Baylor Survives Kansas State In Manhattan

#4 Baylor 75, #18 Kansas State 73
Kansas State, coming off a big home victory over Missouri, looked to be in position to grab another big home win here. Baylor trailed for most of the game, and Kansas State was doing a good job of crashing the boards for second chance opportunities. But over the final ten minutes of the game, Baylor upped the pressure of their zone defense, and Kansas State looked very confused. The Wildcats have always been an undisciplined offensive team under Frank Martin, and they didn't have Jacob Pullen or Denis Clemente to bail them out here. Rodney McGruder had a huge game (30 points on 10-for-14 shooting), but he only hit one shot in the final seven minutes.

Baylor had their own offensive troubles. They don't have a great playmaker, and often get too reliant on one-on-one basketball. They had four charges called on them in the second half alone, and the fouls started to add up. Five different Baylor players finished with four fouls, though not one player fouled out.

Baylor continues to pull out games like this. They are now 16-0, including 4-0 in games decided by three points or less. They'll end up losing some close games eventually, but they're looking like a team that will be in the Big 12 title hunt all season long. They'll play Oklahoma State, but the real game they're looking forward to will be on Monday night at Kansas. An upset there would put them in control of the Big 12, at least temporarily.

Kansas State falls to 1-2, but it's come against a brutal schedule (at Kansas, vs Missouri, vs Baylor). Their schedule eases up in a big way the next few weeks, and they'll improve on that conference record. They head to Oklahoma on Saturday and then get Texas on Tuesday, which isn't a huge improvement, but after that will play six consecutive games against teams outside the Pomeroy Top 50.

Providence 90, #15 Louisville 59
Louisville has been in a tailspin for more than three weeks now, but this was the worst game of them all. The pollsters should finally drop them from their lofty ranking in the polls, though at the same time it's possible that a game like this can bring catharsis and can help them mentally right the ship for their next game. Their effort level dropped late in this game, which is the first time I've seen that from them during this slump. What was the same in this game as all the others has been putrid offensive efficiency. Over the last seven games they have scored at a rate of 0.97 PPP, including only 0.94 PPP in Big East play.

Louisville's issue hasn't been turnovers, it's been shot selection and offensive flow. Peyton Siva has regressed horribly, and Russ Smith hasn't been able to replicate that performance he had against Kentucky a couple of weeks ago. You would think that at some point their outside shots will start to fall (they were 4-for-19 on threes here), but they don't really have any quality outside shooters. I'm not sure where those baskets are going to come from. Louisville has a great pressure defense, and excellent athletes. They need to get back to focusing on that and calming down on offense. Don't let rushed offense blow games that the defense has earned.

Louisville has lost four of five and is now 1-3 in Big East play. It's not inconceivable that they could fall into the bubble if they don't halt this slide soon. A 9-9 finish in the Big East will make them a bubble team for sure. They'll get DePaul at home on Saturday but then will head on the road to play Marquette and Pittsburgh next week.

Providence is a young team just hoping to make a little bit of noise while they wait for reinforcements coming in the form of their 2012 recruiting class. There's a good chance that this will end up being their best win of the season. They're now 1-4 heading into a road game at Syracuse on Saturday. After that they'll get a week off before a home game against Marquette.

Florida State 63, Virginia Tech 59
Florida State had been stumbling of late because of inefficient offense, and honestly their offense didn't improve much here. They only seemed to score off of Bernard James put-backs (he had nine offensive rebounds, and finished with 18 points scored). But the FSU defense got back to what they've been most of the past few years - just tremendous on the interior. They are so long and athletic that at times you wonder how anybody can score in the paint against them. Florida State actually blocked 15 of Virginia Tech's 47 two-point attempts.

Coming off three losses in their last four games, including bad losses to Princeton and Clemson, this was nearly a must-win game for Florida State. There isn't a huge margin of error in the ACC this season, and FSU didn't have any quality non-conference wins either. They'll have to go at least 9-7 in ACC play to have a good chance at an at-large bid, and a loss here would have dropped them to 0-2 with a game against North Carolina looming (on Saturday). Now they're 1-1 and will have a chance to get their first big scalp of the season against the Tar Heels. Their next game after that will be Tuesday against Maryland.

Virginia Tech has stumbled to an 0-2 start to ACC play, including a bad loss to Wake Forest. In non-conference play, the closest thing they had to a quality win was against Oklahoma State, so they're also going to need to finish at least 9-7 in ACC play to have a good shot at an at-large bid. They probably won't have too much trouble on Saturday at Boston College, and then come home for a huge game against North Carolina next Saturday.