Saturday’s Big 12 games, unlike most previous Saturdays, had few upsets, with the majority of the league’s top teams winning. The only ranked team to lose on Saturday was No. 19 BYU, which lost 93-83 at Oklahoma State. The game was played in Stillwater, and the win earned the Pokes their third Big 12 victory of the season.
It is difficult to win on the road in Big 12 competition, but four visiting teams did so on Saturday. TCU defeated Kansas State 75-72 in Manhattan after Jameer Nelson Jr. hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer. Cincinnati flew to Orlando and defeated UCF by two points, 76–74. at the lone game with two ranked teams, No. 6 Kansas defeated No. 25 Oklahoma at Norman. The other team to win on the road was No. 12 Baylor, who upset West Virginia 94-81.
No. 3 Houston easily defeated the Longhorns, winning 82-61 at home. No. 10 Iowa State demonstrated that Hilton Coliseum may be the most difficult location to play in the Big 12, defeating Texas Tech 82-74. The conference’s NET ranking is 45.9, the lowest of any league. The Big Ten is the next lowest at 61.4, followed by the SEC at 68.3. The Big 12 is the only league to have 10 of the top 38 and 12 of the top 80 teams in the NET rankings: 1. Houston, 8. Iowa State, 10. BYU, 11. Baylor, 16. Kansas, 26. Texas Tech, 33. Texas, 35. Cincinnati, 36. TCU, 38. Oklahoma, 67. UCF, and 80. K-State.
