1.

You can follow @OKCChuck on Twitter as he covers the Big 12 Championships throughout the weekend.