Big 12 Men’s Basketball Quarterfinals Rundown: Two of the Top Seeds Sent Home

After a regular season of unexpected results and any team being able to beat any other team in Big 12 play, did you expect the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City would be any different? Thursday brought us four quarterfinals matchups with a couple of upsets included. In the first game, TCU was down by as many as 20 points and came back to beat Texas by five. Kansas was up next and easily took care of West Virginia. Oklahoma and Baylor were in a back-and-forth affair all night, with the Sooners coming away with the win. Texas Tech easily took care of Iowa State.

The semifinals are set with No. 5 seed TCU playing No. 1 seed Kansas then No. 7 seed Oklahoma faces No. 3 Texas Tech. Before the semifinals take place, here’s a recap of those four quarterfinals games:

TCU (20-11, 8-10) vs #22 Texas (21-11, 10-8)

TCU wins 65-60

It was an epic comeback for the Horned Frogs. The two teams started locked in a low-scoring defensive battle. Texas was up 20-19 with 5:48 left in the first half, then they got hot, making six 3-pointers. The Longhorns had a 40-22 lead at halftime, and the Frogs looked like they were on their way back home. But the team did not give up and flipped the switch, outscoring Texas 43-20 in the second half. For a complete recap of that game, see the KillerFrogs recap article here.

West Virginia (16-17, 4-14) vs. #6 Kansas (26-6, 14-4)

Kansas wins 87-63

The Mountaineers could only muster four points in the game’s first ten minutes. Head coach Bob Huggins was frustrated and was issued two technical fouls, with the second one ejecting him from the game and watching the last 30 minutes from the locker room.

The Big 12 Player of the Year, Ochai Agabji, received his trophy before the game and then showed why he was deserving of the award. Scoring 18 points as the Jayhawks cruised to victory. Kansas had a 41-19 lead at the half and never looked back in the second half.

In addition to Agabji, Kansas had three other players score in double digits – Jalen Wilson (15), Christian Braun (11), and Mitch Lightfoot (10 off the bench). Despite the losing effort, West Virginia had two players in double digits, accounting for about half of WVU’s points – Malik Curry came off the bench to score 19, and Taz Sherman added ten more.

Oklahoma (18-14, 7-11) vs. #3 Baylor (26-6, 14-4)

Oklahoma wins 72-67

Oklahoma came into the tournament on Bubble Watch and knew they had to perform exceptionally well to get their dance card punched come Sunday. They defeated the No. 3 team in the country and the defending national champions. They very well may have earned that NCAA berth. The Sooners had a lead for the first 18 minutes of the game but gave Baylor a 33-27 halftime lead. The second half was a back-and-forth affair until Oklahoma took the lead with 11:50 remaining. They would never lose that lead, but Baylor tried, coming as close as 61-60 with 3:27 left in the game.

Four of the starters for the Sooners ended up in double digits as well as one who came off the bench – Jacob Groves (15), Umoja Gibson (14), Marvin Johnson (12, off the bench), Jordan Goldwire (10), and Jalen Hill (10). Baylor had four players who scored in double digits – James Akinjo (16), Jeremy Sochan (13 off the bench), Flo Thamba (10), and Matthew Mayer (10).

Iowa State (20-12, 7-11) vs. #14 Texas Tech (24-8, 12-6)

Texas Tech wins 72-41

Texas Tech is one of those teams to look out for as the NCAA tournament gets underway next week. They are hoping to repeat their 2019 national championship game appearance and could just do that. They looked impressive in their rout of Iowa State in the final quarterfinals game.

“I told T.J. (Iowa State head coach T. J. Otzelberger) we probably couldn’t have played better than we did tonight,” said Texas Tech head coach Mark Adams when asked what he said as the coaches exchanged handshakes after the game.

Tech played 12 of their players in the game, with four of them scoring double digits – Terrence Shannon, Jr. (15), Kevin McCullar (11 off the bench), Kevin Obanor (10), and Adonis Arms (10). Arms could have three more, as it looked like he made a ¾ court throw to end the first half, but upon review, he did not beat the buzzer. No player on the Cyclones made it to double digits in scoring. 

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