The Big 12 Conference is one of those conferences where anything can happen. All of that and more happened in Tempe, Ariz., on Tuesday night.
It was the nightcap for six games, which included TCU stealing a Quad 1 win in Lubbock, Cincinnati dominating BYU at home, West Virginia seeing its NCAA Tournament bubble burst against Kansas State and OSU and UCF combining for 215 points in Orlando.
But now, the wildest part of the night might have been in Tempe, where Arizona State beat Kansas, 70-60, and did this.
Kansas went 0-2 on its Arizona swing.
Here are takeaways from the night.
Welcome to the Dance, TCU
When I wrote about the four NCAA Tournament bubble teams with five games to play, I laid out a path for all four teams to get off the bubble and in the Dance. I presented it with one caveat — because those bubble teams were playing each other so much down the stretch, it was likely only one team would get in.
Well, welcome to the Dance, TCU. The Horned Frogs’ 73-65 win over Texas Tech was the one game I wrote that the Horned Frogs didn’t have to win if they wanted to get in. They just needed to win their remaining four Quad 2 opportunities. TCU won the first three Quad 2 games and then went into Lubbock and stole a Quad 1 win, giving it 20 wins for the season.
The Horned Frogs are the hottest team in the Big 12 right now. They are 7-1 in their last eight games and Xavier Edmonds is pouring on double-doubles. He had 20 points and 12 rebounds on Tuesday.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi posted his one-sheet on Tuesday morning. He had TCU among his Last Four Byes and wrote that a win “should be enough to lock up an at-large bid.”
He posted another later and TCU was off the Last Four Byes line. So, With 20 overall wins before the Big 12 Tournament and a 10-win non-conference, TCU meets both criteria I set forth in January for getting into the NCAA Tournament. So, if the committee leaves TCU out, the Horned Frogs have a legit beef.
How to Burst Your Bubble
On Feb. 5, West Virginia defeated Cincinnati, 59-54, to improve to 15-8 overall and 6-4 in Big 12 play. There was a path for the Mountaineers to play their way onto the bubble and into the NCAA Tourament. I wrote about it with five games to play, just as I wrote about TCU.
But, while the Horned Frogs went in the right direction, the Mountaineers didn’t. Since that win over the Bearcats WVU is 2-5 and those losses have included bubble teams TCU and Oklahoma State.
The final blow came on Tuesday with a 65-63 loss to Kansas State. That dropped the Mountaineers to 17-13 overall and 8-9 in league play. Entering Tuesday’s action, Lunardi had the Mountaineers among the Next Four Out and seven teams out of the field.
The loss to Kansas State should end any hope of an at-large bids. In the last three weeks West Virginia has lost to the two worst teams in the conference by record, falling to Utah at home on Feb. 18.
You only get to stay on the bubble for so long. West Virginia’s time is done. Lunardi posted this after the game. No more Next Four Out for WVU.
Kansas Chaos
I was going to write about Big 12 Tournament seeding here, but, dang what happened in Tempe?
Bill Self got run out of the game for arguing a call and his replacement, assistant Jacques Vaughn, nearly got run himself late in the first half. It would seem the Jayhawks had issues with the officiating. The official that ran Self off was one everyone’s favorites, Doug Sirmons. And it was a quintessential ‘T.’ No question in his mind that Self’s evening needed to come to an end.
Though, I’m not sure Arizona State’s Bobby Hurley agreed.
By halftime, Arizona State was up 40-20. Yes, Arizona State was up by 20 points on Kansas. Look I covered the Arizona State-Texas Tech a few weeks ago and that was a stunner. But Tech was never that far out of it. Kansas rallied and cut the lead to three points but couldn’t finish the comeback.
This is why it is so hard to trust Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament. It’s why even Self has said this is the hardest team to figure out that he’s coached in recent memory. Kansas could go deep into the NCAA Tournament, or they could lose in the first round. Right now, I’m thinking first-round loss. I’d almost trust UCF and TCU over Kansas at this point.
Meanwhile, Arizona State has won four of its last six. I still believe that the Sun Devils are going to part ways with Hurley after the season. But give this team credit — they didn’t fold the tent after losing seven of eight starting on Dec. 17. ASU could lose its finale at Iowa State and its Big 12 Tournament opener and still finish .500. I’m not sure I’d want to play the Sun Devils in Kansas City.
