ANALYSIS: How one game crystallized the 2017-18 season

If you wanted to put the 2017-18 Baylor’s men’s basketball season into one sequence, Sunday’s NIT Round of 16 game against Mississippi State captured it.

The timeline of the 78-77 heartbreaking loss Sunday at the Ferrell Center defined the season. Really, it looked like the Big 12 season.

>Baylor started off slow and fell into a big hole. Baylor trailed by as many as 20 points in this game (40-20 4:22 2nd). That was like the 2-7 start in conference play.

>The Bears rallied out of that big hole and built some momentum and had the lead. They surged to a nine-point lead (71-62 4:40 4th). That was the 5-game winning streak.

>However, there wasn’t enough at the end and season finished in disappointment.

Mississippi State’s Quin Weatherspoon’s 3-pointer at the horn, popped straight up and had enough backwards rotation to fall through the net as the Bulldogs continued their season and ended the Bears. That was losing three of the final four. Baylor had taken a 77-75 lead with 5.1 seconds to play on Manu Lecomte’s high banker off the glass.

“Like we’ve done all year, we haven’t quit,’’ Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “When we got down early in conference, we battled back. That’s what we did here. And very similar to conference, we couldn’t get over the hump. And we didn’t get over the hump here. Disappointed for obviously our seniors in a game where you think you just won it on a last-second shot and then your season’s over.”

Baylor’s up and down season finished at 19-15. Because of the up and downs, the Bears were in the NIT and not the NCAA tournament. While they are one of 16 programs (nine in Power 5 conferences) to reach seven consecutive postseasons, the NCAA tournament, a hard ending for any team is not good.

The squandered lead became a product of two different things. Baylor had a couple of issues dealing with Mississippi State’s full court press. There were also a couple of bad shots taken in that timeframe.

Leading 71-62, Lual-Acuil’s decision to take a wide open 3-pointer with 3:17 to play reminded you of the No, No, No in the final seconds at Oklahoma. There’s no reason for him to do that. Then, 19 seconds later, MSU big Aric Holman completed an old-fashioned 3-point play to make it a two-possession game.

He was having great success in the block as Baylor’s front court was having its way. Even Scott Drew spoke to the fact that they would have preferred Lual-Acuil going toward the basket.

“Jo’s an unselfish player, and we believe in his 3-point shot,’’ Drew said. “But he had been so effective down low, probably at that point in the game obviously you would prefer to try to get it where we’ve been so successful.’’

King McClure’s wobbly shooting season continued with a 3-pointer – not a bad look but he just hasn’t shot it well this season – was not good. But the Bears were fortunate to get an offensive rebound and extend to 73-70.

But the X-factor to this game was Mississippi State’s 3-point shooting. This was a team that came into the contest at 30 percent for the year. Mississippi State head coach Ben Howland attributed the percent to shot selection.

Well, the Bulldogs made up for the woes Sunday. They were 13-22 from the arc including the final two that tied the game – Tyson Carter’s game-tying shot with 35 seconds remaining followed by Weatherspoon’s straight up and straight down. That raised their KenPom rating to No. 328 in the country.

Drew called this team resilient. As bad as they looked, they didn’t quit on themselves and willed themselves back into this game. They also had the backing of most of the 2,246 fans (MSU had a surprising turnout).

They used a quick start and dominant third quarter (25-10) to not only get back into the game but take the lead going to the fourth quarter. To be honest, when it got to 71-62, it looked like they had this.

T.J. Maston was brilliant with 20 of his game-high 26 points in the second half. It was one of those vintage Maston performances. Despite his 3-point, Lual-Acuil played his best game in two weeks with 17 points and eight rebounds. The Bears won the battle in the paint, 42-24.

Sometimes, it just doesn’t work out.

Time will evolve for Drew and this staff to put together the roster for 2018-19. For now, there’s thanks to Lecomte, Maston, Omot, Lual-Acuil and Justin Davis. College careers have ended.

The sobering of this is that when the finality hits, it hits hard. Competing between the lines is tough. Accepting any and all consequences comes with the territory.