No. 3 Kansas visits No. 4 Baylor in showdown (Feb 18, 2017)
WACO, Texas -- Once again, Kansas heads down the stretch in Big 12 play with the chance to win the conference title in its own hands.
Despite having two Big 12 foes in the top 10 in the nation -- current No. 4 Baylor and No. 9 West Virginia -- for much of this season, the third-ranked Jayhawks have weathered a deep conference to sit atop it.
Kansas (23-3, 11-2 Big 12) can all but clinch its 13th straight conference championship by winning at Baylor on Saturday. The Jayhawks enter the game (CBS, 1 p.m. ET) with a two-game lead over second-place Baylor.
If Kansas beats the Bears, the Jayhawks will have a three-game lead in the standings with four games left in the regular season.
Baylor (22-4, 9-4) can make things interesting by winning on its home court, but the Bears will still need some help to grab at least a share of the conference championship.
Of course, just about every team in the Big 12 has proven capable this season of defeating anyone else. Oklahoma, currently in 10th place, won at West Virginia, and Texas Tech, tied for eighth, has wins over the Mountaineers and Baylor.
So the Bears believe they still have a shot at a Big 12 title.
"Obviously, the Big 12 is deep, so you never know what's going to happen," Baylor guard Jake Lindsey said. "There's a lot of good teams. Obviously this is a big game as far as we need to come out and perform well if we want to accomplish our goal. But you never know."
Baylor will be attempting to rebound from a loss at Texas Tech on Monday. The Red Raiders held Bears forward and leading scorer Johnathan Motley to 11 points.
When Motley has been effective this season, Baylor has been very difficult to beat. But Kansas figured out a way to clamp down on Motley for a half when the Jayhawks grabbed a 73-68 victory over the Bears on Feb. 1 in Lawrence, Kan.
Motley scored 14 points in the first half the first time around against Kansas, but the Jayhawks held him to two in the final 20 minutes. Baylor led that game 34-28 at the break.
"They played volleyball in the first half against us on the offensive boards," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "We've got to do a better job of blocking out and hitting somebody because if it's a standing jump contest, they're going to win. We've got to do a better job of rebounding the ball. We've also got to eliminate Motley's good touches, which we didn't do at all in the first half."
Baylor will get guard Al Freeman back from a three-game suspension for violation of team policy. Freeman started 22 games this season before being suspended following Baylor's loss to Kansas State. He is averaging 9.5 points.
However, Baylor coach Scott Drew said guard King McClure will continue to start in Freeman's place.
"We all mistakes, but it's more important how we respond," Drew said. "I think Al's responded in a very good way. It's a situation where he'll be able to help the team moving forward. We're excited about that."
Kansas has some momentum coming into the top-five showdown at Baylor after the Jayhawks erased a seven-point deficit in the final minute and beat West Virginia 84-80 in overtime, 84-80.
Senior guard Frank Mason III led Kansas with 24 points and five assists against the Mountaineers. He and freshman guard Josh Jackson, averaging 16.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists, are both national player of the year candidates.
