Baylor’s first visit to Boulder, Colo., in 15 years will take place Saturday afternoon. And the stakes for the Bears couldn’t be much higher.
Sitting at 16-10 overall and 8-7 in the Big 12 Conference after Monday’s 74-67 home loss to No. 19 Arizona, Baylor appears to be in good shape for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.
And three of the Bears’ next four games will be against teams like Colorado (10-16, 1-14), which doesn’t have much of an at-large case.
But a loss to the Buffaloes, while not fatal, would be a serious blow. Colorado is the league’s last-place team, by two games over Arizona State.
Saturday will be an opportunity the Bears can’t flub. And if they keep missing 3-pointers like they did Monday night, when they were 5 of 22 — or last Saturday, when they also were 5 of 22 in an overtime win over West Virginia — anything is possible.
“The last two games, we haven’t shot from 3 like we’re capable,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “As a staff, we’ve got to do a better job of getting us better looks because we have better shooters than that.”
The Bears are led by senior Norchad Omier, who is averaging 15.7 points and 10.3 rebounds a game. Omier collected his 82nd career double-double (15 points, 11 rebounds) Monday night, and freshman VJ Edgecombe (15-ppg average) is coming off a game-high 24 points against Arizona.
As for the Buffaloes, they most recently played on Tuesday night, falling 79-65 at No. 8 Iowa State. It was Colorado’s third double-figure loss of the season to the Cyclones, which established a 45-28 halftime lead.
Colorado coach Tad Boyle was left wishing his team had played as well in the first 30 minutes as it did the final 10, when it whittled a 24-point deficit to a more respectable final margin.
“I was really proud of our guys the last 10 minutes,” Boyle said.
Julian Hammond is the Buffaloes’ only double-figure scorer at an average of 12.9 points per game, although he has struggled lately.
Hammond has made only 6 of 26 shots from the field (20.7 percent) in the last three games.
