Waco, Texas ? Baylor University students were mad last week, steamed because they have such crummy seats for BU men’s basketball games. That’s crummy, as in not close enough.

I know this because I read it in The Baylor Lariat, the school’s student newspaper, as I was waiting for Tuesday night’s Kansas-Baylor game to begin.

A Baylor student spokesman grumbled that the students deserved to be closer to the floor because they’re the ones who make the most noise, and gee whiz by golly they really love the Bears.

Do I have to tell you which group of Baylor fans beat the hastiest retreat with about seven minutes remaining in the hopeless Bears’ 79-58 loss to Kansas? Yep, it was the students. But I must say, they were joined by a whole bunch of people sitting in those high-priced close-to-the-court seats, too.

Tuesday’s crowd of 8,758 was Baylor’s third-largest of the season, and down the stretch about the only people remaining in the Kermit the Frog seats were the loving-it Kansas fans. Still, the place was a mausoleum during the game’s last half-hour.

All in all, it begs the question: Who would want to sit close to the floor to watch this team?

If you want to put a positive spin on Baylor, you can say the Bears lead the Big 12 Conference in three-point goals and in free-throw percentage. But the facts are, they can’t play defense, can’t handle the ball and can’t rebound.

Check the final stats and you’ll see Baylor launched 35 three-point attempts and made 11. Note, too, the Bears attempted only 19 two-pointers and made just six.

I don’t know if they showed the thing on television, but Baylor has a self-contained scoreboard for three-point goals hanging high above the floor. Listed on top are the number of threes Baylor has drained and the number the opponent has. Below is the Bears’ three-point season total, which climbs each time another three-pointer goes through the net..

Does that three-point scoreboard make the Bears too aware they need to shoot three-pointers? You have to wonder. Baylor is strictly a count-three-or-pray type of team, and it’s not unusual for a team that lives or dies with the trey to turn an arena into a tomb in the second half.

OK, I realize Baylor coach Dave Bliss starts four sophomores. Still, in this day and age of college basketball, with so many games played and so many players turning pro early, sophomores are experienced players.

For a while Tuesday night, I thought Kansas was going to do to Baylor what it did to Iowa State and Nebraska earlier this season. KU handed the Cyclones and Cornhuskers their worst losses ever in their current barns. But this time the Jayhawks went into their B-game mode after leading by 26 points, and, to the Bears’ credit Baylor didn’t quit.

All you need to know about Baylor University basketball could be found in an advertisement on the sports page of Tuesday’s Waco Herald-Tribune newspaper.

The three-column ad contained pictures of Bliss and sophomore point guard John Lucas. Also therein was, of course, the game time and the opponent, plus these words: “Free food given away to the first 500 fans compliments of H.E.B.”

H.E.B is a Texas grocery store chain. In baseball, fans come out early to watch batting practice. In Baylor basketball, they come out early for free food.

Kansas is currently in a four-game stretch of games against teams it should defeat. The span started with Kansas State Saturday, and will continue with home games Sunday against Iowa State and a week from today against Colorado.

These are lunch-box games. The Jayhawks need to show up, punch the time clock and go about their business. That’s what they did in Manhattan and what they did Tuesday night.