Baylor follows up 1-seed projection with damaging loss at Texas Tech

The NCAA tournament selection committee made history Saturday by releasing its first-ever in-season bracket projection, and of all the words uttered by committee chairman Mark Hollis on CBS’s telecast, 10 were as emphatic as any.

“The separation is great,” Hollis said. “The ones are clearly the ones,” he emphasized, leaving no doubt about the teams at the top of the bracket.

Baylor was one of those teams, and those words, more than anything, were a positive appraisal of the Bears, who came in as the third of those four top seeds. Scott Drew’s team had been talked about on the bridge between the 1-seed and 2-seed lines. The committee clearly felt otherwise. And thus Hollis left Baylor with a clearly explicated directive: Continue to do what you’ve been doing — continue to win like you’ve been winning in the Big 12 — and you’ll be here to stay.

Consider that directive disobeyed.

Baylor responded to the instruction in about the worst way possible, with an 84-78 loss at Texas Tech. Students stormed the floor in Lubbock, and might as well have ripped that 1-seed right from underneath the nose of Scott Drew — for now.

There is a lot of season remaining, just as there was two days prior when the committee pegged Baylor as one member of a definitive four-team class at the top of college basketball. But the Bears might already be off the top line about 55 hours after they were placed on it. They also may have lost sight of the most attainable ticket to that top line, a Big 12 title.

Monday also wasn’t the first time the Bears have responded poorly to a top ranking, which is mildly troubling. The last time Baylor had the burden of a No. 1 plastered next to its name, it flopped in Morgantown. This time, it fought, but let a lead — and that possible No. 1 seed — slip away.

The exact moment when it slipped was easy to pinpoint too. Manu Lecomte picked up his fourth foul with 8:28 remaining in the game. Before Drew could consider how to manage his point guard’s minutes down the stretch, Lecomte mouthed off to a referee, and was whistled for a technical foul — more importantly, his fifth and final personal. Texas Tech outscored the fourth-ranked visitors 13-2 over the four-and-a-half-minute stretch that followed, and the Red Raiders picked up a crucial win to vault themselves back into NCAA tournament contention.

For Baylor, though, losing the game was just one of a few losses on the night. Another was that of ground in the Big 12 race. A rematch with Kansas — and a chance to pull even atop the conference standings — loomed on Saturday. But with the Jayhawks tipping off against West Virginia Monday night in Lawrence as Baylor players trudged off the floor in Lubbock, the conference leaders did so with a two-game Big 12 lead within reach.

The loss to Texas Tech is by no means the first upset in the gauntlet that is college basketball’s toughest conference. It won’t be the last either. The middle tier is bursting with potential giant-topplers like Oklahoma State and Kansas State. All three Big 12 heavyweights have fallen at least once at their feet.

But to achieve something notable in the regular season — to win a conference title, or to claim a 1-seed — that tier of teams must be held at bay. That’s what Kansas has done for 12 years. It’s what no other team has been able to do with consistency. It’s what Baylor failed to do Monday night.