After a long drive through the night, we have arrived in Manhattan and are ready for a huge match-up this evening with a dangerous Kansas State team. A game preview will be on the way late this afternoon — the Little Apple Brewery is calling our name in the meantime — but first let’s take a look at the newest polls and bracket projections before looking at some of the biggest things we saw against OU.

Texas climbed to #5 in both polls this week, leapfrogging Kansas and Duke, who both suffered embarrassing losses on the road. The Jayhawks are checking in at 6th with the media and 7th with the coaches this week, leaving the Big 12 with only two teams in the Top 25, albeit both in the top ten slots. Kansas State dropped from the rankings after losing back-to-back road games to Nebraska and Baylor, but are still sitting in the “receiving votes” category along with Texas A&M, who has dropped three straight.

Joe Lunardi is also moving the Horns up, sliding Texas on to the 1-seed line out in Phoenix. Although we mentioned last week that the home-court advantage in Houston would be bigger than a 1-seed elsewhere, this is probably the best-case scenario for a non-Houston regional. Phoenix is the closest of the other sites, and as long as UCLA isn’t the 2-seed — which unfortunately is what Lunardi is projecting — there shouldn’t be the danger of a rabid crowd for a lower seeded team.