Around the Big 12: Week 13 (Basketball)
The Big 12 conference remains as tight as ever but without much change at the top due to Baylor’s COVID-19 pause. The Bears aren’t scheduled to return to the court until Feb. 23 after having missed six games. As of now, Baylor is still ranked No. 2 overall and is still undefeated at 17-0 overall and 9-0 in the conference.
Looking at some of the active teams, Kansas remains in second place in the conference despite its ranking of No. 23 in the country being the sixth best in the Big 12. The Jayhawks are currently riding a four game winning streak with all four wins coming against unranked opponents.
Their last win was a 59-41 route against Kansas State as Marcus Garrett led the team with 14 points. The Jayhawks will have the chance to prove themselves with their three remaining games this season all being against ranked teams. They’ll start that stretch this Saturday as they take on Texas Tech.
Moving on to Oklahoma, the Sooners are coming off an exciting double overtime win over West Virginia winning the game 91-90 on the road. The Mountaineers were ranked No. 13 at the time making this a huge resume booster.
Austin Reaves led the Sooners with 28 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. This was the second straight win for the Sooners and their remaining schedule is against the bottom half of the conference. They will play next on Saturday against an Iowa State team that has yet to record a conference win.
Unlike Oklahoma, Texas is a team with a tough finish to their schedule as they have three games all against ranked opponents. The Longhorns will host West Virginia who was on the losing end against Oklahoma as previously mentioned.
Texas will go into the matchup on a two game winning streak coming off of a 70-55 win over TCU. Andrew Jones led the team with 19 points in just 27 minutes.
Texas Tech is set to play its first game since Feb. 9 after they’ve had games postponed due to Baylor’s COVID-19 problems and inclement weather.
The Red Raiders will look to return to the court on Saturday with the tough task of facing a Kansas team on the road. Not to mention, the Red Raiders last game was a loss to West Virginia where they were beat by double-digits.
Overall, The Big 12 is still as tight as ever with more than half of the teams ranked and all but three within four games of each other. Many of those teams could be eliminated from getting the top spot with Baylor only set to play two more regular season games once their pause ends on Feb. 23.
Logan Bourandas is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.
