The Big 12 men’s basketball teams continued 2024-25 regular season on Saturday as all 16 teams were in action across the country.
Saturday’s results included:
No. 10 Iowa State 73, Kansas State 57
Oklahoma State 78, Cincinnati 67
Colorado 76, TCU 56
Kansas 83, No. 24 Arizona 76
West Virginia 72, UCF 65
No. 9 Texas Tech 85, Arizona State 57
No. 3 Houston 65, Baylor 61
No. 23 BYU 85, Utah 74
Next up is the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament, which starts on Tuesday in Kansas City, Mo.
Here are five takeaways from the latest day of men’s basketball action.
Best Game
Naturally, we had to wait until the end of the night for Houston at Baylor, which turned out to be a great game.
It was LJ Cryer’s homecoming. He played at Baylor for three seasons before he transferred to Houston. He ended up with 22 points, but he had a huge first half, making five 3-pointers. But Baylor stayed with the Cougars, getting 23 points from freshman VJ Edgecombe and a double-double from forward Norchad Omier — 13 points and 16 rebounds.
The Cougars had control of the game, but they also went without a field goal for the last six minutes of the second half. The Bears were able to cut into that lead and make it a two-point game with 13 seconds left. Jalen Celestine fouled Houston’s J’Wan Roberts away from the ball, a foul that could have been called intentional.
But that’s the player Baylor wanted at the line. Roberts isn’t a great free throw shooter. But he drained both and that was the ballgame.
Houston has won 14 straight road games and went through Big 12 play without losing a road game. That’s insane with a 20-game league schedule. Houston finished 19-1 in league action. Just incredible stuff.
Best Performances
Iowa State guard Curtis Jones, with no Keshon Gilbert due to injury, dropped 24 points on Kansas State in Manhattan.
Oklahoma State’s Abou Ousmane had a terrific game for the Cowboys, as he scored 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds in a win over Cincinnati.
Colorado’s Julian Hammond III wrapped up the regular season nicely with a 19-point, seven-assist performance against TCU.
Kansas center Hunter Dickinson went out on a high note, scoring 33 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in a win over Arizona.
West Virginia guard Javon Small had another huge game, scoring 25 points, grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out nine assists against UCF.
Texas Tech’s JT Toppin made his last argument for Big 12 player of the year with a 25-point, 11-rebound game against Arizona State.
Fousseyni Traore had a massive game for BYU, as he came off the bench for 21 points six rebounds against Utah.
Most-Needed Win
Honestly, Kansas needed that win over Arizona. The Jayhawks are going to the NCAA Tournament. There isn’t much difference between a No. 6 seed and a No. 7 seed in this conference, though the win, coupled with Baylor’s loss, gave Kansas the No. 6 seed.
But here’s why Kansas needed the win. A loss would have made the Jayhawks .500 in Big 12 play. Kansas hasn’t been .500 or below in conference play since the 1988-89 season in the Big Eight. That was the first year of Roy Williams as head coach, who took over after Larry Brown took the Jayhawks to the national championship.
In case you’re wondering, the last time Kansas finished exactly .500 in league action was in 1979-80 (7-7) under Ted Owens.
The Jayhawks are in a weird spot. The world has changed on them. They are 21-17 in Big 12 play the last two seasons.
Worst Loss
Cincinnati’s loss to Oklahoma State basically ended any shot of the Bearcats making the NCAA Tournament, barring winning the Big 12 Tournament. Late Saturday night Cincinnati’s chances of reaching the tournament dropped to 12% without winning the Big 12 Tournament.
If one is looking for the most disappointing team in the conference relative to expectations, look no further. It’s the Bearcats.
Finally…
ESPN has to do something about game windows next year. The days of two-hour basketball games are long since done.
Arizona vs. Kansas was sandwiched between the Auburn-Alabama game and the North Carolina-Duke game. The Auburn-Alabama game went to overtime and went so long that ESPN viewers didn’t get the Arizona-Kansas game until four minutes remaining in the first half.
It so utterly ridiculous. Between TV timeouts, a 15-minute halftime and late-game reviews, there is no such thing as a two-hour game anymore. Give the major games a two-hour, 30-minute window and at least gives those of us that don’t have ESPN News a better chance of watching the next game from the start.
Also, putting the Houston-Baylor finale at 9 p.m. central was just criminal. Just stop.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
