The 2011 Big 12 tournament is underway, and the Baylor Bears will tipoff against the Oklahoma Sooners later tonight. Every game from here on out is essentially the last game of Baylor's season - or they need to play like that, at least.
The Bears looked to be on track to earn an at-large bid in the 2011 NCAA Tournament following their upset win over the Texas A&M Aggies a little over a week ago. Since then, Baylor has dropped their last two games, losing to Oklahoma State in Stillwater and losing to the Texas Longhorns at home. There's not much shame in losing to Texas, but the loss against Oklahoma State? That one hurts, and hurts a lot.
More on Baylor after the jump.
Baylor isn't even among the last eight teams out in Blogging the Bracket's latest predictive bracket. That can change, though, with a couple of wins in the Big 12 tourney. Baylor should be able to handle Oklahoma tonight. It's definitely not enough of a win - assuming they do win - to put them back in the NCAA tournament. The real test would come on Thursday, when the winner of the Baylor/Oklahoma game takes on Texas. If the Bears can beat both the Sooners and the Longhorns, then they'd have a fairly legitimate chance at grabbing one of the at-large bids.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though. Baylor needs to win, and win now. Every game is the last game of their season - if they want to be playing for more than the NIT. They need to take care of business against Oklahoma tonight, and then tomorrow, they can worry about Texas.
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