By Jerry Hill                                                          
Baylor Bear Insider
 
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A three-time finalist in the history of the Big 12 Championship, including twice when they had to win three games in three days to get there, the seventh-seeded Baylor Bears (18-13) will have to take a similar road this time.
 
That's a tough enough task with a full roster, but Baylor will have to do it with a short-handed rotation of seven players, beginning with a second-round matchup against 10^th-seeded Kansas State (16-16) at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the T-Mobile Center.
 
"That's why we say, take one game at a time," said Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose team has dropped five of its last eight after losing 6-10 redshirt junior Josh Ojianwuna to a season-ending knee injury. "The old adage, the most important game is the first game. Get that game, then figure out a way to get the next, the next and the next."
 
A top-four seed in each of the previous five tournaments, Baylor hasn't made it past the semifinals since a four-game run in 2014 that ended with the seventh-seeded Bears losing to No. 4 seed Iowa State in the final, 74-65.
 
"It's definitely going to take toughness, for one," said freshman Robert O. Wright III, a Big 12 All-Freshman pick who is averaging 11.7 points and 4.5 assists. "The Big 12 is a physical league, so we've got to be tough. And it's just being well-connected and fighting for the guy next to you. I think those are the big things."
 
Wright and VJ Edgecombe (15.0 ppg, 5.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists), the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, are a big reason why the Bears are in position to make their fifth-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and ninth in the last 10 possible tournaments.
 
Baylor is 31^st in the most recent NET rankings and one of the "last four byes" in ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunard's latest projections, which has the Bears as a 10 seed and playing seventh-seeded Missouri in a first-round game in Cleveland.
 
"I'll be honest, we know that we've got to go in and win," said Edgecombe, who scored a career-high 30 points in Baylor's 70-62 win over Kansas State on Jan. 22, in the only regular-season meeting with the Wildcats. "We know, we win the first game, ten on to the next game. We just keep rolling, keep the momentum. Then, that will allow us to go into the tournament and make a good run, too. We just focus on the next game, man. We know what it takes."
 
Edgecombe and Wright, in particular, have had a special connection this season as teammates and roommates.
 
"We're roommates, so we're with each other probably all day, especially coming into practice," Wright said. "We shoot together after practice. And then, I knew him from high school. We played on teams like SLAM and stuff like that. Just being around this guy and getting to play with him, I'm blessed, and I just thank God for allowing me to play with a special talent like him."
 
Edgecombe, Baylor's third-straight preseason and postseason Big 12 Freshman of the Year, credits his "teammates for helping me look good on the court, especially my PG right here (Wright). . . . If you ask me, (Wright is) the best point guard in the country. Everyone on the team has special talent. Just being alongside them every day, they come out competing together, it's fun, man."
 
In the Bears' first game after Ojianwuna's injury, they had only four offensive rebounds and trailed by as many as 25 points in a 76-65 loss to Big 12 regular-season champion Houston.
 
But in Saturday's rematch at Foster Pavilion, Miami transfer Norchad Omier (15.6 ppg, 10.7 rebounds) tied a program record with his 19^th double-double of the season with 13 points and 16 boards in a 65-61 loss to the third-ranked Cougars. The 6-7 senior forward also hauled down nine of the team's 17 offensive rebounds.
 
"We all know Houston is a great offensive rebounding team," Drew said, "but Norchad, when he wakes up, it's a double-double. And the great thing about him, it's not like he has to have the ball to be effective. He really cares about winning, really cares about his teammates. Really hard worker, and someone that wants to get better. It's been a joy coaching him. The only bad thing is it's only one year."
 
Coached by longtime Baylor assistant Jerome Tang, Kansas State advanced to the second round in Kansas City with a 71-66 win over 15^th-seeded Arizona State. The Wildcats have a balanced attack led by 6-9 forward David N'Guessan (13.1 ppg, 7.1 rebounds) and 5-11 point guard Dug McDaniel, a Michigan transfer who is averaging 11.4 points and 4.9 assists.
 
"Probably the biggest advantage is the homecourt advantage," Drew said of the matchup with K-State. "We all know that Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State, it's a home game for them. To be honest, it sucks, but it is what it is."
 
If Baylor advances to the quarterfinals, the Bears will face second-seeded and ninth-ranked Texas Tech (24-7) at 6 p.m. Thursday in the quarterfinal round.
 
"I would say that our resume speaks for itself," Drew said of Baylor's NCAA Tournament hopes. "We have good non-conference wins, we went .500 in one of the top conferences in the country. Do I feel like that's good enough? Yes. But we always want to leave no doubt, and we want to improve our seed, if possible. There's a lot to play for."
 
Wednesday's game will be streamed by ESPN+, with Roxy Bernstein and Sean Farnham calling the action.

 
STORY LINES
• Baylor earned a bye in the first round of the Big 12 Championships, as the No. 7 seed, and will advance to the second round to face off with No. 10 seed Kansas State on Wednesday at 6 p.m. on ESPN+.
• The Bears are coming off a 65-61 loss to No. 3/3 Houston in the regular-season finale on Saturday night at the Foster Pavilion. The Bears owned a 3-point lead at halftime and went up by as many as seven midway through the second half but a 14-2 UH run gave the Cougars a lead it wouldn't relinquish, despite a 3-pointer from Jalen Celestine that cut the lead to 61-59 with a minute left. VJ Edgecombe's runner to tie the game rolled off the rim in the closing seconds. 
• Baylor faces Kansas State for the second time in 2024-25, posting a 70-62 win over the Wildcats on Jan. 22 in Waco, with Edgecombe going for 30 and Norchad Omier collecting 13 rebounds. It marked the first win, in four meetings, for Coach Scott Drew over Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang, as Tang served as a key member of Drew's staff from 2003-2022.
• The Bears shot just 37.5% in the win over K-State earlier in the year, but was led by the gritty effort from Edgecombe and Omier. Celestine chipped in 18 points on four made-3pointers off the bench, adding seven rebounds. BU was 17-of-21 from the line, erased a 30-26 halftime K-State lead by outscoring the Cats by 12 in the second half. 
• Baylor owns a 18-26 all-time record in the Big 12 Championships, including a 14-22 mark in Kansas City and a 10-16 mark under Drew. The Bears are seeking their first conference tournament title in program history. 
• BU last faced Kansas State in the Big 12 Championships in 2021, when it posted a 74-68 win as the No. 2 team in the nation. BU also faced K-State in the Big 12 Championships in 2012 and 2017. 
• BU is 14-2 in 2024-25 when holding an opponent under 70 points and are 373-61 under Coach Scott Drew. BU is 6-0 on the year and 165-9 under Drew when holding its foe to under 60 points. 
• Against Houston, BU's Norchad Omier recorded his 19th double-double of the season, equaling the most in program history, tying Jerome Lambert (1993-94).
• Omier's 19th double-double of the season, courtesy of 13 points and 16 rebounds vs. Houston, tied Lambert's 31-year-old school record. It was also his 87th career double-double, moving him into a tie for the second-most in NCAA history with Tim Duncan of Wake Forest and Armando Baccott of North Carolina.
• With 1,646 career rebounds, Omier ranked 12th in NCAA history and sits just behind Al Innis (1,667) from St. Francis (N.Y.).
• VJ Edgecombe continues to climb draft boards, averaging a team-leading 18.3 points per game over his last 17 games, shooting 46.1% from the field, 42.5% from three and 80% from the free-throw line.
• Edgecombe ranks ninth in the Big 12, averaging 16.7 points per game in conference play and with 15 points per game, he is on pace for the fifth-best scoring average by a freshman in BU history.
• Robert Wright now holds Baylor's single-season freshman assist record (138), which comes after setting the single-game freshman record of 13 against Norfolk State earlier this season.
• The Bears have lost 34 games and counting due to injuries this season: Langston Love (14), Jeremy Roach (6), Jalen Celestine (4) VJ Edgecombe (2) and Josh Ojianwuna (8) (Out for the season).
• Of the 1,265 minutes of game time this season, Baylor has had it's full complement of rotation players for just 189:56 (14.9%).