With February having come to an end, the best month of the college basketball season has arrived. The madness of March will unofficially begin with the conference tournaments, and this year, the Big 12 Tournament could be a fascinating event. Of course, it is one that the Texas Tech basketball team has designs on winning (assuming the Red Raiders are back to full health by the time it arrives).
However, the expansion of the conference to 16 teams has changed the format of the event. This year will be the first time that the Big 12 Tournament has featured a field this large, and that has caused the conference to be creative with how it sets up its conference tournament bracket.
Some of the larger conferences, such as the Big Ten, will not allow every team to participate in the conference tournament. That won’t be the case for the Big 12, though, as all 16 teams will be in Kansas City.
While Texas Tech is far from being at the bottom of the league race, there is still work for the Red Raiders to do in the final three games of the regular season. That’s because any hopes of winning the Big 12 Tournament likely rest on finishing in the top four of the conference regular-season race.
That’s because the new format of the event gives the top four seeds a double-bye into the Quarterfinals, which will take place on Thursday, March 13. Those four teams will need to win only three games to claim the tournament title.
On the other hand, the teams that finish seeded 9th through 16th will get no bye and must win five games in five days to earn the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Meanwhile, the teams seeded 5th through 8th get a single bye into the second round, meaning they will have to potentially play four games in four days.
With Texas Tech being a team that plays only eight players when at full strength, having the quickest path to a tournament title in Kansas City would be ideal. Thus, Tech needs to finish in the top four of the standings.
Because the Red Raiders have been flirting with a spot in the top two spots of the conference race for most of the Big 12 season, it might feel like a top-4 seed is a done deal. However, that is far from the case.
With three games left in the regular season, Tech sits in third place at 12-5. That’s one game behind 13-4 Arizona.
However, Tech is only one game ahead of Iowa State and BYU, which are tied for fourth at 11-6. Additionally, Kansas could potentially catch the Red Raiders as the Jayhawks sit at 10-7. Of course, those two teams meet on Saturday in Lawrence in a game that will have massive Big 12 implications.
The good news for Tech is that after playing Kansas, the Red Raiders’ final two opponents are Colorado (2-15 in the Big 12) and Arizona State (4-13 in the Big 12), the two worst teams in the conference standings.
On the other hand, other teams vying for a top-4 seed have difficult games ahead. For instance, Kansas plays Texas Tech, Houston, and Arizona to end the season. BYU must play West Virginia, Iowa State, and Utah. Their game against the Cyclones means that one of the teams right behind Tech in the standings will take at least one loss.
As for Iowa State, they finish with Arizona, BYU, and Kansas State. Meanwhile, Tech’s hopes of catching Arizona are reasonable with the Wildcats facing Iowa State, Arizona State, and Kansas with the games against the Cyclones and the Jayhawks both being road tilts.
Thus, it is reasonable to expect the Red Raiders to end the season in a position to earn a double bye in Kansas City. If they go 2-1 in the final three games, Tech will likely end up in the top four of the conference race and make their journey to an automatic NCAA Tournament bid as manageable as possible. That’s what is left to play for in the regular season as the calendar flips to March.
