Big 12 Hoops | Final Power Rankings - Tournament Time

The Jayhawks crushed Texas Tech last week 82-57 on senior night in Lawrence. Tarik Black scored 19 points and was perfect from the field 9-9. Then KU dropped a close game on the road to West Virginia 92-86 despite a spectacular 41 points performance from Andrew Wiggins.

The #1 seed and favorite to win the tourney is Kansas, but it will be interesting to watch how much playing time Joel Embiid will be allowed. He is in California today seeking a second opinion from a back specialist. Embiid will be limited in the Big 12 tourney to be at 100% for the NCAA tournament. This week KU gets to play the winner of the Texas Tech vs Oklahoma State game.

The Sooners have been on a roll to end the season and are the #2 seed in the Big 12 tournament. They won both games last week against West Virginia and TCU, and have won 5 out of their last 6 games. It was an easy couple of games to end the regular season for Oklahoma. They are playing as a team and could be dangerous in the tournament this week.

After their bye, on Thursday OU will play the winner of Baylor and TCU. OU has beat Baylor both times they played this year.

The Cyclones had a rough end to the season as they split their games with the two bubble teams of the conference. A loss to Baylor 74-61, and a tight overtime win to Oklahoma State 85-81. The overtime win help them avoid their 3rd loss in a row. DeAndre Kane had 27 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block. It was in comeback fashion that they won, so that may be a plus to go into the tournament on a thrilling victory like that.

ISU is a #4 seed in the tournament and gets to play K-State in their first game on Thursday. They have won once and loss once to K-State this year.

The Bears have won 7 out of their last 8 games. Last week they beat Iowa State 74-61, and they were the ONLY conference team to beat K-State in Manhattan. Kenny Chery had 29 points in the K-State win. Baylor is a team that struggled in the first half of their Big 12 games, but they look like they have figured out their problems.

Because of their record Baylor is only a #7 seed in the tournament. They play TCU on Wednesday night, and the winner gets to play Oklahoma on Thursday.

Texas is falling fast as they have only 2 wins in their last 6 games to end the season. Last week they won against TCU, and dropped the battle in Lubbock to Texas Tech 59-53. UT finished the season as a #3 seed in the tournament.

UT gets to play West Virginia on Thursday. They have beat WVU both times they played this year.

Oklahoma State almost picked up another huge signature win over Iowa State last week. They took care of business against K-State 77-61, but lost in overtime to ISU 85-81. It was a heartbreaker for Cowboy fans because ISU came from behind and stole the game at the end. Marcus Smart continued his dominating ways with 18 points and 27 points in the games.

OSU has won 4 out of their last 5, and want to stay hot for the tournament. They are the #8 seed and play Texas Tech on Wednesday. The teams have split wins this year.

Huge upset in Morgantown as the Mountaineers knocked off top ranked Kansas. Juwan Staten and Eron Harris both scored 20+ points to help lead their team to victory. West Virginia had a loss earlier in the week to Oklahoma 72-62, but pulled off the spectacular win 92-86 over KU. The end of the season was looking rough for WVU until the victory.

The win moved WVU all the way up to #6 seed in the tournament, and they get to play UT on Thursday. UT has beat WVU twice this year.

Battling two bubble teams at the end of the year is always tough. K-State had two losses last week to Oklahoma State and Baylor. Their home court winning streak was wiped away by Baylor. K-State is a good team, but we will see how they do on a neutral court in Kansas City.

K-State is the #5 seed in the tourney and will play Iowa State on Thursday. They both have split games this year.

We put a stop to our losing streak by beating UT in a battle that was fitting for Senior Day in Lubbock. After getting stomped in Lawrence by Kansas 82-57, Tech came out ready to play some basketball against Texas. Everyone on the team wanted the win so bad, and the fan support was amazing. Saturday was a very good day to be a Red Raider and it was perfect to send Jaye Crockett off from Texas Tech basketball like that. It always feels good to beat one of our in-state rivals… especially that team from Austin. I saw some magic happen in the game at the end, and it gave me some hope that some magic might be carried over into the Big 12 tournament.

We knew last week that we were a lock to get the #9 seed in the tournament. It was tough to sit back and wait to see who would fall into the #8 seed that we would play. I crossed my fingers for West Virginia, and then WVU pulled off the amazing upset of Kansas. We now have to go into another battle with Oklahoma State. We all know the story of the first game, where our win was overshadowed by the Marcus Smart incident. In our final meeting with OSU they demolished our team. I don’t think our Wednesday game will be lopsided at all, and I think our Red Raiders will be ready for payback from what happened in Stillwater. Wreck 'em Tech!

The Horned Frogs finished the regular season 0-18. They look for a miracle win against Baylor on Wednesday in the Big 12 tournament.