Mississippi State beats Baylor 78-77 at the buzzer

Here's your reminder that this is still March. Unfortunately, it's over for Baylor as Mississippi State rolled through Waco today. Despite being an NIT game, it perfectly embodied the month's madness: Big performances, even bigger comebacks, and a shot at the buzzer.

One second, Baylor looks like it's MSG-bound to avenge last year's loss in the Sweet 16, and five seconds later, a Bulldog shot bounces off the rim to seal Baylor's fate...except, Quindary Weatherspoon's shot took a nice bounce through the net instead to take the game 78-77.

Slow start puts Baylor in trouble

It's been a hallmark for the Bears this season: Start slow. Baylor's had to mount tremendous (near) comebacks against West Virginia and Kansas among others. Had some of those first half performances had a bit more juice, Baylor probably wouldn't be in the NIT. Regardless, Mississippi State sprinted past Baylor early as the Bears couldn't contain the Bulldogs on the perimeter.

They made Baylor's zone look elementary, attacking the outside as well as the best Big 12 teams. At one point, MSU shot 61 percent from three-point range thanks to the Weatherspoon and Xavian Stapleton in the first half. That efficiency slowed down eventually, but the two were putting together a show Baylor wasn't able to slow down until the second half when Stapleton was shut down like he was for most of the season.

The story treads even more familiar territory as Baylor's offense was unable to compete with MSU's offense. While the Bulldogs shot lights out, Baylor was figuring out how to just move the ball while making just one three-pointer, eventually finding open lanes in the paint. 

Finding Mississippi State's weak spot and building on a strength

Building off that slow start, Baylor eventually found a way to exploit Mississippi State's defense. Fighting fire with fire wasn't working from the perimeter. Instead, Baylor had to turn its focus to moving the ball inside to TJ Maston and Jo Lual-Acuil.

While Manu Lecomte has struggled to make his mark shooting, he has been crucial to getting the rest of the team involved. That didn't stop today, as he created seven assists, five of which were in the second half. Jake Lindsey also got involved driving the offense with five assists of his own. 

In all, the Bears had 20 assists. It's the first game all season which Baylor has lost with at least 17 assists, winning the last 10 such games. That level of ball movement helped Baylor climb out of the 20-point deficit but ultimately wasn't enough to pull through.

Maston is Baylor's king of March

Remember TJ Maston last year? As a junior, Maston guided Baylor through the first two NCAA tournament rounds with 19 point and nine rebound performances. He disappeared against South Carolina (though he was hardly the only disappointment that game) and Baylor headed home.

Against Mississippi State today, Maston was similarly absent in the first half. He put together a respectable six points and three rebounds but in the second half, he came alive like he did last March. As Baylor was down 11 points at halftime, Maston put the team on his back with 20 points in the final 20 minutes of the game.

Baylor's strategy re-routed, feeding the ball to essentially only feeding Maston. Only three other Bears scored in the second half, with Maston being the centerpiece of the offense. The new concentration, primarily down the lane slowly chipped away at a once 20-point Bulldog lead and swung the game in Baylor's favor by 10 points. 

As his last game with the Bears, Maston now leaves big shoes to fill. Who will be the March warrior now? Just because Baylor's season is over doesn't mean Maston's performance wasn't any less impressive. That buzzer-beater doesn't change that.