Baylor tries to avoid double-shock
Las Vegas casinos try to settle on a favorite
WACO, Texas — As Baylor players flipped tires during a workout on the day the Bears got a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, their strength and conditioning coach delivered a message.
“All Coach Charlie (Melton) was yelling at us was, ‘We’re not going to get bounced in the first round!’” said Ishmail Wainright, Baylor’s lone senior. “I’m pretty sure we’re motivated.”
While the Bears have made the Elite Eight twice under coach Scott Drew, their most recent March memories are true madness — getting upset by double-digits seeds each of the last two years.
First came R.J. Hunter’s 3-pointer for 14th-seeded Georgia State that knocked his coaching father out of his seat and Baylor out of the 2015 tournament. Last year, Yale was a No. 12 seed and making its first NCAA Tournament appearance in more than a half-century and held on for a 79-75 win over the Bears .
Baylor (25-7), making its fourth consecutive tournament appearance and seventh in 10 years, plays Friday against 14th-seeded WAC tournament champion New Mexico State (28-5).
There is not much Drew has to say to remind his players, including six who played against Yale a year ago, about the perils of overlooking a double-digit seed.
“The best teacher is the personal experience,” Drew said. “The personal experience of going home after one game, not having a chance to advance, I know that hurt them like it hurt all of us coaches. So hopefully that’s motivation. … It doesn’t matter what the seed number is.” BETTING: Can’t decide the winner in your March Madness bracket? Don’t feel bad. Las Vegas casinos can’t agree on an NCAA Tournament favorite, either.
The Wynn Las Vegas and Westgate SuperBook originally listed Duke as the odds-on pick to win college basketball’s national championship on Sunday. But both books switched to North Carolina as the favorite Tuesday, less than 48 hours after the brackets for the tournament were revealed.
Meanwhile, MGM Resorts International had Kansas as a 5-1 favorite, while William Hill opened with North Carolina and tightened its odds after early wagers.
“This year, a lot of people believe there are eight to 12 teams that can take home the tittle,” said Jay Kornegay, Westgate’s sports book director. “The odds are so close in the top contending teams that any time you have an influx of money, that can change the odds and make that team the favorite at that time.”
At Westgate, North Carolina was followed by Kansas at 6-1 — which leapfrogged original favorite Duke. The Blue Devils were at 7-1 and top overall seed Villanova at 8-1.
WICHITA STATE: A couple of years ago, Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall trotted out the motto “Play Angry” to encourage and inspire his perpetually overlooked and undervalued team. Might be time to resurrect it. The Shockers were given the No. 10 seed in the South Region, which just might trump anybody getting left out as the biggest snub of the NCAA Tournament. Wichita State hasn’t lost since January and twice avenged that defeat, rolled through the Missouri Valley tournament, and just about every advanced metric puts the Shockers among the best teams in the country.
The selection committee disagreed, putting the Shockers in a first-round game against seventh-seeded Dayton. The winner will likely face No. 2 seed Kentucky in the next round.
“I’m just glad they didn’t forget about,” Marshall said with only mild sarcasm. “I was starting to think they might forget about us and not put us in at all.” MISSOURI: The University of Missouri will pay $80,000 to a search firm helping the university find a new men’s basketball coach.
The Columbia Daily Tribune reports the university released details of its contract with the Parker Executive Search firm.
The fee doesn’t include direct expenses, which are capped at $9,600. The contract also doesn’t include costs for such things as committee travel and background investigations, which will be billed separately.
C. MICHIGAN: Marcus Keene, the nation’s leading scorer, is entering the NBA draft. Keene scored 30 points per game at Central Michigan this season.