This evening is the fight for the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament title at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. Check out our preview and open thread!

Game #9:

Date: Saturday, March 14th
Time: 5:00 pm
Teams: #1 Kansas (26-7, 13-5) vs #2 Iowa State (24-8, 12-6)
Location: Sprint Center | Kansas City, MO
TV/Stream: ESPN

First Regular Season Meeting: ISU won 86-81

Second Regular Season Meeting: KU won 89-76

Tourney Preview: It ends up the top two teams in the Big 12 get to face each other in the tournament championship game. Both teams have Final Four potential when it comes to the Big Dance, so it’s only fitting that they both should duke it out for a Big 12 tourney trophy. Each team has traded wins in the regular season as the Cyclones won in Ames behind six different players with over 11+ points. The Jayhawks crushed ISU in Lawrence with a strong second half, and in that game KU had 5 different players hit for 11+ points.

The game today will be a slug fest, but the Cyclones might come out a little tired as they have had two barnburners in a row pulling off comebacks against Texas and Oklahoma. KU had a struggle against TCU and came up with a 10 point win against Baylor, but didn’t have the thrilling finishes that ISU has had in the tournament. The question is if the Cyclones are going to be drained for a third fight for the third day in a row?

KU is the favorite to win with Bill Self and squad as one of the best all-around teams in the country, but ISU also has an excellent crew of ballers that want to get back-to-back Big 12 championship trophies to display on their campus. This game could fall either way and will likely go down to the buzzer.