You can say a lot of things about the Big 12, but one of them is not that it’s dull, especially as we get down to the final game of the season. Here are some givens.
Nationally, the top three teams in the Big 12 standings are ranked in the following order. The conference’s top club, Kansas Jayhawks (13- 2 Big 12, 26- 4 overall) is rated third in both the AP Top 25 Poll and ESPN/USA Today Poll. Texas A&M Aggies (12- 3 Big 12, 24- 5 overall), the Big 12’s second-place team, is ranked seventh by the AP and sixth by ESPN/USA Today and the Texas Longhorns (12-3 Big 12, 22- 7 overall), in the conference’s third spot, are fifteenth nationally in both rankings.
So, which club is the best? That’s tough to say. Kansas has beaten two nationally ranked teams—the Florida Gators and Oklahoma State Cowboys. (Oklahoma State has since fallen from the rankings.) But they lost to the nationally rated Texas A & M 69- 66.
Texas A&M lost early in the season to nationally ranked LSU Tigers and UCLA Bruins and then went on to beat Oklahoma State, Kansas and Texas. This week they lost to Texas in double overtime 98- 96.
Texas lost to the Gonzaga Bulldogs, who were then rated 21, and went on to beat LSU and Oklahoma State. The Longhorns also lost a game to Oklahoma State and another to Texas A&M, before recently beating the Aggies.
What does all of this mean? It means, it’s anyone’s guess who will win the final regular season contest between Kansas and Texas on March 3 at 12 pm. Working into the mix is Texas A&M’s last game, which is against the Missouri Tigers (7- 8 Big 12, 18- 10 overall) on March 3 at 4 pm.
Who will be at the top of the heap when this weekend is over?
If Kansas beats Texas, they win the conference. If Texas wins and Texas A&M beats Missouri, then it’s the Aggies conference. If Texas wins, then the conference crown goes to them.
With all of that said, it’s sure that however the weekend turns out that all three teams will easily be seeded in the March tournament.
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