Big 12 Race Will Come Down To Final Weekend

Basketball in the Big 12 this season has played the role of a modern day Western film. There have been Cowboys and Longhorns, shootouts and bloodshed, along with severe draughts that have transformed hope and optimism into desperation and despair.

The culmination of this all has built up to provide a picture of basketball in college basketball’s most competitive conference, and this continues to hold true as a wide-open Big 12 regular season title race will come down to the final weekend of the season.

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With three games left for each for each of the Big 12 team’s regular season slate, an incredible five of the 10 squads in the conference statistically have a chance of finishing in the top spot, although, the No. 19 Baylor Bear are two games behind first place, making that feat a practical impossibility.

As expected, the No. 8 Kansas Jayhawks (11-4) are leading the pack, with a three-way tie for second between No. 20 West Virginia Mountaineers, No. 12 Iowa State Cyclones and No. 16 Oklahoma Sooners, who all one game behind with a 10-5 Big 12 record.

History would suggest Bill Self’s Jayhawks are en route to yet another Big 12 regular season title, just as they’ve done every year for the past decade. In addition to the benefit of being in the Big 12’s top spot with only three games to play, Kansas is expected to trump Texas in Lawrence on Sunday, just as they did when they knocked the outscored the Longhorns by double digits in Austin earlier this season.

They’ll follow that with a rematch with WVU, who upset them in Morgantown three games ago, but the Mountaineers will enter The Phog facing an uphill battle with Kansas losing only nine conference home games during the Self-era, which is fewer losses than consecutive Big 12 titles.

What could ultimately become the deciding factor as to who will be crowned as this season’s Big 12 regular season champs is the finale rematch between Kansas and Oklahoma in Norman.

The Sooners fell short in the first meeting between the two in a 85-78 shootout in Lawrence, but Oklahoma is the hottest team in the Big 12 right now after winning seven of their last eight, with their only loss coming on the road to K-State, which was a game that was arguably decided by a controversial three-pointer that killed the Sooners.

Meanwhile, the poorly timed slump of the Jayhawks has seen them drop two of their last three games and three of their last four road games, which won’t bode well for them entering a hostile environment against a streaking Sooners team.

Feb 18, 2015; Stillwater, OK, USA; Iowa State Cyclones forward Georges Niang (31) and forward Dustin Hogue (22) during a game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Gallagher-Iba Arena. Iowa State won 70-65. Mandatory Credit: Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports /

Iowa State has the easiest road to an undefeated finish in their final three, with rematches of previous wins over Kansas State and TCU, who are both expected to miss the NCAA Tournament. The toss up game will be when Oklahoma visits Hilton Coliseum on Monday, where that Hilton Magic had led to Cyclones to 21 wins in 22 games, with the loss that ended their streak coming after Baylor’s lights-out shooting lifted the Bears to a 79-70 victory this week.

As for West Virginia: the Mountaineers are fresh off of three-straight victories, which includes wins over then Kansas and then No. 22 Oklahoma State. Unfortunately for Bob Huggins’ crew, WVU gets the undesirable treat of heading to Waco to battle a confident Baylor team that cruised past them in West Virginia 87-69 before entering Allen Fieldhouse for a rematch with the Jayhawks, who will certainly have revenge on their minds.

Predicting The Finish

For the 11^th straight season, the Jayhawks will be rewarded with some stake in the Big 12 regular season title, although, Georges Niang and Iowa State will emerge as their co-champions with both clubs finishing with a 13-5 conference record.

Just as they’ll be expected to, Kansas will win their final two home games, but their trip to Norman to conclude their regular season will end in disappointment in front of an explosive offense unit that’s been on a role and feeds off the home crowd.

Due to two of their final three games being ones that would require a massive upset for the Cyclones to come up short, Iowa State will finish their season on a three-game winning streak after knocking off Oklahoma when they visit Hilton Coliseum next Monday.

WVU will play their way out of position to steal the crown from Kansas after dropping road games to Baylor and Kansas, while Oklahoma’s loss to the Cyclones will be enough for the Big 12 titles to fall just out of their grasp.

And there you have it. The colossal mountain Kansas and Iowa State will have needed climb to even receive a share of the Big 12 regular season title will serve as a massive accomplishment in itself entering the Big 12 Tournament.

From there, an entirely new war in a single elimination tournament will begin, but the feat of finishing atop the Big 12 to conclude the regular season is plenty for Kansas and Iowa State to hang their regular season hats on as they turn their attention to March Madness, as seen in this excerpt from Earmonn Brennan of ESPN.com:

"“In most leagues, in most seasons, the regular-season conference title is just a thing. In the Big 12, it’s everything. Nowhere else are the stakes so high.”"

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Wide Open Big 12 Race Will Come Down To Final Weekend Of The Season

By Cody Daniel | Feb 27, 2015

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