The NCAA Tournament picture seems as wide open as it has ever been as conference tournaments begin this week.
On a smaller scale, the same could be said for the Big 12 Championships, which begin Wednesday at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.Texas coach Rick Barnes hopes that means his Longhorns could still resurrect a disappointing season with a hot streak at the tournament. Texas, which won its final two regular-season games (its first consecutive wins since Dec. 19) and three of its past four games, opens against bottom-seed TCU at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.“Regardless of what we did this year there’s never been a game that we’ve gone into this year that I didn’t think we could win,” Barnes said. “Every game we’ve lost has been disappointing because I’ve thought if we did the things that needed to be done we can win. With that being said, yes, I think we could get on a roll and win a bunch of games. But we have to be consistent in what we do.”More than half the league’s 10 teams feel they have a legitimate chance to challenge for the championship and for good reason. Some teams such as Iowa State, Oklahoma and Baylor aren’t locks for the NCAA Tournament, giving them more to play for than Kansas, Kansas State and Oklahoma State.“I think this Big 12 tournament may be the most competitive that we’ve ever had because there’s a lot of teams probably going into it thinking we need to do some work,” Barnes said. “Us being, obviously, the one that should say that more than anybody. We know what’s there. We’ve got to win, it’s just plain and simple. Not just one game, but for us to do what we set out at the beginning of the year to do, we have to win the tournament.”The Horns are playing their best basketball when it matters most and Barnes hopes they take it to Kansas City.“We have to go there with the attitude that we’re going to compete consistently and we need it from everybody,” he said. “So obviously we’ll continue to build on that and I do think our players have the mindset that they can do this and that’s where it has to start, but we have to go out and do it.”Hield healed quickOklahoma guard Buddy Hield broke his foot during a game with TCU on Feb. 11. Less than a month later he was back on the floor.Hield had surgery the day after the break and was back practicing three weeks later. He played four minutes against West Virginia last week and scored 10 points and grabbed nine rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench against the Horned Frogs on Saturday.Hield started 13 games before the injury and missed five while recovering.Dog walk to rememberKansas State coach Bruce Weber was dejected, figuring his Wildcats had let a championship slip away in the closing minutes Saturday against Oklahoma State as the Cowboys beat KSU.A Kansas win a few hours later at Baylor would prevent KSU from even sharing a title.“You went into the locker room not feeling really good,” Weber said. “On the plane, I watched the tape and felt worse. I was just disappointed in our lack of taking advantage of an opportunity.”Back in Manhattan, Kan., that evening, Weber received a couple texts telling him that Baylor led KU at halftime. Then, while he and his wife were out walking their dogs, he heard a bunch of horns and cheers coming from Kansas State’s baseball stadium.“We live a couple blocks a way,” he said. “I thought they must have won a game. Then all of sudden my phone started lighting up — about 50 texts in a two-minute period.”Then KSU’s athletic director John Currie called with the good news and congratulations: Baylor beat Kansas, giving the Wildcats a share of their first title since 1977.“To be honest, I was a little bit stunned,” Weber said. “It was a nice surprise and it’s great for our guys and great for our university.”Smart a Cousy finalistOklahoma State’s Marcus Smart, who attended Flower Mound Marcus, was selected one of five finalists for the Bob Cousy Award, which honors the nation’s top point guard.The other finalists are Saint Mary’s Matthew Dellavedova, Syracuse’s Michael Carter-Williams, Miami’s Shane Larkin, and Michigan’s Trey Burke.Stefan Stevenson, 817-390-7760Twitter: @FollowtheFrogs
