Predicting the men’s Big 12 Championship tournament winner

The Big 12 Championship in Kansas City is one of the top league tournaments that takes place every March.

While Kansas sits atop the conference with 12 tournament titles all-time, the Jayhawks have gone through one of their toughest seasons in recent memory.

Second on the list is Iowa State, who looked like one of the favorites until some troubles down the stretch. Still, if the Cyclones reach Saturday’s final, they will have a shot at improving to 7-0 in Big 12 tourney title games all-time.

The six league crowns for Iowa State is second only to Kansas, as Oklahoma State has the other two. In fact, Kansas with 16 and Iowa State with six appearances in the finals gives them more than the rest of the teams combined, who have 15.

Led by tourney MVP Keshon Gilbert, the Cyclones denied Houston a sweep of the regular season and postseason crowns, winning 69-41 last year. Texas won two of the previous three around a victory by Kansas, with Iowa State also securing the trophy in 2019.

Once again the Cougars enter as the No. 1 seed, having gone 19-1 in conference games. Texas Tech is the No. 2 followed by Arizona and BYU. All four received byes to the quarterfinals.

Iowa State is the No. 5 with Kansas, Baylor and West Virginia joining them in the second round.

The action tips off on Tuesday with four first round games.

Here are game-by-game predictions for the Big 12 Championship:

BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT PREDICTIONS

First Round

Cincinnati over Oklahoma State

TCU over Colorado

Arizona State over Kansas State

Utah over UCF

Second Round

Iowa State over Cincinnati

TCU over West Virginia

Baylor over Arizona State

Kansas over Utah

Quarterfinals

Iowa State over BYU

Houston over TCU

Baylor over Texas Tech

Kansas over Arizona

Semifinals

Iowa State over Houston

Kansas over Baylor

Championship

Iowa State over Kansas