Teams to watch
Texas
What the Longhorns have done this season is nothing short of remarkable. Most teams would have crumbled after losing their head coach mid-season, as Texas did when Chris Beard was dismissed in the wake of an arrest for domestic violence. But behind the leadership of Rodney Terry, the Longhorns have earned the #2 seed in the nation’s toughest conference.
While it’s unlikely the Longhorns can play themselves into the 1-seed conversation, they seem a near-lock to be a 2. This is due to a plethora of quality wins, none better than a 16-point beating of Kansas last week to close the regular season. Not content to just face a brutal Big 12 schedule, Texas also tested themselves out of conference, picking up early season wins against Gonzaga and Creighton, while also losing tough games to Illinois and Tennessee. There’s no doubt that Texas is as battle-tested as any team in the country.
Iowa State
It’s been a roller coaster of a season for the Cyclones. They beat then-#1 North Carolina in the early season and spent time ranked in the top 10, but have fallen on harder times against the unrelenting pressure of the Big 12 schedule. Dismiss them at your own risk though, because this is a talented team led by a first-rate coach in T.J. Otzelberger.
It was just last year that Otzelberger engineered one of the more impressive turnarounds college basketball has ever seen, taking an Iowa State team that suffered through a 2-22 season in 2021 under former coach Steve Prohm and guiding them to a 22-13 record and a Sweet Sixteen appearance in his first season in Ames.
The Cyclones are deep, with eight players (even excepting Grill) that average double-digit minutes per game. Five different players have led them in scoring this year, and they’ve beaten every top team in the conference, impressively knocking off Kansas by 15 in Hilton Coliseum while only losing to the Jayhawks by two in Lawrence.
Though sharpshooter Caleb Grill was dismissed from the team last week, the Cyclones ended a four-game losing streak to knock off Baylor for the second time. With a talented backcourt of Gabe Kalscheur and Jaren Holmes, could they be poised for another run?
Oklahoma State
After rolling off an impressive five-game winning streak that included wins over Iowa State and TCU, Oklahoma State appeared ready to cruise back into the NCAA Tournament after a one-year hiatus brought on by NCAA sanctions. The wheels soon fell off in Stillwater, though, as the Cowboys fought injuries and a lack of scholarship players on their way to losing five straight immediately after that winning streak.
A hard-fought win to close the regular season against Texas Tech showed that the team hasn’t quit, but these losses have put Mike Boynton’s team squarely on the bubble, and they’ll need at least two wins in the Big 12 Tournament to feel better about their chances of making the field.
Oklahoma State is best known for its defense, which ranks 20th in the country on KenPom. The team is led by their rim protectors, with 7’1″ junior Moussa Cisse leading the conference by far in blocks. 6’9″ senior Kalib Boone is third. Still, the Cowboys are prone to long stretches of offensive ineptitude, and they haven’t scored 80 points since beating Ole Miss back on January 28th.