Baylor Just Won A Conference Title For The First Time in 71 Years After Beating WVU In The Best Game This Year

Holy shit that was awesome. Well, it was awesome except sitting on a WVU +4.5 ticket and having the refs ruin it with a bullshit charge call late (more on that in a second). But we just watched two of the 5 best teams in the country play each other to an overtime game that wasn't decided until 30 seconds were left. There were legit concerns about Baylor coming back from that long COVID pause, looking like shit against Iowa State and Kansas and a quick turnaround to play at WVU. Instead they came out of the gates on fire jumping out to a double digit lead fast.

But then WVU showed why I'm high on this team. This isn't a standard WVU team. They aren't Press Virginia. Shit, they aren't even the same team from early this year when they played Oscar T and Culver together and ran a hi-lo. Instead they run a 4-out, 1-in offense, play fast, can shoot and Sean McNeil, Taz Sherman and Deuce McBride got hot. That's what they do though. It's the way you should be playing in college basketball now. However, they made a MASSIVE mistake at the end of the first half. After forcing a turnover, they got the ball with under 2 seconds to go and just ran the baseline. Can't do that. What happened next? You already know: 

Think that was important? Second half was all WVU for the most part. They went on a 10-0 run, pushed the lead to 7. Again, McNeil who can just shoot the shit out of the ball caught fire: 

Let's get to the end of the 2nd half though. Listen, WVU should have won it here. They had a chance to seal it at the free throw line and Miles McBride missed the first of two to keep it a 2 point game instead of 3. Dagger. Jared Butler answered with a hell of a layup to tie it up then mayhem.

 WVU launched a full court pass, Baylor picked it off and called timeout. All good right? Except Baylor did this on the inbound: 

Then let's talk about overtime and the decision making. Baylor goes up 1 with a minute to go. Turnover, jump ball, Baylor scores again. This is where it gets bad. First we had a ref make a completely bullshit call: 

Fuck this ref so hard. College basketball refs love to ruin college basketball games. We had the best game I watched this year from talent to play to overtime. It was flat out ruined by this call. Stop rewarding guys for falling over. McBride never extends his arm. The moment he extends his arm, fine it's a foul. He didn't do that. Just a horrendous call that I don't know how you make except you're a college basketball ref and you're convinced the world is there to watch you blow a whistle. Fucking asshole. 

Anywho, WVU decides to foul immediately down 3 with 37 to go. I HATED that decision. You have to try to trap or get a steal. at the minimum you don't have to foul. Get a stop and you're down 3 with 7ish to go worst case scenario. Just fouling right away does nothing. 

This was a huge win for Baylor. It stops the narrative that they won't be right after the COVID pause. It keeps them in line with Michigan and Gonzaga for the fight for the No. 1 overall seed. They just won on the road against a 2 seed. HELL of a win. As for WVU? They are a 2 seed. They have an outside shot for a 1 seed still but they need to beat Baylor in the Big 12 title game and have a lot go right for them across the country. Feels like they are about to lock in a 2 seed. 

PS: It's bullshit we only got this matchup once this year. Need it in the Big 12 title game.