The Big 12 Conference Tournament continues on Thursday night as the quarterfinal round kicks off a slate of four games. The tournament will continue until a champion is crowned on Saturday night.
Big 12 basketball tournament 2014 schedule and bracket: Iowa State battles Kansas State, Texas takes on West Virginia
Thursday’s slate of games in the Big 12 Conference Tournament features some of the most exciting teams in college basketball.
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The first game features No. 4 seeded Iowa State Cyclones vs. No. 5 Kansas State Wildcats. Led by Melvin Ejim and DeAndre Kane, the Cyclones have a high-powered offense that needs space to breathe as they try to get shots off from behind the arc. Kansas State, who have lost two straight games coming into the conference tournament, will likely need a strong showing from freshman guard Marcus Foster if they want to try and out-gun Iowa State. The Wildcats have the ability to surprise, beating the Cyclones in their last matchup, 80-73, so look for them to rattle the No. 16 team in the country on Thursday.
The second game of the day may be the best, as Big 12 champion Kansas faces off against Marcus Smart and the Oklahoma State Cowboys. The Jayhawks have now won an incredible 10 straight conference titles, and will be looking to win their eighth conference tournament title in that span. They’ll go up against an Oklahoma State team that has one of the best players in the country in Marcus Smart, but greatly underachieved after a fast start -- going on a stretch of seven straight losses in conference play. The Cowboys finished better than they started, and even beat Kansas by seven points earlier in March. They’re a dangerous team in the conference tournament, and will be looking to make a late run to put an exclamation point on Smart’s career.
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Second-seeded Oklahoma squares off against a Baylor team they’ve beaten twice this season. The Sooners are ranked 17th in the nation, led by 16.8 points per game from Buddy Hield and 15.2 points per game from Cameron Clark, but two losses to Kansas separated them from a conference title. The two teams faced off twice in the regular season -- Oklahoma won at Baylor, 66-64, and at home against the Bears by a score of 88-72. The Sooners have been on a run of late, winning four of their last five games by double digits.
Road to the Title
The final game of the night has the No. 3 seeded Texas Longhorns going up against the No. 6 West Virginia Mountaineers. The Longhorns have been spotty the last six weeks, and while Cameron Ridley continues to mop up the glass for them, Texas has had trouble scoring and have shown weakness defending the arc. West Virginia is coming off a huge win against Kansas where they were effective enough on offense to overcome 41 points by Andrew Wiggins. The Mountaineers could rely heavily on Eron Harris, their second-leading scorer and best three-point shooter, to challenge the Texas defense on Thursday. Harris had 28 points against the Jayhawks on Mar. 8.
Full schedule for Thursday:
No. 4 Iowa State vs. No. 5 Kansas State, 12:30 p.m. (ET) on ESPN 2
No. 1 Kansas vs. Oklahoma State, 3 p.m. (ET) on ESPN 2
No. 2 Oklahoma vs. Baylor, 7 p.m. (ET) on Big 12 Network/ESPN 3
No. 3 Texas vs. No. 6 West Virginia, 9:30 p.m. (ET) on Big 12 Network/ESPN 3
Here is a link to the Big 12 Tournament bracket.
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