On March 10-13, 2021 the Big 12 Tournament took place in the T-Mobile Center. All of the teams in the Big 12 came to Kansas City to play for their schools to take home a Big 12 title. 

The play-in games were to go into the tournament, kind of like the ‘Wild Card’ in the MLB. The Kansas State Wildcats played the #9 Texas Christian Horned Frogs and were able to defeat them by a score of 71-50. The next game was between the #7 Oklahoma University Sooners and the #10 Iowa State Cyclones, ISU was the clear underdogs but could not come out successfully as they lost 79-73.

The Quarterfinals started with the #1 Baylor Bears and the #8 Kansas State Wildcats, with every team in the Big 12 being able to beat each other it came down to who wanted it more. Baylor was able to escape with a 74-68 victory. The next game in the top part of the bracket was the West Virginia Mountaineers and the Oklahoma State Cowboys. The Cowboys’ incredibly talented 5 star point guard Cade Cunningham put up 17 points and led them to a win 72-69. The next game was the Kansas Jayhawks who pretty much had home-court advantage, and the Oklahoma Sooners. Kansas was having trouble with COVID-19, their defense was able to help their struggling offense win the game 69-62. Eyewitness to the games Cohen Bloomquist said “The game was still electric even though there weren’t many people in the crowd.” The late night game was Texas vs Texas Tech. Texas was able to comeback and beat the Red Raiders 67-66.

The Semi-Finals would be with the #2 Kansas Jayhawks and the #3 Texas Longhorns. Due to COVID-19 issues the game was cancelled and Texas moved to the Big 12 Championship. #1 Baylor then played the #5 Oklahoma State Cowboys. OSU was able to prevail and defeat the team who would soon win the National Championship later in March 83-74. 

The Big 12 Championship started on Saturday March, 13 with both underdogs in the Championship. Texas seemed to just out-play Oklahoma State on both sides of the court. Star point guard Matt Coleman lll had 30 points that game. Dominating Oklahoma State’s incredible perimeter defense by making 4 of the 5 three pointers he shot. Oklahoma State did not play bad though. Cade Cunningham had 29 points making it one of the best performances by a Freshman in the Big 12 Championship ever.

In conclusion the Big 12 has one of the greatest basketball programs within every school. It has had a great tournament every year that they have it. Every school that competes always puts up a fight and it seems to draw a lot of attention. For more information about the tournament go to the link below.

https://big12sports.com/tournaments/?id=936