Brendon Mulvihill is an RTC contributor. You can find him @TheMulv on Twitter. See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.

For some teams, the Championship Fortnight (as Kyle Whelliston would call it) begins this week. For most others, this is the final week of the regular season. Many teams sit squarely on the bubble and need to impress in their final two contests to show they deserve to be in the Tourney. We’ve waited all year for March. It’s finally here and all indications tell us it’s going to be a wild month. Let’s get to the breakdowns!

Illinois at Iowa – 7:00 PM EST, Tuesday on BTN (***)

It looks like John Groce and Illinois are in but a couple more losses might change the equation

• This is a hugely important game for both teams. At 7-9 in the Big Ten, Iowa is need of two wins to make its case for an at large tournament bid. They close the regular season at home against Illinois and Nebraska. If they can pick up the two victories and get to .500 in conference, Fran McCaffery and company make a decent case to get in. For Illinois, it looks like they will get in however they can ill afford to drop their next two games. In addition to this game at Iowa, they must travel too Ohio State. A loss against the Hawkeyes puts a ton of pressure on John Groce’s team heading into the last game of the season, so this one is critical. Look to see if Iowa’s size bothers the Illini. Illinois is a much better two-point shooting team than they are at three-point shooting team. However, getting points inside against Iowa’s length could be tough to come by. Regardless, Brandon Paul, Tracy Abrams, and D.J. Richardson must be aggressive in taking the ball to the basket and trying to get to the line. If Illinois is settling for jumpers on the outside, they will lose. Iowa needs to win this game with defense. Their offense just isn’t strong enough to win it for them. Protecting the ball and playing good defense without fouling are their top priorities. If they are turning the ball over and fouling, Illinois will win. The team that wins the free throw battle should come out on top in this match-up.

#13 Ohio State at #1 Indiana – 9:00 PM EST, Tuesday on ESPN (****)

• In the first match-up this season between these two squads, Ohio State had no answer for Cody Zeller and Victor Olidipo. They combined to go 16-of-21 from the field and 17-of-21 from the line, grabbed 16 rebounds, and scored 50 of the 81 points. Throw in Christian Watford’s 20 points and IU’s front line obliterated OSU. If the Buckeyes want any chance to win this game in Bloomington, they must get way better defense from Evan Ravenel, Amir Williams, DeShaun Thomas, and LaQuinton Ross. Offensively, they can’t run with Indiana, however OSU’s half-court offense is suspect at best. So while their defense must create turnovers and get out on the break, they must be careful not to turn this game into a track meet. OSU’s ability to win this game sits squarely on the shoulders of their frontline. They need better defense and more scoring. If they can get that, they have a chance to win. Otherwise, this could be a blowout. Read the rest of this entry »

David Cassilo is an RTC columnist who also writes about college basketball for SLAM magazine. You can follow him at @dcassilo.

As we hit March, the NPOY race looks like it’s down to four players: Trey Burke, Victor Oladipo, Mason Plumlee and Otto Porter Jr. While it’s almost certain that one of those four will take home the hardware, it’s almost impossible to decide on a clear front-runner. Look around the Internet, and you’ll see each of those players No. 1 somewhere. In a season with no clear-cut best team, a race like this for Player of the Year is fitting. Can’t wait to see how it all plays out over the next 17 days.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

10. Jack Cooley – Notre Dame (Last week – NR)
2012-13 stats: 14.4 PPG, 11 RPG

Cooley has had a lot to celebrate this season. (AP Photo/J. Raymond)

One of the few players from a major conference to average a double-double, Cooley has been a quiet force on an overlooked Notre Dame team. He’s not going to make any top 10 highlight reels, but he is going to be the reason the Irish win games. This week: March 2 at Marquette, March 5 vs. St. John’s

9. Deshaun Thomas – Ohio State (Last week – 8)
2012-13 stats: 19.8 PPG, 6.1 RPG

The Ohio State junior is what he is — a scorer who can do some rebounding. He does both every single night, regardless of defense. Thomas is a really good college player that is close to being a great one. This week: March 5 at Ohio State

8. Cody Zeller – Indiana (Last Week – 5)
2012-13 stats: 16.3 PPG, 8.1 RPG

Zeller has shown a knack for disappearing in big games, and Tuesday’s loss to Minnesota was no different. He went just 2-of-9 from the floor before fouling out with nine points. He can’t do that in March. This week: March 2 vs. Iowa, March 5 vs. Ohio State

7. Kelly Olynyk – Gonzaga (Last week – 9)
2012-13 stats: 17.8 PPG, 6.9 RPG

As Gonzaga appears poised to grab the No. 1 ranking, Olynyk is on a tear. The junior has made at least 70 percent of his shots in his last four games. Regardless of competition, that’s pretty impressive. This week: March 2 vs. Portland

6. Doug McDermott – Creighton (Last week – 7)
2012-13 stats: 22.8 PPG, 7.7 RPG

At a time when his team desperately needed it, McDermott had one of his best games of the season on Wednesday for Creighton. The junior finished with 32 points and 11 rebounds against Bradley. He will need to do that routinely for this team to go anywhere. This week: March 2 vs. Wichita State

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1. Coaches are just as much psychologists at times as they are coaches, so it was no surprise that Travis Ford kept reminding his players this week about TCU’s win over Kansas as they prepared to play the Horned Frogs Wednesday night in Fort Worth. “I’m worried about every game, but these games can jump up and bite you,” Ford told John Helsley of NewsOk.com after Oklahoma State won, 64-47. But to be honest, Ford could have shown his team tape of Sesame Street instead of TCU and they would have won by double figures. The talk of another upset reminded me of Kansas fans’ stress last year in the first round of the NCAA Tournament after fellow #2 seeds Duke and Missouri had already lost. Believe in the Law Of Averages, folks. Most of the time, anyway. Three #2 seeds weren’t losing in the first round in the same year and TCU isn’t winning two conference games this season.
2. Growing up without knowing if he’d have food or heat on a given day and with a brother currently in prison, it seems silly to criticize Kansas freshman forward Ben McLemore for hiding from the spotlight late in games this season, as many people — myself included — have done a number of times. He probably has a lot of things on his mind, things more important than proving to people he has a killer instinct. But as Eric Prisbell writes, McLemore’s ability to take over a game could lead him to become the #1 pick in this summer’s NBA Draft, forever ending his family’s financial struggles in the tough streets of North St. Louis. Regardless of what happens the rest of the season, McLemore will still be a top five pick. But a great NCAA Tournament run would likely make him the first selection.
3. Oklahoma blew a 22-point lead in the final eight minutes before eventually losing to Texas in overtime Wednesday night, muddying its NCAA Tournament future as it hovers around the bubble with an 18-9 record. The Sooners were hurt by a Texas press that forced a number of turnovers near the end of the game and Berry Tramel made a good point — a team up 22 points with 7:54 remaining can basically win the game by doing nothing more than committing shot clock violations. 7:54 is 474 seconds, or 13.5 shot clock violations. Texas would have almost needed to hit eight three-pointers on eight possessions to win if Oklahoma could have just held the ball for 35 seconds each trip down the court.
4. West Virginia was ranked in the CBSSports.com Top 25 (And One) preseason ranking, and Gary Parrish explained why on Thursday. “Huggs (head coach Bob Huggins) never has a bad team,” Parrish recalls telling colleague Jeff Goodman back in the fall. Well, ‘Huggs rarely has a bad team’ is now the correct statement, as he is a loss on Saturday away from his first losing season in conference play since 1985. The Big 12 isn’t the reason, though, because the Big 12 isn’t that good. There are deeper issues at play here other than the Mountaineers’ move to a new conference. Huggins will probably get things turned around by next season, though.
5. With Selection Sunday nearly two weeks away, we can’t get enough Bracketology. Here’s the latest from SI.com‘s Andy Glockner. Five Big 12 teams make the cut: Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and Iowa State. The Jayhawks are a #1 seed in the South Region while the Cyclones sneak into the field with a #10 seed and everyone else falling in between. Baylor is not on the board after its recent skid of three losses in four games. The Bears still have chances to impress the committee, though, starting tomorrow as they host projected #4 seed Kansas State.

1. It’s a shame that Elijah Johnson’s historic 39-point game against Iowa State was overshadowed by an officiating controversy, but that was all anybody could talk about following Kansas’ overtime win over Iowa State on Monday night. Most of it revolved around the no-call on Johnson’s drive to the bucket late in the second half during the Jayhawks’ comeback. The Big 12 league offices on Tuesday acknowledged the mistakes by referees Tom O’Neill, Mark Whitehead and Bert Smith. It was a pretty clear charge by Johnson, but in a game full of bad calls, it was hardly the worst. Of course, a poor call at the end of the game means everything is magnified. Which leads us to this…
2. An Iowa State fan charged at Bill Self after the game immediately following Self’s postgame television interview. What he intended to do if police hadn’t intervened is still a mystery, but he certainly looked like an angry old man in a fit of rage. Make sure to check out the KUSports.com‘s photos linked in the story, showing the fan as he nears Self. Coupled with these tweets from an ISU fan sent to Elijah Johnson, and it was just a bad day to be a Cyclones fan.
3. Oklahoma State sophomore forward Brian Williams returned from a wrist injury a month ago after it was unclear whether he’d be able to return at all this season. Since his return on January 31, the Cowboys are 7-1 and in contention for the Big 12 regular season title, sitting currently in second place at 10-4. His numbers aren’t flashy, but he’s considered one of the best defenders on the team. His playing time has slowly increased as he’s eased back into the rotation, and just in time for the Pokes. The Cowboys are lingering on the outside of the Big 12 title race but are still within striking distance if Kansas and/or Kansas State drop another game in the final two weeks.
4. Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger brings up an interesting point that many people — including Jay Bilas on a regular basis — have been harping on all year. Offenses have been struggling in recent years because defenses are allowed to bump the cutters and hand-check on the perimeter. As John Shinn of the Norman Transcript points out, there were 100 fouls committed in the Sooners’ last two games. Kruger, like many others, has a simple solution. If referees call the bumping and holding early and often at the beginning of the season, players and coaches will adjust because coaches will teach players to get away with as much as possible. It’s up to the officials to draw the line.
5. The Kansas City Star‘s Blair Kerkhoff gives a nice history lesson as Kansas and Kansas State battle for the regular season championship with two weeks to go. As most know, Kansas has won eight consecutive conference titles. The Wildcats, on the other hand, haven’t won a conference regular season championship since 1977. With wins in their remaining three games — at Baylor, TCU, at Oklahoma State — they would clinch at least a share of their first championship in 36 years. As Kerkhoff notes, the Sunflower rivals used to battle for the conference title on a regular basis before Kansas State began to struggle in the 1980s.

1. The AP and Coach’s Poll were revealed Monday and Kansas had a nice bump up to #5 in the Coaches edition, up from #9 last week after its double-overtime win over Oklahoma State. Kansas State remained at #13 in both polls after easy wins over West Virginia and Texas, while Oklahoma State proved once again that while a single elimination, 64-team tournament isn’t the best way to crown a national champ, we should all be thankful we don’t rely on voters like football. The Cowboys lost by a point in double overtime to a top-10 team and dropped four spots, from #14 to #18 in the coaches poll. Did four teams suddenly become better than Oklahoma State this week because they made one less bucket against Kansas?
2. Baylor is far from a lock to make the NCAA Tournament, as Seth Davis points out in the video here. He has the Bears as one of his first 5 teams out of the dance, and it’s hard to criticize him. Baylor has lost three in a row and sits at just 16-11 overall. Their win over Kentucky earlier in the season looks far from impressive as the Wildcats are on the bubble as well. The Bears don’t have any great wins on their resume, either. Oklahoma State was a good win at home, but that’s the only decent win they have so far. They end the season on the road at West Virginia and Texas and home against Kansas State and Kansas. I think they need to go 3-1 in that stretch -or make a run in the conference tournament- to feel comfortable on Selection Sunday.
3. Blake Griffin was a stud at Oklahoma a few years ago, breaking out during his sophomore season on his way to becoming the #1 overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft and an All-Star as well. As Jeff Goodman points out, Griffin could have easily left Oklahoma after his freshman year and been a lottery pick. But Griffin is glad he stayed, and thinks other kids should, too. While it’s tough to drown out the people wanting to cash in on your talent, Griffin thinks it’s worth it in some cases. “You might drop a few spots,” he told Goodman. “But you might end up with a team that’s a better fit — and end up making more money in the long run.”
4. Can’t believe Baylor is on the bubble? Think Kansas State should be a #3 seed? Figure it all out here, with CBSSports.com’s RPI comparisons. Compare Baylor and Kentucky, for example. Look at their wins against the RPI top 100 or their record away from home to see which team deserves a tournament bid (I lean towards the Bears). How about Kansas and Florida for the top #2 seed? The Jayhawks are 10-3 against the RPI top 50 while the Gators are 5-3. Kansas also has a better Strength of Schedule, #12 to Florida’s #22. You could lose a lot of time on that page, so beware.
5. Speaking of brackets, I think the Jayhawks will lose one more game through the Big 12 tournament and end up with a #2 seed. But Brad Evans over at Yahoo! unveiled his latest mock bracket and has Kansas as the fourth #1 seed as of Monday morning. As he notes, the Bracket Big Board is pretty accurate, so Kansas fans should be happy. The loss to TCU is still a bad mark on their resume but with nearly every top team losing the last few weeks, Kansas has as good a shot as any to potentially steal one of the final top seeds. Indiana and one of Miami and Duke seem to be locks, but the other two spots are up for grabs. Kansas, Florida, Michigan, Gonzaga, and even Georgetown look to be in contention.

1. I bet TCU players and fans would have traded an historic win over Kansas at home for a beatdown in Allen Fieldhouse, which was probably coming regardless. But that couldn’t have made Saturday’s 74-48 loss any better. The Horned Frogs had nine points at halftime, worse than the 13 that they held the Jayhawks to in Fort Worth back on February 6. TCU’s starting five was held scoreless in the first half, and Bill Self told the Lawrence-Journal World‘s Tom Keegan that the first 20 minutes were some of the best basketball the Jayhawks have played all season. They may be hitting their stride again as they enter a final stretch that gives them no breaks if they want that ninth consecutive Big 12 championship.
2. With 68 teams now in the NCAA Tournament, there should be even less sympathy for teams who can’t make the field. But it’s still interesting to look at the bubble, where a few Big 12 teams are firmly planted with March on the horizon. Jeff Borzello over at CBSSports.com had a nice piece on Saturday about most of the bubble teams right now, and Iowa State and Baylor garnered attention. He labeled the Cyclones ‘winners’ after their 20-point win against Texas Tech Saturday — the team’s third in a row — and mentioned what most people have to be thinking: a win tonight over Kansas seals them into the field of 68. Baylor, on the other hand, is less fortunate after dropping  its third game in a row over the weekend, a 90-76 loss at Oklahoma. They have now lost six out of eight contests and still must face Kansas and Kansas State.
3. Speaking of bubble teams, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has both Iowa State and Baylor in the dance in his latest mock bracket. The Cyclones are a #10 seed in the East Region while the Bears are a #12 seed in one of the four play-in games in Dayton. Six Big 12 teams make the cut in this edition, the others being Kansas (#2), Kansas State (#4), Oklahoma State (#5), and Oklahoma (#9). I know the brackets usually fall apart well before the Elite Eight and the top two seeds don’t meet in the regional finals consistently, but Kansas definitely received the worst draw of the #2 seeds. If the brackets stays true to form (again, a big ‘if’), the Jayhawks would face top-seeded Indiana in Indianapolis. Good luck with that.
4. The three-game losing streak suffered by Kansas is getting further and further into the rear-view while they climb back up the polls, at #5 to be exact in Sunday’s Top 25 (And One) from CBSSports.com. Their four losses suddenly don’t look so bad when you see that six other teams in the top 10 have at least four losses as well. The win over Oklahoma State certainly helped too. Kansas State remained at #12 this week while Oklahoma State (rightfully) stayed at #14 even with the loss to Kansas. An extra bucket and a win wouldn’t have made the Cowboys any better of a team moving forward.
5. Kansas State has been a fouling machine lately, but it hasn’t burned them yet. As Kellis Robinett of the Wichita Eagle points out, the Wildcats were called for 54 fouls in last week’s games, two wins at West Virginia and against Texas. “We have got to be careful on fouls,” Bruce Weber told Robinett. “We have to adjust when they are calling it tight.” Fouls shouldn’t be an issue against Texas Tech tonight, but they could be a problem in the NCAA Tournament if a lower-seeded team in the first round is able to slow the tempo of the game down because of K-State’s foul trouble, limiting possessions and increasing the likelihood of an upset.

David Cassilo is an RTC columnist who also writes about college basketball for SLAM magazine. You can follow him at @dcassilo.

Wouldn’t it be fun to have a real college all-star game? First of all, it would give every team a break it needs, and second, seeing the top players face off would be great. Imagine something like Trey Burke, Victor Oladipo, Doug McDermott, Jeff Withey and Kelly Olynyk against Marcus Smart, Deshaun Thomas, Otto Porter Jr., Mason Plumlee and Cody Zeller. Personally, I would love to see Burke and Smart run their teams against each other. I know there is some lame all-star game during Final Four weekend, but a mid-season game is something that the NCAA should consider.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

10. Marcus Smart – Oklahoma State (Last week – NR)
2012-13 stats: 15 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 4.4 APG, 2.9 SPG

It’s amazing that Smart not only is this great already but also has so much room for improvement. In the double-overtime loss against Kansas on Wednesday, he was the most important player on the floor despite going 2-of-14 from the field. One more offseason of workouts will make him a lethal player. This week: February 23 at West Virginia, February 27 at TCU

9. Kelly Olynyk – Gonzaga (Last week – 10)
2012-13 stats: 17.9 PPG, 6.9 RPG

Kelly Olynyk’s Breakout Year Has Gonzaga As One Of The Nation’s Elite Offensive Teams (USA Today Sports Images)

There is likely no better frontcourt tandem in the nation than Olynyk and Elias Harris. The two combine to average 32.5 PPG and 14.4 RPG. There are few teams in the country that will be able to match up with that duo in the NCAA Tournament. This week: February 23 vs. San Diego, February 28 at BYU

8. Deshaun Thomas – Ohio State (Last week – 8)
2012-13 stats: 20.1 PPG, 6 RPG

Thomas is just a straight-up gunner. He takes 16 shots per game and has scored in double-figures in every game this season. It seems nearly impossible to completely take him out of a game defensively. This week: February 24 vs. Michigan State, February 28 at Northwestern

7. Doug McDermott – Creighton (Last Week – 7)
2012-13 stats: 22.5 PPG, 7.8 RPG

For all his accolades as a scorer, McDermott’s ability to rebound often gets overlooked. The 6’8″ junior has eight double-doubles so far this season and has hauled in as many as 13 rebounds in a game. This week: February 23 at St. Mary’s, February 27 at Bradley

6. Jeff Withey – Kansas (Last week – 6)
2012-13 stats: 13.4 PPG, 8.6 RPG, 4.0 BPG

At the most important part of the season, Withey is playing his best basketball. He’s had double-doubles in his last three games, which is something he hasn’t done all season. The 14 rebounds against Oklahoma State on Wednesday were a season-high. This week: February 23 vs. TCU, February 25 at Iowa State

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1. Kansas is good. It doesn’t take much to see that. They went through their longest losing streak in eight years and since that time, they’ve collected wins against the other two challengers for the Big 12 title, Oklahoma State and Kansas State. Now armed with a three-game winning streak, is it time to enter the Jayhawks back into the national title conversation? I say why not? The writer of this piece believes Bill Self will have the KU offense humming come Tournament time but I’m of the opinion that if you’re not a prolific offense already, that’s who you are and nothing can change that. But that’s OK. Self’s teams win on defense anyway. They have a shot to make a run to Atlanta but if they run into a team like Indiana, Michigan or Gonzaga along the way, I’m not sure they can match them blow-for-blow on the offensive end.
2. The Big 12 is a league filled with talented point guards. Oklahoma State has Marcus Smart, Baylor has Pierre Jackson and Kansas State has Angel Rodriguez. Like Jackson, he stands at 5’11” but is far from the scorer and super athletic player that the Baylor guard is. Last season, Rodriguez nearly averaged a one to one assist-to-turnover ratio (3.2 assists/2.7 turnovers) while starting as a true freshman. Now a year older, he leads the Big 12 in that category (5.1 assists/2.2 turnovers). If there was a most improved player award, Rodriguez would be most deserving of this distinction.
3. Is this it for Oklahoma State? The winning streak that launched them into the top-15 in both polls is now over. They’re no longer tied for first in the Big 12. Despite this, the Cowboys players are showing great resolve. Here’s Michael Cobbins’ thoughts: “We’re still going to go into practice like we’re the No. 1 team in this league. We’re still fighting for the No. 1 spot. It’s not too late.” Markel Brown echoed those sentiments: “You can’t sit and just sulk about it, but you don’t want to forget it either. Let it be in the back of your mind to fuel you for the next game.” Everything they’re saying is 100% true. Kansas has a couple road games left against Iowa State and Baylor, two teams desperate to boost their NCAA Tournament profiles. They lose those games and the Cowboys win out, their wish is granted.
4. I previously wrote about how if West Virginia was able to turn their season around, it would have been the biggest “sike” in Big 12 history. Well it appears reality has finally set in Morgantown: (likely) no NCAA Tournament for the 2012-13 season. The Charleston Gazette breaks down which postseason tournament the Mountaineers will get a bid to. Since the CollegeInsider.com Tournament doesn’t invite members from power conferences, that eliminates WVU off the bat. The humor in this is that tournaments like the College Basketball Invitational and the CIT weren’t even around in 2007, the last time West Virginia missed out on the NCAA Tournament and ended up winning the NIT. Nice to know college basketball now has its own version of pointless bowl games.
5. Texas has had a miserable year so what is their reward? How about this article from the Austin Chronicle that took the Longhorns to the woodshed and beat them like they owed something! It’s a lost season, the first in 15 years, and that’s not a bad thing. Weird part of it is there might be some truth, yes, even the hyperbole. Hook ’em, I guess.

Have you ever seen those black-and-white pictures hanging in the concourses of every college basketball arena in America? You know, the ones commemorating teams who won championships in 1921 in leagues that don’t exist anymore, consisting of skinny dudes who never touched a weight room in their lives, played decades before the invention of the protein shake, and very well may have played with a peach basket?  It’s quite possible those people traveled in time to Wednesday night and invaded Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Bill Self Showed Off His Dance Moves On ESPN

Kansas and Oklahoma State played a thriller on Wednesday. Double-overtime. A game-winner by Naadir Tharpe in the final seconds. A wild final sequence ending in a player throwing himself on the floor and the Jayhawks scooping the ball up for a dunk that counted only symbolically. It was everything you could ask for as a college basketball fan in terms of drama and late-game heroics, and yet it still might have been one of the most frustratingly and poorly played contests since the Great Depression. These are supposed to be two of the top three teams in the Big 12 Conference, but neither looked the part tonight.

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It isn’t very often that a team drops 85 points on a Bill Self-coached team or wins in Allen Fieldhouse. Oklahoma State did both earlier this month, ending the Jayhawks‘ 33-game home winning streak while scoring the most points in regulation against Kansas since, well, Oklahoma State nearly three years ago. It was the beginning of the worst eight-day stretch of Kansas basketball since 2005 and it makes tonight’s rematch the most intriguing game in the Big 12 this season for a few reasons. The loser will be a game behind first place with five games left, making an outright conference championship nearly impossible. The Big 12 doesn’t have a tiebreaker for the regular season title and rewards multiple trophies if teams are tied (because of the previously unbalanced schedule with 12 teams), so this wouldn’t be a huge deal. But if Kansas wants to claim its ninth consecutive Big 12 championship with a straight face, avoiding a sweep by the team it tied would help that cause. Bill Self has also never been swept in the regular season while at Kansas. He’s had a few close calls, like Missouri last season, but Self has always avenged a loss when given the chance. Tonight might be the toughest test yet, though.

It’s A Rarity, But Bill Self Is An Underdog Tonight In Stillwater. (AP)

In the first meeting on November 2, Kansas was a 10-point favorite and #2 in the country, winners of 18 in a row. That didn’t effect Marcus Smart or Markel Brown, however. Smart, a leading candidate along with Ben McLemore for Big 12 Freshman of the Year as well as a near-lock for the All-Big 12 First Team, had 25 points, nine rebounds (eight offensive), and five steals in the 85-80 victory. With Smart stealing potentially eight extra possessions, coupled with Brown’s 28 points and effective field goal percentage of 73.5%, the Cowboys had enough ammo to outlast Kansas on its home court, something that doesn’t happen very often. But that pair of ridiculous stat lines is why I like the Jayhawks tonight. Smart and Brown had two of the best games they’ve had in an OSU uniform and their team forced 16 Kansas turnovers, and yet they still only won by five points. That’s what was needed, because everything else about Oklahoma State’s box score — from shooting percentage and assists to free-throw percentage and turnovers — was similar to the rest of the season. Could Brown and/or Smart go off on the Jayhawks again tonight? Maybe. A similar game from Smart is expected because of how bad of a match-up his size creates for the KU guards. But Brown? I doubt it. He only has three other 20-point games since December 1. But that isn’t the only reason I think Kansas wins tonight on its way to another outright Big 12 championship.

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