The Big 12 men’s basketball teams wrapped up the 19th round of league action on Wednesday, with six teams in action.
UCF 83, Oklahoma State 70
Kansas State 54, Cincinnati 49
No. 9 Texas Tech 91, Colorado 75
The Big 12’s final round of league action is on Saturday, with all 16 teams in action.
Here are three takeaways from the latest day of men’s basketball action.
REMATCH NIGHT
With a 16-team conference and a 20-game schedule, we don’t get the 18-game round robin schedule we used to get. Frankly, that’s the easiest way to determine a league’s best team. But the surge of super-conferences doesn’t allow it anymore.
Every team does have a few teams that it plays twice. Wednesday night was a chance for two teams to get a little revenge.
Oklahoma State dumped UCF a few weeks ago in Stillwater, as the Cowboys beat the Knights, 104-95. UCF coach Johnny Dawkins couldn’t have been happy with the defense that night, and the Knights took care of things on their home court on Wednesday.
Plus, the Knights have won three of their last four since that loss to OSU. They’re on a bit of a run right now, which is good news for Dawkins.
Kansas State didn’t allow Cincinnati to get its revenge, as the Wildcats got Coleman Hawkins back and beat the Bearcats for a season sweep. The Wildcats have now won two straight games.
Those wins were important for UCF and Kansas State. The Knights are two games above .500 as they hope to interest either the NIT or the new tournament in Las Vegas in an invite. K-State is back to .500. But the Wildcats get Iowa State on Saturday and they’re in need of another win.
There are battles going on outside the bubble for those teams that want to keep playing basketball. It’s not just about the NCAA Tournament anymore.
THE UNSHAKABLE RED RAIDERS
Texas Tech should have beaten Colorado on Wednesday, and the Red Raiders did. At this point in the season teams at Tech’s level shouldn’t lose to teams at Colorado’s.
Texas Tech has seven losses this season and I was curious about the margin of those losses. In seven losses the Red Raiders have lost by a combined 31 points. That’s an average of 4.4 points per game.
Three of those losses were by one possession. Two more were by two possessions. The only “blowouts” were the Red Raiders’ nine-point road loss to Arizona and their eight-point home loss to Houston. Of course, the Cougars were highly motivated, having lost to Texas Tech earlier this season.
I would hypothesize that for teams that have seven losses, there aren’t many that can say they were “in” each of those losses. Only the UCF loss was regrettable.
All this is to say that the Red Raiders aren’t going to get blown out. The formula is simple. They play great defense. JT Toppin can dominate inside. The 3-point shooting can blow teams away. It’s a formula Tech used to get to the 2019 Final Four. And, if we’re being honest? This team has a far more dynamic performer inside in Toppin and more 3-point shooting than that 2019 team.
SATURDAY’S GRAND FINALE
All 16 teams will be in action on Saturday as the regular season wraps up before we head to Kansas City. Remember when the schedule came out in October? The Kansas-Arizona game was “the” game on the slate. Now? The Jayhawks are trying to win and avoid finishing .500 in league action.
It should still be a great game. So should Iowa State at Kansas State. So should Houston at Baylor. So should Utah at BYU.
It’s wall-to-wall basketball before we head to the tournament. Enjoy.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
