Big 12 Tournament 2023: Men's Bracket, TV Schedule, Dates and Predictions
The strongest men's college basketball conference in the nation is officially headed to Kansas City for its postseason tournament.
Kansas had already secured the Big 12's crown before the final day of the regular season. However, the last Saturday of action broke the three-way deadlock between Baylor, Kansas State and Texas for the next-best positions in the league standings.
As if that's not enough, the fifth through ninth seeds were settled throughout the slate, too.
Ultimately, while the Big 12 tourney winner will receive an automatic bid to the 2023 NCAA tournament, at-large March Madness bids could be on the line for every program but Oklahoma.
Did anyone predict what happened on Saturday?
Iowa State opened the upset parade with a comfortable 73-58 triumph over seventh-ranked Baylor. Instead of securing a top-three seed, Baylor dropped to fourth in the Big 12 and is headed for a rematch with the Cyclones in the opening game of the conference tourney.
After that, a trio of 20-point scorers propelled West Virginia past 11th-ranked Kansas State in an 89-81 result. Erik Stevenson poured in 27 points with Kedrian Johnson (23) and Emmitt Matthews Jr. (20) close behind.
Oklahoma joined the party with a 74-60 victory over No. 22 TCU, which dipped below Iowa State in the league standings.
Texas, though favored over Kansas, still put a 16-point hurting on the Jayhawks to lock in the No. 2 seed.
While the upsets shaped a different bracket than expected, the conference was already well-positioned for an exciting tournament.
First round (Wednesday, March 8)
Game 1: No. 8 West Virginia vs. No. 9 Texas Tech; 7 p.m. ET, ESPNU
Game 2: No. 7 Oklahoma State vs. No. 10 Oklahoma; 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPNU
Quarterfinals (Thursday, March 9)
Game 3: No. 4 Baylor vs. No. 5 Iowa State; 12:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Game 4: No. 1 Kansas vs. Game 1 winner; 3 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Game 5: No. 2 Texas vs. Game 2 winner; 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Game 6: No. 3 Kansas State vs. No. 6 TCU; 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Semifinals (Friday, March 10)
Game 7: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner; 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Game 8: Game 5 winner vs Game 6 winner; 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Big 12 Championship (Saturday, March 11)
Game 9: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner; 6 p.m. ET, ESPN
Last season, Kansas celebrated a Big 12 tournament title before winning a national championship in March Madness.
And the Jayhawks are positioned to repeat the former, at least.
Texas Tech is an underrated threat now that Fardaws Aimaq is healthy. However, the Red Raiders are unlikely to advance past Kansas in the quarterfinals—and the same applies to Baylor in the semifinals.
Baylor forward Jonathan Tchamwa-Tchatchoua's return from a knee injury has sparked the team, but the Bears continue to stop opponents inside the arc. Similarly, Texas hasn't played well enough on defense consistently to suggest it will navigate the Big 12 tournament.
Kansas is our pick and the deserved favorite. But in such a deep conference, few results would be legitimately surprising—especially with NCAA seeding on the line.
