How Bout Them Bears?

The Big 12 is already known for epic basketball battles. Just last year, one of the best game's in the history of college basketball was played between Texas and Oklahoma State. The Cowboys won the Triple Overtime Battle 105-103 in Stillwater. Well, the game between Baylor and Texas A&M blew that shit out of the water a couple of hours ago. The Bears beat the Aggies in College Station 116-110 in Quintuple Overtime. That's right five, aka the number of pounds of sticky icky on Lil Wayne's tour bus. The teams combined to set a conference record for points and they also combined to shoot more than 100 free throws. The game lasted so long that even one of the referees got confused. In the break before the start of the fourth overtime, a referee approached a member of the media and asked if triple overtime was about to begin. When told it was four, he shook his head and walked off. This thriller is bound to be on ESPN Classic in the near future. And I sure as hell hope it's soon, because this game wasn't on National TV. In fact, unless you were at the game or a Texas A&M student tuning into the college's television feed, you missed this insane game. Now that's just a crime. And not a funny crime like Lil Weezy's drug incident.

The main reason for this post is to talk about the resurgance of Baylor. What a great story this is. The program has had to endure more hardships than any other in the country over the past few years. In 2003, Baylor Basketball Player Patrick Dennehy was murdered by teammate Carlton Dotson. If this weren't terrible enough, the school tried to cover it up and this led to the firing of the coach and the athletic director, an NCAA probation as well as some of the harshest penalties in the history of the organization, and the demise of the Baylor basketball program. The Bears have been the laughing stock of the Big 12 and all of college basketball since then and it looked like they might never recover.

Flash forward to today. Coach Scott Drew has led the team from the depths of hell to become a legit Big 12 program and NCAA Tourney Contender. BU is 16-2 overall and 4-0 in Conference Play and won its fifth in a row and first since entering the rankings for the first time since 1969 on Monday. It broke a 15-game home winning streak for Texas A&M and is the Aggies' third straight loss. How can you root against these guys? They are fourth in the recruiting pecking order in their own state (behind Texas, A&M, Tech...and sometimes even TCU) and they even have a guard on their team named Tweety Carter. Come Tournament time, I'm rooting for Baylor all the way against any team not named IU.