Big 12 Basketball

The Big 12 men's basketball regular season was a grind for every team involved.

The Kansas Jayhawks, Baylor Bears, Texas Tech Red Raiders and Texas Longhorns were the only sides to emerge with league records over .500.

Kansas edged out Baylor for the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 tournament, and the reigning national champion Bears will be on the opposite side of the bracket in Kansas City.

Nine of the league's 10 teams will take part in the event inside T-Mobile Center because the Oklahoma State Cowboys are serving a one-year postseason ban.

B/R's Kerry Miller projects six of the nine teams headed to Kansas City to make the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Kansas and Baylor will try to win the Big 12 tournament to solidify their cases to land a No. 1 seed, while the other four squads also need victories in Kansas City to earn the highest seeds possible on Selection Sunday.

Big 12 Tournament Bracket and Schedule

Wednesday, March 9

No. 8 Kansas State vs. No. 9 West Virginia (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2)

Thursday, March 10

No. 1 Kansas vs. Kansas State/West Virginia winner (12:30 p.m. ET)

No. 4 Texas vs. No. 5 TCU (3 p.m. ET)

No. 2 Baylor vs. No. 7 Oklahoma (7 p.m. ET)  

No. 3 Texas Tech vs. No. 6 Iowa State (9:30 p.m. ET)

Friday, March 11

Semifinal No. 1 (7 p.m. ET)

Semifinal No. 2 (9:30 p.m. ET) 

Saturday, March 12

Championship Game (6 p.m. ET, ESPN)

Predictions

Kansas Bounces Back from Recent Struggles

Kansas stumbled to the finish line of the regular season. The Jayhawks lost on the road to Baylor and then split back-to-back games with the TCU Horned Frogs. They locked up the No. 1 seed with an overtime win over Texas.

That recent play may spark up some concern about Kansas' chances to win the Big 12, but it is significant that it pulled out two close victories to finish the regular season.

Saturday's win over Texas was even more impressive when you take into account that Ochai Agbaji went 1-of-11 from the field and scored eight points. Kansas' leading scorer had five 20-point performances in five of his six games before Saturday.

The Jayhawks should gain confidence from winning a tight game without Agbaji doing much on the offensive end.

Bill Self's team earned a spot on the easier side of the bracket, as it will not have to play Baylor or Texas Tech until the championship game.

Kansas just got the best shot from Texas and TCU, so it will be better equipped to deal with both sides' threats. The Texas-TCU winner plays Kansas in the semifinals.

The Jayhawks can use their first two games in Kansas City as a chance to prepare for the final challenge from either Baylor or Texas Tech.

If that scenario plays out, Kansas should be in solid position to claim one of the four No. 1 seeds on Selection Sunday. It would also benefit the Jayhawks if Texas Tech took down Baylor for a third time this season to clear the Bears from that race.

Baylor Gets 1st Win Over Texas Tech, Advances to Final

Baylor earned a regular-season victory over every team in the Big 12 except for Texas Tech.

The reigning national champion can avenge those losses in the semifinal round if both squads win their first games in Kansas City.

Baylor fell by three points to the Red Raiders at home January 11 and dropped a 10-point loss on the road February 16.

The Bears reeled off five straight wins after the second loss to put them in the best possible position to go deep in the Big 12 tournament.

Baylor's uptick in form coincides with Texas Tech's dip at the end of the regular season. The Red Raiders lost two of their final three games. They scored 51 Saturday in their defeat at the hands of Oklahoma State.

The Bears have the edge in postseason experience, and that could show as March goes on. That could be one of the intangibles that helps the Bears not only in Kansas City but in the NCAA tournament as well.

If Baylor avenges its regular-season losses, it may be playing for a No. 1 seed in its rubber match with Kansas. That would mark the first time the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds face off in the Big 12 tournament final since 2016.

Mike Miles scored 19 points to lead the unranked TCU men's basketball team to a 74-64 home win over No. 6 Kansas on Tuesday.

TCU crushed Kansas on the boards, out-rebounding the Jayhawks 47-35. The Horned Frogs notably grabbed 19 offensive rebounds to KU's 12 and had 11 combined steals and blocks vs. the Jayhawks' four.

KU led 35-34 at halftime but went ice cold in the second half. The Jayhawks notably scored just two points during a 6:15 stretch in the middle of the frame.

TCU took advantage and went on an 11-2 run that turned a 50-47 lead into a 61-49 edge. Miles hit a big three during that run for a 59-49 advantage:

However, the Jayhawks kept fighting. KU slashed the lead to four after Ochai Agbaji hit a pair of free throws to make it a 68-64 game with 47 seconds remaining.

However, TCU's Damion Baugh went 6-of-6 from the free-throw line to seal the victory for the Horned Frogs. 

Agbaji, who entered Tuesday averaging a team-high 20.4 points on 50.1 percent shooting, scored just 13 points on a 4-of-17 night along with eight rebounds. Jalen Wilson co-led KU with 13 points of his own in addition to seven boards.

For TCU, Baugh and Emanuel Miller each scored 11 points to complement Miles' evening.

The victory marked TCU's second straight win over a Top 10 opponent after beating No. 9 Texas Tech 69-66 on Saturday.

This was also TCU's third win over Kansas in 25 tries and first since the 2017 Big 12 tournament.

The two teams will face each other again Thursday when Kansas (23-6, 12-4 Big 12) hosts TCU (19-9, 8-8 Big 12) at Lawrence's Allen Fieldhouse. Game time is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.

No. 10 Baylor has kept its hopes for a Big 12 regular-season title alive thanks to an 80-70 victory over No. 5 Kansas on Saturday night at the Ferrell Center.

This was the second time these two heavyweight programs have met in the past three weeks. Kansas dominated the first meeting, 83-59, at Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 5. Head coach Bill Self's squad was riding a four-game winning streak coming into this matchup.

The Bears got a much-needed win over one of their key conference rivals. Their last two losses were against Kansas and Texas Tech (83-73 on Feb. 16). They are now 12-4 in Big 12 play, one game behind Kansas in the loss column with two games left in the regular season.

Fresh off shooting 64.1 percent from the field and scoring 102 points against Kansas State on Tuesday, the Jayhawks' offense went cold against a much better defense. They only made 34.3 percent of their attempts, including 7-of-28 from three-point range.

Ochai Agbaji did his best to carry the unit with 27 points. David McCormack and Christian Braun both recorded a double-double in the loss. 

This game initially looked like it would be a blowout for Kansas after taking a 21-9 lead midway through the first half. 

Baylor settled in at that point, closing the first half on a 22-11 run to close the deficit to one point. Kendall Brown gave the Bears their first lead of the game with a dunk to open the second half. 

The Jayhawks cut the lead to three with just under two minutes to play, but the Bears scored seven unanswered points to seal the victory.

Flo Thamba was the star of the game for the Bears with a career-high 18 points. 

Notable Game Stats

• Flo Thamba (Baylor): 18 points (8-of-13 FG), 9 rebounds
• James Akinjo (Baylor): 12 points (8-of-9 FT), 6 assists
  
• Jeremy Sochan (Baylor): 17 points (5-of-9 FG), 5 rebounds
• Ochai Agbaji (Kansas): 27 points (8-of-21 FG), 6 rebounds
• David McCormack (Kansas): 10 points (4-of-11 FG), 13 rebounds
  
• Christian Braun (Kansas): 17 points (6-of-13 FG), 10 rebounds

Thamba, Sochan Step Up for Bears in Marquee Win

It's a testament to how well head coach Scott Drew has done at building depth on the roster that Baylor has been able to stay in the Top 10 of the Associated Press poll for most of the season, despite dealing with injury issues this season. 

It was only two weeks ago that Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua suffered a season-ending knee injury in an 80-63 win over Texas on Feb. 12. 

Thamba and Kendall Brown are the only two players on the roster who have appeared in all 29 games.

Thamba did his best to keep Baylor's offense afloat early in this game when it was struggling. 

Freshman Jeremy Sochan provided a huge spark off the bench. The England native dropped 17 points and grabbed five rebounds. He has now scored at least 17 points in two of the past three games.

This wasn't the best performance for the Bears, but they were able to grind out a win over one of the top teams in the nation. 

Baylor did most of its work on the offensive end inside the three-point line. It went 25-of-44 on two-pointers, compared to 3-of-14 from behind the arc. This was the team's first game with at least 80 points since Feb. 12 (four games). 

If they can get LJ Cryer back healthy before the NCAA tournament begins, the Bears will be one of the most difficult teams to beat. The sophomore guard sat out his third straight game with a foot injury.     

Cold Shooting Dooms Jayhawks

If the theory about a team needing to peak at the right time is true, Kansas looked to be well on its way to making a deep run in the NCAA tournament before Saturday night. 

Per ESPN's College Basketball Power Index, Kansas entered this week ranked No. 1 in strength of record that measures how successful a team has been relative to its schedule. They rank fourth in adjusted offensive efficiency and 33rd in adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom rankings. 

One reason to be encouraged coming out of this game is that Kansas has not shot this poorly in a loss all season. The closest it came was a 39.1 field-goal percentage in a 76-62 win over Oklahoma State on Feb. 12.

Agbaji has shot 51 percent from the field (44.5 percent from behind the arc) this season, but he made just eight of his 22 attempts on Saturday. 

Even on a night when he was struggling, at least by his own standards, Agbaji was a one-man wrecking crew for Kansas early in the second half. He scored 10 of the team's first 12 points coming out of the intermission. 

Christian Braun was the only Jayhawks starter who made at least 40 percent of his field-goal attempts. Dajuan Harris Jr.'s late-season struggles continued against Baylor. He went scoreless in 31 minutes and missed all six of his shot attempts.

One positive is that Harris had seven assists with just one turnover. The sophomore has never been a dominant scoring guard, but he had been shooting 45.7 percent from the field coming into this game.

In his last three games, Harris has scored a combined total of eight points on 4-of-16 shooting. 

The strength of this Jayhawks roster is offense. They entered Saturday ranked 14th in points per game (80.0) and 18th in offensive rating (112.9), per Sports-Reference.com. 

A one-game sample against Baylor isn't reason for panic. As long as Self can get his team to regroup, especially with a favorable schedule to end the regular season heading into the conference tournament, this loss will only be a blip on the radar of the 2021-22 season.    

What's Next?

Kansas will play its final road game of the regular season against TCU on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET. Baylor will take on No. 20 Texas at the Erwin Events Center on Monday at 9 p.m. ET.

Baylor forward Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua suffered a gruesome knee injury in Saturday's game against Texas:

A school spokesman said the junior was ruled out indefinitely, per the Associated Press. 

Many were quick to react to the video of Tchatchoua suffering the injury.

Tchatchoua scored just two points before suffering the first-half injury in the battle of Top 25 teams in the Big 12.

The UNLV transfer has played a key role off the bench during the past two seasons for Baylor.

Tchatchoua appeared in 29 games in 2020-21 as the Bears took home their first national championship in school history. He played 16 minutes in the title game victory over Gonzaga.

The 6'8" forward has made more of an impact in 2021-22, averaging 8.6 points and 7.0 rebounds per game entering Saturday, making 68 percent of his field-goal attempts. He scored 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting in Wednesday's win over Kansas State.

The latest injury could be brutal for Baylor, which is already lacking depth:

Jeremy Sochan could see more time off the bench, although there will be even more pressure on the entire roster. 

Baylor suffered its second defeat in three games, losing to No. 10 Kansas 83-59 at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas.

Kansas was up 18 by halftime after holding Baylor to 21 first-half points. The Bears shot 8-of-31 from the field as a team and were sorely missing leading scorer LJ Cryer, who was out because of a lingering foot injury.

The Jayhawks led by as many as 34 points as they improved to 19-3. The eighth-ranked Bears, meanwhile, slipped to 19-4.

Notable Performers

Christian Braun, G, Kansas: 18 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, one steal

Ochai Agbaji, G, Kansas: 18 points, nine rebounds, two assists

James Akinjo, G, Baylor: one rebound, three assists, two steals

Adam Flagler, G, Baylor: 16 points, two rebounds, one assist, four steals

Kansas Atones for Kentucky Drubbing

Around this time last week, the Jayhawks were licking their wounds from a heavy 80-62 defeat at the hands of Kentucky. Although head coach Bill Self moved on as quickly as possible mentally, it was a stunning result from a program that's typically so difficult to beat at home.

Since then, Kansas already picked up a 70-61 victory over No. 20 Iowa State, but this felt a more cathartic win.

This was a great collective effort by Kansas from start to finish. The Jayhawks didn't rest on their laurels coming out of halftime and instead poured it on even more. This sequence at the 11:33 mark of the second half encapsulated the contest.

Christian Braun set the tone with his 14 points in the first half. His determination and swagger were infectious across his team.

Kansas already had ranked victories over Iowa State (twice), Texas Tech on its resume. A shellacking to this degree was absent until Saturday and it reaffirmed the Jayhawks' status as the top team in the Big 12 at the moment.

Baylor Finds Itself in Unfamiliar Position

The Bears dropped six games over the past two seasons, and their three losses entering Saturday all came by single digits. Calling Baylor a front-runner would be inaccurate, but this is a team that doesn't dig itself into as big of a hole as it experienced against Kansas.

There's no question Cryer's absence had a negative impact on Baylor's offense. But head coach Scott Drew at least got Adam Flagler and enough firepower to have mounted a better challenge against Kansas. James Akinjo missed all 11 of his shot attempts.

Kansas' wildly divergent outcomes from last week to Saturday is an example of why fans shouldn't read too much into one game. There are some days when things go inexplicably wrong.

Drew might also be able to use this to help refocus his players for the home stretch of the regular season. All will be forgiven if Baylor defends its home court and gains a measure of revenge against Kansas on Feb. 26.

What's Next?

Kansas' stretch of five ranked opponents ends Monday against No. 23 Texas in Austin. Baylor stays on the road to play Kansas State on Wednesday.

Texas guard Andrew Jones is using his name, image and likeness money for a good cause. 

In a statement released on Friday (via ESPN's Myron Medcalf), Jones announced he is partnering with the V Foundation to donate 10 percent of his NIL earnings for cancer research:

"The money donated to the V Foundation played a major part not only in my ability to receive proper treatment but maintain confidence in both my recovery and eventual return to basketball. To be able to share my story on how this foundation has impacted my life while paying that forward to future families impacted by cancer is an honor."

A sixth-year senior, Jones missed most of the 2018-19 season when he was diagnosed with leukemia.  

Jones showed tremendous promise during his freshman season with the Longhorns in 2016-17. He averaged 11.4 points and 3.5 assists per game in 33 appearances. 

Per ESPN's Jeff Goodman, Jones declared for the 2017 NBA draft but didn't hire an agent. He wound up returning to school for his sophomore season. 

A wrist injury early in the 2017-18 season knocked Jones out of the lineup for three weeks. He appeared in two games after the injury healed, but was diagnosed with leukemia after experiencing fatigue on the court and during practice. 

Jones finished his chemotherapy treatment in August 2018. 

After being granted medical redshirts for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, Jones returned to the court on Nov. 5, 2019 against Northern Colorado. He scored a team-high 20 points in a 69-45 win. 

Per Asher Price of Axios.com, Jones created his own branded merchandise that is described as "a motivational clothing line." 

Jones is averaging 10.1 points and 2.9 rebounds per game in 19 appearances this season.