- Oklahoma State head coach Travis Ford tried to get his players’ minds off the Kansas win as soon as possible this week, and it seemed to work just fine. They defeated Baylor last night on a last second layup by Markel Brown. According to John Helsley of newsok.com, around 200 fans greeted the Cowboys when they returned to Stillwater Saturday night. “There was no way to shake it,” Ford said of the post-Kansas celebrations. “Every time you turn around, someone’s wanting to talk about it.” Whatever hangover may have existed was gone after the Baylor win, which gives them more wins than all of last season.
- The only thing wrong with this piece from the Kansas City Star‘s Sam Mellinger is this line: “Might be worse than anybody Roy Williams lost to, too.” I can’t think of a team worse than TCU that Roy Williams lost to while at Kansas, because I don’t think there was a worse loss. Luckily for Self, his team, and Kansas fans, the loss is awful but wasn’t not in March. The actual loss itself, while possibly costing the Jayhawks a #1 seed, doesn’t ruin their season. Whether it ruined their psyche is a different question, however. A question we won’t know until Saturday at the earliest when Kansas travels to Oklahoma. And if their psyche is ruined, Self will have no one to blame but himself. He obviously felt that blasting a 19-2 team in the media after losing to a team with two future NBA draft picks was the way to go. Maybe he was wrong.
- With Oklahoma State firmly in the top 25 and Oklahoma seven games over .500, the Bedlam rivals are experiencing success together for the first time in a number of years. But as Berry Tramel of NewsOK.com states, the duo isn’t what it once was. And while he is correct, his take on the mediocrity of college basketball compared to 25 or 30 years ago leaves a lot to be desired. “OU’s backups in 1988 were better players than what Kruger is winning with 25 years later,” Tramel said. Well, Berry, besides having no way to prove that, Oklahoma was a national runner-up in 1988. This team is on the bubble. It’s a nice way to make your argument, but anybody can cherry-pick.
- ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has his latest mock bracket up, and Kansas has dropped to a #2 seed in the South Region. The usual five teams -Kansas State, Iowa State, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State- are included as well. Kansas State (#5), Oklahoma State (#8), and Iowa State (#10) all moved up in Lunardi’s latest bracket.There are a few intriguing matchups in the first round: Former conference rivals Oklahoma and Missouri in the first round as well as UCLA vs. Baylor, which would possibly have more talent on the floor than any other first round game. Another exciting possibility is a second-round meeting between Kansas and Iowa State in Kansas City, possibly the fourth time the teams would meet this season.
- How much is Oklahoma‘s 74-70 win over Baylor going to help? It will be enough to earn an NCAA Tournament bid, Seth Davis argues in his latest article for Sports Illustrated. The Sooners are in almost every mock bracket I’ve seen lately, for whatever that is worth (probably not much). They are 14-7 (5-4 in conference) and have three games remaining against Texas Tech and TCU, teams that every Tournament-bound team should beat (yes, that was a shot at Kansas). But like Davis notes, the win over Baylor should give the Sooners some breathing room with the Tournament committee.