The Big 12 Conference Tournament begins play on Wednesday with four games. Check the latest NCAA basketball lines.
The 2010 Big 12 Conference tournament championship game saw Kansas top Kansas State 72-64 for the school’s fourth title in five years. The top-seeded Jayhawks (29-2, 14-2 Big 12) could meet the fourth-seeded Wildcats (22-9, 10-6) in Friday’s semifinals of the 2011 conference tournament, which is significant considering K-State is the team nobody wants to play right now.
The Wildcats were a bubble team for the NCAA tournament less than a month ago, but an 84-68 rout of Kansas on February 14 changed everything. They followed that big win up with five more, including a 75-70 victory at #2 Texas (25-6, 13-3) last Monday. Meanwhile, the Longhorns suffered all of their conference losses in their last five games, including late rallies that fell short on the road at #8 Nebraska (19-11, 7-9) and #5 Colorado (19-12, 8-8).
Texas will meet the winner of Wednesday’s first-round matchup between #7 Baylor (18-12, 7-9) and #10 Oklahoma (13-17, 5-11) in Thursday’s quarterfinals. Kansas State will face the winner between the Buffaloes and #12 Iowa State (16-15, 3-13). Kansas gets the winner of the Cornhuskers and #9 Oklahoma State (18-12, 6-10) on Thursday before possibly getting another meeting with the Wildcats.
The Longhorns would likely play either #3 Texas A&M (23-7, 10-6) or #6 Missouri (22-9, 8-8) in the semifinals on Friday if they win their first game. The Aggies and Tigers are the other two teams besides the top three seeds that seem to be getting NCAA tournament bids at this point.
Texas A&M will play the winner of Missouri and #11 Texas Tech (13-18, 5-11) on Thursday. The Tigers beat the Bears 73-60 for the tournament title two years ago as the #3 seed but could possibly miss the NCAA tournament with a loss to the Red Raiders since they ended the regular-season on a three-game losing streak. The Aggies beat Missouri 91-89 at home in their only regular-season meeting back on January 15.
Baylor has also struggled down the stretch and will probably need to get back to the Big 12 championship game for a return to the NCAA tournament. The Bears have lost four of their last five games but still have an outside shot at making the Big Dance for the third time in four years following last year’s run to the Elite Eight before losing to eventual national champion Duke. Upsets of Texas and Texas A&M or Missouri figure to be the minimum requirements though.
