Wildcats set up rematch with Kansas in Big 12 title game

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/13/2010 - Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jacob Pullen scored 26 points, and ninth- ranked Kansas State gained a spot in the Big 12 championship game with an 82-75 victory over No. 21 Baylor.

Denis Clemente added 24 points and dished out seven assists for the Wildcats (26-6), who set a school record for victories in a season. Next up for K-State is a game against No. 1 Kansas, which posted a 79-66 victory over 23rd-ranked Texas A&M in the other semifinal.

"They've earned the right to play for the championship," K-State coach Frank Martin said. "Now, we've got to go deal with the best team in the country who we've been nose to nose twice before. So it's a great opportunity. KU is great."

Dominique Sutton logged 14 points, 14 rebounds and four steals for the Wildcats, who are trying to win the conference tourney for the first time. They've already lost twice to the Jayhawks this season, including a rough 81-79 defeat in Manhattan on January 30. Now they'll face a team that's won the Big 12 tournament six times.

"We wanted to win the regular season Big 12, and we felt like we lost it at Kansas," Pullen said. "We just want a chance to get a ring. Denis never got a ring, I never got a ring, I don't think Frank got one. I want to get one while we're here. That's our goal right now. We have the opportunity in front of us. That's our opportunity tomorrow."

LaceDarius Dunn scored 26 for the Bears (25-7), who will wait for Sunday to see where they'll be placed in the NCAA Tournament. Ekpe Udoh added 18 points and 11 rebounds for Baylor, which had a five-game winning streak broken. Josh Lomers scored 12 in defeat.

"I think we just stopped executing well," Dunn said. "They really took us out of playing our game doing the things we do well. So hats off to Kansas State."

Clemente drained a three-pointer for a 71-67 lead with 4:10 left, but Udoh responded with a dunk. After Quincy Acy blocked a jumper from Jamar Samuels, Baylor failed on a few attempts to tie the game.

Tweety Carter missed a pair of foul shots with 3:05 left, but Curtis Kelly gave the ball right back to the Bears on a turnover. Carter turned the ball over on the ensuing possession on a Sutton steal, but K-State couldn't widen the margin initially.

Kelly misfired on a jumper, but Sutton came up with a huge offensive rebound. That led to a Pullen three-pointer with 2:02 left and a 74-69 lead. Pullen added a pair of free throws for a seven-point edge, and it was at least a two- possession game the rest of the way.

Baylor led by as many as nine in the first half, at 23-14 on a layup from A.J. Walton with under 11 minutes left. K-State came back with an 11-1 spurt to go in front, but the Wildcats trailed, 37-36, at the break. The Wildcats led by eight in the early stages of the second half.

Game Notes

Carter accounted for six of his team's 18 turnovers...Baylor shot 54 percent from the field, compared to 45.9 percent for the Wildcats...K-State beat Baylor, 76-74, on January 26...Pullen made half of his 10 three-point shots.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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