Men’s basketball earns best Big 12 finish ever in record-setting season

A Ferrell Center-record crowd of 10,562 saw the 20th-ranked Baylor men’s basketball team cap off arguably the best regular season in program history Saturday with a 92-77 win over 25th-ranked Texas. Head coach Scott Drew’s Bears completed the season sweep of the Longhorns to finish tied for second in the Big 12 Conference — matching the team’s best conference finish since winning four Southwest Conference titles in five years in the 1940s, and in a year where the Big 12 is perhaps the toughest conference in basketball.

The list of shattered records continues… At 24-6, Baylor is one win shy of the school record for wins in a season, a record that has stood since 1946. The Bears finished 11-5 in Big 12 play, the most league victories Baylor has tallied since the Big 12 launched and tying the school record for conference wins in a season. The men have now ranked among the AP top 25 for nine straight weeks, another program record.

Baylor placed two players (juniors Ekpe Udoh and LaceDarius Dunn) on the coaches’ All-Big 12 Second Team, while another (senior Tweety Carter) made the third team, giving the Bears three all-conference players (first, second or third team) for the first time ever. After setting Baylor and Big 12 records for blocks in a season, Udoh was also named Big 12 Newcomer of the Year — the first Bear so honored in the Big 12 era. Also worth noting: senior Josh Lomers became the first Bear to earn three straight Academic All-Big 12 first-team honors.

The Bears head into the Big 12 Tournament this week as the No. 3 seed, giving Baylor a first-round bye for — you guessed it — the first time ever. Baylor will face either Texas or Iowa State Thursday at 8:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2. The NCAA Tournament bracket will be announced Sunday at 5 p.m. on CBS; tune in to find out where the Bears are headed!

Sic ’em, Baylor men’s basketball!