The Baylor Bears will look to get back on track for March madness betting tonight against the Oklahoma Sooners at Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas.
Oklahoma +12 (-110) 141½ (-110)
Baylor -12 (-110) 141½ (-110)
It seems like it was only yesterday that fans planning on betting on March madness considered the Bears to be a shoe-in No. 1 seed for the NCAA tournament. Now they can all but say goodbye to the Big 12 title. How the mighty have fallen. Baylor lost to No. 3 Kansas on Saturday – their second straight loss and fourth in the last six games. Johnathan Motley had 19 points, Manu Lecomte had 16, and Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. added 11. BU led 65-59 after King McClure made two free throws with 3:34 remaining, but like Spock after pon farr they never scored again. Lecomte missed a hail-mary shot and the Bears couldn’t get the ball to Motley on the last possession. The Bears are 9-5 in conference play; with one more win they would tie their 9th-most wins in a season in the history of the program and mark the 5th time that BU has reached double-figure wins in Big 12 play. Baylor’s overall record is 22-5; the Bears have won 22+ games every season since 2012, one of 19 schools to have done so entering the 2016-17 season. Head coach Scott Drew, in his 14th season at Baylor, is the school’s all-time most winning coach.
The Sooners missed a chance to build March madness betting momentum against Oklahoma State on Saturday. OU snapped a seven-game losing streak with a win over Texas, but went back to their losing ways versus OSU. Rashard Odomes had a career-best 29 points and 10 rebounds. Odomes is averaging 29.5 minutes per game and has started in all 26 contests after averaging 6.1 mpg in 18 games last season. Dante Buford and Christian James scored 13 points apiece. James made a 3-pointer from the corner to give OU an 80-69 lead halfway through the second half before the Cowboys raised the shields. The Sooners’ last made field goal came with 5:50 left. Head coach Lon Kruger was denied the chance to reach 600 career NCAA Division wins, but he has another chance tonight against the Bears. OU is 1-1 when facing AP Top 25 teams on the road this regular season. Oklahoma is 44-13 in the all-time series against BU and has won 39 of the last 47 encounters. The Sooners are 8-5 over the Bears during the Kruger era. Baylor is one of three Big 12 teams that OU has a winning road record against. Oklahoma is 19-6 in Waco and has won 19 of its last 23 road games versus the Bears. Baylor has swept OU in the regular season only two times in the Big 12 era; most recently during Kruger’s first season. Since his first year with the Sooners, Kruger has led OU to an 8-3 record against the Bears. Baylor was seeded 3rd overall in the NCAA’s March madness betting bracket preview. No such luck for OU fans would have liked betting on March madness.