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Big 12 Tournament 2024: Bracket, schedule and history

big 12 tournament

The 2024 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Tournament will be held March 12-16 at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. All 14 Big 12 programs, including newcomers Houston, BYU, Cincinnati and UCF, will participate in the tournament, with the winner receiving the conference’s automatic bid to the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

The Big 12 Tournament has been hosted annually at T-Mobile Center, formerly known as Sprint Center, since 2010. The tournament is contracted to be played in Kansas City through 2025.

Texas is the defending tournament champion, having taken down top-seeded Kansas 76-56 in last year’s title game. The Longhorns have won 2 Big 12 Tournament titles.

Unsurprisingly, Kansas is the most successful program in tournament history, with 12 titles and an outstanding overall winning percentage. The Jayhawks have appeared in 16 of the 26 Big 12 Tournament championship games.

Seeding is based on regular-season conference records and tiebreakers.

Big 12 Tournament bracket

*This section will be updated closer to the start of the 2023-24 season*

Big 12 Tournament schedule

*This section will be updated closer to the start of the 2023-24 season*

Big 12 Tournament history

The Big 12 Tournament began in 1997, which was the league’s first season after being created from the merger of the Big 8 and four members of the defunct Southwest Conference.

It remained a 12-team event through 2011, after which Colorado departed for the Pac-12 and Nebraska for the Big Ten. More change was afoot the following year, which was the last for Missouri and Texas A&M in the Big 12 before defecting to the SEC.

West Virginia and TCU made their Big 12 Tournament debuts in 2013.

This year is the tournament’s first season as a 14-team event. BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston are joining the Big 12 this year. Texas and Oklahoma will leave the Big 12 ahead of the 2024-25 season.

Kansas City has hosted the tournament for 18 of its 26 years, including the canceled 2020 event. Oklahoma City and Dallas have also played host.

Though Kansas is the most successful program in the history of the tournament, beware of Iowa State when the Cyclones get rolling. The ‘Clones are a perfect 5-0 when reaching the championship game.

Previous winners

Top Ten moments

2021: The most important quarterfinal ever

Little did Texas and Texas Tech know that the winner of this quarterfinal thriller would punch a ticket directly to the championship game.

It was the Longhorns who got there as Matt Coleman sank a pair of free throws with 1.8 seconds remaining for the 67-66 win. Texas closed out the final minute of the game with a 6-0 run.

When Kansas had to forfeit the semifinal due to a positive COVID test in the program, Texas advanced to the title game. The Horns took down Oklahoma State, 91-86, for their first Big 12 Tournament title.

2017: TCU stuns Kansas

Jamie Dixon put a nice bow on his first season at TCU by leading the 8th-seeded Horned Frogs to an 85-82 win over No. 1 Kansas in the tournament quarterfinals.

Fouled on a 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds to go, Desmond Bane drained all three free throws to lift TCU to the win. The Horned Frogs closed the game on a 9-2 run in the final minute. After falling to Iowa State in the semifinals, TCU went on to win the NIT.

2016: Buddy vs. Georges

Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield and Iowa State’s Georges Niang put on a memorable quarterfinal duel.

Hield scored 39 points to lead the Sooners to the 79-76 win, edging out a 31-point effort from Niang.

2015: The Comeback Cyclones

There was no putting away Iowa State in the 2015 Big 12 Tournament.

Behind 19 points from Niang, the Cyclones rallied from a 17-point second-half deficit to down Kansas in the championship game. Iowa State was only in the game because it pulled off a similar feat the night before, bouncing back from 11 down to beat Oklahoma 67-65.

2010: The Sunflower Showdown for the crown

The hype in Kansas City was considerable as Kansas and Kansas State met each other in the Big 12 title game for the first time. Both teams entered the game ranked in the top 10 nationally.

The game didn’t quite match the buzz, however, as the Jayhawks held the Wildcats to 34% shooting from the field for a 72-64 win.

However, the Cats would get the last laugh later in March. K-State reached the Elite Eight for the first time since 1988, while the Jayhawks were upset by Northern Iowa in the second round.

2009: Baylor awakens

In many ways, the 2009 Big 12 Tournament was the birth of what Baylor would become under Scott Drew.

Drew, who took over in 2003 after one of the most toxic scandals in NCAA history, led the Bears to the NCAA Tournament in 2008. But that wasn’t a run. Baylor, an 11-seed, lost in the first round, just as it had in the Big 12 Tournament.

In 2009, Baylor learned how to run.

Drawing the 9-seed in the Big 12, the Bears beat Nebraska in the opening round and then upset top-seeded Kansas in the quarterfinals. An upset over Texas propelled Baylor to the title game before finally losing to Missouri.

Baylor made the NIT, where it lost to Penn State in the championship game. The following year, the Bears put what they learned to good use. Baylor won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since 1950, then made a run all the way to the Elite Eight.

2007: Kevin Durant loses — but wins MVP

An all-time classic by any measure.

In a first and only scenario, Texas freshman sensation Kevin Durant was named Big 12 Tournament MVP even though his team did not win the tournament title.

That’s no surprise, though — Durant scored 37 points in the 88-84 overtime loss to Kansas in the final. It was the first Big 12 championship game decided in overtime. For the Jayhawks, it marked the biggest comeback in program history after rallying from a 32-10 deficit.

There was foreshadowing all over the place here.

The tournament was played in Oklahoma City, where Durant would first reach NBA stardom. Mario Chalmers hit a late 3 to send the game to overtime, which is a feat he would replicate against Memphis in the national championship game the following season.

2005: 1,630 wins, but only 1 title

It was a Big 12 championship matchup decades in the making: Eddie Sutton vs. Bob Knight.

Sutton, with 778 career wins, led Oklahoma State back to the Big 12 championship game for the second straight season. Knight, with 852 career wins, had Texas Tech playing for the league title for the first time.

John Lucas III led the Cowboys to the 72-68 win with six of his 19 points in the final 1:33, including a free throw that built the lead to four with 4.4 seconds left.

2002: Sooners stun Kansas

Kansas clobbered the Big 12 in 2002, finishing 16-0 in league play. That domination continued in the Big 12 Tournament with a 102-73 win over Colorado and a 90-50 win over Texas Tech.

But Oklahoma prevented the Jayhawks from running to a flawless 19-0 run through the conference. Kelvin Sampson’s Sooners upset Kansas 64-55 in the championship game.

When both teams reached the Final Four, a rematch looked possible in the national championship game. Alas, the Sooners and Jayhawks both lost their national semifinal matchups.

1997: Border rivals meet for first and only time

The inaugural Big 12 Tournament couldn’t have asked for a better script.

There was the David vs. Goliath angle, as the 10th-seed in the 12-team tournament made its way to the championship game to face the nation’s No. 1 team. But it was more than that.

The 10th-seed was Missouri. The top seed was Kansas. And the site was Kemper Arena in Kansas City.

For the first time in exactly a decade, two of the fiercest rivals in college basketball were playing each other for a conference title.

Missouri certainly had to like its chances. The Tigers handed Kansas its only loss of the regular season, beating KU 96-94 in double overtime on Feb. 4.

But there would be no repeating that feat. Kansas easily ended Mizzou’s Cinderella Big 12 Tournament run with an 87-60 win.

Mizzou and Kansas never again met in the Big 12 championship game.

Where the Big 12 Tournament has been played

Alex Hickey
Alex Hickey is an award-winning columnist for Saturday Down South and Saturday Tradition, our Big Ten site.

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