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Final in Waco: Baylor Bears 51, TCU Horned Frogs 40

Despite the ugliest first half in recent basketball memory at any level, the Baylor Bears, led by the interior trio of Cory Jefferson, Isaiah Austin, and Rico Gathers, built a lead and coasted in the second half.

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Shut down the voting for the Most Improved Player in the Big 12 voting, it's over. Cory Jefferson has won. If there isn't such an award, there should be. Name it after Cory Jefferson.

Once the Bears committed their offense to going inside and staying there in the second half, this game, which quite possibly set the entire sport back forty years in the first half, no longer remained such and the Bears ran away. Jefferson, in particular, continued the strong play of his junior season, dominating the Frogs with 15 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Isaiah Austin added another 10 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks for good measure, and Rico Gathers, hopefully showing what we can expect from him the rest of the way, added 4 points, 8 rebounds, a steal, and a block. It was a tour de force performance from the Bears' frontcourt.

Conspicuously absent, but perhaps less conspicuously with how the season has gone thus far, was Brady Heslip, who scored no points and only got on the box score at all by virtue of one steal. One steal, that's it. Heslip only took 3 shots, to be fair, but he was a non-factor again because of TCU's hounding defense, and that's a problem. They're not the best defensive team we're going to face this season by any stretch, and he couldn't get open.

Still, a win's a win, right? No. I can't even say that with a straight face. We scored 21 points in the first half and actually trailed at the break, two things that are embarrassing to think about. At least Scott Drew managed to avoid permanent enshrinement in the Ewing Theory club by losing the game.