Baylor at West Virginia

West Virginia is flying high, ranked second in the nation, its highest ranking since 1959, but this is the middle of a rugged scheduling stretch. They played road games at Oklahoma State and Kansas State and come off a win over Oklahoma. Into town comes a talented Baylor squad that had been ranked up until last week's poll. The Bears come off Saturday's 69-60 win over Texas and have knocked off Creighton and Wisconsin. The Bears are top-40 nationally in both effective field goal percentage (#38; 55.3%) and effective field goal defense (#29; 46.2%). Baylor matches up well in the frontcourt with 7-foot Lual-Acuil Jr. (16 points, 9.8 rebounds per game) and Terry Matson (10.4 points per game, 7 rebounds per game). In the two games last year against West Virginia, Lual-Acuil averaged a double-double with 10.5 points and 11.0 rebounds. Baylor has won eight of the 12 meetings and is on an 18-7-1 spread run on the road, as well as 18-7-1 ATS away against a team with a winning home record. West Virginia ranks next to last in the Big 12 in three-point shooting at 32.7 percent. This shapes up as a close one, so back the big dog in this conference showdown. Play the points on Baylor.