Bracketology Landscape Changing by the Minute

STILLWATER – The chopping continued Saturday night in the Big 12 and this tree made plenty of noise as it was chopped down in full sight of anybody tuning into ESPN as Kansas made up a little for their title string and consecutive weeks in the rankings ending. The Jayhawks took down Big 12 leader and previously unbeaten Baylor 71-58. You have to give into the fact that Baylor’s COVID-19 issues and 22-days of inactivity led to their downfall.

Now, earlier today the basketball snobs had to be surprised that Oklahoma State went into Norman and beat Bedlam rival and top 10-ranked Oklahoma 94-90 in overtime. The Joe Lunardis and Jerry Palms of the world that line out Bracketology all the way to Selection Sunday have had the Pokes in the tournament but on that 8-9 line with an opening win sending Cade Cunningham to draft preparation as the Cowboys would get their ticket home from the Indianapolis bubble by having to play a number one seed like Michigan or Gonzaga.

Not so fast …

By the end of the afternoon there were adjustments being made. To be fair, Jerry Palm of CBS Sports came around earlier and going into the day Saturday had bumped Oklahoma State up to a five seed. Lunardi came around after the Cowboys beat Oklahoma and moved them all the way up to a seven seed.

“Hey Joe, don’t do the Cowboys any favors, okay.”

By the way here is the way the Big 12 Tournament in the Kansas City bubble would line up if it started tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 10

8-9 Game: TCU (5-8) vs. Kansas State (3-11) 

7-10 Game: Texas Tech (7-7) vs. Iowa State (0-15)

Thursday, March 11

4-5 Game: Oklahoma State (9-6) vs. Oklahoma (9-6)

1-8/9 Game: Baylor (10-1) vs. TCU/Kansas State winner

2-7/10 Game: West Virginia (10-4) vs. Texas Tech/Iowa State winner

3-6 Game: Kansas (12-6) vs. Texas (8-6)