We’ve arrived at the final week of the regular season and now more than ever it is crystal clear just how many Big 12 teams will make the field of 68 (yeah, right). Anywhere from five to potentially eight teams could hear their names called by CBS Sports’ Greg Gumbel on Selection Sunday, but it’s reasonably safe to say that these five teams — Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa State, West Virginia and Baylor — are virtual locks. Two maybes and a long shot from the Big 12 have quite a bit of ground to make up, though, between now and the conference title game in 12 days in Kansas City. Let’s take a deeper dive look at each of those three bubble squads.

• Oklahoma State appears to be in the best position. The Cowboys were able to notch some quality wins by beating Kansas and sweeping Baylor while also taking both games from bubbling Texas. To assure Oklahoma State’s status in the field, one of two things needs to happen. They could beat TCU and lose to West Virginia (finishing at 8-10 in league play) before winning one game in the Big 12 Tournament. After all, that is what happened a season ago. The second option is to simply win in Morgantown on Saturday, a much-tougher task. That separates this team from continuing insecurity and a sure thing.
  

  Travis Ford and the Cowboys have a big week ahead of them. (Getty)

• Texas’ situation is a little more complicated. The Longhorns sit at four games under .500 in the league with a dismal 6-10 record. Despite the ongoing Big 12 benefit of playing Tournament-caliber teams both home and away, the Longhorns have only registered one victory in 11 tries against those teams. They need to beat both Baylor tonight and Kansas State on Saturday. If the Big 12 Tournament started today, the Horns would be the #8 seed and open play against a pesky TCU team. If they were able to advance to the semifinalss with two wins, that should be enough to get them in. If they don’t do that, there’s a chance we could see a revamped roster and new head coach in Austin this fall.
• Two weeks ago, ESPN.com’s Eamonn Brennan made the claim that Kansas State arguably has the most interesting at-large NCAA Tournament resume in quite some time. While an at-large now seems out of the question, their chance to nab the league’s automatic bid is still certainly in play. K-State’s NCAA chances are the easiest (or hardest) to draw out. Basically, win all of the games. All. Of. Them. One more loss would give the Wildcats 16 defeats on the season, and it’s hard to imagine the Selection Committee would reward an at-large bid to a team with that many losses. Georgia rolled off four wins in four days to win the 2008 SEC Tournament, and, fortunately for Kansas State, most of the teams they’d likely face in Kansas City next week are teams it’s already beaten.

Will the Big 12 get all three teams in? Probably not! But two of these clubs might! Is is Championship Week yet?

Power Rankings

1. Kansas — 3 points (All voted 1st). Comment: “A lot of the talk surrounding Kansas’ games lately has actually been centered on its opponents. The losses at Oklahoma State, West Virginia and Kansas State in addition to Isaiah Taylor’s last-second drive on Saturday have dominated the conversation, but there hasn’t been nearly as much air time and ink given to how well Perry Ellis has played for a team desperate for frontcourt production. Over his last five games, the junior (yes, junior, Rick Barnes) has averaged 22.4 points per game on 57.5 percent shooting to go along with 8.0 rebounds per contest. If he can keep up his torrid pace, the Jayhawks may not miss the suspended Cliff Alexander so much after all.” – Brian Goodman (@BSGoodman)
2. Oklahoma — 7 points (Brian & Chris — 2nd, Nate — 3rd) Comment: “After starting conference play 3-4, the Sooners have won eight of their last nine games. Four outings against TCU and Texas Tech have bolstered their record as they prepare to face Iowa State and Kansas in the season’s final week.” – Chris Stone (@cstonehoops)
3. Baylor — 8 points (Nate — 2nd, Brian & Chris — 3rd) Comment: “It looks like Scott Drew has created some separation between he and Bob Huggins in the Big 12 Coach of the Year race. It’s fascinating to see him take a team many viewed with average talent to become an absolute match-up nightmare in March.” – Nate Kotisso (@natekotisso)
4. Iowa State — 12 points (All voted 4th). Comment: “It was not the best week for an Iowa State club that lost at home to Baylor and on the road at Kansas State. The schedule won’t get any easier either with Oklahoma in town tonight and a trip to TCU on the horizon. The ninth-ranked defense in the league has proven incapable of pressuring the perimeter, which translates into too many open three-pointers and not enough turnovers.” – CS
5. West Virginia — 15 points (All voted 5th). Comment: “Though the Mountaineers lost to Baylor on Saturday, last Tuesday’s win against Texas likely punched their NCAA Tournament ticket. Getting Juwan Staten and Gary Browne healthy should be a priority, but ‘Eers fans have our permission to celebrate a return to the Big Dance after a two-year absence. It’s been too long for this program.” – BG
   

   For Isaiah Taylor and the Longhorns, tonight’s tilt against Baylor is about as “must-win” as must win could get. (USA TODAY Sports)

6. Kansas State — 20 points (Chris & Nate — 6th, Brian — 8th) Comment: “Is Kansas State a better team with or without Marcus Foster? There’s a clear dropoff without him in their losses to Texas Tech and Texas, but by the same token, Foster shot 5-of-18 from the field for 12 points in the Wildcats’ last two wins against Kansas and Iowa State. In summary, evaluating this team will shed years from your life expectancy.” – NK
7. Texas — 21 points (Brian — 6th, Chris — 7th, Nate — 8th) Comment: “The hard-luck Longhorns gave the Jayhawks all they could handle with authoritative shot-blocking and inspired play by Isaiah Taylor, but fell short thanks to an unfortunate no-call. If Texas can find its way into the NCAA Tournament, the Horns are going to be an awfully tough out. Tonight’s game against Baylor is about as close to a must-win game as it can get.” – BG
8. Oklahoma State — 22 points (Brian & Nate — 7th, Chris — 8th) Comment: “Oklahoma State has gone from a surefire NCAA Tournament team to losers of their last four contests. A major factor has been the declining production of Phil Forte, who is averaging just 7.5 points per game over that span. Wins against TCU and West Virginia would certainly quiet the burgeoning bubble talk.” – CS
9. TCU — 27 points (All voted 9th). Comment: “The Horned Frogs have just two true road wins as they play out the string, and one of those came against a team significantly worse than them (Texas Tech). They’ll play spoiler against a struggling Oklahoma State team on Wednesday before wrapping up the regular season by hosting Iowa State. A win in either of those games would make for an impressive memento from the year that will be remembered as the season TCU became a Big 12 team worth respecting.” – BG
10. Texas Tech — 30 points (All voted 10th). Comment: “For the second Saturday in a row, freshman Norense Odiase showed us a glimpse into his bright future. Odiase went up against Ryan Spangler of Oklahoma and racked up 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting last week and followed that up with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting this week (including a made three). He’s still raw but he’s on the fast track to becoming a cornerstone player for Tubby Smith in Lubbock.” – NK

Big 12 Video/GIF of the Week

There was plenty of weirdness to go around on Saturday. A big part of said weirdness involved Iowa State’s Georges Niang committing a crucial turnover that led to a late easy steal and dunk for K-State’s Wesley Iwundu. It wound up being the difference in the Wildcats’ essential one-point victory. (h/t Vinnyviner)

Five Big 12 Games You Better Watch This Week

• Monday: Baylor at Texas (6:00 PM CT, ESPNU)
• Monday: Oklahoma at Iowa State (8:00 PM CT, ESPN)
• Tuesday: West Virginia at Kansas (8:00 PM CT, ESPN2)
• Saturday: Oklahoma State at West Virginia (1:00 PM CT, ESPNews)
• Saturday: Kansas at Oklahoma (3:00 PM CT, ESPN)

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2015 at 6:22 pm by Nate Kotisso (@natekotisso) and is filed under big 12, microsites. Tagged: feature, iowa state, Isaiah Taylor, kansas, kansas state, oklahoma, oklahoma state, tcu, texas, texas tech, travis ford, wesley iwundu, west virginia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.