Kentucky held a 50-41 second-half advantage at one point, but Baylor went on a 15-5 run to take a lead it would not relinquish. In all, the Bears outrebounded the Wildcats by 16, 41-25, and a lack of toughness shown by his team was clear to Calipari.

"Everything is based on how I'm scoring and what I'm doing and it's not based on that part of that game, that toughness," Calipari said of his team.

Calipari also addressed something he did wrong. All five of his starters played at least 33 minutes, which could have led to some weary legs down the stretch. It was abundantly apparent, though, that Calipari wasn't using that as an excuse for his team. After he gave four minutes of remarks, he didn't even stay to hear the answers of his players. He just left the podium.

"That's why we're playing this kind of schedule in December," Calipari said. "Either we start fighting or we'll keep losing. There's no option."

Kentucky's next game is Tuesday at home against Boise State, a team that made the NCAA Tournament last season and is off to an 8-0 start.

"When things get rough, that's when we really have to come together," Randle said.

These Wildcats have considerable growing up to do to become the type of team that can return to Dallas for the Final Four.

Meanwhile, Baylor is coming off an NIT championship season, and now it has beaten Kentucky for a second straight year.

The Bears' locker room scene was requisitely jubilant, and the best part about the following video was Rico Gathers' bear hug of coach Scott Drew.

"We gotta football game to get to!" Drew said, a nod to the school's football program that played Texas in a game that decided the Big 12 title. Baylor won 30-10.

Baylor's only loss of the season was to Syracuse in the Maui Invitational final, a statement of just how good this team could be this season. It will be in the conversation for the Big 12 title, along with unbeaten Iowa State and one-loss Oklahoma State and two-loss Kansas. Those four teams are the clear class of the league.


KU DOWNED BY BUZZER-BEATER


Amid the fun of college football’s championship Saturday, we had a buzzer beating upset by Colorado. Askia Booker’s running 3-pointer at the buzzer lifted the Buffaloes over No. 6 Kansas 75-72 in Boulder.

With 3.0 seconds left, Booker took an inbounds pass, then raced the ball upcourt, lofting a shot up that found the bottom of the net. The crowd at the Coors Event Center erupted.

The ending didn't come without a little controversy. Jayhawks coach Bill Self thought Booker took too many steps. "I thought he traveled, but it may have been that Euro big two-step deal," Self said, according to Kansas City Star reporter Rustin Dodd.

Whether he did or not no longer matters. Colorado snapped its 19-game losing streak to Kansas with this victory.


SILENT NIGHT REVISITED


College basketball is full of great traditions. The spelling of "Kentucky" at Rupp Arena, Florida fans singing "Call Me Al" at the O-Dome, and Kansas' "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" are just a few of the great traditions the game provides. But the "Silent Night Game" at Taylor University (NAIA) remains the best tradition in college basketball.

If you're not familiar, every year at the game before finals week, the entire student body files in to Odle Arena to support their Trojan basketball team. The entire arena remains silent until the team scores its 10th point. What happens next? Pure chaos.

Nothing says tradition quite like storming the court in the first half. 

Taylor University, still the best. 


STAUSKAS' FAN CLUB


Michigan’s Nik Stauskas is from Mississauga, Ontario, which is about a four-hour drive from Ann Arbor, and a number of Stauskas backers from his home country took in Saturday’s game vs. Houston Baptist.

The Wolverines won 103-57, and Stauskas scored 25 points — 17 of them in the first half. Michigan put on an offensive show in those first 20 minutes, scoring 60 points on 68 percent shooting.

Better yet were the shirts the group made to commemorate the occasion, taking liberties with Canada’s flag in decking it out in Wolverines colors.

The favorite part about the photo are the two boys in the front row. One doesn’t care, and one is intrigued.

The kid focused on the game is the next John Beilein.

Contributors: Roger Kuznia and Troy Machir