The Big 12 men’s basketball teams started the eighth round of league action on Saturday, with seven games played across the country.
Saturday’s game results included:
No. 3 Iowa State 76, Arizona State 61
Arizona 78, Colorado 63
UCF 85, TCU 58
Baylor 76, Utah 61
Kansas State 73, No. 23 West Virginia 60
No. 7 Houston 92, No. 12 Kansas 86 (2OT)
BYU 80, Cincinnati 52
The Big 12’s eighth round of league action wraps up on Sunday when Oklahoma State travels to Texas Tech.
Here are five takeaways from the latest day of men’s basketball action.
Best Game
Well, obviously Houston beat Kansas in double overtime. Our Joe Tillery covered that game today. He also handled Iowa State at Arizona State, which the Cyclones won.
By the way, it was the first Quad 1 win for the Cougars this year? Woof.
The rest of the slate had its moments. The late game, Cincinnati at BYU, was shaping up to be a quality game. But the Cougars ran away with it in the second half, a much-needed win for a team trying to get NCAA Tournament bubble attention.
But the reality is the rest of the day’s games were relative blowouts. The average margin of victory in the other six games was 18.8 points.
Every conference has weekends like that, but they’re becoming more common in the Big 12 than in past seasons. Juxtapose that with the SEC. There were five games decided by five points or fewer in the SEC on Saturday.
Like it or not, the SEC is a deeper, more balanced conference this year. The game-by-game results bear that out. It doesn’t mean the Big 12 won’t go deep in March, but it feels like eight teams in the NCAA Tournament is going to be the league’s ceiling.
Best Performances
Can Curtis Jones be the Big 12 player of the year and sixth man of the year? He may qualify for both and he posted a career-high 33 points for Iowa State on Saturday. He basically took over that game.
Arizona’s Tobe Awaka gave the Wildcats a tremendous inside presence, as he grabbed 15 rebounds to go along with eight points.
UCF’s Keyshawn Hall blew up against TCU, scoring 26 points, along with eight rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Baylor’s Norchad Omier broke out of a mini-slump with a 22-point, 12-rebound effort in Salt Lake City against Utah.
Kansas State’s Dug McDaniel scored 15 points and had six assists in Kansas State’s surprising victory over West Virginia.
Houston forward J’Wan Roberts had another terrific game, as he had 24 points, nine rebounds, five assists and a steal.
BYU guard Richie Saunders might be the best spot-up shooter in the conference. He helped the Cougars beat Cincinnati with 19 points, including five 3-pointers.
Most-Needed Win
UCF is just inside the NCAA Tournament field right now (see ESPN’s Bracketology below). The Knights need every win to make their case. The Horned Frogs are not tournament-bound, frankly. They’re clinging to remaining over .500.
So, for the Knights, these are the kinds of games that they cannot afford to lose right now. It would have been a Quad 2 loss for the Knights, and they already have one of those.
Just as important, entering Saturday’s games the Knights were ranked just behind TCU in NET, with the Horned Frogs at No. 74 and UCF at No. 77. That should flip on Sunday.
UCF has three games against ranked teams left — at Kansas next week, against Iowa State on Feb. 11 and against West Virginia on March 8, though the Mountaineers may drop out on Monday. The Knights will have chances to reinforce their resume with Quad 1 and Quad 2 games.
Worst Loss
West Virginia will probably make the NCAA Tournament. But, if for some reason the bottom falls out and the Mountaineers don’t, they may look back at their loss to Kansas State as a turning point.
I know it’s a road game in the Big 12, but WVU was behind 42-18 at halftime. What on earth? Kansas State had lost six straight games.
WVU is fortunate that this was a road game so that it’s only a Quad 2 loss in NCAA NET. In this respect, the entire conference’s overall quality helped the Mountaineers avoid the kind of loss — a Quad 3 loss — that the committee has far less respect for.
Houston is next up in Morgantown. But it’s the only remaining ranked game for the Mountaineers. That’s more than enough runway to make this loss nothing more than a speed bump toward March Madness.
Bracketology Update
The Big 12 had eight teams in the latest ESPN Bracketology, which was updated on Friday. The seeds included:
No. 1 Iowa State
No. 2 Kansas
No. 4 Houston
No. 6 Arizona
No. 7 Texas Tech (moved up a seed line)
No. 8 West Virginia (dropped a seed line)
No. 9 Baylor (dropped a seed line)
No. 11 UCF (First Four)
Cincinnati and Arizona State were on the outside looking in on the tournament bubble.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
