Football
Associated Press 18y

Big 12 just trying to get more teams in NCAA field

DALLAS -- When the Big 12 tournament was first played in
Dallas three years ago, the league was establishing itself as a
power basketball conference.

After its first tournament outside of Kansas City ended in 2003,
the Big 12 had two No. 1 seeds and a No. 2 for the NCAA tournament.
And the conference sent six teams, matching the Southeastern
Conference for the most, for the fourth straight year.

A year later after playing in Dallas again, the league's status
took a severe blow. Just four teams made the 65-team NCAA field,
and regular season and tournament champion Oklahoma managed only a
No. 2 seed.

The Big 12 is back in Big D and could end with even fewer teams
getting NCAA bids this time.

Only No. 8 Texas (22-5) and No. 17 Kansas (22-7), the regular
season co-champions, along with No. 22 Oklahoma (20-7), go into
this week's tournament virtually assured of NCAA berths. The
Sooners won 11 of 13 games before losing 72-48 on Sunday in a game
at Texas.

The conference, in its 10th season, has always had at least four
teams advance.

Texas A&M (20-7) has a seven-game winning streak and a
first-round bye. But the Aggies have never won a Big 12 tournament
game and haven't had many impressive victories this season. They
face a potential quarterfinal matchup against Colorado (19-8),
which is on the NCAA bubble because of inconsistent play since
winning five in a row to end January.

"I think certainly because our league has gotten better from
the bottom up, the perception is that the league is down,"
Colorado coach Ricardo Patton said Wednesday. "I think it's
opposite. I think the league has gotten better as a whole."

Convincing the NCAA selection committee of that could be
difficult.

Since the winning streak that upped Colorado's record to 15-3,
the Buffs have gone 4-5 with double-figure losses to Kansas,
Nebraska, Kansas State and Iowa State.

"The ups and downs have helped us learn what not to do. We're
focusing for this tournament," Chris Copeland said.

"We have to come out and get wins," said sophomore Richard
Roby, Colorado's top scorer (17.8 points a game) "We're not
looking to win two games and leave it to chance. We want to win the
tournament."

They know that's their only guarantee of getting their first
NCAA bid since 2003.

Colorado plays its first-round game Thursday against 12th-seeded
Baylor (4-12). In the other first-round games, Texas Tech plays
Kansas State; Nebraska plays Missouri; and defending tournament
champ Oklahoma State without coach Eddie Sutton plays Iowa State.

Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M won't play until the
quarterfinals Friday. They all practiced Wednesday away from the
American Airlines Center.

Texas Tech's four-game losing streak is its longest in five
seasons under Bob Knight. The Red Raiders (14-16) have won at least
one game in the Big 12 tournament each time under Knight, and have
to make it to the championship game this time to avoid a losing
record.

"We've had more downs that we've normally encountered," Knight
said. "In the whole spectrum you can fit into from being very,
very good to being very, very bad, and we're somewhere in the
middle of that. ... Had I known the outcome at the beginning of the
season, I would have been disappointed with it."

Texas A&M has been on a roll, but the Aggies' most impressive
victory in that stretch was 46-43 last week over Texas on a
buzzer-beating 3-pointer at home. The Aggies also beat Colorado,
but the rest of the wins were against teams seeded sixth or worse
this week.

If Colorado advances, the quarterfinal matchup against the
Aggies could be an NCAA elimination game. But the Buffs have to get
past Baylor, much improved and more experienced since their 81-48
game Jan. 18.

That was only the third game for Baylor, banned from playing
non-conference games as part of NCAA penalties for numerous
violations under former coach Dave Bliss. The violations were
discovered after former player Patrick Dennehy was murdered in the
summer of 2003.

With only two seniors and six freshmen, the Bears lost their
first five games by an average of 23 points. There have been some
more lopsided games, but they won two straight games before
finishing the regular season with a 79-76 loss at Oklahoma State.

Despite their earlier NCAA penalties, the Bears aren't banned
from going to the NCAA tournament should they make an unprecedented
run this weekend.

"We haven't really talked about going to the tournament,"
Baylor guard Aaron Bruce said. "We just want to keep playing. ...
There is a hunger and air of confidence about this team."

Having played only a half-season, the Bears should be fresher
than most teams in a tournament situation.

If the Bears advance Thursday, their two losses against Texas
A&M this season were by two and four points. A loss to Baylor would
certainly damage Texas A&M's chances at an at-large NCAA berth.

And could leave the Big 12 with only three NCAA teams without an
unexpected tournament champion earning the automatic berth Sunday.

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