Seven Big 12 Teams Set To Dance In NCAA Tournament; All But One Should Advance

For the vast majority of the season, it was expected that the loaded Big 12 would send several of its members to the NCAA Tournament. The number of teams that would represent the conference in the Big Dance was consistently up in the air, as teams such as the Texas Longhorns, Oklahoma State Cowboys and even the Kansas State Wildcats hovered around the bubble as the regular season dwindled.

But there was never any question that the NCAA Tourney would be littered with clubs from the Big 12. With Selection Sunday now behind us and the brackets set, we’ve got our exact number, as seven of the 10 teams in the Big 12 will be looking to survive and advance in the pursuit of a national championship.

That turns out to be a staggering 70 percent of a single conference finding themselves a place in the NCAA Tournament and making up for 10 percent of the entire tournament field. The majority of the first round matchups Big 12 teams are featured in pose some favorable matchups, making them the favorites to continue on to the Round of 32, but it’s unlikely that each of the seven teams escape the second round with a victory.

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Kansas is the highest seeded team from the Big 12 in the tournament as a 2-seed in the Midwest Region, and they’re pitted against 15-seed New Mexico State on Friday. The eye test suggests Kansas will come out on top in this one and that should ultimately be the case. The Aggies are now entering their fourth straight NCAA Tournament behind a handful of capable scorers and some considerable size down low with 6’10” big men Johnathon Wilkins and Tshilidzi Newphawe, but Kansas simply will have too much star power to drop their first tourney game of the year.

West Virginia comes in as the 5-seed in the Midwest, where they will play 12-seeded Buffalo, who are fresh into their first NCAA Tournament berth in program history. I know 12-seeds often find success against 5-seeds in the tourney, but this simply won’t be the case in this matchup. The Bulls are led by Justin Moss and Shannon Evans, who score 17.7 and 15.4 points per game respectively, but the Mountaineers’ smothering press and physicality will prove to be too much, preventing Buffalo from their first ever NCAA Tourney win.

The 11-seeded Texas Longhorns are the final team from the Big 12 in the Midwest and they have a Thursday date with 6-seeded Butler. This is the most intriguing matchup the Big 12 will see in the second round. The battle is this one is going to come down to Texas’ size and physicality and Butler’s discipline and well-coached game plan.

This is expected to be a toss-up game with no real favorite, but I think Texas’ size and shot blocking ability is going to make like much harder than what Butler is used to, which will be necessary to win, seeing as how the Horns will have to slow Kellen Dunham and his 16.7 points per game down. It also helps that the Longhorns have been finding their stride offensively as of late. Texas should advance in this one.

Oklahoma State, the 9-seed in the West Region was the first team Big 12 club in this portion of the bracket and they’ll see the 8-seeded Oregon Ducks. As we’ve seen throughout the season, the Cowboys can compete and beat anybody on any given night, but things have went astray down the stretch after Oklahoma State dropped six of their last seven games.

The opposite is the case for Oregon, who has won six of their last seven behind Joseph Young’s 20.2 points per game. Ultimately, the Ducks are playing their best basketball right now and that will lead to the conclusion of the Cowboys’ season.

The Baylor Bears are also in the West as the 3-seed and this is a team nobody in that bracket should want to play. Unfortunately for 14-seeded Georgia State, they have to in their first game of the tournament. There’s no denying the Panthers have talent with some tremendous guard play from R.J. Hunter and Ryan Harrow, but I simply can’t bring myself to believing that they will have an easy night against Baylor’s smash mouth style in the paint behind Rico Gathers and the plethora of sharpshooters that surround him on the wing. This one won’t end well for the Panthers.

The remaining two regions each include one Big 12 team each: Oklahoma in the East and Iowa State in the South.

The 3-seeded Sooners will kick off their NCAA Tournament play against the 14-seed Albany and I’ll just begin by saying I don’t see much hope for a Great Danes upset in this one. Albany had a great season at 24-8, but they simply don’t have the talent, depth or firepower to last with a Sooners’ club that was among the top programs in the toughest conference in the country, behind their Big 12 Player of the Year, Buddy Hield. This one will get ugly before the Sooners move on to the third round.

And finally, we’ve got the 3-seed in the South, the Iowa State Cyclones, who will face the 12-seeded UAB Blazers.

Fred Hoibergs’ Cyclones are fresh off of their second-straight Big 12 Tournament Championship and have come out on top in their last five matchups after being down by double digits in each. To keep this short and sweet: there’s no way UAB comes out on top in this one. They simply don’t have the firepower, depth or athletes to keep up wit the pace and the sheer number of points Iowa State is going to pour on, which is why their postseason aspirations are going to end after only 40 minutes of NCAA Tourney action.

If the tournament were to play out as in this fashion, as I expect it to, things will get much more difficult for a few of the remaining six Big 12 teams still fighting for their tournament lives. West Virginia could run into an extremely talented Maryland team. Texas would likely be pitted against the ACC Champion Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who are fresh off of back-to-back victories over Duke and North Carolina. Kansas could see a very tough third round matchup with Wichita State, while Iowa State could run into a very capable SMU team that has still managed to be pretty damn good without some key pieces.

As usual, this is going to be an extremely fun NCAA Tournament for the Big 12.

Next: NCAA Tournament 2015: Bracket, Preview And Predictions

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