Big 12 Basketball Tournament: Kansas State, Texas Tech favored to win
By Chris Kern
Teams To Watch
Team To Beat – Texas Tech
The Red Raiders are the obvious favorite in this conference tournament. They are playing extremely well right now as they are currently riding a nine-game winning streak. Their ability to make plays on both ends of the floor makes them incredibly tough to beat.
They have the best player in the conference in Jarrett Culver. No disrespect to Dedric Lawson or Barry Brown but Culver has meant more to his team. His ability to take over at the end of close games is unreal and is something very few players in the country can do.
Culver is special but the other guys have been fantastic as well. Tariq Owens and Matt Mooney both transferred over for this season and they have been great as they have fit in perfectly. Texas Tech isn’t the top seed but they will be the favorite over the top-seeded Kansas State Wildcats.
Top Contender – Kansas State
This is an easy choice as to who the top contender is. The Kansas State Wildcats have been one of the best teams in all of college basketball over the past two months. They are elite defensively but they sure have been good on the offensive end as well. The reason the offense has been so good is because of their stars, Barry Brown and Dean Wade. Those two form the best duo in the Big 12 conference and they have had a lot of success.
Kansas State made the Elite Eight a year ago without Wade so they hope to go even further with him out there. These seniors have set goals and they continue to cross them off. They secured a regular season title and now they’ll be going for a postseason tournament championship as well. This class hasn’t even made a Big 12 Tournament championship game so they’ll look to win at least two games next week to make that happen but they are certainly capable of winning the whole thing.
Sleeper – Iowa State
The Iowa State Cyclones are a complete mess right now. There’s no denying that. They have a lot of talent on their roster but they haven’t played well at all and they continue to lose games they shouldn’t. They have won three of the past five Big 12 Tournament championships.
Sure, this team isn’t playing as well as those teams did but those teams did have a similar playing style compared to this year’s squad. Two of those championship teams were a four seed while one of them was a two seed so them being a five seed shouldn’t change things too much.
They have all the talent they need to win this tournament. Marial Shayok has been fantastic after transferring over from Virginia and Lindell Wigginton and Nick Weiler-Babb have had amazing seasons as well. It will take a complete flip of the switch to make it happen, but keep an eye on the Cyclones as a team who can surprise and win the Big 12 Tournament.