Baylor (24-5) at Texas (21-8)
When: Monday, February 28th 2022
Where: Erwin Events Center,
Austin, TX
Time: 9:00 ET | TV: ESPN
Opening Odds: Baylor -1/135.5
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We are down to the final week of the regular season and the Baylor Bears still have a chance at another Big 12 title. The Bears head to Austin on Monday night with just one day of rest after a hard-fought game on Saturday to take on the 20th-ranked Texas Longhorns. Baylor is within a half-game of first place Kansas after an exciting 80-70 win over the Jayhawks on Saturday in Waco. The Bears are now 10-1 against top-10 opponents over the past two seasons. Baylor used just seven players against Kansas and trailed 16-4 midway through the first half and by 13 points with 5:49 remaining. The Bears used a spurt after that to cut the deficit to one at intermission. Baylor did not trail over the final 11 minutes, holding Kansas to 29.4 percent shooting in the second half.
The Longhorns have won back-to-back games after a 82-81 road win at West Virginia on Saturday. This will mark the final men’s basketball game in the 45-year history of the Frank Erwin Center. The arena is being torn down to facilitate the expansion of the Dell Medical School and will be replaced by the Moody Center next season. Texas beat up the Bears 80-63 back on Feb. 12 in Waco, but have won three of four since. The Longhorns are just 12-17 ATS on the season and have failed to cover four of their last five games. Baylor has won each of the last five meetings including covering the last four.
Baylor beat Kansas on Saturday despite shooting just 3-of-14 from long range and turning the ball over eight times to just four by Kansas. The success came on the defensive end that limited Kansas to only 24-of-70 shooting from the field. The Jayhawks’ top two players – Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun – scored 44 points together but combined for a poor shooting percentage (14-of-35). That’s sort of defense was the reason Baylor routed Texas last month in Waco. The Longhorns shot only 32.8 percent from the field in that game, while Bears center Flo Thamba recorded four of Baylor’s seven blocks. Thamba led the Bears with a career-high 18 points on Saturday, while Jeremy Sochan added 17 points, Adam Flagler had 13 and Matthew Mayer recorded 12 rebounds.
After losing to the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Feb. 19 at home, the Longhorns rebounded nicely with consecutive wins over TCU and West Virginia in Morgantown. Timmy Allen exploded for 26 points to go with 10 rebounds in 36 minutes in the win against West Virginia, while Marcus Carr added 15 points. Those combined for only 16 points on 6-of-14 shooting in the first meeting with Texas. Allen shot 7-of-9 Saturday, Carr was 6-for-6, while Jase Febres made 5-of-6, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range. Texas is fourth in the nation with just 58.8 points allowed per contest. The Over is 7-3 in Texas’ last 10 games overall.
This is a bad spot for Baylor. Not only are they coming off an emotional home win over Kansas, they’ll be playing the final game at the Erwin Events Center. The Longhorns are playing well and will be motivated for this one.
Pick: Texas +1
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