No. 9 Baylor Bears vs. No. 12 Kansas State prediction, pick for 2/21: Bears aim to settle score

Yardbarker Quick Pick

We have quite the offering of two Top 25 teams meeting tonight, and one that caught our eye is the Big 12 bout between Baylor and Kansas State. The Wildcats took down the Bears back in January in OT, but we're not banking on a repeat performance. A look at recent performances and metrics shows us a team in Baylor playing much better basketball than a Kansas State team that appears to be regressing a tad. We're backing the Bears at -1.5. — Griffin Carroll, Yardbarker

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Tuesday, 7 p.m. ET
Baylor Bears: -1.5 (-110) spread, -125 moneyline, over 148 (-110)
@ Kansas State Wildcats: +1.5 (+104) spread, -118 moneyline, under 148 (-110)

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"As well as they (the Bears) were going first half, as bad as they went second half," Baylor coach Scott Drew said in his postgame radio interview. "We completely let our offense affect our defense. We did such a good job in transition defense the first half, only gave up two points. Second half you just got to credit Kansas. They did a great job turning up defensive intensity and we turned it over too much."

Adam Flagler scored 22 points and Keyonte George drained five 3-pointers to highlight his 20-point performance.

"We got to accept the fact they played harder than us in the second half," George said. "They got better shots than us and we didn't rebound. Things we usually do we didn't do in the second half, and you see what happened."

Flagler scored 23 points and George added 22 in Baylor's 97-95 overtime loss to Kansas State on Jan. 7. George, however, misfired on all five of his attempts from 3-point range in that game.

"It will be another tough road environment," Drew said of facing the Wildcats, who boast a 14-1 record at home. "I know (Kansas State first-year coach and longtime Baylor assistant Jerome Tang) has done a tremendous job with their crowd. It's always been a tough place to play, but they've really done a good job of coming out and supporting those guys. We know how good they are; they beat us at our place."

Markquis Nowell, who erupted for 32 points and 14 assists in the previous meeting with Baylor, scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half of the Wildcats' 61-55 victory over No. 19 Iowa State on Saturday.

Nowell stressed the importance of setting the tone early in the second half.

"It was very important because we know the first five minutes are important," Nowell said. "And you know I told my guys we can't come out lackadaisical. We've got to come out with energy, and that's what we did."

Tang said giving his players rest and shortened practices over the previous few days went a long way toward giving his team a boost.

"You know that line in Miracle on Ice, 'Legs feed the (wolf),' and that's what we didn't have the last few games, especially the Oklahoma game (a 79-65 loss on Feb. 14). I thought (Saturday) we had legs because of how we prepared and actually more of what we didn't do, rather than what we did do."

Keyontae Johnson has team-leading averages in points (17.4) and rebounds (7.4) on the season. Nowell contributes 16.9 points and a club-best 7.5 assists per contest.