Thursday, March 12, 2009

Tournament Preview: Big XII Quarterfinals

The Big Twelve needs to get some consistency on the Arabic vs. Roman numerals thing. Everywhere you look it's something different. I'll stick with the Roman numberals, pretension be damned, since there are so few opportunities outside of Super Bowls and movie copyright dates to use them. I watched a little bit of the afternoon games yesterday (turns out my ISP offers ESPN360...who knew?) and the announcers were some kind of horrible. I know it was just a regional broadcast and all, but, really, Big XII, this is the best you can offer?

In today's action: TAPE sees Kansas as a 7¼-point favorite over Baylor (76.7 to 69.4 in 69.3 possessions). Baylor needs to turn the Jayhawks over a bunch and get super-hot from three to have a chance.

Texas is a mere ¾-point favorite over Kansas State (68.8 to 68.1 in 67.9 possessions). Look for lots of second-chance points in this game. Both teams rank in the top ten in the country in terms of adjusted offensive rebounding percentage, and each is completely ordinary on the defensive glass.

TAPE likes Oklahoma by 2¼ over their in-state rivals (81.7 to 79.3 in 72.5 possessions). Like offense? This is the game of the day for you. This game is the anti-Big Ten.

Missouri gets the biggest mismatch of the day, a 14½-point spread over Texas Tech (89.6 to 75.1 in 78.3(!) possessions). Was Texas A&M on the bubble? They're not anymore.

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