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This Week in the Big 12: Baylor’s bugaboo is Pac-12

By Hayes Gardner

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - MARCH 05: Baylor (20) Juicy Landrum making her move towards the basket while Texas (10 Lashann Higgs plays defense during the Big 12 Women's Championship on March 05, 2018 at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, OK. (Photo by Torrey Purvey/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - MARCH 05: Baylor (20) Juicy Landrum making her move towards the basket while Texas (10 Lashann Higgs plays defense during the Big 12 Women's Championship on March 05, 2018 at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, OK. (Photo by Torrey Purvey/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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It must be something about the Pac-12.

Last year, Baylor lost only two games all season, finishing their campaign in the Sweet Sixteen with a record of 33-2. This season, the Bears started 8-0, before losing on Saturday.

Each of those three losses, dating back to the beginning of last season, came to unique Pac-12 opponents.

Last November, it was a top-10 UCLA team on the road. Then, in the NCAA Tournament, the second-seeded Bears were upset by sixth-seeded Oregon State. This weekend, Baylor took a 36-game regular season win streak out to Palo Alto, only to fall behind by 17 at half and eventually lose 68-63 to No. 11 Stanford.

The loss pushed Baylor to No. 6 in the AP poll and out of the top-five for the first time in almost a year.

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But with no more West Coast opponents on their schedule, the Bears should be fine for the remainder of this season, right?

Eh, not quite. Baylor, which has two top-25 wins this season, will have their hardest test of the season on January 3 when they host No. 1 UConn. The Huskies have, somehow, looked even stronger than expected in handily dispatching DePaul and knocking off Notre Dame this season.

For Baylor, there’s reason to be very concerned by the Stanford loss. The Cardinal are not invincible, by any means, as they lost to Gonzaga earlier this month. Plus, Stanford shot just 9-of-21 from the foul line. Had they shot a respectable percent, it might have been a blowout.

Kalani Brown — the reigning Big 12 Player of the Year — scored just five points in the loss. That’s concerning.

But, if you’re a glass-half-full kind of basketball follower, there is plenty of reason not to hit the panic button. If Brown could score a few more points, as she almost always does, it would have been a different ball game.

Or, if Baylor hadn’t shot so poorly from the field, it easily could have been a nice road win. The Bears pride themselves on high-percentage shots and take the fewest 3-pointers of any Big 12 team. They entered the tilt in California shooting 55.7 percent from the field, but shot just 34.9 percent in the loss.

If that number is an anomaly, then the Bears will be just fine.

The Big 12, overall, has been fairly impressive throughout non-conference play. Lower-tier teams are competing with other Power 5 conferences and middle-tier teams are getting national attention and receiving top-25 votes.

However, the top of the conference has not wowed anyone. Texas (8-2) is ranked No. 12 in the nation and has defeated all of the teams that they’re supposed to. However, in their only two true tests — against Mississippi State and Tennessee at home — they lost.

Despite the loss to Stanford, Baylor remains the cream of the Big 12 crop. They have been the most dominant in recent years, they have the most talent, and are the most formidable.

Of their six players who play at least 20 minutes per game, five shoot at least 51 percent from the field and the one who doesn’t, Juicy Landrum, is their 3-point threat, shooting 43.9 percent from deep.

We’ll know more when the face UConn, but Baylor is almost certainly one of the top teams in the country. If the conference is to send a team to the Final Four, expect it to be the Bears.

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