Texas Basketball: 5 reasons Longhorns deserve NCAA Tournament bid

2. Depth in the Big 12

The Big 12 Tournament this season was one of the most fun that we’ve seen in recent years. Iowa State was able to edge out Kansas in a classic in the tourney final on March 16. That could seal Iowa State’s fate as at least a five-seed in the NCAA Tournament this year. Iowa State could be one of a number of teams from this conference that gets either a five-seed or higher.

The Texas Tech Red Raiders, Kansas State, Kansas, and Iowa State should all be five seeds or higher and there could be eight teams from the Big 12 in general that get into the field. Teams like Oklahoma, TCU, and Texas sit on the bubble. When it comes down to it, all three of those teams should get into the field with how competitive this conference is top-to-bottom.

Even the bottom two teams in the Big 12 put together some solid efforts around the end of the regular season and conference tourney, including the West Virginia Mountaineers and Oklahoma State Cowboys. West Virginia made a very solid run through the Big 12 Tournament and Oklahoma State gave TCU all it could handle in the first round.

The point here is that the Selection Committee should definitely respect all that the Big 12 brings to the table as potentially the nation’s deepest conference top-to-bottom. The ACC might be the most top-heavy, but the Big has the most depth. We’ll see if the Big 12 can get a record-breaking eight teams into this NCAA Tournament for 2019.