Longhorns could be what Baylor needs

Missouri coach Mike Anderson summed up the maelstrom in the middle of the Big 12 men’s basketball standings quite nicely.

“It’s all pretty much mumbo-jumbo right now,” he said.

Thanks, Mike. Couldn’t have said it better. I’m still seized by a brain freeze after two days-plus in Oklahoma, where the wind came sweeping off the plains with a minus-24-degree whistle early Wednesday.

Am I looking forward to a 70-degree weekend in Austin? What do you think? But I digress, a common tendency.

Back to the separation-month business at hand.

We began the week in the Big 12 with eight teams separated by no more than one game in the loss column. That number shrank to six Wednesday night. We could either see some distance by Saturday night or a re-jumbo as it were.

In the race for third place behind Texas and Kansas, one team has created a little daylight for itself. After dropping a third consecutive conference road game at Oklahoma last week, Baylor rebounded to snatch an overtime victory at Texas A&M and then held off Nebraska at home.

Baylor coach Scott Drew, who sometimes will talk around a point if given an opening, had to admit Thursday that his team showed him something in the two games since the loss to the Sooners.

“We’re definitely playing better basketball,” he said. “We’re getting used to playing with each other and getting used to operating in close games down the stretch.

“Early in the year, we lost those games. We finally have some experience and some success, and things are different.”

The stretch drive for Baylor (16-7, 6-4) has at least a couple of burnt orange speed bumps. The Bears are the last South team to play Texas. The first of those two games is Saturday afternoon in Austin (sunscreen, please?). The other is the regular-season finale.

The fact Baylor that has won four consecutive games against the Longhorns has nothing to do with anything. Another place, another time.

But the Bears very much need a signature victory to get the attention of the NCAA Tournament selection committee. Baylor missed opportunities in November when it lost games in Hawaii against Gonzaga, Washington State and Florida State. The footnote was that the Bears were playing with only one point guard — sophomore A.J. Walton — after backup Stargell Love suffered a stress fracture in a foot that cost him six weeks. That forced Drew to either play with a tired point guard or no real point guard at all. Ask Texas coach Rick Barnes how that worked out for him the past two seasons.

But Walton, whose primary task last season was to give Tweety Carter a breather, has since taken some steps. His late steal seized the OT win at A&M, and he took over the lead in conference-game steals (22) with four Wednesday.

“I think we’ve gotten better at keeping our heads in close games,” Walton said. “Every game except for Kansas, we’ve been in it down the stretch. There are some games we wish we could take back and (the 73-66 loss to OU), that’s the game right there.

“But I think we’ve grown. I think our heads are on straight for the long run.”

The four conference games between the Texas sandwich (Tech, at Missouri, A&M and at Oklahoma State), however, might be more important.

“All coaches in the Big 12 understand you can win three or drop three as quick as the drop of a hat,” Drew said. “Every Big 12 game is important. But especially for us, this is an important February.”