Basketball senior night to feature special halftime performance

Tonight is senior night for the Baylor men’s basketball team, as outgoing student-athletes Quincy Acy, Fred Ellis and Anthony Jones take the Ferrell Center court for the final time. Showing your support for the winningest class in program history should be enough to get you to the Ferrell Center — but in case you need a little more push, consider this:

Former Baylor center Mamadou Diene, BA ’08, will be swing dancing at halftime. All 7-foot-2 of him. With a partner who stands just 4-foot-10. [UPDATE: I’m now told that Diene will not be able to make it tonight, due to a bad ankle.] [SECOND UPDATE: Okay, now I’m told it’s back on — bad ankle and all. Look forward to seeing it tonight!]

If that doesn’t get you to the Ferrell Center tonight, I don’t know what will.

The pairing first took the floor last month as part of a “Dancing With the Stars of Waco” fundraiser for the Talitha Koum Institute, a mental health center for children here in Waco; the event raised more than $15,000 for the institute.

[SEE: Pictures, video and more from the Talitha Koum event, courtesy the Waco Tribune-Herald]

If you can’t make it to Waco, you can tune in both the Baylor women and men tonight as part of ESPN’s Big Monday. The Lady Bears play Texas A&M in College Station for perhaps the final time starting at 6 p.m. on ESPN2, and the men then host Texas Tech at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.

Sic ’em, Baylor basketball (and Mamadou)!