No. 4 Baylor Upset 76-64 by Unranked WVU Ahead of Big 12 Tournament

The No. 4 Baylor Bears are limping into the Big 12 tournament after a 76-64 loss to unranked West Virginia in Morgantown.

Since Kansas snapped its 23-game winning streak on Feb. 22, Baylor has looked like a completely different team. The Bears have dropped three of their last five games, including the Jayhawks defeat, and have been inconsistent on both ends of the court. 

Head coach Scott Drew has succeeded this season on the strength of a defense that ranks sixth in the nation with 59.6 points allowed per game. The Bears have given up an average of 69.8 points in their last five games. 

West Virginia found success with its bench against the Baylor defense. Jermaine Haley (nine points) and Oscar Tshiebwe (16 points) were the only Mountaineers starters who scored. 

Of the seven players West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins used off the bench, five contributed points. Emmitt Matthews Jr., who entered Saturday averaging 5.9 points per game and shooting 38.2 percent, dropped a season-high 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting.    

Huggins' pressure defense created all sorts of problems for Baylor. Davion Mitchell did his part by going 3-of-4 from three-point range, but the rest of the team combined to go 1-of-14 behind the arc.    

The Bears' flaws have been highlighted during this five game stretch to close the regular season. They are a defense-first team that gets into trouble when they have to score with opponents. They entered Saturday tied for 224th in the nation with a 42.9 shooting percentage. 

If there is a silver lining for Drew and his staff to take away from this, they still have time to right the ship with the conference tournament next week leading up to Selection Sunday on March 15. 

When Baylor made it to the Elite Eight in the 2011-12 season, it finished the regular season 4-4 over its final eight games. That precedent is something Drew can point toward as he searches for answers to keep what once seemed like a dream season going long enough to earn a trip to Atlanta for the Final Four.