The Big 12 men’s basketball teams continued the ninth round of league action on Tuesday, with four games played across the country.
Tuesday’s game results included:
Arizona State 70, Colorado 68
Utah 69, Cincinnati 66
The Big 12’s ninth round of league action wraps up on Wednesday with three more games.
Here are five takeaways from the latest day of men’s basketball action.
Best Game
I mean, pick a game. For first time this season we had terrific games all night long. Everything came down to basically the last possession. Nothing had quite the dramatic punch of the Arizona-Iowa State ending, but, hey, not every game gets sent to overtime by a 55-foot field goal.
But Baylor-BYU was terrific. BYU led most of regulation and then freshman Robert Wright III put the Bears on his back and got them to overtime, as he scored their final 14 points in regulation. Jeremy Roach’s absence has been a boon to Wright’s acceleration as a player. He finished with 22 points. Not to be outdone, his fellow freshman, VJ Edgecombe, had 28 points.
Another freshman, BYU’s Kanon Catchings, did something no Division I player has done this year — score 20 or more points in a game and not miss a shot. He shot 8-for-8, including four 3-pointers. He even made all three of his free throws to finish with 23 points off the bench.
The Cougars pulled it out in overtime. The fun part was getting there.
Best Performances
Kansas vs. UCF was full of them. Jayhawks center Hunter Dickinson and guard Zeke Mayo put up 24 points each. Knights guard Keyshawn Hall dropped 34 on the Jayhawks in the defeat. He played all but a minute of the game.
Arizona State’s Adam Miller had 18 points for the Sun Devils. But it was Basheer Jihad’s two made free throws with 51 seconds left that was the difference in a much-needed win for the Sun Devils.
Gabe Madsen dropped 18 points for Utah, including a 7-for-8 game at the free throw line. Those free throws were crucial to pulling off the victory.
Most-Needed Win
On Tuesday night, you needed a continuum to determine who needed the win the most. So, let’s do it, from most-needed to least-needed:
BYU: The Cougars aren’t yet on ESPN’s Bracketology bubble. Part of the problem was the Cougars didn’t have a Quad 1 win NCAA NET — until they beat the Bears on Tuesday.
Arizona State: The Sun Devils are on the bubble, and they could not afford a loss to Colorado, which is winless in Big 12 play, entering this weekend’s game with Arizona.
Utah: The Utes were desperate for a win, any win. Cincinnati is only a Quad 2 win for them, but the Utes will take it.
Kansas: The Jayhawks would have survived a loss to UCF. It just would have been embarrassing to lose to Houston and UCF back-to-back at Allen Fieldhouse.
Worst Loss
Man, UCF. The Knights go to Allen Fieldhouse, get a Jayhawk team that didn’t have guard Dajuan Harris Jr. and got a massive game from Keyshawn Hall. And, yet, the Knights’ last two possessions led to a turnover and to a 1-for-2 performance at the free-throw line.
I didn’t like either of their plays on those possessions. They put the Knights in too much traffic and got them away from the spacing that served them well throughout the game.
That would have been a Quad 1 win for the Knights, their fourth of the season, and a memorable one at that. The Knights are right on the bubble for the tournament. You can’t let chances like that slip.
Bracketology Update
The Big 12 had eight teams in the latest ESPN Bracketology, which was updated on Tuesday. The seeds included:
No. 1 Iowa State
No. 3 Kansas (dropped one seed line)
No. 3 Houston moved up one seed line)
No. 5 Arizona (moved up one seed line)
No. 6 Texas Tech (moved up a seed line)
No. 9 Baylor
No. 9 West Virginia (dropped a seed line)
No. 12 UCF (First Four, dropped a seed line)
UCF was the last team in the field. Arizona State and Cincinnati remained on the bubble.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
