2007 Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament

The 2007 Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship was the 2007 edition of the Big 12 Conference's championship tournament held at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City from March 8 until March 11, 2007. The tournament ended in an 88-84 overtime victory by the #1 seed Kansas Jayhawks over the #3 seed Texas Longhorns, and was the first Big 12 tournament ever to end in an overtime game.

Regular season/Tournament seeding

In the first preseason poll, Kansas was picked first and received 11 first-place votes. Texas A&M was picked second and received one first-place vote. The rest of the voting was as follows: Oklahoma State was picked third, Texas fourth, Kansas State fifth, Texas Tech sixth, Baylor seventh, Missouri eighth, Oklahoma ninth, Iowa State tenth, Nebraska eleventh, and Colorado twelfth. [ [http://www.big12sports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/101606aaa.html Big 12 Men's Basketball Preseason Poll Announced] Big 12 Sports.com. 2006-10-16. Retrieved 2007-04-09] As preseason polls predicted, Kansas did win the regular-season title, clinching it outright with a 90-86 win over Texas on March 3. [Fray, Jessie. [http://www2.kusports.com/news/2007/mar/04/big_12_champs/ Big 12 champs!] KUsports.com. 2007-03-04. Retrieved 2007-04-10.] [ [http://www.big12sports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/030307aaa.html Kansas Earns Regular Season Big 12 Men's Basketball Title] Big 12 Sports.com. Retrieved 2007-04-09. ] Thus, the seedings for the tournament were earned as follows, with tiebreaker procedures followed in breaking a four-way tie for seventh place between Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Oklahoma, and Nebraska (see [http://www.big12sports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/111605aab.html Tie-Breaking Procedures] for more information on seeding in the tournament).

Source: [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/confstandings?confID=8 Big 12 Conference Standings 2006-2007] ESPN.com. Retrieved 2007-04-10. (Big 12 Tournament W-L records subtracted from totals). ]

† - Denotes Tournament Champion. * - Denotes Regular Season Champion

Tournament

Bracket

4RoundBracket-Byes | RD1=First Round (March 8)
RD2=Quarterfinals (March 9)
RD3=Semifinals (March 10)
RD4=Championship (March 11)
group1=
group2=
group3=

RD1-seed03=8
RD1-team03=Iowa State
RD1-score03=63
RD1-seed04=9
RD1-team04=Oklahoma
RD1-score04=68

RD1-seed07=5
RD1-team07=Texas Tech
RD1-score07=81
RD1-seed08=12
RD1-team08=Colorado
RD1-score08=71

RD1-seed11=7
RD1-team11=Oklahoma State
RD1-score11=54
RD1-seed12=10
RD1-team12=Nebraska
RD1-score12=39

RD1-seed15=6
RD1-team15=Missouri
RD1-score15=83
RD1-seed16=11
RD1-team16=Baylor
RD1-score16=97

RD2-seed01=1
RD2-team01=Kansas
RD2-score01=64
RD2-seed02=9
RD2-team02=Oklahoma
RD2-score02=47

RD2-seed03=4
RD2-team03=Kansas State
RD2-score03=66
RD2-seed04=5
RD2-team04=Texas Tech
RD2-score04=45

RD2-seed05=2
RD2-team05=Texas A&M
RD2-score05=56
RD2-seed06=7
RD2-team06=Oklahoma State
RD2-score06=57

RD2-seed07=3
RD2-team07=Texas
RD2-score07=74
RD2-seed08=11
RD2-team08=Baylor
RD2-score08=69

RD3-seed01=1
RD3-team01=Kansas
RD3-score01=67
RD3-seed02=4
RD3-team02=Kansas State
RD3-score02=61

RD3-seed03=7
RD3-team03=Oklahoma State
RD3-score03=64
RD3-seed04=3
RD3-team04=Texas
RD3-score04=69

RD4-seed01=1
RD4-team01=Kansas (OT)
RD4-score01=88
RD4-seed02=3
RD4-team02=Texas
RD4-score02=84 [ [http://sportsline.com/collegebasketball/tournaments/conference/BIG12 Big 12] Sportsline.com. Retrieved 2007-03-15 ]

Championship Game

In a flip-flopping game, Texas charged out of the box to gain an early lead of 32-10. Kansas, however, went on a 24-7 run to cut the Texas lead to 39-34 at the half. The lead then switched to Kansas early in the second half, but a rally by Texas pulled them ahead 73-71 in the final minutes. However, one missed free throw by Texas' Craig Winder allowed a Kansas three-pointer by Mario Chalmers to tie the game with 15 seconds left. In overtime, Kansas was up five with 15.3 seconds left, but a Texas three-pointer by A. J. Abrams cut the lead to two. It took two free throws by Kansas' Darnell Jackson with just over five seconds left to seal the win, 88-84. Durant actually had a chance to score for the win in the second half, but missed the layup. He, however, led the game with 37 points. Kansas' Sherron Collins followed with 20. [http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=270702305 Kansas tops Texas in OT to win Big 12] ESPN.com. 2007-03-11. Retrieved 2007-04-09.] [ [http://www.big12sports.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/031107aaa.html# Jayhawks Take Big 12 Title] Big 12 Sports.com. 2007-03-11. Retrieved 2007-04-09.] The game is the biggest comeback in Kansas basketball history, eclipsing a 19-point comeback over UCLA in December 1995. [ Bedore, Gary. [http://www2.kusports.com/news/2007/mar/12/we_are_fighters/?big12_2006 ‘WE ARE FIGHTERS': Biggest comeback in school history lands KU tourney title] KUsports.com. 2007-03-12. Retrieved 2007-04-09. ]

Tournament summary

This was the first Big 12 Basketball Tournament to end with an overtime game. With the win, Kansas moved to 5-1 in the championship game, while Texas fell to 0-4. [ [http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/big12/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/notes-kanksu-031007.pdf Kansas vs. Kansas State] CSTV.com. 2007-03-10. Retrieved 2007-04-10.] [ [http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/big12/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/notes-texosu-031007.pdf Texas vs. Oklahoma State] CSTV.com. 2007-03-10. Retrieved 2007-04-10.] The 22-point comeback by the Jayhawks in the championship was the biggest in the tournament's history. The second-biggest occurred in the same tournament, when Texas came back from 18 down to defeat the Baylor Bears. [ [http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/big12/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/07-champ-game-8-notes.pdf Texas vs. Baylor] CSTV.com. 2007-03-09. Retrieved 2007-04-10.] This tournament was home to the lowest score in tournament history (45 by Texas Tech against Kansas State), as well as the highest combined score in history (172 points in the final game). [ [http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/big12/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/3907-kst-text-notes6.pdf Kansas State vs. Texas Tech] CSTV.com. 2007-03-09. Retrieved 2007-04-10.]

The Tournament MVP was Kevin Durant, a freshman from the University of Texas, who was a member of the 2007 Big 12 All-Tournament Team with Brandon Rush (Kansas), A. J. Abrams (Texas), Curtis Jerrells (Baylor), and Julian Wright (Kansas). [http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/big12/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/31107kan-tex-notes11.pdf Championship Notes] CSTV.com. Retrieved 2007-04-09.] Durant also scored 92 points to surpass the previous Big 12 tournament record of 79 set by Marcus Fizer in 2000.

This edition of the tournament was the first to be played in Oklahoma City; previous tournaments had been played in Kansas City, Missouri or Dallas, Texas. The tournament final was televised by ESPN with play-by-play and commentary by Ron Franklin, Fran Fraschilla, and Holly Rowe. [ [http://www.texassports.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=16&url_article_id=6109&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2 Men's Basketball preview: Kansas (Big 12 Championship Game)] TexasSports.com. 2007-03-11. Retrieved 2007-04-10.]

References

External links

* [http://sportsline.com/collegebasketball/tournaments/conference/BIG12 Sportsline.com Tournament Site]
* [http://www.big12sports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/07-big12-m-baskbl-championship.html Big12Sports.com Tournament Main Page]

ee also

*Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament
*2007 Big 12 Women's Basketball Championship
*Big 12 Conference