And then there was one. After Iowa State’s close loss to Ohio State and Kansas’ strong second half win over North Carolina on Sunday, only one of the Big 12’s five NCAA Tournament teams remained through the end of the first weekend. Oklahoma State played the best 12 seed in tournament history (Oregon) and got bounced. Kansas State forgot what time its game against La Salle started and apparently didn’t begin playing basketball until the second half — when it was too late. Oklahoma fell victim to San Diego State’s vicious defense. Iowa State got Crafted by Ohio State. Those locker rooms were surely quiet in the aftermath of those losses. Stunned, probably. Everybody thinks they’re going all the way — or at least have the ability to win a game or two in March — but for four Big 12 teams, the dream has ended. Once the disappointment fades, it’ll become apparent that most of these teams massively overachieved. Here’s our first look at Oklahoma’s 2012-13 campaign:

Lon Kruger Turned Things Around in Norman (Las Vegas Review)

Final Record: 20-12 (11-7)

The Expectations: We touted Oklahoma as a potential sleeper pick on this microsite, but we were never very serious about it. With Lon Kruger at the helm and strong roster continuity due to an abundance of returning starters and contributors, the Sooners just seemed like the perfect candidate to surprise some people. Still, with as poorly as this team played at times a year ago, nobody dared predict Kruger’s team to do big things. The head coach would get this program rolling one day, sure, but it wouldn’t be this year. There were just too many question marks. Could they figure out how to score beyond Steven Pledger, last year’s leading scorer? Would their bigs improve? Would any of the freshmen guards contribute and actually provide some adequate depth? It seemed there were some decent parts for Kruger to work with, but this looked like the quintessential NIT roster.

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1. Oklahoma was a pleasant surprise this season. Lon Kruger worked his magic to lead a struggling program to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since Blake Griffin roamed the streets of Norman, so it’s fair to call the Sooners classic overachievers. As the article points out, there were a number of bright spots during the 2012-13 campaign. Romero Osby’s production increased as a senior. Buddy Hield became the team’s best defender and became quite the character in the locker room. Kruger transformed a losing mentality into a winning one almost overnight, but it wasn’t all good news this season. There were some negatives. The end of the season wasn’t good, for starters, but despite a late road loss to TCU and no postseason victories in either the Big 12 or NCAA Tournaments, the Sooners created momentum for next season, if such a thing even exists.
2. Baylor doesn’t have any momentum, not after a fairly disastrous season that saw the Bears fall all the way to the NIT. Still, maybe Scott Drew’s team can at least salvage some pride this March. It continues this evening with a quarterfinal game against Providence. Baylor didn’t crash and burn in the traditional sense — it was on the bubble all the way through the Big 12 Tournament, after all — but that’s not good enough for a team with this much talent. Not with blue-chip freshmen in the frontcourt, the best player in the league in Pierre Jackson, and a dead-eye shooter in Brady Heslip. No matter how far Baylor advances in the NIT, that “what if” will linger into next November.
3. Naadir Tharpe is a sophomore. He really is. For all the expectations, criticism and attention, it’s easy to forget he hasn’t even wrapped up his second full season of Division I basketball. That’s life at Kansas, though, which is why he’s playing such a key role on this team right now. Alongside senior Elijah Johnson, Tharpe has also carried the brunt of criticism from fans and writers for Kansas’ occasional offensive lapses and point guard problems. But that didn’t happen during the Jayhawks’ dominant second half against North Carolina this weekend, and it’ll need to stay that way as this team advances into the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
4. Texas Tech might need a new basketball coach if it doesn’t retain interim head coach Chris Walker, so it’s reaching out to various candidates. The results are not good so far. Southern Illinois’ Barry Hinson, an odd candidate considering he finished in last place of the Missouri Valley in his first year in Carbondale, said he has no interest. And New Mexico State’s Marvin Menzies said the exact same thing. Texas Tech isn’t the best job in the league, but the school has lured Bob Knight and Billy Gillispie to coach there in the last decade. Those are big names — especially Knight. It remains to be seen whether the TTU program can catch a big fish again this time around.
5. Fred Hoiberg knows all about being awesome at things. Especially basketball. So he’s going to coach an All-Star game at the Final Four, featuring some of the best seniors in college basketball. It’ll be a nostalgic event for Hoiberg, who played in this same All-Star game as an Iowa State senior in the 1990s. See how he’s gone full circle?

Brian Otskey is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report after the Round of 64 NCAA Tournament game between #7 San Diego State and #10 Oklahoma in Philadelphia. You can also find Brian at @botskey.

Three key takeaways:

1. The Mountain West picks up a much-needed win. In what has been an otherwise disappointing tournament for MWC teams, one of the conference’s better clubs was able to get on the board and advance. The win move the Mountain West’s record to 2-3 and the Aztecs have the potential to do even more with a tough (but still a #15 seed) Florida Gulf Coast team waiting in the wings on Sunday. Colorado State is the only other remaining standard bearer for the Mountain West and will go to battle in an interesting game with Louisville on Saturday. Given what has transpired and the matchups ahead, San Diego State is likely the final hope for the Mountain West.
   

   Surprise, surprise, Steve Fisher has his team playing well in the NCAA Tournament. Fisher’s squad advanced to the Round of 32 Friday evening. (AP)

2. San Diego State was impressive defensively. The Aztecs have been a good defensive team all year but they did a fantastic job shutting down second-leading scorer Steven Pledger and the Oklahoma supporting cast. San Diego State has the #15 defensive efficiency in America and it showed tonight. The Aztecs don’t have many players with a lot of height on their team but most of them have great length and quickness, something that bothered the Sooners all night long. Oklahoma shot just 39.7% and scored only 22 points in the second half as the Aztecs locked in defensively. San Diego State also dominated the glass, 40-29, the final task in closing out defensive possessions.
3. It was a good year for Oklahoma. Lon Kruger got what had been a deflated Oklahoma program into the NCAA Tournament in only his second season in Norman. However, Kruger will lose three of his key player in Romero Osby, Steven Pledger and Andrew Fitzgerald. The recruiting class coming in is decent but it’s not going to make a huge difference next season. The Sooners may take a step back in 2013-14 but this season was still a strong building block for the future. Kruger has had success pretty much everywhere he has coached so I’d expect Oklahoma to continue to improve its program in the years to come after a successful 2012-13 campaign.

Star of the Game: Romero Osby, Oklahoma. Although it was in a losing effort, Osby poured in 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting, single-handedly keeping the Sooners within striking distance for the majority of the game. San Diego State did a great job on Pledger and nobody else could get it going for OU. If it was not for Osby, this would have been a big time blowout.

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#2 Georgetown vs. #15 Florida Gulf Coast – South Region Second Round (at Philadelphia) – 6:50 PM ET on TBS

Florida Gulf Coast is one of the better stories in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Only in their sixth year as a Division 1 program, the Eagles are riding their first winning season in history thanks to the hiring of former Florida State assistant Andy Enfield. In Enfield’s first year, they finished 15-17, but were a game away from the NCAA Tournament as they lost to Belmont in the Atlantic Sun finals. This year, Florida Gulf Coast has been the team to beat, and it began with an early season win over Miami (FL). FGCU’s style of play greatly differs from today’s opponent, the Georgetown Hoyas. The Hoyas are predicated on a stingy zone defense that rarely allows for clean looks at the basket, and they play at a snail’s pace. Led by Otto Porter, Georgetown has a legitimate star that can carry them deep into the NCAA Tournament. FGCU very much likes to get up and down the floor with Sherwood Brown and Bernard Thompson leading the attack. If FGCU is able to get out in the open floor and score in transition, they’ll keep it close for much of the game. Problem is that not many teams control the pace of a game quite like Georgetown—that’s what makes them such a difficult opponent as they force the opposition to play their style of game. Historically, Georgetown has struggled in the NCAA Tournament under John Thompson III as they’ve failed to reach the second weekend in four of six appearances under him, but many believe this is a different Hoya team. FGCU is playing with house money and expect them to make a game of this, but in front of a heavy Georgetown crowd in Philadelphia the Hoyas are simply too much in the end.

Andy Enfield has his FGCU squad playing great basketball. (AP)

The RTC Certified Pick: Georgetown

#2 Ohio State vs. #15 Iona – West Regional Second Round (at Dayton, OH) – 7:15 p.m. ET on CBS
One of the nation’s most balanced teams, the knock on the Buckeyes for the longest time this season was that they didn’t have a secondary scorer to help out junior DeShaun Thomas. We’ll get to that in a second, but let’s just say that Iona never had such a problem. Senior guard Lamont “Momo” Jones has always been the main offensive weapon on this team, never afraid to look for his own shot, but the Gaels have always trusted guard Sean Armand and forward David Laury to chip in heavily in the scoring column. And as a result, the Gaels have one of the most efficient offenses in the mid-major ranks. The problem for Tim Cluess’ team is the complete inability to stop teams on defense; only nine times all season have they held an opponent below one point per possession in a game. Given that Ohio State is one of the best defensive teams in the nation (sixth in defensive efficiency per KenPom.com), you can expect the Buckeyes to at least slow Iona’s prolific offense. And given that Thad Matta has been getting significantly improved offensive play out of guys like Aaron Craft, Lenzelle Smith, LaQuinton Ross and Sam Thompson, you can expect the Bucks to take advantage of that buttery soft Gael defense. While Momo Jones, et al. have the ability to make some exciting plays when they’ve got the ball, their inattention to details defensively will allow the Buckeyes to have more than their share of exciting offensive plays as well.

The RTC Certified Pick: Ohio State Read the rest of this entry »

1. It isn’t official but it does feel like it’s really over. Perhaps yesterday’s loss to the Oregon Ducks was the final game of Marcus Smart’s brief and eventful career at Oklahoma State. He arrived on campus with a lot of hype and he was worth every bit of it. But where does that leave Travis Ford and his program? For such a successful regular season to end suddenly in the round of 64, he’ll hop back on the hot seat. What if Le’Bryan Nash or Markel Brown decides to leave for the pros too? They have a solid recruiting class coming in but it seems unlikely for those freshman to plug in those huge gaps. Uneasy times in Stillwater.
2. Friday is essentially “Big 12 day” at the NCAA Tournament as the league’s four remaining teams will be in action. Two of those teams will do very little traveling (maybe none?). Kansas and Kansas State played at the Sprint Center for the Big 12 Tournament and now have the tough task of playing there again for the Friday/Sunday sessions. KU stands as the top seed in the South Region and there is extra intrigue here as a win today could set up another Roy Williams v. Jayhawks match-up in the round of 32. Due to recent developments (hi New Mexico), the Wildcats would have an easier road to the Final Four if they can get by Gonzaga in the Sweet 16. Or if Wichita State upsets Gonzaga tomorrow, it’d be an all-Kansas regional semifinal in Los Angeles. It is March, it could happen.
3. I guess we should get used to saying this: Iowa State is once again in the tournament. While it wasn’t a given they’d make it here even a month ago, one player who has helped their way in is forward Will Clyburn. As you may now, Clyburn is a transfer from Utah but he didn’t start his college career like most recruits did. He had a growth spurt during his senior year of high school but his height-strength ratio scared off most recruiters. Clyburn chose to enroll at Marshalltown Community College in Iowa. He became a gym rat, fine tuning his game and eventually transferred to Utah after successful freshman and sophomore campaigns. Now he’s the leading scorer (15.0) and rebounder (7.1) for Iowa State. How did you let him get away, coaches?
4. As Oklahoma preps for its second round game against San Diego State, we finally got into the mind (a bit) of their nomadic head coach Lon Kruger. Any coach will tell you how difficult it is to build chemistry on a team so imagine how much harder it’d be if the coach that recruited you leaves for another job before you graduate. “But then every place we’ve been we’ve never looked for another job or asked for another job. It’s just worked out OK with different moves for different reasons. We’ve been pretty fortunate,” Kruger told the Norman Transcript. I tend to believe that that’s a bunch of hooey. One of his former players, Steve Henson, mentioned how Kruger interviewed for the head coaching job at Texas right after his sophomore season. (Kruger ended up leaving for Florida after Henson’s senior year.) That’s not to take anything away from what he’s done in his second year in Norman but you or I shouldn’t be surprised if he up and leaves OU all of a sudden.
5. In case you didn’t know that there was basketball being played outside of the NCAA and NIT tournaments, the Texas Longhorns participated in the CBI on Wednesday night. They took on their old rivals from the Southwest Conference, the University of Houston Cougars and ended up losing to UH 73-72. To add insult, top recruit Julius Randle, who considered Texas in his recruiting process, announced for Kentucky earlier in the week. Hopefully this is the last straw of a season where everything went wrong for Texas. And somewhere in the Northeast, current commissioner of the “old” Big East Mike Aresco is cracking open some champagne for all the wrong reasons.

1. On the Eve of the NCAA Tournament’s first day, five-star 2013 prospect and McDonald’s All-American Julius Randle committed to Kentucky over Big 12 schools Texas and Kansas as well as Florida. The #3 overall recruit was rumored by some to be headed to Lawrence and Bill Self but he decided to join what has now been called the greatest recruiting class (on paper) of all-time. The Wildcats have commitments from four top-2o recruits and have four players who are the #1 high school player at their respective positions. Randle enrolling at Kansas would have made the Jayhawks one of the handful of national title favorites next season. Self is already bringing in the nation’s #2 overall recruiting class, led by top 30 prospects Brannen Greene and Wayne Selden, and the Jayhawks are still in the hunt for the #1 player in the class, Andrew Wiggins.
2. Here are 68 reasons to love the NCAA Tournament, from Bobby La Gesse of the Ames Tribune. He immediately brings up the #16 over a #1 prediction, which would be fun to see this year. Western Kentucky has the best chance to pull off the monumental upset, according to Vegas, as the Hilltoppers are 20-point underdogs against Kansas. While such a major upset seems impossible, the 20-point line has been overcome before. Last season, #2 seed Norfolk State was a 21.5-point underdog when it took out #2 seed Missouri in the Second Round.
3. La Salle advanced past Boise State in a First Four game last night, and the Explorers will face #4 seed Kansas State on Friday in Kansas City. Jeff Borzello at CBSSports.com thinks La Salle’s small lineup could be poised for a run in the Tournament. Guys like Ramon Galloway (21 points against Boise State) will play key roles against the likes of Angel Rodriguez, one of the backcourt leaders for Bruce Weber’s Wildcats. If Kansas State can pound the ball inside, the Wildcats should win comfortably, but if it becomes an uptempo game ruled by guard play, the Explorers might have the advantage.
4. Want to know why your favorite team won’t win the national championship next month? Check out Andy Glockner’s piece here. He briefly explains why 67 Tournament teams won’t cut down the nets next month in Atlanta. He dismisses the #9-#13 seeds altogether (Sorry, Oklahoma and Iowa State), and he doesn’t like #5 Oklahoma State’s draw with Oregon in the Second Round. Kansas‘ point guard struggles scare Glockner, but he admits to picking the Jayhawks early in the season and as recently as January.
5. Speaking of Oregon, the underseeded Ducks face #5 seed Oklahoma State in a  match-up that is much too even for that spot in the bracket. ESPN’s Jason King thinks it will be one of the best games in the Round of 64, and it’s hard to disagree with him. The Ducks finished second in the Pac-12 regular season standings and they also won the conference tournament and played great this year when healthy, which is what they are heading into Thursday.

1. As Travis Hines of the Ames Tribune points out, it will be a contrast of styles when Iowa State and Notre Dame meet up in the Round of 64 in Dayton on Friday. The Cyclones can run and shoot as well as any team in the nation. They rely on their uptempo style and a barrage of three–pointers to win games. The Irish, as Hines notes, are 320th in the country in adjusted tempo, far from the running and gunning preference of Iowa State. Whichever team controls the tempo should win this one. And I think with the nerves of the NCAA Tournament involved, it will be easier for the Cyclones to draw the Irish into a fast-paced game to seize the advantage and advance.
2. It’s hard to argue with The Lawrence Journal-World‘s Tom Keegan when he says Kansas has the toughest road to the Final Four in Atlanta. The Jayhawks could face a hot (and vastly improved) North Carolina team in the Round of 32, a team that was transformed last month after Roy Williams decided to switch to a smaller lineup. The Tar Heels look more like a #6 or #7 seed at this point. After that, a likely meeting with VCU or Michigan awaits in the Sweet Sixteen. The Rams wreak as much havoc on opposing guards as any team in the country, and the Kansas backcourt isn’t the most adept team at handling pressure. But that’s if the Rams get by Michigan, a formerly #1 ranked team with National Player of the Year candidate Trey Burke running the show. Should they survive that, another formerly #1 ranked team, Florida, could be in the Elite Eight. That’s assuming Big East regular season c0-champs Georgetown aren’t there waiting instead. Advance the Jayhawks to the Final Four in your bracket at your own risk.
3. Speaking of bad draws,#5 seed Oklahoma State is stuck with #12 Oregon in the Round of 64. Joe Lunardi thinks the Ducks are underseeded “by four to six lines,” John Helsley notes. Cowboys head coach Travis Ford told Helsley that Oregon is “one of the best #12 seeds I’ve ever seen.” The Ducks finished second in the Pac-12 regular season standings and won the conference tournament last weekend, yet somehow ended up just inside the bubble when the bracket was announced. Oregon has been a sexy upset pick since the bracket was announced and opened as only three-point underdogs in Vegas.
4. The United States Basketball Writers Association named Kansas’ Jeff Withey and Ben McLemore second-team All-Americans on Monday, and they were joined by Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart. Smart was arguably the best freshman in the country this season, averaging 15.4 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 4.2 APG for the Cowboys. Ben McLemore averaged 16.4 PPG and 5.3 RPG for the Jayhawks and looks to be a top three pick in this summer’s NBA Draft. Jeff Withey saw the usual transformation that Kansas big men have experienced when given the chance to shine, averaging 13.6 PPG, 8.4 RPG, and 3.8 BPG this season.
5. It seems like a #2 seed loses in the Round of 32 almost every year. The #10 seed Oklahoma could make that happen again if they can take out San Diego State in the Round of 64, likely earning a shot against #2 seed Georgetown. And if the Sooners do knock off the Hoyas, senior guard Steven Pledger will probably have something to do with the upset. Pledger averages 11.8 PPG and shoots 37% from three-point range. His 20 points against Baylor on January 30 helped give the Sooners a 74-71 win — but when he struggles offensively, so does his team. In the last two games — losses to TCU and Iowa State — Pledger had 10 points total. That won’t cut it if an upset of Georgetown is in order.

There were no surprises on Selection Sunday in the Big 12 Conference. Kansas earned a #1 seed after winning the league tournament this weekend. Kansas State and Oklahoma State, the two other Top 25 teams in the conference, got top-five seeds. Oklahoma and Iowa State weren’t locks, but they had decent resumes heading into Sunday and both earned at-large bids without much debate. And Baylor, after bowing out in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament to the Cowboys, was relegated to the NIT. That’s what we thought would happen. So that’s five Big 12 teams in the NCAA Tournament, representative of a good-but-not-great year in the league. In the hours after Selection Sunday, here are a few quick reactions to each team’s respective draws:

1. Kansas State gets Kansas City: We knew Kansas would return to the Sprint Center for the Second and Third Rounds. That was a given. But after Kansas State lost to the Jayhawks in the finals on Saturday, it certainly wasn’t a given that the committee would send the Wildcats there. Fortunately for Bruce Weber, it got a lucky draw and can now bus a few hours from Manhattan for its second round game against the winner of La Salle/Boise State. After the loss on Saturday, Weber recalled his Illinois team’s trip to nearby St. Louis for the 2005 Final Four and said he’d of course enjoy a similar home atmosphere on the first weekend of the Tournament this March. There will surely be Jayhawks blue in the stands rooting against the Wildcats, but if they make it to the Third Round, they’ll have a significant advantage against either Ole Miss or Wisconsin. There’s an argument that playing in front of a semi-home crowd adds more pressure — Weber also recalled this particular situation occurring during his days as an assistant at Purdue — but we’re not sure that holds much weight. Bottom line is, playing a few hours from home is a big deal. It matters. It changes the dynamics of the match-up. And for a #4 seed especially, it’s a really fortunate situation.
   

   Doesn’t seem fair that the “reward” for the Cowboys is a date with the Pac-12 tournament champs.

2. Oklahoma State and collateral damage: Everybody’s angry that Oregon received a #12 seed. It doesn’t seem to make any logical sense, but the lost storyline here is how it affects Oklahoma State. The Cowboys now have to play the Pac-12 Tournament champions in their first NCAA Tournament game — and they’re the #5 seed, for crying out loud! Travis Ford’s team could not have drawn a worse #12 seed. It’s criminal, really. Oregon won at UNLV, beat Arizona and knocked off UCLA twice. You could argue that Oregon’s almost as good a team as Oklahoma State, based on both pure talent and resume. Life ain’t fair, is it?
3. No worries for Iowa State and Oklahoma: They did it. They got in, both as #10 seeds. The bubble wasn’t very strong this year (which seems to be a trend during the past five years or so, whatever that means for college basketball), but after the Big 12 Tournament, these two teams were far from locks. Oklahoma looked like it might be in trouble after completely imploding in a loss to the Cyclones in the quarterfinals, and then Iowa State went out and hardly competed with Kansas in the semifinals. The committee gave them difficult match-ups: Oklahoma faces San Diego State, and Iowa State will play Notre Dame. Both of those teams have been ranked in the Top 25 at some point this year and may be a little bit underseeded. But the important thing is that both ISU and OU got in. For the Sooners, it’s a notable accomplishment for Lon Kruger in just his second year. It’s been a quick rebuilding process, that’s for sure, but we’d expect nothing less from Kruger. And Fred Hoiberg did a nice job with this team after losing Royce White, Chris Allen and Scott Christopherson. The Cyclones are a fun, high-octane team that could surprise some people if they knock down some threes (you know they love to shoot them). Read the rest of this entry »

1. The NCAA Tournament Bracket is finally here, and it didn’t take long for someone to predict another early Kansas loss this year. Jeff Goodman at CBSSports.com previewed the South Regional here (in which the Jayhawks are the #1 seed) and has #8 seed North Carolina taking KU out in the Round of 64. And as C.J. Moore points out here, this upset pick might not be that crazy. Roy Williams changed his lineup last month against Duke, inserting P.J. Hairston into the starting lineup at the four spot. Since that game, the Tar Heels are 8-2. And it’s not like small lineups haven’t given the Jayhawks fits in the past. Think Purdue in last season’s Round of 32 or Iowa State this season.
2. It hasn’t gotten much publicity, but Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger is now the first coach to take five different schools to the NCAA Tournament after his Sooners earned a #10 seed in the South Region. Kansas State, Florida, Illinois, and UNLV were all NCAA Tournament teams at one time or another under Kruger, who signed on at Oklahoma before last season and steered the Sooners to a five-game (and counting) improvement in the win column this season. The Sooners face #7 seed San Diego State in the Round of 64.
3. For those of you lucky enough to skip work or school later this week, here’s a guide for your TV viewing pleasure, from Sports Illustrated‘s Richard Deitsch. For all the things the NCAA can screw up, the move with CBS and Turner Sports to broadcast more Tournament games across a number of networks (truTV, TBS, TNT, CBS) was one of the better decisions it has made in years, much better than the decision to expand the field to 68 teams (Did Middle Tennessee State really deserve an at-large bid?). The SI piece has all you need to know, including a list of broadcasting teams. My personal favorite: Verne Lundquist, Bill Raftery, and Rachel Nichols.
4. Forget bracket predictions, snubs, sleepers, and upsets for a minute. Eamonn Brennan ranked all 68 NCAA Tournament teams, but not by talent or resumes or title chances — instead, he gave us the most “watchable” teams of the Tournament. Not surprisingly, Iowa State came in at #11, higher than any other Big 12 school. The Cyclones aren’t a great team, but their complete lack of conscience from deep is fun to watch. Almost anywhere past the half-court line is fair game for their shooters. Not surprisingly, Kansas came in next at #21, followed by Oklahoma State (#22), Kansas State (#37) and Oklahoma at #43. Indiana topped the list.
5. Bruce Weber has had a great first season at Kansas State, sharing the regular season conference title with Kansas and making it to the conference tournament championship game over the weekend. Weber told Kellis Robinett of the Kansas City Star that he wanted to play in Kansas City and on Friday. It’s unclear if Weber knew that Kansas City was a Friday/Sunday site so one wish came with the other, but he received both desires nonetheless. But as Robinett points out, the Wildcats are also forced to scout two teams this week after getting paired with the winner of a play-in game Wednesday: La Salle or Boise State. Kansas State is likely to face #4 seed Wisconsin should the Wildcats win on Friday.

The games are over, and in a few short hours the speculation will be finished as well. Kansas and Kansas State highlighted the Big 12 Tournament with a highly anticipated championship game after they split the regular season title. Kansas completed the season sweep of the Wildcats and may have earned a #1 seed while doing so. But more on that in a minute. Iowa State and Oklahoma have been on the NCAA Tournament bubble for a few weeks now. The Cyclones likely solidified their spot in the dance with the quarterfinal win over the Sooners in Kansas City on Thursday. As of last night, the Cyclones were a #10 seed at Bracket Matrix, ahead of nine other at-large teams. There really isn’t a reason to worry about Iowa State making the field of 68 this afternoon, but crazier things have happened, I suppose. Oklahoma is in a tougher spot. They ended the regular season with a terrible loss to TCU, and like Iowa State, needed a win in the conference tournament to calm their nerves heading into today. Bracket Matrix still has the Sooners alive, however, as an #11 seed. They are ahead of seven at-large teams, so bracketologists don’t seem to think the Sooners have anything to worry about, either. But what about Kansas and a possible #1 seed?

Kansas Won The Big 12 Tournament Saturday, Strengthening Its Case For A #1 Seed (Nick Krug, KUSports.com).

It seemed impossible a month ago after Kansas lost three consecutive games and dropped to #14 in the AP Poll. But the Jayhawks started winning. And a regular season finale loss to Baylor notwithstanding, they haven’t stopped, going 11-1 since February 9. With two more RPI top 50 wins under their belt after beating Iowa State and Kansas State this weekend, the Jayhawks have put themselves in a good position to grab a #1 seed this afternoon. I said going into the weekend that Kansas and Louisville could jump Gonzaga if both teams won their respective conference tournaments, and I still believe so. But Duke’s loss to Maryland in the ACC quarterfinals Friday gives us more questions to answer. But let’s assume Indiana and Louisville are locks for top seeds. That leaves three teams that have separated themselves from the potential #2 seeds but haven’t quite earned the “lock” title given to the Hoosiers and Cardinals. That would be Kansas, Duke, and Gonzaga. Here is what the resumes look like:

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