WACO, Texas _ Bruce Weber couldn't sleep.
Kansas State was on a three-game losing skid and its coach couldn't stop thinking about everything that was going wrong _ the slow starts, the missed shots, the agonizing finishes. Upcoming games against No. 2 Baylor, No. 3 Kansas and No. 7 West Virginia raised his stress level higher.
Finally, he gave up. It was 6 a.m. Thursday morning, two days before the Wildcats traveled to Ferrell Center for a game few expected them to win, and he got out of bed and sent a motivational text message to everyone associated with K-State basketball.
"I believe in us," the message read. "We have a chance to go and do something really special that no one in K-State basketball history has ever done. Let's do it as a team."
The Wildcats rallied around their coach and responded with their grittiest performance Saturday, shocking Baylor, 56-54, in front of 7,729 fans. The last time they beat an opponent so highly ranked on the road: 1994 at No. 1 Kansas.
It is impossible to erase a three-game losing streak, but this came close.
K-State's victory at Baylor, the nation's top-rated RPI team, will go a long way toward making up for its recent struggles.
"It's a really big win," sophomore guard Kamau Stokes said after scoring 15 points, "especially when you are talking about RPI."
"It was huge," added sophomore forward Dean Wade, who had 12 points and six rebounds. "Every game in the Big 12 is competitive. So any road win or win in general is huge for any team. It was huge for us."
The Wildcats (16-7, 5-5 Big 12) flipped the script at an opportune moment against the Bears (20-3, 7-2).
They raced to a 37-18 lead with 4:05 remaining in the first half. Barry Brown made steals, Wesley Iwundu got to the basket, Carlbe Ervin and Isaiah Maurice played solid minutes off the bench and Stokes hit 3s.
For K-State, it was near perfection.
"Something went right for us," Weber said. "If you have the right attitude and have got the right mindset, good things can happen. Those first 16 minutes were probably as good of basketball as we have played."
It was a reversal of recent games in which K-State fell behind by 20 at Iowa State, 19 at Tennessee and 14 against TCU.
K-State did it with defense and 3-point shooting. The Wildcats scored 12 points off turnovers and made five shots from behind the arc.
Baylor coach Scott Drew called three timeouts to try and slow K-State.
"K-State punched us in the mouth," Drew said. "We didn't respond until there were 10 minutes left in the game."
K-State needed every ounce of its lead to hold on.
Baylor started to make a comeback late in the first half and made it 37-22 at halftime. From there, it was a much different game.
K-State's strategy in the second half appeared to be to run clock and shoot late into possessions, hoping the Bears' comeback attempt would run out of time.
After taking a 19-point lead in the first half, K-State scored 19 points in the final 24 minutes.
It was enough, barely.
"There were never any doubts," Stokes said.
Baylor pulled to within one point in the final minute and forced K-State to make free throws to win. Senior D.J. Johnson made 1 of 4, leaving the door open. But he redeemed himself on the final two plays by contesting a pair of shots from Baylor center Johnathan Motley.
Motley missed his first attempt, but Baylor retained possession when the ball bounced out of bounds with 1.6 seconds left. Baylor sent the ball back into Motley for one more game-tying shot, but Johnson blocked it and ran up the court in celebration.
"Baylor fought back hard, especially in that last minute," Johnson said. "It came down to the last possession. I was just doing my best not to foul him and play straight up. He is a strong guy. I wanted to make sure I didn't give him anything easy."
K-State returned to .500 in conference play and significantly boosted its NCAA Tournament chances. The Wildcats were considered by most to be a bubble team at the beginning of the day, but they now boast victories over a pair of top-10 teams _ Baylor and West Virginia.
K-State can add a third on Monday when it plays host to Kansas.
Weber should be able to sleep a bit easier before that one. The Wildcats' losing streak is a thing of the past.
"This was a character game," Weber said. "It was a gut-check game. Like I said, it starts with me. I have got to give them hope and belief, and then they have to buy in and believe. They bought in. ... We won the game. We grinded it out. We gutted it out. We just beat one of the top teams in the nation on their court. No one else has beaten them here."
