KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There’s nothing more dangerous in March than a team playing for its March Madness life.
That’s the position the ninth-ranked Texas Tech basketball team finds itself in for Thursday’s quarterfinals of the Big 12 Conference tournament. As a lock to make the NCAA tournament, the Red Raiders don’t have much to play for while their opponent, the Baylor Bears, are trying to take themselves well off the bubble of the NCAA Tournament picture.
The Bears (19-13) may have done just that on Wednesday with a dominant 70-56 win over Kansas State, but Jeremy Roach — who experienced plenty of success at Duke before transferring to Baylor — knows the third month of the year is where the bread gets buttered.
“Obviously it’s a one-game season now in March, so just definitely taking advantage of just setting the tone and making them play to our pace,” Roach said Wednesday. “I think that’s the biggest thing coming into March. You don’t want to be behind and scratch and claw your way back into a game. You kind of want to impose your will early and I think we did that tonight.”
Texas Tech basketball vs. Baylor: Scouting report
This will be the second matchup of the season between the Red Raiders (24-7) and Bears. Texas Tech won the first meeting 73-59 back on Feb. 4 in Lubbock. Head coach Scott Drew made a loud statement after the game, saying the Red Raiders were a team capable of making a run to the Final Four.
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His players have the same kind of admiration for the Red Raiders.
“They’re a great team. You’ve got to give it to them,” Norchad Omier said Wednesday. “They’re a great team. We’re going to do some adjustments. I don’t think anybody is unbeatable and we’re in March. I feel good where we’re at. I think we’ve been growing during the season. We grew a lot at the end of the season and that’s something very important for me. I’m proud of these guys.”
Baylor has reason to feel good. The Bears played their most complete game in quite some time on Wednesday, earning their largest margin of victory since a 81-76 win over UCF on Feb. 8.
The Bears also had some key pieces missing for that first game against Texas Tech. Roach was playing his first game back from his second concussion of the season, but Baylor was without the services of freshman VJ Edgecombe, a projected lottery pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, and Langston Love, who has missed much of the season.
Edgecombe, the Big 12 freshman of the year, was 7-for-15 from the field for 19 points and also grabbed 10 rebounds against Kansas State.
Key matchup: Texas Tech’s JT Toppin vs. Baylor’s Norchad Omier
During Wednesday’s game, Omier appeared gassed in the first half, taking his time to get up the court and needing a few moments to collect himself before joining the Baylor huddle.
Omier said he’s still getting accustomed to the weather in Kansas City, which has a different feel from Waco. He also expelled plenty of energy corralling 14 rebounds against the Wildcats.
Thursday’s matchup will highlight two of the nation’s best rebounders in Omier (10.7 per game) and Texas Tech’s JT Toppin (9.3). Toppin has racked up postseason accolades already, earning Big 12 Player of the Year from multiple entities and second team all-American from two others.
Both are a bit undersized for their position, Omier listed at 6-foot-7 and Toppin at 6-foot-9. Omier noticed another similarity in the first meeting last month.
“He crashes the board hard,” Omier said of Toppin. “He reminded me of me, a little younger me, but he crashed the board hard.”
Omier had 16 points and 12 rebounds, while Toppin finished with just eight points and eight rebounds in the first matchup.
Score prediction: Baylor 74, Texas Tech 73
Bottom line: Baylor should be safely into the March Madness field, but the Bears also can’t afford to rest on Wednesday’s win being the deciding factor. A victory over the ninth-ranked Red Raiders would do it, though, and the Bears are about as healthy as they’ve been since the beginning of the season.
