Baylor (22-5) at Oklahoma State (13-13)
When: Monday, February 21st 2022
Where: Gallagher-Iba Arena,
Stillwater, OK
Time: 9:00 ET | TV: ESPN
Opening Odds: Baylor -5/139
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The Oklahoma State Cowboys have a lot of work to do in order to get back into the NCAA Tournament discussion, which makes Monday night’s game all that important. Oklahoma State will host the No. 7 Baylor Bears at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater looking to improve their resume. The Cowboys shocked the then-No. 1 Bears back on Jan. 15 and followed that up with a home win over TCU. Then the wheels fell off. Oklahoma State went on to lose six of their next eight games before a 82-79 overtime win over Kansas State on Saturday thanks to Avery Anderson III’s 3-pointer with 3.5 seconds to play. A win over a top-10 team is a must at this point with only three regular season games remaining after Monday.
Baylor is looking to stay close to the Kansas Jayhawks in the Big 12 standings and improve on their NCAA Tournament seeding. The Bears are dealing with some key injuries but managed to record a 72-62 home win over TCU on Saturday. The team was without Adam Flagler and LJ Cryer, who are both listed as questionable for Monday. The victory kept Baylor within 1.5 games of Kansas with a home date with the Jayhawks looming later this week. Baylor built a 21-point lead late in the second half before TCU rallied with garbage points at the end. The Bears forced 15 turnovers and held TCU to 43.5 percent shooting from the floor. Baylor is just 1-4 ATS in the last five meetings with Oklahoma State including two straight losses.
Cryer missed his sixth game in Baylor’s past seven contests with a foot injury, while Flagler was out with a sore knee. The rest of the team stepped up with Jeremy Sochan and Kendall Brown combining for 30 points. Sochan led the way with 17, followed by Matthew Mayer’s 16 and Brown’s 13. James Akinjo (11) and Flo Thamba (10) also scored in double-digits to help Baylor record their third victory in four games. Baylor is in the top-40 in both scoring offense (77.5) and scoring defense (63.0), but shoot just 68.7 percent from the foul line (266th). Baylor is 25-10-1 ATS in their last 36 road contests.
Bryce Thompson scored 23 points for the Cowboys on Saturday in the win over Kansas State, while Anderson finished with 20 and Kalib Boone chipped in 11. The Cowboys shot 51.9 percent from the floor, but turned the ball over 13 times to keep the Wildcats in it. Oklahoma State has had a hard time with their perimeter shooting all season, ranking 327th in the nation at 30.2 percent. Like Baylor, the Cowboys are also a poor free-throw shooting team, ranking 320th (66.8 percent). Oklahoma State will be at rival Oklahoma on Saturday.
The road team has dominated this series recently to the tune of a 15-4-2 ATS run. The Bears are a little short-handed, but still way better than Oklahoma State. I’ll lay the points.
Pick: Baylor -4.5
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