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Kansas, West Virginia, Oklahoma Only Big 12 Teams Left

ByCody Daniel|
Mar 20, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers guard Juwan Staten (3) reacts after the game against the Buffalo Bulls in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Nationwide Arena. West Virginia won 68-62. Mandatory Credit: Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 20, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers guard Juwan Staten (3) reacts after the game against the Buffalo Bulls in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Nationwide Arena. West Virginia won 68-62. Mandatory Credit: Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports

To say basketball in the Big 12 this season has been madness would be a dramatic understatement. The Big 12 was, without question, the most competitive league in all of college basketball.

Nine of the 10 teams were ranked in the top 25 at one point or another during the season and as a result of such balance and depth in the Big 12; college basketball fans were gifted with some tremendous regular season action in nearly every game that was unparalleled in any other conference.

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It was regular season madness, but this is March Madness, where anyone is susceptible to an upset and when you lose, your season is over.

The third-seeded Iowa State Cyclones and Baylor Bears became the first Big 12 teams to experience this madness.

Fourteenth-seeded UAB held the Cyclones high-powered offense in check to complete the 60-59 upset on the first full day of the NCAA tournament, while Georgia State’s R.J. Hunter heaved a prayer that completed the 57-56 comeback upset against Rico Gathers and the Bears.

As expected, 11th-seeded Texas dropped its second-round matchup with the sixth-seeded Butler Bulldogs to conclude what has been a severely disappointing season, which left the Big 12 sitting at 0-3 in the NCAAs after the first full day of action.

But Friday’s slate produced some much more encouraging results for the Big 12. The second-seeded Kansas Jayhawks took care of business and easily handled the 15th-seeded New Mexico State Aggies behind a well-rounded effort led by Frank Mason III’s 17 points and nine rebounds.

The fifth-seeded West Virginia Mountaineers soon followed suit after outlasting the 12th-seeded Buffalo Bulls in a game that the Mountaineers seemingly handed the opportunity for Buffalo to climb back into every time WVU started to build a comfortable lead.

That was, until Tarik Phillip hit a long-range bomb to put the game in the bag for the Mountaineers, who went on to secure a 68-62 victory.

Oklahoma State ended the Big 12’s winning streak at two of Friday after eventually letting the Oregon Ducks pull away late to secure a 79-73 advantage, but the Oklahoma Sooners soon righted the ship by becoming the only 3-seed from the Big 12 to avoid the upset and survive 14-seeded Albany behind TaShawn Thomas’ 18-point effort.

Now in the round of 32, life isn’t going to get any easier for the Jayhawks, Mountaineers and Sooners.

Kansas has a Sunday evening date with an in-state foe, the seventh-seeded Wichita State Shockers, in a matchup that could easily lead to Kansas’ early departure from the tournament.

If Bill Self has any plans on coaching another team that makes it to the Sweet 16, he’ll have to do everything he can to prepare his team for the tremendous guard play of Ron Baker and Fred VanFleet, who combine for 28.1 points and 8.9 boards per game.

If there was going to be another Big 12 club upset in the round of 32, my money would be on the Jayhawks being the team that goes down.

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Cincinnati Football: Bearcats prepare for a difficult road test as rivalry renews at Pittsburgh

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    • The Mountaineers head into Sunday’s slate as the only underdog, as they’ll take on the fourth-seeded Maryland Terrapins. In this one, West Virginia will have their hands full trying to contain Melo Trimble, Dez Wells and Jake Layman, whose combined efforts average 44.2 points per game.

    The Terps were ale to sneak by Valparaiso 65-62 to advance to face the Mountaineers, but this is where their success should run out against the WVU press that will cause havoc.

    Oklahoma should have the easiest matchup, as they’ll see the 11th-seeded Dayton Flyers, who had to sneak into the NCAAs by way of the first round with wins over Boise State and Providence.

    But it’s hard to see this potential Cinderella team continuing to advance against the Sooners high-octane offense that should have even more success in the round of 32 with a few extra guys reaching double figures in the scoring column.

    We’ll have a day off from Big 12 action in the NCAA tournament on Saturday with the conference going 0-3 on Thursday, but if the first two days have been any indication of what we can expect when Kansas, Oklahoma and West Virginia get underway on Sunday, we’re sure to be in for some more tremendous college basketball.

    Next: March Madness 2015: Top Plays From Day 1 Action

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