With the semifinals upon us, it feels like a long, lazy day without an early 11:30 tipoff at the Ford Center. But with the level of excitement already packed into eight hours of basketball yesterday, we’re not sure we could take on another quadrupleheader so quickly. Sure, there weren’t any six-overtime thrillers in this league championship, but three of the top four seeds stumbled in the quarterfinals, leaving the path to the trophy wide open.

We’ll get to a quick wrap of the win over K-State within the hour, but here’s our take on yesterday’s action from section 107 of the Ford Center.

[9] Baylor 71, [1] Kansas 64

The Bears came into the tournament having lost 10 of their final 12 games, and it seemed when they faced Texas on March 2nd that the players had thrown in the towel on their season. But after a mudholing of Nebraska in their first-round game, the Bears defied all odds with an upset win over the conference champion Kansas Jayhawks.

Although Baylor jumped out to a huge early lead, it seemed like the crowd was simply waiting for the inevitable comeback. And while Kansas certainly made their surges throughout the game, the Bears were able to keep them at bay thanks to a career night for sixth man LaceDaruis Dunn. The sophomore hit 6-of-11 from long range, including a dagger of a three when the Jayhawks had narrowed the lead to only 4 points with 3:37 to play.

For Kansas, that marks a second loss in their last three games, and could ensure that they miss out on the opportunity to play their first two NCAA games in Kansas City. Most bracketologists are now slotting Memphis and Oklahoma to that pod, so it could come down to which Big 12 powerhouse the Selection Committee thinks is most deserving.

[7] Oklahoma State 71, [2] Oklahoma 70

The reason those Sooners still aren’t a lock for that Kansas City pod is because they suffered the same fate as the Jayhawks in Thursday night’s quarterfinal. The Oklahoma State Cowboys claimed a narrow victory in this neutral-site version of the Bedlam series, and for our first time witnessing the rivalry in person, it couldn’t have been any better.

The arena may have been slightly skewed in favor of the bright orange OSU supporters, but every play was met with a cacophony of noise as the mixing of boos and cheers filled the Ford Center. With the Cowboys hitting nine threes on the night, the game had a shootout feel to it, and Blake Griffin and Willie Warren added their own share of highlight-reel plays to keep the crowd on their feet.

But all of the tension and excitement came to a head in the bizarre final minute, when Griffin was whistled for a foul on a rebound attempt with 2.3 seconds left and stood frozen in place, bewildered by the call. James Anderson sunk both of the ensuing free throws to put the Pokes up by one. Then things got weird.

Taylor Griffin threw a baseball pass to his brother, who tried to do his best Christian Laettner impression from beyond the three-point line. The shot missed, and a Sooner sailed in for a follow-up shot on which he was clearly fouled. The clock still read 0.8 seconds left, but it had not started immediately upon the inbounds pass. The referees huddled for a review just feet from the Sooner bench, where Jeff Capel tried to keep his players away from the monitors. After a seemingly endless discussion and a few rounds of both school’s fight songs, the final call was made, leading to the celebration below…

[2] Missouri 81, [11] Texas Tech 60

With all of the Sooner and Cowboy fans out of the arena, this game felt like it was being played in an empty cave. And although Texas Tech hung with the Tigers for the entire first half, there was no mistaking who was the better team once the final buzzer sounded. Missouri absolutely abused the Red Raiders with drive and dumps into the post, backdoor cuts that went undefeated, and a dizzying 48 points in the paint. Unfortunately for Tech, sixth man Mike Singletary came back to Earth just a day after his Hurculean efforts in a first-round win, scoring “just” 17 points in the losing effort.

The win sets up quite an exciting match-up for the second semifinal, as the Tigers and Cowboys are going to run up and down the court in an absolute track meet. When these teams first met in Stillwater back in January, they combined for 195 points in a game that the Tigers won by a razor-thin two-point margin.