2008 Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament

The 2008 Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship is the 2008 edition of the Big 12 Conference's championship tournament held at the Sprint Center in Kansas City from March 13 until March 16, 2008. It is the 11th Big 12 tournament in the series. Texas and Kansas shared the regular season title, with Texas receiving the top seed in the tournament due to its win over Kansas earlier in the season. The top four seeds, including the two regular season champs, Oklahoma, and Kansas State automatically advanced to the quarterfinal round.

The first round featured several close games, with a combined 29-point margin of victory for the four matchups. Oklahoma State upset Texas Tech in a game that flip-flopped throughout, and the 12-seed Colorado Buffaloes defeated the 5-seed Baylor Bears in double overtime. This was both the first double-overtime game in tournament history and the first 12-seed win in tournament history. Texas A&M and Nebraska both won matches against Iowa State and Missouri, respectively.

Regular season and tournament seeding

To kick off the beginning of the 2007-2008 Big 12 men's basketball season a poll of the head coaches of the Big 12 men's basketball programs found that Kansas was the preseason favorite to win the conference for a second consecutive year and receiving 10 of 12 first place votes. In second place was Texas, the 2006-2007 season's runner-up for both the regular season title and tournament title. Texas A&M was dubbed for third place and received the remaining 2 first place votes. [http://www.big12sports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/101107aaa.html Men's Basketball Preseason Poll Announced] ] Aggies head coach Billy Gillespie left at the end of the previous season to take up the head coaching position at Kentucky. [ [http://www.kbtx.com/news/headlines/6903077.html Gillespie Fills Coaching Vacancy at Kentucky] ] Another important coaching change came when Bob Huggins left Kansas State after one season to return to his alma mater, West Virginia. [ [http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/04/05/bob-huggins-leaves-kansas-state-for-west-virginia/ Bob Huggins Leaves Kansas State for West Virginia] ] Nonetheless, KSU was selected for fourth place in the poll, the school's highest ever selection in the conference pre-season poll. Missouri and Oklahoma tied for fifth place while Oklahoma State and Texas Tech came in seventh and eighth place, respectively. Baylor, Nebraska, Iowa State, and Colorado took the final four spots, respectively.cite press release|url=http://www.big12sports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/030908aab.html|title=Texas, Kansas Share Regular Season Men's Basketball Title|publisher=Big 12 Sports|accessdate=2008-03-10|date=2008-03-09] With identical conference records of 13–3, the Texas Longhorns and the Kansas Jayhawks share the 2008 regular season title. Because Texas won the head-to-head game with Kansas, they claim the #1 seed for the tournament.

After gaining the lead early, Colorado managed to hold off a 2nd-half Baylor rally, taking the game into overtime twice. With the win, the Buffaloes became the first 12-seed to win a game in the tournament's eleven year history. The game was also the first double-overtime game in tournament history. Colorado had a 15-point lead in the second half, only to see Baylor go on a 14-1 run to get back in it. With several botched possessions and failed chances to win on both sides, the game went into overtime twice. Baylor came within two during the second OT, but Kevin Rogers missed two free throws and Colorado quickly scored. A few late free throws added to the lead and gave CU the win. Baylor (21-10) had just completed one of the best seasons in the school's history, with hopes to gain an invite to the national tournament, but the loss to Colorado placed these hopes in doubt. Colorado shot 72% from the field in the first half, setting another tournament record for field goal percentage in a half. [ [http://www.big12sports.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2007-2008/big12-02.html Big 12 Conference - Official Athletic Site ] ] [ [http://www.big12sports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/bu-cu--champ-notes-08.html Big 12 Conference - Official Athletic Site ] ]

Nebraska vs. Missouri

A late three put the Cowboys ahead at the half, but D. J. Augustin lead the Longhorns on a 14-0 run to start the second half, putting OSU far behind. Damion James held the lead in stats for Texas with 23 points and 11 rebounds. The Cowboys, with Ibrahima Thomas' 19 points, had rallied from 7 points behind to gain the lead at halftime, but went the first eight minutes of the second half without a field goal. A late rally pulled them to within three, but Texas managed to hold them off and win by seven. [ [http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=280740251 ESPN - Oklahoma State vs. Texas - Recap - March 14, 2008 ] ]

Colorado vs. Oklahoma

Dominique Kirk hit five 3-pointers and had 19 points, and Josh Carter hit two free throws with 7 seconds left to help Texas A&M hold off third-seeded Kansas State 63-60.

Texas A&M (24-9) shot 50 percent—a huge improvement from its first-round game against Iowa State—and didn’t let anyone besides Michael Beasley do much of anything, winning its second straight conference tournament game after going 1-11 the previous 11 years.

Beasley had 25 points and nine rebounds, but Bill Walker (10 points) was the only other double-figures scorer for Kansas State (20-11), which still got into the NCAA tournament despite the loss.

emifinals

Texas vs. Oklahoma

ee also

*2008 Big 12 Women's Basketball Tournament

References

External links

* [http://www.big12sports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/big12-m-baskbl-championship.html Official site] ;Video highlights
* [http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3291856&categoryId=2459792&n8pe6c=2 Texas Tech-OSU]
* [http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=280730239 Colorado-Baylor]
* [http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=280730158 Missouri-Nebraska]