Final Scenarios for Big 12 Conference Tournament Seeding
West Virginia can finish second in the Big 12 Conference with a win over Oklahoma State on Saturday. No other conference game has any bearing on the standings outside of West Virginia and Oklahoma State and affects the two through four seed.
Kansas State and Iowa State meet on Saturday, and they’re firmly locked into the ninth and tenth seed. Then on Sunday, Texas Tech faces Baylor - that only matters for NCAA seeding, and outside of the unlikely chance of Texas Tech beating Baylor, it may not make that big of a difference in their seeding. Texas squares up against TCU, which if Texas wins and West Virginia loses, the Mountaineers will drop to fourth place. However, if Texas and West Virginia were to lose, the Mountaineers would take third.
West Virginia Mountaineers guard Kedrian Johnson (0) and guard Taz Sherman (12) celebrate after defeating the Oklahoma State Cowboys 87-84 at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
Rob Ferguson-USA TODAY Sports
If Oklahoma State were to pull off the win over West Virginia, the only game that would separate the two programs by one less conference game. Both have 11 wins but the extra loss to Baylor, a matchup that was canceled between West Virginia and Baylor West Virginia in Waco, would be the difference. The Cowboys own the tiebreaker otherwise, but the standings are based on winning percentage, and the assumption is West Virginia loses at Baylor. Yet, that’s why you play the game, and it’s possible the Mountaineers split the season series with the Bears in a full schedule, but we’ll never know.
Nevertheless, Big 12 Conference members that finish 1-6 in the standings get a bye while seeds 7-10 play in the first round on Wednesday.
If West Virginia wins and claims the second seed, the Mountaineers will await the winner of the seven-seeded Oklahoma Sooners and tenth-seed Iowa State. Meanwhile, the top seed, Baylor, will await the winner of eight-seed TCU and ninth-seed Kansas State. Texas is locked in a four and will face Oklahoma State and third-seed Kansas is set against sixth-seed Texas Tech.
If West Virginia were to lose and drop to fourth, it would be a quick rematch against Oklahoma State while Texas meets Texas Tech and Kansas awaits the winner of Oklahoma and Iowa State.
If West Virginia and Texas were to both lose, the Mountaineers finish third and meets Texas Tech.
Big 12 Standings (conf. record)
Baylor (12-1)
West Virginia (11-5)
Kansas (12-6)
Texas (10-6)
Oklahoma State (10-7)
Texas Tech (9-7)
Oklahoma (9-8)
TCU (5-10)
Kansas State (3-14)
Iowa State (0-17)
Big 12 Conference Remaining Schedule
Saturday, March 6
West Virginia vs. Oklahoma State
Kansas State vs. Iowa State
Sunday, March 7
Baylor vs. Texas Tech
TCU vs. Texas
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