The Baylor Bears are looking unstoppable this season. They are clearly among the teams expected to go very deep in the National Tournament. For now, they will just have to build their resume to lock up a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance. A loss to the Iowa State Cyclones definitely would hurt their chances to get that seed. Will Baylor crush the Cyclones anew? Or will Iowa State shock the world with a victory over the Bears?
Iowa State needs a miracle to get a ticket to March Madness. Nothing is going right for the Cyclones this season, and their only chance to get to the National Tournament is likely by way of winning the Big 12 tournament, which they are not expected to go to even past the first round. That being said, the Cyclones will come into the game against Baylor knowing that they were not completely annihilated by the Bears the first time these two teams met this season. That was back in January, when the Bears beat Iowa State, 76-65 in Ames, with the Cyclones managing to cover the 15.5-point spread as home underdogs. Iowa State, which has a game this Saturday against the Oklahoma Sooners, is averaging 75.7 points per game on 45.3 percent shooting from the field and 1.079 points per possession.
Iowa State is 4-3 against the spread in its last seven road games.
You pretty much know what you are going to see from Baylor: torrid outside shooting and tight defense. That’s how the Bears win games this season, and that certainly showed in their 83-69 win over the Texas Longhorns last Tuesday. Baylor shot 62.2 percent inside the arc and went 11 of 21 from deep for a 52.4 percent success rate. Because they shoot so well from deep, the Bears can space the floor out on offense and create huge driving lanes for players to attack for easy baskets. In the win over Texas, Baylor shot 52.4 percent from behind the arc and 62.2 percent inside of it, while limiting the Longhorns to just 1.03 points per possession. Baylor is third in the nation with 87.0 points per game and 22nd with just 62.8 points allowed per contest.
Baylor is 6-4 against the spread in its last 10 games overall.
