OU Earns Title, No. 1 Seed in Tourney

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas and Oklahoma are sharing the Big 12 regular-season championship and absolutely nothing else. The momentum -- every ounce -- belongs to Kelvin Sampson's surging Sooners.

The seventh-ranked Jayhawks wrapped up their regular season on a low note Sunday, getting beat 72-68 at Missouri and dropping into a tie with Oklahoma at 12-4 in the conference. It was the fourth loss in six games for the Jayhawks (22-5 overall), who also lost starter Keith Langford to an ankle injury.

No. 20 Oklahoma, on the other hand, barrels into the postseason on a six-game winning streak and with two ultra-impressive road wins in the final week.

Bracket (PDF) | Sooner Gameday Central

The Sooners (23-6) beat Texas 74-58 and then on Saturday rang up a 74-54 rout of the same Texas Tech squad that had beaten them 88-81 in Norman on Feb. 5.

Since the Sooners beat Kansas 71-63 in February, they get the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 tournament. Kansas drops to No. 2.

Missouri's victory sealed Oklahoma's first regular-season championship since it took the Big Eight title in 1989.

It's a nice turnaround for a team that just three weeks ago had lost four of five.

"This time of year, there are two things you want to have happen," said Sampson. "You want to be improving and playing your best ball of the year. And you want your kids to really be understanding their roles. We're doing pretty good in both areas."

The other top seeds in the conference tourney who will have first-round byes are No. 3 seed Oklahoma State (21-6, 11-5) and No. 4 Texas Tech (18-9, 10-6).

In action on Thursday, the first day of the tournament, will be No. 8 seed Nebraska (14-13, 7-9) vs. No. 9 Missouri (15-15, 7-9), No. 5 seed Iowa State (17-10, 9-7) vs. No. 12 Baylor (9-18, 1-15), No. 7 Texas A&M (19-8, 8-8) vs. No. 10 Kansas State (16-11, 6-10) and No. 6 Texas (20-9, 9-7) against No. 11 Colorado (13-15, 4-12).

Friday's quarterfinals will have Oklahoma vs. the Nebraska-Missouri winner, Kansas vs. the Texas A&M-Kansas State winner, Texas Tech vs. the Iowa State-Baylor winner and Oklahoma State vs. the Texas-Colorado winner.

If the Longhorns beat Colorado on Thursday, it will set up an enticing rematch of one of the biggest upsets of the season. On Saturday, the Longhorns ruined Oklahoma State's senior day by beating the Cowboys 74-73 and snapping their 29-game home winning streak.

The Longhorns have won five of their last seven and may need only one more win in the Big 12 tournament to slip into the NCAA tournament.

Or do they have enough already?

"I don't know how we can't be in the tournament," said Texas coach Rick Barnes. "I can't imagine right now we wouldn't be."

It was the first home loss in more than two years for Oklahoma State, which is skidding into the postseason having lost three of its last four.

It was also the final home game for six seniors and four of them -- transfers Daniel Bobik, Joey Graham, Stephen Graham and John Lucas -- had never lost at Gallagher-IBA in their Oklahoma State careers.

"We knew Texas' back was against the wall, and that is how they played tonight," said Oklahoma State's Joey Graham.

Two other teams that are definitely not heating up for the postseason are Baylor and Colorado.

Texas A&M capped the greatest turnaround in Division I this year by beating Baylor 84-76, going from 0-16 in the conference last year to 8-8.

In Big 12 play the Bears, with only five scholarship players available most of the time, managed its only victory back on Jan. 19, a 67-59 win over Colorado.

Colorado ended its regular season on Saturday with a 78-73 loss at home to Iowa State.

The Buffaloes finished last in the conference in free-throw shooting and scoring defense and next-to-last in scoring margin, field goal percentage, defense and rebounding margin.

In addition, their four conference wins are their fewest in Ricardo Patton's 10 years as head coach.

Afterward, a defensive Patton refused to discuss his strategy in the final minute of the close and bitter loss.

"If you want to question my decision-making, go ahead and question it," he said. "You guys do what you want to do anyway. Go ahead and question that. But at this point everybody is down. Everybody is disappointed. The last thing I'm going to debate with you or anybody else is any decision I made or didn't make."

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Oklahoma Notes
Oklahoma is the only Big 12 school to win a conference championship in football and men's basketball during the same school year and the Sooners have done it three times.

* The 2000 football championship went to OU as did the 2001 basketball tournament.

* The 2002 Sooners won the Big 12 football championship and then the hoopers claimed the basketball 2003 tournament crown.

* The 2004-05 year, in which OU won the football title and the men's basketball regular season crown, marks the ninth time in school history that OU has won a league crown in the two sports in the same school year.

Here are the other years in which Oklahoma won a league championship in football and men's basketball:

1943-44
1946-47
1948-49
1978-79
1984-85
1987-88
2000-01
2001-02
2004-05

Here are the Big 12 winners in those two sports since the league's inception ...

1996-97:
FB Texas
MBB RS Kansas
MBB Tour. Kansas

1997-98:
FB Nebraska
MBB RS Kansas
MBB Tour. Kansas

1998-99:
FB Texas A&M
MBB RS Texas
MBB Tour. Kansas

1999-00:
FB Nebraska
MBB RS -- Iowa State
MBB Tour. Iowa State

2000-01:
FB OKLAHOMA
MBB RS Iowa State
MBB Tour. OKLAHOMA

2001-02:
FB Colorado
MBB RS Kansas
MBB Tour. OKLAHOMA

2002-03:
FB OKLAHOMA
MBB RS Kansas
MBB Tour. OKLAHOMA

2003-04:
FB Kansas State
MBB RS Oklahoma State
MBB Tour. Oklahoma State

2004-05:
FB OKLAHOMA
MBB RS OKLAHOMA
MBB Tour. TBD

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DALLAS (Big 12) - Kansas and Oklahoma have earned a share of the 2004-05 Big 12 men's basketball regular season title.

It marks the fifth overall crown for the Jayhawks, and the Sooners' first league regular season championship.

KU and OU finished 12-4 in league play. The Sooners will be the No. 1 seed in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament by virtue of the head-to-head win over the Jayhawks during the regular season. The tournament is scheduled to be played on March 10-13 at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo.

Oklahoma State (11-5) and Texas Tech (10-6) earned the other two first-round byes in the tournament.

The Red Raiders have a bye for the first time since the Big 12 began play in 1996-97.

The entire Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament will be televised either regionally or nationally by ESPN Regional, ESPN or ESPNU. The event is sold out.