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.

#13 Connecticut 65, DePaul 60 – The Huskies nearly fell asleep on the job against the streaky Blue Demons, but put on a late run to dig out of a 13-point hole. Hasheem Thabeet was thisclose to a triple-double in the ballgame, scoring 16 points, grabbing 13 boards, and blocking a ridiculous eight shots. It was the 10th-consecutive win for UConn, who pulled within a half-game of Big East leaders Georgetown and Louisville.

#14 Indiana 77, #15 Purdue 68 – It may have been the last game at the helm for a beleaguered Kelvin Sampson, but the Hoosiers came up with a second-consecutive home win over the best that the Big 10 has to offer. Assembly Hall was absolutely rocking for the rekindling of this time-tested rivalry, and the Hoosier faithful were treated to a yeoman’s effort from senior D.J. White, who posted a sick 19/15 line with an injured knee. The win pushes IU into a three-way tie with both the Boilermakers and Wisconsin atop the league standings.

Bradley 72, #18 Drake 71 – Jeremy Crouch’s jumper put Bradley ahead with 11 seconds to go, and the Braves withstood three last-gasp shots from the homestanding Bulldogs to escape Des Moines with a huge road win. Perhaps Drake was looking ahead to this weekend’s Bracket Busters match-up with Butler, or maybe this was a letdown game after clinching the league title on Saturday. But the uncomfortable fact is that this the second loss in only eight days for the Bulldogs, who had dropped only one of their first 23 games. Should fans start to worry?

Oklahoma 92, Baylor 91 (OT) – For the second-straight game, the Sooners needed an improbable play from behind the arc to stun their opponents. But on a night filled with a bunch of crazy moments, it really didn’t seem that surprising. Tony Crocker was fouled by Aaron Bruce on a made three-pointer with only 7.3 seconds left in overtime, and the ensuing free throw put the Sooners up by a point. But Curtis Jerrells got to the line for Baylor with just over a second remaining…and missed both attempts. A Kevin Rogers putback was no good at the buzzer, and OU earned their third-straight win heading into the game with Texas on Saturday.