Posted by Mechelle Voepel
About the same time Wednesday night, the Big 12's top two teams escaped their pursuers and slammed the door on victories. And that set up Saturday's 1 p.m. ET showdown (Fox Sports Net) between No. 6 Baylor and No. 21 Kansas State as a battle of Big 12 unbeatens.
K-State's Ashley Sweat got past her defender for a layup with five seconds left as the Wildcats won 77-75 at Nebraska -- while coach Deb Patterson watched it on a TV near a concession stand. She'd been ejected from the game with about eight minutes left after picking up her second technical.
Meanwhile, Angela Tisdale nailed a 3-pointer with 19 seconds left in Waco, Texas, as Baylor beat surging-again Texas 61-60.
So Saturday in Manhattan, Kan., a team that most expected to challenge for the Big 12 title faces a squad that wasn't picked to be in this race. For what it's worth -- not much -- back in November, my picks in The Kansas City Star's preview section were for Baylor to finish third and K-State eighth in the Big 12.
It is worth noting, though, that maybe the Wildcats are not quite as big as a surprise as they seem. K-State was 14-2 and entered the national rankings on Jan. 15 last year. But that very day the Wildcats lost post Marlies Gipson to a knee injury in practice. She is the key to their interior game on both offense and defense, and her absence the rest of last season greatly contributed to K-State's slide to a 19-15 finish.
With Gipson back and healthy -- she's averaging 11.9 points and 8.2 rebounds -- the Wildcats have turned around from their nonconference season this year. K-State came into league play 5-5 but has won 10 in a row since. At the holiday break, highly touted freshman Jackie Stanley transferred, and the rest of the Wildcats took stock of their situation, senior guard Kimberly Dietz said.
"We were sick of losing," said Dietz, who is leading K-State in scoring at 15.3 ppg. Incidentally, Tisdale also tops Baylor in point production at 15.3 ppg. And there's no better examples of how much senior guards, in particular, can bring to teams than Tisdale and Dietz.
The Wildcats set the tone for their league season by winning their opening road trip, at Texas A&M and Texas. Last Sunday, K-State completed a rare trifecta by beating Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla., thus giving the Wildcats a sweep of their Big 12 South road games.
The league is not divided into North and South in hoops standings … but it is divided in every other way. The schedule is set so each division plays its own members home and away but meets the other division's teams just once during the regular season. And the South coaches started making repeated references to the "superiority" of the South a long time ago.
It irritates the North coaches … but the fact is, the South typically has had the last word on the court. South teams have won eight of the 11 Big 12 tournaments, including the past six in a row. And the only Final Four participants -- and national champion -- to come from the league are from South schools.
That champ, of course, was Baylor in 2005. Which happens to be the last season that K-State went to the NCAA Tournament. Now the Purple People all but have another NCAA bid already wrapped up.
And with the North not looking very challenging -- Iowa State, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri are at the bottom of the standings and
combined have fewer league wins (six) than K-State's seven -- the Wildcats have an excellent chance at winning the league regular-season title. The games that stand out the most on their remaining schedule are against Baylor and Oklahoma, which visits K-State on Feb. 20.
Baylor has just one loss thus far all season -- 87-63 at Stanford in December. But Baylor has more challenges remaining because of the South schedule, including both matchups with Oklahoma State and second meetings with Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M.
Neither Baylor nor K-State currently has the type of player who is an obvious WNBA first-round draft choice, as was the case in recent years with the likes of Sophia Young, Bernice Mosby, Nicole Ohlde and Kendra Wecker.
Instead, the teams this season are more like the old adage of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Not to say the "parts" aren't talented. But the entire package for both squads is what's getting the job done in the Big 12 thus far.
Women's Basketball
