After a season in which Kansas and Memphis split first-place votes and instigated bar arguments nationwide over who was truly superior, it seemed only fitting that 40 minutes wouldn’t be enough to separate the two teams in last night’s championship game. And even more fitting was the fact that the Tigers’ free-throw shooting woes were finally their undoing, after they had miraculously disappeared during the post-season just as their coach predicted. But thanks to super-human play by Mario Chalmers and that aforementioned Memphis choke-job at the charity stripe, the Kansas Jayhawks have their first national title 20 years to the day after Danny Manning and the Miracles clinched the title in Kansas City.

So much to talk about, and we’ll get around to more of it later today. For now, the real world and the McJob are calling. In the meantime, we leave you with this year’s “One Shining Moment” montage, which featured Texas Pom, Damion James, A.J. Abrams, and Alexis Wangmene.

Finally, Selection Sunday is here. And with it comes the game that we’ve all been waiting for since February 11th, when the Longhorns held off the Jayhawks in Austin for a huge win and the tiebreaker that afforded them the 1-seed in this conference tournament.

There’s a ton of history between these two teams, despite the short life of the conference they dominate. This marks the third-straight year that Texas and Kansas will meet in the finals of the conference tournament, where Kansas has won two straight. In fact, the Longhorns are an imperfect 0-4 in Big 12 title games heading into this one.

Following Tennessee’s loss to Arkansas in the SEC semifinals, many pundits are claiming this game could decide the fourth 1-seed that will be handed out in the NCAA tournament. Personally, I’m not sure I buy it, as the Vols have an incredibly strong computer profile and a handful of excellent victories. But if Texas were to win today, it would be hard to argue against a team that has the 5th-best RPI and SOS in addition to 12 wins against the RPI Top 50, which would include four wins against the Top 5 alone.

So if that’s not enough at stake for Texas today, they also are all too aware of the fact that they blew a double-digit lead in the conference championship to Kansas last season, just a week after doing the same thing in Allen Fieldhouse. There’s not just pride and seeds on the line, but perhaps a little bit of revenge, too. And if you include the 19,000 Jayhawk fans that will be filling the Sprint Center today in hopes of seeing their own revenge for the February 11th loss, this one should be incredibly intense.

If you’re interested in who the Jayhawk players are, you can check out the game preview from the February 11th contest in Austin. The only player that KU used in last season’s two wins that won’t be on the floor today is Julian Wright, so the ‘Hawks bring plenty of experience into this one. The addition of freshman Cole Aldrich gives them some depth inside, while Darnell Jackson has made huge strides in his senior year and is now an absolute stud in the paint for the Jayhakws.

What to look for

1) Ball control - Texas has led the country in controlling the ball for much of the season, and they’ll need to do that today. Kansas loves to play pressure defense extended well past the perimeter, and will throw a variety of full-court looks at random times just to throw teams off. If the Longhorns can keep the Jayhawks from amassing a nice chunk of points off of turnovers, they should be in good shape today.

2) Smart defense - In the first half of the February 11th game, Kansas used lightning-fast ball movement to attack the Texas defense for good looks inside and open attempts from behind the arc. Fortunately, the Jayhawks scaled back their attacks the inside in the second half, which was a big reason why the Horns were able to win the game. Texas will need to rotate quickly and communicate well on D to ensure that the incredibly talented Jayhawk offense doesn’t slice them up.

3) The role players - Who will step up today for Texas? It can’t simply be D.J. Augustin and Damion James. A second-straight big game from A.J. Abrams could put the Horns over the top, but key contributions could also come from Connor Atchley or even one of the big men on the bench. This looks to be a very close game again today, so even the smallest contribution from an unsung player could spell the difference.

Lots and lots of news for the Horns now that the regular season has come to a close. And that starts with the Big 12 conference awards, where Rick Barnes took home Coach of the Year in a season where his Longhorns set a school record for regular season victories. D.J. Augustin was a unanimous selection to the All-Big 12 First Team, while A.J. Abrams and Damion James were named to the second team. The king of hustle, Justin Mason, was named to the All-Defensive Team.

In the latest Bracketology from Joe Lunardi, the Horns are still a 2-seed playing in the Phoenix regional with UCLA as the 1-seed. God forbid this projection actually holds, as good ol’ Joe has a potential second-round match-up for Texas with Arkansas…in Little Rock. Hardcore amateur bracketologists will be happy to know that Joe is now going daily with his picks from until Selection Sunday.

Andy Glockner’s Bubble Watch — now also a daily feature — has the Big 12 with three “locks” in Texas, Kansas, and OU. He feels that Baylor and K-State are solidly in, and barring a Bear implosion against Colorado on Thursday, I would have to agree. That leaves A&M in the “work left to do” category, which could be something of a misnomer. As long as the bubble doesn’t contract further with cinderella auto-bids, the Aggies should be fine. But while they don’t actually need another win, they certainly can’t afford to somehow lose to Iowa State.

While everybody is focused on seeds and bubbles, there is still that weekly tradition of the polls, which saw Texas climb to 6th in the AP and 8th in the ESPN/USA Today.

Although there’s no Big Monday, there’s more tournament action from Championship Week tonight. Auto-bids will be handed out in the Southern Conference (8 PM CST, ESPN2), where bubble team fans will be pulling hard for Davidson. At the same time, those nervous folks will be hoping that Gonzaga can stave off San Diego in the WCC Championship (8 PM CST, ESPN). And just underway in Albany, Rider and Siena are battling for the MAAC title on ESPN2.

Texas remained a 2-seed in Lunardi’s latest Bracketology, although he shifted them out West to Phoenix. There’s still a week to go, but it’s pretty safe to say that Texas is a solid 2-seed — barring back-to-back losses to Oklahoma State and in the Big 12 Quarterfinals — but now the question is where. Personally, my only concern is to not draw the Detroit site. One trip to that city per season is enough for me.

Fans who want to check out the Kansas/Texas A&M game can still buy tickets, thanks to a majority of the Aggie students heading home for Spring Break. Unsold student tickets can now be bought at this link, so if you’re in the area and want to catch the 3 P.M. showdown, you’ve still got a shot.

Big 12 hoopsheads or fans of teams seeded five through twelve can buy my Big 12 Tourney tickets for Session 1 and 2 off of eBay. All games are on Thursday in the Sprint Center, and you can bid using these links for Session 1 and Session 2.

Apparently there are some technical difficulties with the Flash video player, as it will only work for one video per page. That means if you try to watch the Baylor video while the Tech one is still on the main page, you get the Tech video. Yet if you click over to the Baylor write-up by itself, the video plays just fine. All of the technobabble that makes this stuff work is just Greek to me, so I’ve passed it along to some more knowledgeable folks to see what they can do. For now, if you want to watch the Baylor video, you can view it on the single-entry page.

Although slots four through ten are no longer separated by just a game as they were this time last week, the league is still a complete mess in the middle as the season winds to a close. Thanks to a complete tanking by Kansas State — losers of four straight and five out of six — the Baylor Bears actually control their own destiny in regards to the 3-seed in Kansas City. And with a late-season push, even the Oklahoma State Cowboys are within striking distance of that fourth and final bye in the conference tournament.

Texas Longhorns (11-3)
Remaining games: vs. Nebraska (Tuesday), vs. Oklahoma State (Sunday)
Outlook: The loss to Tech puts the Longhorns in a tie with Kansas once again, but they hold the tiebreaker for the #1 seed in Kansas City thanks to the victory over the Jayhawks last month. The crowds for this week’s games could be abysmal, with the Nebraska tip at 6:30 P.M. and the Oklahoma State game being played during Spring Break.

Kansas Jayhawks (11-3)
Remaining games: vs. Texas Tech (Tonight), at Texas A&M (Saturday)
Outlook: Unless the Longhorns stumble, the best that Kansas can hope for is a split title and the 2-seed in the post-season tournament. But Kansas must match Texas stride-for-stride down the homestretch, and their schedule is admittedly more difficult. Tech has a very slim shot at the NCAAs, but a road win in Lawrence would propel them to the top of the bubble discussion. And with A&M fading fast, their backs will be against the wall when Kansas comes to town on Sunday. KU cannot afford to overlook either one of these two teams.

Baylor Bears (8-6)
Remaining games: vs. Texas A&M (Wednesday), at Texas Tech (Saturday)
Outlook: Thanks to the head-to-head win over K-State, the Bears would claim the 3-seed if they win their remaining two games. But a stumble against A&M or Tech opens the door for the four teams sitting just a game back at 7-7, so Scott Drew’s guard-tastic team has to stay on top of its game this final week.

Kansas State Wildcats (8-6)
Remaining games: vs. Colorado (Tuesday), at Iowa State (Saturday)
Outlook: While Baylor does hold the tiebreaker, the Wildcats have the more manageable schedule this week. The home game against Colorado should finally snap the KSU slide, but this team has struggled all season long on the road and Hilton Coliseum will be a tough place to win on Senior Night. A split this week could drop the ‘Cats all the way from first place at the beginning of February to an opening-round game next Thursday in KC.

Texas A&M Aggies (7-7)
Remaining games: at Baylor (Wednesday), vs. Kansas (Saturday)
Outlook: While the K-State slide might seem monumental, the Aggies are the only team in the country this year who have fallen from the Top 10 to sweating things out on the bubble. A&M managed less than a point a minute in Norman on Saturday, and that simply won’t get the job done against the high-powered offenses of Baylor and Kansas. If Texas A&M wants to feel secure about its place in the NCAAs, they really have to steal that road game in Waco on Wednesday night, one that Longhorn Road Trip will be watching live from the Ferrell Center.

Oklahoma Sooners (7-7)
Remaining games: at Oklahoma State (Wednesday), vs. Missouri (Saturday)
Outlook: Of the four southern teams knotted at 7-7, Oklahoma has the easiest schedule left. The road game against Bedlam rival OSU won’t be easy, but a 9-7 finish and a potential 4-seed is within the grasp of the Sooners.

Oklahoma State Cowboys (7-7)
Remaining games: vs. Oklahoma (Wednesday), at Texas (Sunday)
Outlook: Raise your hand if you thought OSU would be earning fringe bubble talk with a week left to go in the season. Anyone? Fry? Bueller? The Pokes have a bitch of a finish in Austin on Sunday, but home court in the Bedlam series could put them above .500 in league play for what feels like the first time since Grover Cleveland was in office.

Texas Tech Red Raiders (7-7)
Remaining games: at Kansas (Tonight), vs. Baylor (Saturday)
Outlook: Pat Knight already has two Top 25 upsets on his nine-game bio, but both of those came in the friendly confines of the United Spirit Arena. This difficult final stretch will test the Red Raiders, and they could easily drop both games and find themselves playing in the dreaded 8-9 game next week.

Nebraska Cornhuskers (6-8)
Remaining games: at Texas (Tuesday), vs. Colorado (Sunday)
Outlook: After a promising non-conference start, Nebraska fizzled in Big 12 play. Winning three of their last four has them in the mix, but a tough road date with the Longhorns could quickly kill that momentum. The home game against Colorado on Sunday should provide an easy win, setting the Huskers up for potential home games in the NIT.

Missouri Tigers (5-9)
Remaining games: vs. Iowa State (Wednesday), at Oklahoma (Saturday)
Outlook: A possible split to finish the season for the Tigers, who have to be happy with even five conference wins after their entire team decided to have a brawl in a nightclub. If only they’d decided to have their Ultimate Fighting Championship prior to the game with Texas…

Iowa State Cyclones (4-10)
Remaining games: at Missouri (Wednesday), vs. Kansas State (Saturday)
Outlook: With K-State struggling on the road, the Cyclones could put a nice capper on a disappointing season by pulling off the home upset on Jiri Hubalek’s senior day. While the season has generally been a wash, the young talent that Coach McDermott has on-board could mean that great things will be happening in Ames in the near future.

Colorado Buffaloes (3-11)
Remaining games: at Kansas State (Tuesday), at Nebraska (Sunday)
Outlook: Richard Roby will finally exhaust his eligibility. It’s about damned time.

While Kansas, K-State, and Texas are fighting it out atop the conference standings, there’s another interesting battle brewing for that fourth and final first-round bye in the post-season tournament. While Baylor’s early play made it seem they could be the frontrunners for the 4-seed, losses in six of their last seven games have made the picture a little more murky for Scott Drew’s bunch.

Now, a look ahead at the next games for the top teams in the league…

Kansas Jayhawks, 9-2
This week: at Oklahoma State (Sat)
The Jayhawks get a long week to rest and a cupcake of an opponent to feast on this weekend. Only one team from the Big 12 South has ever won in Allen Fieldhouse, and I wouldn’t put money on Sean Sutton to win a second-consecutive road game. Kansas essentially gets a full-speed practice in preparation for a battle the following weekend with K-State.

Texas Longhorns, 9-2
This week: vs. Oklahoma (Sat)
Texas took care of business against the Sooners in Norman and are playing some incredibly impressive basketball at the moment. Without Longar Longar, OU could find itself in some trouble come Saturday afternoon.

Kansas State Wildcats, 9-2
This week: at Nebraska (Wed), at Baylor (Sat)
The roadie with Baylor this weekend could be a trap game, with the Wildcats potentially looking ahead to its next two with Texas and Kansas. Add to that the fact that the Bears desperately need some résumé-building upsets to offset their recent slide, and the Ferrell Center could be a very dangerous place for Beasley’s Bunch.

Texas A&M Aggies, 6-5
This week: vs. Nebraska (Sat)
After dropping two straight games, the Aggies have a chance to get well against Big Red at home. The tussle with the Cornhuskers is the most winnable contest that A&M has left, so they’ve got to get things clicking early in front of the Reed fans, who are becoming restless as of late.

Oklahoma Sooners, 6-5
This week: at Texas (Sat)
The last two Sooner wins came on insane three-pointers (and a foul), but they’ll have to work extremely hard to keep the momentum going in Austin on Saturday. As mentioned earlier, the loss of Longar to a stress fracture makes an already-thin Sooner frontcourt look like Kate Moss, so they can’t afford foul trouble on the road.

Baylor Bears, 5-6
This week: vs. Kansas State (Sat)
If Baylor is going to stop the bleeding, they’ve got to do it against the ‘Cats. A loss drops them even further out of contention for the first-round bye, and is one of only two remaining chances for a marquee win. (The other comes against A&M in the last week of the season.) If Baylor loses this one, fans might want to start printing up those green-and-gold NIT shirts.

Not a whole lot of time for the preview today, but suffice it to say that Texas has its work cut out for it tonight against Kansas. The Jayhawks run ten deep, and practically every one of those players could start for any D-1 school in the country. The biggest changes between this year’s team and last year’s squad are the improved play of Sasha Kaun and Darnell Jackson. The added threat provided by these two down low means that defenses can no longer key on Mario Chalmers, Darrell Arthur, Brandon Rush, and Sherron Collins. The Texas defense is going to have a tough time guarding all of the scoring threats on the Kansas roster.

If you are looking for a way to beat Kansas, there isn’t much data to draw on. With only one loss — on the road to Kansas State — the Jayhawks have often seemed flawless. But Kansas also struggled with Colorado and against Arizona, so with the help of Ken Pomeroy we can look for the common thread. According to Pomeroy’s metrics, their opponents effective FG% was above 50% in all three of those games. The eFG% measure gives added weight to three-point shots, and that seems to be a good strategy against the high-pressure, turnover-forcing D of the Jayhawks. In the games against K-State, Colorado, and Arizona, the Jayhawks gave up 31 three-pointers. Even against Baylor on Saturday, Kansas allowed 12-of-29 shooting from behind the arc. While Texas will certainly need big games from its role players in this one, the Horns will have their best shot if they are knocking down the trifectas.

Andrew from Burnt Orange Nation pointed out in his Iowa State wrap that Texas bench play is going to be huge today. Kansas is a much deeper squad, and this is only their second game since last Monday’s win over Missouri. The Longhorns had to make two tough road trips and played an extra five minutes against ISU on Saturday. The guards are definitely going to get tired in this one, so they need to slow down the tempo and not play into the Jayhawks’ game plan.

That’s about all I’ve got time for now, as the power source outside the Erwin Center is turned off today and the battery on the laptop is running low. For a great pre-game, check out another post from Andrew previewing the match-ups. Tip is at roughly 8 PM on ESPN, which will be airing the game in beautiful hi-def. See you back here tomorrow morning for the post-mortem.

There’s disappointing news today coming out of Lawrence, Kansas, where Brandon Rush was arrested yesterday for failing to appear in court. He had two separate traffic incidents in October of this year and December of 2006 which led to charges for speeding, driving on the wrong side of the road, having no proof of insurance, and driving with a suspended license. After posting $500 bond, he was released from custody.

Clearly the kid thinks he is above the law, and maybe this will slap a little bit of sense into him. I highly doubt it, though, and that’s why I’m incredibly disappointed in Bill Self’s decision to not suspend Rush. Do I think this incident is actually worth a full suspension? Probably not. But the alternatives — keeping him out of the starting lineup or sitting him for a half — really won’t make much of an impact with the way his year is going. Rush hasn’t been starting thanks to the injury he suffered this summer and is only averaging 22 minutes per game since he rejoined the team. It’s not like they are going to lose to DePaul without him; the Blue Demons lost to North Carolina AT&T, after all.

If you think back to 2006, you might remember another traffic incident involving a Jayhawk under Self’s watch. Senior guard Jeff Hawkins had the munchies one night, and decided to drive to the McDonald’s for some food. But he just couldn’t wait in that long drive-thru line, so he thought he’d try to cut ahead. After hitting another car, he sped off and was ultimately suspended one game — against Baylor. Personally, I think the four charges against Rush plus failure to appear is a little bit worse than leaving the scene of a car accident. Yet Hawkins was suspended a game while nothing will happen to the future NBA pick. Could it have anything to do with the fact that Hawkins was a reserve guard who only averaged 19 minutes per game that year, while Rush is a star on this loaded Kansas squad?

Brandon Rush is only back in Lawrence because he hurt his knee. Without that poorly timed injury, he’s playing on an NBA team right now. I’m sure he feels that college and even NCAA basketball are beneath him, and that he’s just wasting some time until he hears his name called next June and starts cashing the checks. The apology he made today smacks of half-heartedness as he blames a mix-up in dates. Could his license have been suspended because he never cleared up the charges from his traffic stop twelve months ago? That oversight takes a little more than a mix-up in dates, don’t you think?

I realize Texas fans don’t have much room to talk thanks to the moronic football players who decided to get arrested 793 times this offseason. But the Longhorn basketball program has always run things the right way, while Bill Self doesn’t really seem to care. I’m not asking the guy to suspend a star player for a post-season game or even a conference one. But the message that he’s sending to Brandon Rush is just reinforcing the kid’s warped worldview — he’s already a big star, and Lawrence is just small potatoes.