Big 12 Men's Tournament Tracker: Kansas Wins Big 12 Tournament

Keep up with all of the action from the Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament in Kansas City all the way to Saturday's final

Matthew Postins | Mar 12, 2022

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas Jayhawks won their first Big 12 Tournament championship since 2018 with a 74-65 win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Saturday night.

Ochai Agbaji, who scored 16 points, was the tournament's most outstanding player. Other Kansas players in double figures were David McCormack with 18, Christian Braun with 14, Remy Martin with 12 and Jalen Wilson with 12.

Bryson Williams led Texas Tech with 17 points. Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 14 points and Kevin Obanor added 11.

Game 7: Texas Tech Beats Oklahoma

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Texas Tech Red Raiders survived a late rally from Oklahoma, winning 56-55 to advance to the Big 12 Championship game against Kansas on Saturday.

The Sooners had a chance to tie or win the game on two Jacob Groves free throws. Groves made the first, to cut Tech's lead to one point. But, he missed the second. The ball was tapped out to midcourt, where OU guard Umoja Gibson tracked it down and dribbled to the basket. But, Tech's Kevin McCullar stole the ball away from Gibson as time expired.

Texas Tech had the lead thanks to two Clarence Nadolny free throws with less than a minute to play.

Davion Warren and Kevin Obanor led Tech with 11 points each. Gibson led OU with 16 points, while Jordan Goldwire had 14 points and Jalen Hill had 13 points.

Game 6: Kansas Handles TCU

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas Jayhawks became the first team to clinch a berth in the Big 12 Championship game final with a 75-62 victory over TCU on Friday.

The Jayhawks (27-6) will get the winner of the Texas Tech-Oklahoma game in the championship game at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

TCU (20-12) were playing each other for the third time in 11 days, thanks to a COVID-19 rescheduled game that had the pair playing two games in three days earlier this month. The Jayhawks and Horned Frogs split those two games, but Kansas the more dominant team on Friday.

Kansas had a 44-30 lead at halftime and was never threatened, though TCU made a 9-0 run in the final four minutes.

Jayhawks guard Ochai Agbaji led the way with 22 points, while forward Mitch Lightfoot had 15 points and guard Remy Martin had 10 points. They will help Kansas try to win its first Big 12 Tournament title since 2018.

The Horned Frogs, who will more than likely get an invitation to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018, were led by guard Chuck O’Bannon, who had 15 points, and guard Mike Miles, who had 14 points.

Courtney Ramey

Micah Peavy of TCU

TCU vs. Texas

Game 5: Texas Tech Rolls Past Iowa State

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Texas Tech made it look easy, blowing out Iowa State, 72-41, in the final Big 12 Tournament quarterfinal game on Thursday night.

The Red Raiders (24-8) will face the Oklahoma Sooners in the Big 12 semifinals at 8:30 p.m. Friday. The Sooners upset No. 2 seeded Baylor earlier on Thursday.

The matchup of first-time Big 12 Tournament head coaches went to Texas Tech’s Mark Adams, whose Red Raiders outplayed T.J. Otzelberger’s Cyclones all night.

How easy was it? The Red Raiders were up 39-20 at halftime, thanks to their own great shooting (55 percent) and Iowa State’s poor shooting (less than 30 percent). Texas Tech’s Terrence Shannon Jr. had one of those games Red Raiders fans have gotten used to, as he finished with 15 points. Adonis Arms had 10 points, and his buzzer-beater at halftime was overruled since the ball didn’t leave his hand before time expired.

It was about the only thing that went wrong for the Red Raiders, as Tech started the second half on a 6-0 run, pushing their lead to 45-20, and never looked back. Kevin McCullar had 11 points and Kevin Obanor added 10 points.

The normally explosive Izaiah Brockington had just seven points for the Cyclones, as the Red Raiders held him to 3-of-16 shooting from the floor. Big 12 Freshman of the Year Tyrese Hunter was more productive with nine points and two assists. But he wasn’t nearly enough to help the Cyclones close the gap to even single digits.

Game 4: Oklahoma upsets Baylor

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Umoja Gibson’s driving layup with 49 seconds left to play clinched a 72-67 victory for Oklahoma as the Sooners beat Baylor, 72-67, in the Big 12 quarterfinals.

Oklahoma (18-14) will now face either Iowa State or Texas Tech in the Big 12 semifinals at 8:30 p.m. on Friday.

The Sooners were already up by three points after a Jordan Goldwire basket. But, after getting possession of the ball from the Bears (26-6) and taking their final timeout, the Sooners put the ball in the hands of their senior and let him create.

With Baylor freshman Jeremy Sochan defending him, Gibson drove to his left and got to the basket for the layup, drawing a foul from Sochan in the process. Up five, Gibson emerged emotional and celebrated with the Oklahoma band, which was on the baseline.

Gibson made the free throw and the Sooners handled the game from there. He finished with 15 points, one of five Sooners in double figures.

Oklahoma had far more to play for than Baylor. Regardless of what happened in Kansas City, the Bears were headed for the NCAA Tournament next week. The only difference for the Bears might be whether they’re a No. 1 or a No. 2 seed.

For the Sooners, they’re trying to play their way onto the NCAA Tournament bubble. In ESPN’s most recent Bracketology, released on Thursday morning, the Sooners weren’t even among the first eight teams out of the tournament — and that’s after a three-game winning streak to end the regular season.

The Sooners need to win the Big 12 Tournament to ensure a berth in March Madness. Short of that, every win counts.

The Sooners used a 9-0 run to take a 55-46 lead with 9:40 left in the game. That run was fueled by Jacob Groves and Marvin Johnson. Groves, who finished with 15 points, continued the run started by Jalen Hill, who sparked it with a dunk. Then, Johnson had a dunk of his own and a 3-pointer to put the Sooners in the driver’s seat. Johnson finished with 12 points.

Baylor never went away, of course, but it was Hill that kept creating space for the Sooners. Hill countered three Baylor baskets with three layups of his own as the Sooners took a 61-56 lead with 3:52 left in the game. Hill finished with 10 points.

Baylor’s James Akinjo kept the Bears in it down the stretch and finished the game with 16 points. But it was also Akinjo that missed a 3-pointer right after Gibson’s 3-point play, a shot that would have cut the lead in half. It was Baylor’s last gasp at a win.

Sochan had 13 points, while Matthew Mayer and Flo Thamba had 10 points each. Baylor had a 33-27 lead at halftime, in part due to a Sochan 3-point play to end the half.

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.

Courtney Ramey, Jase Febres

Marcus Carr

Marcus Carr

Game 3: Kansas Blows Out West Virginia

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas dominated from the start of its Big 12 quarterfinal with West Virginia, winning 87-63 on Thursday afternoon in a packed T-Mobile Center.

Kansas (26-6) will now face TCU in the Big 12 semifinals at 6 p.m. on Friday.

For the Jayhawks, it turned into a cruise control kind of game. Kansas started forward David McCormack, whose status was in doubt going into the game. But the Jayhawks’ performance ensured he would only have to play a few minutes.

And, by resting McCormack, he may be more available for Friday’s game, during which he’ll likely have to defend TCU center Eddie Lampkin. He had 10 points and nine rebounds, along with the go-ahead basket, in a 65-60 win over Texas. That loss led Longhorns coach Chris Beard to rip his team in the post-game press conference.

The Jayhawks jumped out to a 19-4 lead before West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins was ejected from the game after receiving two technical fouls. At the time, he was arguing against a technical foul called on guard Taz Sherman.

Kansas guard Ochai Agbaji led the Jayhawks with 18 points. Jalen Wilson added 15 points. Mitch Lightfoot scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds. Christian Braun added 11 points.

Malik Curry led the Mountaineers with 19 points, while Sherman added 10. The Mountaineers dropped to 16-17 for the season.

Game 1: West Virginia defeats Kansas State

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An 8-0 run pushed West Virginia to a nine-point lead with 3:30 left, and the Mountaineers made it stand up to beat Kansas State, 73-67, in the first game of the Big 12 Tournament on Wednesday.

The No. 9-seeded Mountaineers (16-16) will face No. 1 seed Kansas in the quarterfinals at approximately 2 p.m. on Thursday, or 30 minutes after the end of Game 2 between TCU and Texas.

Before the run, Kansas State (14-17) cut West Virginia’s lead to 61-60 with 5:57 left on a layup by Nijel Pack. After a few empty possessions, Mountaineers guard Taz Sherman drained a 3-pointer, and after a stop on the other end his teammate, Malik Curry, hit another one. Then, after a K-State turnover, guard Sean McNeil made a layup to make it 69-60 with 3:30 left, leading to a time out.

The Wildcats never made it a one-possession game after that.

McNeil led the Mountaineers with 21 points, while Curry added 17.

Nijel Pack led Kansas State with 18 points, while Mark Smith had 17 and Ishmal Massoud added 13.

Track the entire Big 12 Tournament schedule and results.

Track the automatic bids for the NCAA Men's Tournament.

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.

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Published Mar 12, 2022

MATTHEW POSTINS

Matthew Postins is an award-winning sports journalist writes for CowboyMaven. He also writes for Inside the Rangers, CowboyMaven,DallasBasketball.com, Longhorn Country, All Aggies, Inside The Texans, Washington Football, covers the Big 12 for HeartlandCollegeSports.com and is the Editor of the College Football America Yearbook.