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.

Texas slid in this week’s polls as a result of its meltdown in Norman last Monday night, dropping to 14th in the AP and 15th in the ESPN/USA Today rankings. The Sooners and Longhorns are the only Big 12 teams in the AP poll, while Baylor clings to 23rd in ESPN’s rankings after their road loss to A&M last Wednesday. Kansas and Missouri also received votes in both polls.

Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology has the Horns dipping to a 4-seed and playing their first two games in Portland. After a nice trip to Spokane two years ago for the NCAA tournament, we’d love another roadie to the Pacific Northwest. But, of course, the selections are still two months away, and absolutely anything can happen.

We’ve had our share of interesting moments in the O-Zone over the years, including the time former OU guard Bobby Maze had to be held back by a teammate during pre-game warm-ups. Even more intense was the incident with a Colorado forward (who will remain unnamed) that exchanged shoves with a Texas student during the 2003-04 season. But nothing that’s happened in the Erwin Center can hold a candle to the video below, where a Clemson student tackles Chas McFarland. Good thing it wasn’t Ron Artest…

Sure, the University released the full basketball slate on Thursday, and we’ll get around to adding that to the schedule page later tonight. But right now, the absurdity of Baron Davis and Steve Nash on a tandem bicycle in Santa Monica is just too much to pass up. Check it out below.

When we threw together our plans to travel to the Ferrell Center for tonight’s Baylor/Texas A&M clash, the thought was that we’d get to see not just another great installment in this rivalry, but a game that just so happened to have post-season implications for both teams. And until the last few minutes of the second half, we were treated to exactly that. The Bears and Aggies were nip and tuck down the stretch, headed for another thrilling finish. But in a matter of moments, an insane series of events stole the spotlight from the game on the court.

With just under two minutes left, Baylor’s Tweety Carter ran full-speed into a pick by A&M’s Joseph Jones. As anyone familiar with the size of these two players could guess, the ensuing collision was best described as hitting a brick wall. Carter crumpled to the court, the Aggies scored an easy lay-up, and the lead was pushed to eight points. The Baylor fans were restless, booing relentlessly as trainers tended to the fallen player. Words were exchanged between the two huddles, various players and coaches were held back from brawling, and a Nerf basketball was thrown on to the court.

Earlier in the half, the P.A. announcer had warned fans that objects thrown onto the court would result in a technical foul against the Bears. So as Curtis Jerrells quickly scooped up the ball, all eyes in the Ferrell Center turned to Section 121 to find the culprit. Immediately fingers were pointed at two young Aggie fans, and a random man pushing 50-odd years rushed up the stairs to scream in their faces. Another Aggie ran down from his seat two rows above, got in the face of the old man, and the shouting match was on. The crowd was on edge and it honestly felt like a riot was about to break out. Security escorted the two accused Aggies out of the arena, although I’m convinced it was more for their own safety than any proven guilt.

The angry Baylor fans voiced their disapproval with the original chant shown in this video, despite the fact that any sensible Aggie supporter could just happily point to the scoreboard.

After more fouls and desperation threes from the Bears, time seemed to finally be winding down to the merciful conclusion of the game. But after Donald Sloan stole the ball near mid-court, he decided to play Harlem Globetrotter and throw it off the backboard to himself for a dunk with 1.8 seconds left. Ignoring the fact that his team was already up 12 with seconds to go, Sloan’s And-1 Mixtape highlight quickly brought the wrath of the Baptists. Dr. Pepper bottles sailed from the stands, more Nerf balls were sent airborne, and the court at the Ferrell Center became the new town landfill. The Aggies hustled off the floor to avoid the debris while Baylor Coach Scott Drew grabbed the mic &emdash; not to chastise the fans for their behavior, but to thank them for their great support all year. Remember Baylor fans, good sports recycle.

One can only hope that somehow these two teams meet up again in Kansas City next weekend. While the bad blood won’t get quite as nasty in a neutral site environment, this thing is turning into a down-and-dirty rivalry along the lines of the Duke-Virginia Tech fued. (Or is it just Greg Paulus vs. Deron Washington?) Even if things don’t come to a head next weekend, this is the kind of game that fans of both schools will mutter about eight years from now when explaining why they hate the other fans. This was truly the kind of night that bitter rivalries are all about.

D.J. Augustin missed the front end of a one-and-one, and the ensuing rebound was tipped out to the three-point line. J.D. Lewis threw a head fake to give himself an open look and tossed up a last-gasp shot to tie the game. He failed to even catch iron, and the Longhorns suffered a three-point defeat at United Spirit Arena on Saturday afternoon. The fact of the matter, though, was that Texas should not have even been in position to tie it. Were it not for incredible game management by Coach Rick Barnes in the final two-and-a-half minutes, the Longhorns would’ve been pasted by double digits. So what went wrong on the South Plains this weekend?

The first key to the game in yesterday’s game preview was to control the fouls. When these two teams met in Austin a few weeks ago, the Longhorns were able to keep the Red Raiders off of the charity stripe and had all of their key players available during the run that put the game out of reach. For a Texas Tech team which has shot 105 more free throws than its opponents this season, that killed any chances of victory for the visitors.

Yesterday the Red Raiders were able to play their kind of game, as the Texas defense was constantly beaten off the dribble, found itself lost on back-door cuts, and picked up dumb fouls 20-plus feet from the basket. The excessive fouling threw a wrench in the frontcourt rotation for Barnes, forcing Connor Atchley to the bench for most of the first half. As a result, Atchley had one of his worst games in weeks, playing for only 24 minutes in which he scored two points and grabbed six boards.

But even more important than the foul trouble was the amount of free points the poor defense gave Tech. If you discount the nine intentional fouls over the last two-and-a-half minutes, the Longhorns were whistled 22 times, including a momentum-killing technical foul on Justin Mason. And if you also discount the 18 free throws that came as a result of those intentional fouls, the Red Raiders hit 21-of-25 from the line in the first 37-plus minutes of the game. The Texas defense handed the Red Raiders this game on a platter, and Pat Knight’s squad was more than happy to snatch it.

Although the end result of a loss certainly hurts the chances for Texas to earn a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament, as a whole the loss wasn’t incredibly disappointing. The Longhorns played a game that was very poor by their standards, yet fought back from a 14-point deficit with only 3:28 left on the clock. When Texas finds itself in a corner during March Madness, their history of comeback victories is going to give the team confidence. And by nearly overcoming a deficit this large in such a short period, even seemingly insurmountable odds shouldn’t shake the Horns.

While there weren’t a lot of positives to draw from this game besides the late-game grit from Texas, we can’t overlook the outstanding performance from Augustin. With Atchley and Damion James struggling and A.J. Abrams displaying incredibly suspect shot selection, the point guard carried the team with a 30-point performance. And although he was only 2-of-8 from behind the arc and didn’t attack the rim early enough for Texas to escape with a win, he was the only reason they were even within striking distance at the final horn.

The biggest effect of this loss is that it now makes it incredibly difficult for Texas to win the Big 12 title outright. Now the Longhorns find themselves in a tie with Kansas, although they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. This means that if both teams win their final two games, they both will receive a trophy and the title of “Co-Champions” while Texas will enjoy the 1-seed in the post-season tournament in Kansas City. Of course, both teams will be tested this week as the Longhorns face the surging Cornhuskers and Cowboys, while the Jayhawks take on A&M and Tech.

So, chin up, Longhorn fan. Texas wasn’t going to win 20 in a row to finish the year and claim the National Championship, so a loss had to happen at some point. Put this one behind you and get ready for another exciting round of March Madness.