With 16 teams and five days of competition, the Big 12 wrapped up its largest conference tournament yet last weekend at Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center. Top-ranked TCU beat Baylor for the title, but neither team had an easy road to Sunday’s championship game.
The eighth-ranked Horned Frogs, one of a handful of teams with 30-plus wins, faced Colorado in the quarterfinals and No. 16 West Virginia in the semifinals. Both games were decided by single digits.
Oklahoma State pushed then-No. 17 Baylor to overtime in the semifinals before falling 84-74. The Bears also beat Iowa State in front of an overwhelmingly pro-Cyclone crowd.
“This conference deserves to have our teams in it, not just a lot of teams in it but with those higher seeds,” Oklahoma State head coach Jacie Hoyt said after the loss to Baylor. “I hope we get the respect as a conference that I believe we have earned.”
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Although the top four seeds eventually advanced to the conference tournament semifinals, all four games were decided by single digits. Texas Tech, which entered the tournament as the No. 12 seed, made an unexpected run to the quarterfinals, defeating Kansas and Utah before falling to Hoyt’s Cowgirls.
Oklahoma State took Baylor to overtime in the semifinals the following night and Hoyt is hoping this weekend’s showing adds a last-minute boost to the Cowgirls’ resume as they await Selection Sunday.
“I think we’ve proven that we’re one of the best teams in the country. Our resume shows that,” Hoyt said. “We belong with the best of the best and I’m really hoping we can get off that seven-line that they keep projecting us at.”
Following the tournament, the Big 12 has five teams ranked in the AP poll (TCU, Baylor, West Virginia, Oklahoma State and Kansas State), plus four more that finished at or above .500 in conference play (Utah, Iowa State, Arizona and Colorado). All nine are within the top 60 NET rankings, suggesting that several will move on to the Big Dance.
“I know we haven’t always gotten the respect this year, the Big 12, that say the Big Ten or the SEC have gotten, but I think this league is better than people give it credit for,” Baylor head coach Nicki Collen said.
The Iowa State Cyclones, who sit at 23-12, are No. 27 in the NET rankings and hoping to make an NCAA Tournament appearance for the sixth consecutive season.
“There’s no question our team belongs in the NCAA Tournament … I’ll debate anyone on that one if you want to,” Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly said. “How we play, the schedule we played, the people that we have on our team. If you trying to showcase the sport we play in one of the best leagues in the country.”
Several coaches said these games already felt tournament quality given the level of competition — and not in the early rounds either.
“These feel like NCAA Tournament-type games, that feels like a Sweet 16, Elite Eight-type game, and hopefully we are fortunate to advance and we get to the NCAA Tournament,” West Virginia coach Mark Kellogg said after his No. 16 Mountaineers fell to Baylor.
And that sentiment certainly isn’t new from the conference that sent seven teams to the NCAA Tournament last season, a mark that was second-best in Big 12 history. It was the most since 2013 and the third straight season with six or more teams advancing to the Big Dance.
Potentially complicating the seeding is the fact that two of the conference’s top teams are missing starters who are expected to return in time for the tournament. Baylor, who reached the final, has played without Darianna Littlepage-Buggs. The junior is ranked second on the team in average points and leads the Bears in average rebounds despite missing eight games with a knee injury.
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“We’re lucky enough to get Buggs back, yes, I’m not just saying that for the NCAA Tournament Committee,” Baylor’s Collen said after the championship game. “She is in return-to-play protocol. She’ll be practicing with us the whole week for the NCAA Tournament.”
And perhaps no returning player will have a bigger impact when they return than Kansas State center Ayoka Lee, who was selected as preseason player of the year. She had a minor procedure to help overcome a foot fracture sustained in January. She averaged a team-high 15.5 points and 6.1 rebounds per game before the injury.
“We’re an interesting case because of missing the Preseason Player of the Year for, I guess, now 13 games,” Kansas State coach Jeff Mittie said. “I do think we have done enough and I think that, you know we’ll see where it shakes out.”
For now, only one conference — the SEC — has more teams ranked in the AP Top 25, with eight. The SEC also has two teams in the top five. Only time will tell where each team lands this Sunday, but all signs point to the Big 12 being well-represented on the bracket.
