Here are the games for Wednesday night (all times Central):

Colorado at Kansas State, FSN Kansas City, 7:00 p.m.
Kansas at Iowa State, 7:00 p.m. (assuming KU arrives in town before the ice storm expected all day Wednesday)
Oklahoma State at Texas, 7:00 p.m.
Oklahoma at Missouri, Sooner Sports Net, 7:00 p.m.

Results from Wednesday:

Colorado 63, Kansas State 57
Iowa State 53, Kansas 42
Texas 77, Oklahoma State 63
Oklahoma 62, Missouri 61

Texas snapped OSU's eleven game winning streak in Austin. UT's Erika Arriaran scored 28 points, going 8-11 from long range. OSU's Andrea Riley scored 31 and became Oklahoma State's all-time leading scorer with 2,392 points. Texas led by as many as twenty points in the second half after OSU coughed up a 43-36 lead, allowing the 'Horns to go on an 18-3 run. Texas has won two in a row after starting 0-2. The Cowgirls drop out of a tie for first place with their first Big 12 loss this season.

Iowa State played Kansas with the threat of a continuing ice storm tonight. Fortunately, the ice didn't materialize this evening (our car was merely wet), but the ice that formed last night and this morning kept many fans away. Announced attendance was around 9,700, but actual attendance was closer to maybe 2000. ISU managed to hold KU's leading scorer, Danielle McCray to 6 points, 14 below her average. She reached six because she scored the last bucket of the game with under 20 seconds remaining, making the final margin of victory 11 points. Sade Morris led the Jayhawks with 16 points, while Alison Lacey led the Cyclones with 13, moving her into seventh place all-time for Iowa State scorers. Lacey's assist-to-turnover ratio continues to be phenomenal - 110 assists to only 30 turnovers. Interesting bit on KU - their 3rd leading scorer, Krysten Boogaard, didn't start and only played five minutes this game. She's 6'5" and would have been useful to them inside, but Coach Henrickson chose to not utilize her. Good news for us! Another interesting stat: KU was a mere 1-2 from the line tonight.

Oklahoma beat Missouri at Columbia by a single point as OU's Amanda Thompson scored the go-ahead bucket on a rebound with 9.6 seconds to play. Missouri bricked 20 of their 22 3 point shots, missed 44 shots overall, and forced 23 turnovers (vs only 10 for themselves) as they let this one slip away to fall to 0-4 in the league. Nyeshia Stevenson had 23 points for the Sooners, while Jessra Johnson had 18 for the Tigers.

Colorado managed to snap and eight game road losing streak in the Big 12 by winning at Kansas State. CU led most of the way, including by as many as 14 early in the second half. Kansas State cut the margin to a single point at 54-53 with only three minutes to play. CU won the game at the line, hitting five of their final seven free throws. CU went to the line 29 times, converting 23 attempts, while K-State was only 10-12. The win helps the Buffs surpass their win total from all of last season (11-18 overall last year).

I will have new rpi and conference standings at some point tomorrow. In the meantime, here is the schedule for this weekend...

Saturday (all times Central):

Kansas State at Nebraska, FSN (national broadcast), 11:00 a.m.
Baylor at Missouri, 1:00 p.m.
Iowa State at Texas, 1:00 p.m.
Kansas at Oklahoma, Sooner Sports Net, 2:00 p.m.
Texas Tech at Texas A&M, 3:00 p.m.

Sunday:

Oklahoma State at Colorado, FSN, 3:00 p.m.

Today's rpi and conference standings (rpi according to collegerpi.com/women):

(team, conf. record, overall record, rpi)

Nebraska 3-0, 16-0; 4
Oklahoma State 3-1, 15-3; 13
Oklahoma 3-1, 13-4; 6
Texas A&M 2-1, 14-2; 7
Iowa State 2-2, 14-3; 49
Texas 2-2, 13-5; 12
Colorado 2-2, 12-5; 87
Kansas State 2-2, 10-8; 94
Baylor 1-2, 14-3; 17
Texas Tech 1-2, 13-4; 57
Kansas 1-3, 11-6; 34
Missouri 0-4, 10-7; 91

Updates for weekend games will probably not be coming until early next week. I'm off for a mini vacay in California for a few days (since my girls are going to be playing @ Texas). If I get computer access over the weekend, which I'm not going to go out of my way to find, I'll drop a quick post. Otherwise, everyone have a great weekend and we'll talk later! Go Cyclones!!

Finally made it back from my trip. I was delayed an extra night because of bad weather after I landed in Des Moines. They had pulled the snowplows and tow trucks off the interstate, so there would have been no help had I slid off the road (this was after 10 p.m.). So anyway, I am here and can give a quick update on what happened over the weekend. It was another wild one (in the case of two games, anyway)!

Sunday, January 24:
Oklahoma State 74, Colorado 63

Saturday, January 23:
Texas A&M 69, Texas Tech 54
Oklahoma 81, Kansas 69
Iowa State 73, Texas 71 - OT
Missouri 70, Baylor 62
Nebraska 71, Kansas State 56

I have to point out the Iowa State win at Texas. This was the first time ISU has won in Austin since 2000 and only the second time ever. Iowa State was down 14 early in the second half before mounting a comeback and pulling even to force the overtime. Needless to say, the win bumped us up in the rpi (35 now) and the polls (22 AP, 18 ESPN). Amanda Zimmerman was named Big 12 Freshman of the Week for her great game at UT - a career high 14 points, 5 rebounds, zero turnovers, and 6-9 from the floor.

Also notice Baylor lost at Missouri, putting them in an even bigger hole to start the conference season. I will have more info later on tonight.

ESPN coaches poll:

1. Connecticut (31) 19-0, 775
2. Stanford 17-1, 742
3. Notre Dame 17-1, 702
4. Nebraska 17-0, 676
5. Tennessee 17-2, 649
6. Ohio State 20-2, 585
7. Duke 17-3, 577
8. Texas A&M 15-2, 552
9. Georgia 18-2, 547
10. Xavier 14-3, 504
11. West Virginia 18-2, 435
12. Oklahoma 14-4, 429
13. North Carolina 16-3, 401
14. Florida State 18-3, 372
15. Georgetown 17-2, 338
16. Baylor 14-4, 312
17. Oklahoma State 16-3, 249
18. Iowa State 15-3, 210
19. LSU 14-4, 184
20. Virginia 14-5, 167
21. TCU 14-4, 141
22. Wisconsin-Green Bay 16-2, 138
23. Kentucky 16-3, 100
24. Vanderbilt 14-6, 77
25. Texas 13-6, 49

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES:
Penn State 25, Hartford 16, Syracuse 16, Gonzaga 15, Michigan State 10, Gardner-Webb 9, James Madison 9, Dayton 8, St. John's 8, Wisconsin 8, Vermont 6, East Carolina 5, Rutgers 5, Tulane 5, Georgia Tech 4, Temple 4, Marquette 3, Marist 2, Mississippi 2, DePaul 1, Fresno State 1, Miami (FL) 1, Purdue 1

WooHoo!! ISU knocked off #12 Oklahoma for the first time since 2005 tonight! Ok, just had to get that out of the way. Here are the scores from tonight:

Wednesday, January 27:
Nebraska 89, Texas Tech 47
Kansas 75, Colorado 64
Iowa State 63, Oklahoma 56
Baylor 61, Texas A&M 53

Tuesday, January 26:
Oklahoma State 75, Missouri 60

ISU led the Sooners the entire 2nd half and by as many as 12 points. The Cyclones weathered a run near the end of the game that cut the lead to 4 and held on. The freshmen scored nearly half of Iowa State's 63 points (30) and had 21 of the team's 37 rebounds. The officials were absolutely whistle-happy during the whole game with 22 fouls being called on ISU and 28 for Oklahoma. There was no flow to this game whatsoever (because of all the whistle blowing) and no reason for that many fouls to be called either. It was not a particularly physical game, but for some reason the refs saw it another way. At the very least, it was ridiculous both ways, with neither team having a real advantage at the line. The win puts us in a tie with OU for third place in the league and should give another big boost to our rpi and sos tomorrow (the Sooners were 8th rpi and 4th sos). After owning Sherri Coale and the Sooners for so many years before the arrival of the Paris twins and having lost six in a row to them since, this win was real special. That being said, I'm definitely glad to have it out of the way. I should also add that Kelsey Bolte and Anna Prins each had 15 points to lead ISU in scoring while Jess Schroll had 11 boards. Nyeshia Stevenson was the top scorer for OU with 14 points. Danielle Robinson and Abi Olajuwon both fouled out for the Sooners. A combined seven other players from both sides each had collected 4 fouls by the end of the game.

Nebraska won in Lubbock for the first time in team history, 89-47, building on a twenty point halftime lead. NU got off to a strong start, leading 24-9 before going on a 15-0 run that followed two back-to-back Tech buckets. The second half allowed the Huskers an even bigger run of 27-3 that pushed the lead to 87-43 with just over a minute to play. Kelsey Griffin led NU with 20 points and 10 rebounds in another well-rounded effort for Nebraska. The Huskers improve to 18-0, 5-0 and remain one of two undefeated teams left in the country (along with UCONN).

Baylor bounced back with the return of Melissa Jones against Texas A&M at Waco, winning 61-53. A&M was held 28 points below its season average. The difference in this game was at the line. Baylor went 25-35, including 10 for 10 to wrap up the game's final minute, while A&M was a mere 6-10. Without question, the missing element over Baylor's last four games was Jones, who did not start, but still played 36 minutes while racking up 17 points and 10 rebounds. Brittany Griner scored 20 to lead the Bears. Tyra White was the only Aggie with more than 7 points (19).

Kansas's Danielle McCray regained her shooting touch, scoring 29 points against Colorado in Lawrence. The Jayhawks held a 20 point lead at the break and held on to win in spite of a mini-run CU made near the end of the game. Kansas posted a 20 board advantage on the glass over the Buffs (49-29), which has been a weakness of Colorado since Coach McConnell-Miller arrive in Boulder. Brittany Spears led CU with 21 points.

Current standings in the Big 12:

Nebraska 5-0, 18-0
Oklahoma State 5-1, 17-3
Iowa State 4-2, 16-3
Oklahoma 4-2, 14-5
Texas A&M 3-2, 15-3
Baylor 2-3, 15-4
Texas 2-3, 13-6
Kansas State 2-3, 10-9
Colorado 2-4, 12-7
Kansas 2-4, 12-7
Texas Tech 1-4, 13-6
Missouri 1-5, 11-8

Schedule for this weekend (times Central; national tv in bold):

Saturday, January 30:
Oklahoma at Texas Tech, Texas Tech Sports Net 2:00 p.m.
Nebraska at Colorado, Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain, 4:30 p.m.
Kansas at Missouri, 5:00 p.m.

Sunday, January 31:
Oklahoma State at Texas A&M, Fox Sports Net, 12:00 p.m.
Iowa State at Kansas State, 2:00 p.m.
Baylor at Texas, ESPN2, 4:00 p.m.

Will post new rpi standings on Thursday...

RPI ranking as of this morning...

4 Nebraska
7 Texas A&M
8 Oklahoma
13 Oklahoma State
14 Texas
19 Baylor
28 Iowa State
29 Kansas
54 Texas Tech
79 Missouri
85 Colorado
91 Kansas State

Eight teams in the top 29? Wow.

Results from weekend games:

Sunday, January 31:
Texas 61, Baylor 50
Kansas State 73, Iowa State 67
Oklahoma State 67, Texas A&M 63

Saturday, January 30:
Oklahoma 70, Texas Tech 66
Kansas 61, Missouri 59
Nebraska 80, Colorado 64

In the back of my mind, I thought Iowa State might have a let-down after beating Texas and Oklahoma back-to-back. Add that to the fact that Manhattan has been a tough place for us to win and you are most likely going to have a team wearing a road jersey that struggles to stay in this particular game. The first half was fairly even with K-State taking a two point lead into the lockerroom at the break. The Wildcats moved ahead by seven and eight points on different occasions, but ISU was able to come back to within 2 in the final three minutes. ISU started to foul and KSU made their shots at the line. Coach Fennelly told them to stop fouling with just under a minute to play when it became evident that we weren't going to catch up. Kansas State has a full week to prepare for us and they were ready. They also, according to friends who were there, seemed to get every lucky bounce along the way - where the ball will bounce around the rim two or three times before simply dropping through the net. Frustrating. I take this loss pretty hard - it was a game we absolutely should have won. Kansas State has already lost several times at home and had (going into the game) the lowest rpi of any team in the league. They'd lost at home to Colorado, for crying out loud! Bolte led ISU with 19 points. Lacey had a double-double with 10 assists and 13 points. ISU allowed 20 points more than our usual for an opponent. Just not a good game in general - we HAVE to improve our post play, get more rebounds and find a consistent third option for scoring. Unless that happens, we'll finish around .500 in the league, be lucky to go 1-1 in the Big 12 Tournament, and end up as an 8-11 seed in the NCAAs.

More later...

Ok, more on games that happened over the weekend.

When Texas A&M hosted Oklahoma State on Sunday, the Aggies got off to a great start. They jumped out to a 15-4 lead and were up by as many as 14 in the second half. OSU's Andrea Riley sat the final seven minutes of the first half with three fouls and only 4 points. Riley normally doesn't have bad back-to-back halves. She scored 27 points in the second period, including a 3 that gave the Cowgirls their first lead of the game with 1:03 to play. The stats were remarkably even in nearly every category. The only thing that stood out and what probably made the difference was OSU was +10 on rebounds, +6 on offensive boards. A&M's Danielle Adams, who was nearly unstoppable in the first half, finished with 24 points. The Cowgirls remain one half game behind Nebraska in the Big 12 standings at 6-1.

Texas managed to knock off Baylor after what had been an intense week of practice after blowing a huge lead late to Iowa State last weekend. UT led by 21 points with just over 13 minutes to play in the game. Baylor chipped away and got it down to 7 points with under three minutes to go. Texas had two post players foul out trying to defend Brittany Griner (who finished with 21 points) with over 7 minutes remaining, but others managed to hit two key shots late to keep the 'Horns out of reach (Ashleigh Fontenette and Earnesia Williams). The loss keeps Baylor in 9th place with a 2-4 league record while Texas moves into a three-way tie for 5th with A&M and Kansas State.

Nebraska won by 16 at Colorado to earn the distinction of having the best start by any Big 12 team since the conference began in 1996 (19-0, 6-0). Kelsey Griffin scored 24 points as she passed the 1700 point mark for her career for NU. The only not-so-great stat for the Huskers was only going 18-30 from the line. They allowed Colorado to out-rebound them, but when shooting 55%, you don't need to get as many boards as the other team (most of the time, anyway). This sets up a game on Wednesday night in Lincoln between #4 Nebraska and #10 Oklahoma State - the very first battle of top 10 teams (AP rankings) within the borders of Nebraska, men or women. Apparently this never even happened in all the years Creighton's men were good, nor in any NCAA games played in Omaha. That's kinda cool! The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports Midwest at 7 p.m. Central time, so if you have a sports package with that channel - watch this game! It could be one of the best of the entire year.

Oklahoma beat Texas Tech for the 10th straight time on Saturday in Lubbock. The game was tied at 66 with 95 seconds to play. OU's Danielle Robinson broke the tie with a turn-around jumper while falling out of bounds. Tech had three chances to tie it up, but missed on each attempt. Two final free throws by Robinson finished off the game and gave her 26 points on the night. Tech missed many opportunities from the charity stripe, only hitting 8 of 17 freebies. The loss drops Tech to 1-5 in the league. OU maintains a hold on 3rd place, 1.5 games out of first.

Kansas picked up its first conference road win at Missouri in spite of having 22 turnovers (vs 10 for the Tigers). KU freshman forward Carolyn Davis was named Big 12 Freshman of the Week with her 20 point performance in the game (6-8 from the floor, 8-8 from the line, and 9 boards).

Schedule for Wednesday night:

Missouri at Texas A&M, 6:00 p.m.
Baylor at Kansas State, 7:00 p.m.
Texas Tech at Iowa State, 7:00 p.m.
Texas at Oklahoma, Sooner Sports Net, 7:00 p.m.
Oklahoma State at Nebraska, Fox Sports Net Midwest, 7:00 p.m.

Here's the latest ESPN poll that came out yesterday:

1. Connecticut (31) 21-0, 775
2. Stanford 19-1, 742
3. Notre Dame 20-1, 702
4. Nebraska 19-0, 693
5. Tennessee 19-2, 650
6. Duke 18-3, 617
7. Xavier 16-3, 581
8. West Virginia 20-2, 554
9. Ohio State 21-3, 507
10. Texas A&M 15-4, 440
11. Oklahoma State 18-3, 434
12. Florida State 19-4, 417
13. Oklahoma 15-5, 388
14. Georgia 18-4, 381
15. North Carolina 16-4, 346
16. Georgetown 18-3, 329
17. Baylor 15-5, 270
18. Kentucky 18-3, 245
19. Iowa State 16-4, 194
20. Wisconsin-Green Bay 18-2, 151
21. LSU 15-5, 137
22. Vanderbilt 16-6, 104
23. Texas 14-6, 101
24. Virginia 15-6, 67
25. St. John's 18-3, 58

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Gonzaga 49, TCU 46, Hartford 31, East Carolina 14, Gardner-Webb 11, Georgia Tech 6, Vermont 5, DePaul 4, Southern Methodist 4, Dayton 3, Fresno State 3, Marquette 3, Penn State 3, USC 3, San Diego State 2, Toledo 2, Miami (FL) 1, Syracuse 1, Tulane 1

Results from Wednesday night:

Iowa State 63, Texas Tech 48
Baylor 65, Kansas State 47
Nebraska 88, Oklahoma State 67
Texas 75, Oklahoma 57
Texas A&M 65, Missouri 55

I'll start with what was supposed to be the "game of the year" (so far). Ok, it soooo didn't live up to the billing. Nebraska BLEW OUT Oklahoma State in Lincoln, 88-67, before a crowd of over 10,200. The Huskers led by as many as 36 in the game and, 24 at the break, and was double digits five minutes after the opening tip. The Cowgirl's Andrea Riley was held to 15 points on 4 of 15 shooting. She didn't hit her first basket until twelve minutes into the game, going 0-7 up to that point. She sat much of the second period with four fouls and Nebraska's reserves continued to hold OSU at arm's length. Nebraska hit 11 3 point shots (out of 31), had 18 assists, and only 6 turnovers for the game. All NU's starters hit double digits in scoring, with Kelsey Griffin leading the way with 19. I have to say that I am in no way a Nebraska fan, but watching this team march through the season is nothing short of fascinating. Literally, they have come out of nowhere and dominated this league so far and there is no reason to believe it won't continue (famous last words). There is bound to be a slip-up along the way, but it most likely will end up being by a point or two against a good opponent on the road. The Huskers have an average margin of victory of about 25 points, which is just nuts - that's nearly UCONN territory. At 20-0, this team possibly has the best story in the country this season.

Iowa State knocked off Texas Tech, 63-48, for the Cyclone's fifth straight win over the Lady Raiders. Kelsey Bolte led all players with 19 points, including going 5-7 from 3 point range. Alison Lacey nearly pulled off another double-double with 13 points, 10 boards, and 7 assists. A 14-2 run going into halftime opened the game up for ISU. Tech got as close as 8 in the second half, but could pull no closer. Ashlee Roberson led the Raiders with 12 points and 5 rebounds before fouling out. No other Raider was in double digit scoring. This game was sloppy and ugly to watch, save for the final two minutes of the first half where Iowa State looked like they had figured things out a bit (and went on that run). Tech has lost six consecutive Big 12 games, all to ranked teams, and now sit at 1-6 in the league, one half game ahead of last place Missouri.

Texas broke Oklahoma's 20 game winning streak at home with a 74-57 blasting of the Sooners. UT jumped out to a big early lead, but let OU back to within 2 points. The 'Horns led by 11 at the break, after a 9-0 run to end the first half. OU once again cut the lead to 2, but Texas was able to use foul trouble for the Sooner's Danielle Robinson to push the lead back up to double digits. Robinson fouled out and four other OU players finished with 4 fouls each. Texas is now 4-3 in the league after starting 0-2, so things may be righting themselves in Austin. Here's a quote from an ESPN.com article from Texas coach Gail Goestenkors about what it's like to coach in the Big 12 (from 1/22/10): *Goestenkors said she underestimated the strength of the Big 12 before arriving. The league has six ranked teams this week, the most of any conference. "I knew how good it was at the top. I didn't know how good it was from top to bottom. In the ACC (at Duke), we knew there were teams you were absolutely going to beat unless you didn't show up. There's no night off here," Goestenkors said.* Sometimes reality can be an eye-opener.

Kansas State got clawed, Brittany Griner style, 65-47 in Manhattan by Baylor, which won it's first "true" road game since beating California in November. Griner blocked 8 shots, bringing her total to 122, which broke the Big 12 record of 119 for an entire season (Coutrney Paris, 2005-06). She scored 26 points. Oh, yeah - she dunked again, too. Ashley Sweat was K-State's only real offense, scoring 22 points.

Texas A&M snapped a two game losing streak, beating Missouri 65-55. A&M's Danielle Adams had signed with Missouri out of high school, but grades kept her from campus in Columbia. She was at a junior college before signing with the Aggies before this season. Adams scored 19 points in the win along with 7 boards. Jessra Johnson had 15 points for MU.

Standings as of tonight in the Big 12:

Nebraska, 7-0, 20-0
Oklahoma State, 6-2, 18-4
Iowa State, 5-3, 17-4
Oklahoma, 5-3, 15-6
Texas A&M, 4-3, 16-4
Texas, 4-3, 15-6
Baylor, 3-4, 16-5
Kansas, 3-4, 13-7
Kansas State, 3-4, 11-10
Colorado, 2-5, 12-8
Texas Tech, 1-6, 13-8
Missouri, 1-7, 11-10

Schedule for this weekend's games (all times Central)...

Saturday, February 06:
Texas A&M at Nebraska FSN 12:00 p.m.
Oklahoma at Oklahoma State FSN 2:00 p.m.
Colorado at Baylor 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, February 07:
Texas Tech at Texas ESPNU 1:00 p.m.
Kansas State at Kansas Metro 1:00 p.m.
Iowa State at Missouri FSN 3:00 p.m.

All Fox Sports (FSN) games will be national broadcasts. KU/KSU is only in the greater Kansas City area and if cable systems in Kansas want to pick it up (which I'm guessing they will).

Terrible news for Kansas - pre-season Big 12 Player of the Year, Danielle McCray tore her ACL, ending her college career (she's a senior). Here is the brief quote from KUsports.com:

"Kansas University women's basketball standout Danielle McCray will miss the rest of the season after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament in practice on Thursday.

A senior, McCray will conclude her KU career with 1,934 points in 116 career games.

McCray is the second stand-out Jayhawk to go down with an ACL injury this season. Redshirt Freshman Angel Goodrich tore her ACL for the second time in as many years in January and will also miss the rest of the season."

Their season had so much promise before the first of the year and misfortune just keeps chipping away at what had the potential to be Bonnie Henrickson's first true breakthrough season in Lawrence.

Just got back from a quickie weekend trip to Columbia for the ISU game there against Missouri this afternoon - and beat most of the snow on the way back (there was 2" in the driveway when we got back, but there could be up to an additional 10" by tomorrow night - cheese 'n' rice, I hope not). Anyway, wanted to drop the weekend scores for you, so here they are. Details on the games at some point on Monday (and the getting-ever-interesting race for second place in the league - right now being a three-way tie between Iowa State, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State!).

Sunday, February 07:
Iowa State 65, Missouri 39
Kansas 70, Kansas State 60
Texas 81, Texas Tech 51

Saturday, February 06:
Baylor 76, Colorado 42
Oklahoma 77, Oklahoma State 66
Nebraska 71, Texas A&M 60

One immediate note: congratulations to Kansas for beating arch-rival Kansas State in Lawrence, 70-60, even after the loss of team leader Danielle McCray (see previous post) to an ACL tear. It was impressive both because of not having McCray and the fact that they were completely humiliated by K-State in Manhattan to start the season. KU just might be back in the hunt to go dancing this year...

Nebraska's Kelsey Griffin and Cory Montgomery combined for 39 points and two other Huskers chipped in 11 each as NU knocked off Texas A&M in Lincoln for their 21st consecutive win. Nearly 10,900 people attended this game Saturday afternoon. This game was pretty even in a lot of categories including shooting percentage and rebounds. I think the difference here was that A&M was committing a ton of fouls, sending Nebraska to the line. Nebraska was 16 of 21, while the Aggies were a mere 1 of 2 from the line. There's your game!

Oklahoma/Oklahoma State featured two 30+ point games - one from each bench. OSU's Andrea Riley scored 30 points on 11-34 shooting, while OU's Danielle Robinson scored 36 on 10-22 shooting and 16-16 from the line. OU won the rebounding battle by 18 (49-31) and made ten more free throws than the Cowgirls (23-13). Oklahoma State held a two point lead at the break, and was down only 63-61 with under four to play, but they could not get any closer. Robinson's 36 was a career high. Riley has passed the 2500 point mark for her career (2523), only 206 behind the Big 12 record of Courtney Paris.

Iowa State jumped out to a 20-4 lead over Mizzou and never looked back. The margin was 24 at the break (39-15) and grew to as much as 28 as the game wound down. Alison Lacey led the Cyclones with 18 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds, with only 2 turnovers. Freshman Chelsea Poppens had 14 points, 12 of which came in the first half, to go with 9 boards. Missouri was led by RaeShara Brown with 12 points. Honesly, the Tigers never really showed up in this one, which was surprising after it took A&M nearly the whole game to put MU away last week (and ultimately win by only 10).

Kansas was led in their win over KSU by freshman, Monica Engelman. She had 16 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and ZERO turnovers in 40 minutes! KU, meet the future of your program. Seriously. Combine that with what fellow freshman Carolyn Davis has done recently, and the Jayhawks look like they might have some players to build around over the next few years. Kansas State only got to the line 6 times, missing 4 of those attempts. KU was 14 of 18 from the charity stripe.

Colorado's best individual performance was by Brittany Spears with 9 points and 6 rebounds in their 34 point loss at Baylor. Griner led Baylor with 24 points, 10 rebounds and all but one of the eleven Bears to see floor time scored. BU out-rebounded CU by 15 (45-30). I still say Colorado would be a dangerously competetive team with a real coach in charge of things.

Texas out-classed Tech in just about every way possible in their blow-out win. UT had four players score in double digits, while Tech had one. UT got 15 more boards, made 11 more free throws, hit 11 of 22 three pointers against 4 of 12 for the Lady Raiders. Texas may have finally found their groove for the season. Maybe they won't hit the swoon they had last year, losing 9 of their final 11 regular season games. They definitely have a shot at being as good as pre-season predictions indicated (2nd place) if they keep up this intensity.

Games for this Wednesday:

Baylor at Oklahoma SSN 7:00 p.m.
Missouri at Kansas State FSNKC 7:00 p.m.
Nebraska at Kansas FSNMW 7:00 p.m.
Texas A&M at Texas Tech 7:00 p.m.
Texas at Colorado FSNRM 8:00 p.m.

Iowa State gets a much needed bye week and will resume play this Saturday against Baylor here in Ames.

Here is the ESPN poll that came out this afternoon:

1. Connecticut (31) 23-0, 775
2. Stanford 21-1, 741
3. Notre Dame 21-1, 697
4. Nebraska 21-0, 696
5. Tennessee 21-2, 654
6. Xavier 18-3, 610
7. Duke 19-4, 567
8. West Virginia 21-3, 551
9. Ohio State 23-3, 543
10. Florida State 20-4, 485
11. Texas A&M 16-5, 442
12. Oklahoma 16-6, 399
13. Georgetown 19-3, 395
14. Oklahoma State 18-5, 336
15. Baylor 17-5, 331
16. Kentucky 20-3, 319
17. Iowa State 18-4, 255
18. Georgia 19-5, 244
19. Texas 16-6, 217
20. North Carolina 16-6, 171
21. Virginia 17-6, 121
22. Vanderbilt 17-7, 117
23. Gonzaga 19-4, 72
24. St. John's 19-4, 67
25. Hartford 20-3, 49

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES:
Wisconsin-Green Bay 46, Georgia Tech 42, LSU 40, TCU 38, Gardner-Webb 13, Dayton 10, Miami (FL) 7, Syracuse 6, DePaul 5, Vermont 5, Marist 4, Fresno State 2, James Madison 1, Marquette 1, Middle Tennessee 1

And the AP poll from yesterday:

1. Connecticut (40) 23-0, 1000
2. Stanford 21-1, 959
3. Nebraska 21-0, 896
4. Notre Dame 21-1, 894
5. Tennessee 20-2, 850
6. Xavier 18-3, 775
7. Ohio State 23-3, 740
8. Duke 18-4, 709
9. West Virginia 21-3, 627
10. Florida State 20-4, 593
11. Baylor 17-5, 537
12. Oklahoma 16-6, 511
13. Texas A&M 16-5, 510
14. Texas 16-6, 475
15. Oklahoma State 18-5, 436
16. Georgetown 19-3, 402
17. Kentucky 20-3, 372
18. North Carolina 16-5, 358
19. Georgia 19-5, 323
20. Iowa State 18-4, 210
21. Georgia Tech 19-5, 205
22. Gonzaga 19-4, 118
23. LSU 15-7, 93
24. TCU 17-5, 70
25. St. John's 19-4, 68

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES:
Vanderbilt 64, Hartford 60, Virginia 56, Wisconsin-Green Bay 29, Mississippi 12, Michigan State 11, Miami (FL) 10, South Carolina 6, Princeton 5, Penn State 4, Dayton 3, Middle Tennessee 3, East Carolina 2, Marist 2, Fresno State 1, Syracuse 1

Note in the AP poll the log-jam of Big 12 teams between #s 11 and 15. Also in the AP, Nebraska jumped over Notre Dame to #3.

I just heard this morning that Iowa State will retire Angie Welle's #32 jersey on February 20th against Missouri! Welle holds the all-time ISU records for scoring, rebounding and a slew of other statistical categories. They are going to use the occasion to mark the 10th anniversary of Iowa State's first Big 12 title and first Big 12 Tournament championship.

I've included a link for the entire Cyclones.com article:

http://tinyurl.com/ydeeat8

Results from Wednesday night's game:

Texas 74, Colorado 50
Kansas State 37, Missouri 33
Texas Tech 57, Texas A&M 54
Nebraska 67, Kansas 60
Oklahoma 62, Baylor 60 OT

No, the KSU/MU score is not a mistake - it really was that low. More details later on how last night shook out later on along with this weekend's schedule.

Ok, so about that KSU/Missouri game. Missouri led at halftime 16-13, believe it or not. The Tigers shot 21% in the first half, while the Wildcats shot 26%. Ultimately, each team had a single player finish in double digits - Christine Flores for MU had 11 points, while Taelor Karr (who?) had 10 for K-State. Wildcat star Ashley Sweat was held to 6 points on 1-7 shooting. Missouri's normally reliable scorers Jessra Johnson and Amanda Hanneman were 1-11 and 1-10 from the floor, respectively. Yikes. I have a feeling this was one of those games where if you'd never seen a women's basketball game before, you likely would not come to another one.

Texas Tech used an 11-4 run to end the game for their biggest win of the year over #11 Texas A&M, 57-54. Ashlee Roberson finished with 25 points, the only Raider in double figures. The Aggies out-rebounded Tech by 20 (44-24) and had three players with double digit scoring, but ran out of gas at the end of the game. This was just Tech's second win in their last nine games.

Oklahoma beat Baylor in overtime in Norman, avenging a loss to the Bears earlier in the season. Amanda Thompson had 19 points and 19 rebounds for OU and Nyeshia Stevenson hit the final basket with 14 seconds to play to give the Sooners the win. Baylor only managed to score one basket in the overtime period, but considering they were held to 15 points (and down 12) by halftime, they were lucky to be in an extra minutes situation at all.

Nebraska had to come back from five points down in the final eight minutes of the game in Lawrence against Kansas. They also had to overcome nearly 70% shooting in the second half by the Jayhawks to win 67-60. Kansas used balanced scoring from their starters (four in double figures) to keep the game close throughout, especially in the first half when the shots weren't falling for everyone. NU is now 22-0, 9-0 in the league.

Texas clobbered Colorado for the Buff's 15th straight loss to a ranked opponent. Colorado had 22 turnovers that led to 39 Texas points. UT led 14-0 to start the game and by 20 at the break.

Here is the slate for Saturday's games:

Baylor at Iowa State Fox Sports Net 11:00 a.m. (national broadcast)
Nebraska at Missouri 1:00 p.m.
Texas at Kansas Metro Sports 1:00 p.m.
Colorado at Oklahoma 2:00 p.m.
Texas Tech at Oklahoma State 6:00 p.m.
Kansas State at Texas A&M 7:00 p.m.

I thought I would post a bit about regional news and views for WBB.

Ohio State wrapped up their 6th consecutive Big 10 regular season title - a feat that has never been accomplished before in the Big 10 by any women's OR men's team. Last night, they defeated second place Purdue by 30 (75-45). This is how mediocre the Big 10 is this year: teams 2 through 11 are separated by only 3 games in the standings and seven teams already have 10 or more losses overall this year. Back to OSU for a bit. The Buckeyes have a home record of 126-9 in Coach Jim Foster's eight seasons in Columbus. Ohio State was good before he got there, but there were never that good.

The hottest team in the Big 10 (besides Ohio State)? Iowa. The Hawks have somehow won five of their last six games, improving their record to 13-11, 6-7 in the league. Not bad considering they started the Big 10 at 1-6. Now I will never be caught saying Iowa's Lisa Bluder is a good coach, but she seems to have found some very talented guards in freshman Jamie Printy, sophomore Camille Wahlin, and junior Cash Alexander, who has had a flurry of triple-doubles this year in spite of injuries.

The biggest disappointment(s) in the Big 10? Both Minnesota and Penn State. UM had high expectations coming into the season and is currently sitting at 12-12, 5-8. Makes the pounding Iowa State handed them in December look much less impressive. Penn State wasn't expected to do much but be a littler better than last season. They had a great start to the year, getting to 15-4 and ranked in the top 25. They've since lost five in a row. Granted, four of those were to the better teams in the league, but the last one was to Minnesota (and resulted in a season sweep by the Gophers).

There are still a couple of games to go today, but I had to post early about the Iowa State/Baylor game that was on national tv. ISU destroyed Baylor, 69-45 (30 points under their season average), in a game that wasn't even that close. Where to start...

The Cyclones were 16-33 from long range, tying a season high for 3s. Five different Cyclones made at least three 3 pointers. Our freshmen simply shut down Baylor's Brittney Griner, holding her to 10 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 blocks. She got some touches, but had only 4 points at the break. ISU swarmed her with two and three players on defense and generally did an incredible job guarding her. Baylor was dared to hit long-distance shots against the sagging zone defense and they managed only 4 of 16 from downtown. Amanda Zimmerman led the Cyclones with a career high 15 points, while Chelsea Poppens brought down 14 rebounds. Alison Lacey had another double-double with 11 points and 10 assists. Griner was Baylor's leading scorer with her 10 points. She also led the Bears on the glass (7).

Our crowd was rockin' Hilton the whole game - every three and every defensive stop encouraged the fans to get louder and louder. ISU led by as many as 31 in the second half. Baylor cut the deficit to 22 late, but could get no closer. The Bears had won six in a row over ISU coming into today, so this win was huge for us. It keeps us one half game out of second place going into the game with Nebraska this Wednesday in Lincoln, which got a HUGE scare against Missouri - down 6 with three to play before coming back to win. More on that and the 2OT thriller between Texas and Kansas when the rest of the games are done tonight.

Here are the results from another exciting day in Big 12 women's hoops:

Texas A&M 69, Kansas State 63
Texas Tech 65, Oklahoma State 57
Oklahoma 65, Colorado 55
Nebraska 82, Missouri 78
Texas 85, Kansas 82, 2OT
Iowa State 69, Baylor 45

We already covered the Iowa State game in the previous post, so I'll move on to the other games which are all completed now.

Texas needed two overtimes to defeat Kansas, 85-82, in Lawrence. Since KU's Danielle McCray went down with her injury, the Jayhawks have really come together and played exceptionally well, especially freshmen Carolyn Davis and Monica Engelman (who combined for 51 of KU's 82 points!). Too bad their best games of the season have come against the best teams of the league who were playing well at the time. Engelman nailed a 3 with under 15 seconds to play in regulation, sending the game to the first OT. LaChelda Jacobs missed one of two free throws with ten seconds in the first overtime, allowing UT's Ashleigh Fontenette to hit a 3 with under two seconds remaining to force the second extra period. From there, Texas built a lead and held on as Kansas missed another game tying shot at the end of the second OT. Texas had five players score in double figures, led by Fontenette's 20. Kansas was led in scoring by Davis with a career high 29.

Texas Tech knocked off its second straight ranked opponent, this time on the road at Oklahoma State, 65-57. Tech led OSU by 14 before the Cowgirls made a run and cut the lead to 4 with under four minutes to play. OSU's Andrea Riley scored only 18 points on 8-22 shooting and for the first time all season, made no free throws (she went to the line twice). Riley also fouled out in the final minute of play. Tech was led by Jordan Barncastle, who appeared in the starting line-up to replace Kierra Mallard who has been suspended indefinitely. Barncastle had 19 points, including three 3s to lead all scorers. The game marks a big turn-around for the Lady Raiders who had lost six in a row before winning their last two. Oklahoma State is now on a three game skid after playing for (and losing) first place at Nebraska.

Nebraska nearly p!ssed one away this afternoon, trailing by six points with under three minutes to play on the road at Columbia, Missouri. The Huskers came from behind late in the game for the second straight time to win 82-78. NU's Kelsey Griffin scored 28 points, while Yvonne Turner and Dominique Kelley each tallied 19. Missouri was led by Jessra Johnson with 21. Nebraska has four of their remaining six conference games at home, including Wednesday against Iowa State. Are these close calls by NU the beginning of Connie Yori's annual February swoon? Time will tell.

Kansas State blew an 8 point halftime lead at Texas A&M and lost 69-63. The game was filled with runs, with K-State going on an 18-4 run in the first half to lead 27-20. A&M scored 11 straight out of the break to go up 36-33 and had another run of 8-0 to lead 50-43 with seven minutes to go. A final run of 7-0 put the game out of reach at 63-52 with about 90 seconds remaining. Taelor Karr again led the Wildcats with 19 points and four 3 pointers (though all her points came in the first half - I guess the Aggies decided to guard her after the break). A&M was led by Syndey Carter with a career high 24 points. The game evens A&M's record to 5-5 in the Big 12, while KSU drops to 4-6.

Oklahoma beat Colorado for the 8th consecutive time, 65-55. OU led 17-2 to begin the game before allowing Colorado to twice cut the lead to five in the first half. The Sooners went on a 17-3 run en route to a 42-23 halftime lead. Brittany Spears led CU with 28 points, while Amanda Thompson had 16 for Oklahoma. All ten OU players scored in the game as the reserves played much of the second half. CU has lost six in a row. Oklahoma is alone in second place in the Big 12 by 1/2 game by virtue of being the last team (along with Missouri) to have a bye week. It should be noted that while they have a break in the conference schedule, they will play host to #1 Connecticut Monday night on ESPN2. Not much of a "break" if you ask me. They have five remaining Big 12 games, four of which are against ranked teams, two at home and two on the road.

Here are the current standings as of today's games:

Nebraska 10-0, 23-0
Oklahoma 8-3, 18-6
Iowa State 7-3, 19-4
Texas 7-3, 18-6
Oklahoma State 6-4, 18-6
Texas A&M 5-5, 17-6
Baylor 4-6, 17-7
Kansas 4-6, 14-9
Kansas State 4-6, 12-12
Texas Tech 3-7, 15-9
Colorado 2-8, 12-11
Missouri 1-10, 11-13

New rpi standings to come on Sunday!

Here are the current RPI standings for the Big 12 (rpi rank, team, strength of schedule rank):

4 Nebraska 23
7 Oklahoma 3
8 Texas 7
9 Texas A&M 6
12 Oklahoma State 17
21 Baylor 22
24 Iowa State 72
27 Kansas 12
41 Texas Tech 29
85 Kansas State 39
97 Colorado 55
99 Missouri 37

Of note:

*8 teams in the top 27 rpi, with a 9th sitting just outside the top 40.
*Iowa State is the only team with an SOS lower than 55. This might cost us a seed position when it comes right down to deciding where to put teams.
*10 teams have an SOS in the top 39, which is insane.
*Both Kansas and Tech can play their way into the tournament if they find ways to win some of these remaining few games. Right now neither is in, but they still control their own destiny (for the time being).
*The southern division teams are still (generally) ranked higher and there are more of them with shiny W/L records. But the top two north teams have played amazingly well against "stronger" opponents (Nebraska and Iowa State), going a combined 9-1 so far against the south.

Schedule of games during this week:

Monday, February 15:
Connecticut at Oklahoma ESPN2, 8:00 p.m.

Tuesday, February 16:
Kansas at Colorado Fox Rocky Mountain, 8:00 p.m.

Wednesday, February 17:
Kansas State at Texas 7:00 p.m.
Texas A&M at Oklahoma State 7:00 p.m.
Texas Tech at Baylor 7:00 p.m.
Iowa State at Nebraska 7:00 p.m.

I can't believe no one is showing the A&M/OSU or the ISU/Nebraska game on Wednesday. The Big 12 needs it's own network like the Big 10. The lack of coverage is ridiculous. Anyway, check out the OU/UCONN game tonight. It'll be a laugher, but if you haven't seen UCONN play yet, this will be a good chance to see them in an actual hostile environment.

The AP was just released for this week:

1. Connecticut (40) 25-0, 1000
2. Stanford 23-1, 959
3. Nebraska 23-0, 901
4. Notre Dame 23-1, 891
5. Tennessee 23-2, 848
6. Xavier 20-3, 773
7. Ohio State 25-3, 746
8. Duke 21-4, 726
9. West Virginia 22-3, 666
10. Florida State 21-4, 633
11. Oklahoma 18-6, 600
12. Texas 18-6, 568
13. Iowa State 19-4, 437
14. Georgetown 20-4, 385
15. Texas A&M 17-6, 380
16. Kentucky 21-4, 352
17. Oklahoma State 18-6, 324
18. Baylor 17-7, 308
19. Georgia Tech 20-5, 263
20. Georgia 20-6, 217
21. Gonzaga 21-4, 186
22. St. John's 20-5, 133
23. LSU 17-7, 128
23. TCU 19-5, 128
25. Vanderbilt 18-7, 117

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES:
North Carolina 108, Virginia 102, Hartford 75, Wisconsin-Green Bay 13, Fresno State 6, Middle Tennessee 6, Princeton 6, UCLA 6, Dayton 5, Michigan State 3, Arkansas-Little Rock 1

Big jump for Iowa State - from #20 to #13!

ESPN's Charlie Creme (finally) has a new Bracketology page up.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/bracketology

The Big 12 has 9 teams in as of right now. While I don't see that number holding up until Selection Monday, it's pretty amazing. Plus he has 6 teams from the Big 12 as a #4 seed or better. This is what the seeding looks like. Go to the link to scan around at other schools and host sites.

#1 Nebraska
#3 Texas
#3 Oklahoma
#4 ISU
#4 Ok St.
#4 Texas A&M
#6 Baylor
#10 KU
#10 Texas Tech

Ames, Austin, and Norman all host NCAA 1st and 2nd round games this year, so assuming all three schools make the field (and they will), all three will be placed on their respective home courts for the sub-regional games. The rest will have to travel. Regional sites this year are in Kansas City, Dayton, Memphis, and Sacramento.

The ESPN poll for this week:

1. Connecticut (31) 26-0, 775
2. Stanford 23-1, 741
3. Nebraska 23-0, 696
3. Notre Dame 23-1, 696
5. Tennessee 23-2, 656
6. Xavier 20-3, 617
7. Duke 21-4, 571
8. West Virginia 22-3, 559
9. Ohio State 25-3, 539
10. Florida State 22-4, 503
11. Oklahoma 18-7, 433
12. Georgetown 20-4, 389
12. Iowa State 19-4, 389
14. Texas 18-6, 341
15. Texas A&M 17-6, 336
16. Kentucky 21-4, 275
17. Oklahoma State 18-6, 239
18. Virginia 19-6, 211
19. Baylor 17-7, 200
20. Georgia 20-6, 185
20. Vanderbilt 18-7, 185
22. Gonzaga 21-4, 142
23. St. John's 20-5, 120
24. Hartford 21-3, 82
25. TCU 19-5, 47

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES:
North Carolina 27, Georgia Tech 21, LSU 21, Dayton 17, Gardner-Webb 12, UCLA 10, Princeton 8, Wisconsin-Green Bay 5, Lehigh 4, Michigan State 4, Middle Tennessee 4, Vermont 4, Rutgers 3, Tulane 3, Fresno State 2, Arkansas-Little Rock 1, DePaul 1, Marist 1

Quick factoid: ESPN.com pointed out that North Carolina has dropped out of the top 25 for the first time since 2001.

Forgot to post about the unusual Monday night game (unusual that it was on a Monday night, not that it was "unusual" in itself ).

Anyway... Oklahoma trailed by 14 in the first half before closing to within 2 points of Connecticut last night in Norman. OU took a single point lead three different times in the second half before UCONN turned up the jets and sped away at the end to a 76-60 win, their 65th straight.

Oklahoma honestly showed they could play with the Huskies, which was rather surprising in itself. Had they shot better from the floor (33%) and had one or two other options on the bench (they played seven, only six scored), they might have been in it at the end and found a way to win. Danielle Robinson led OU with 18 points, while Amanda Thompson had 16 points and 13 boards. Four Huskies scored at least 14 points, with Tiffany Hayes leading the way with 20.

Score from Tuesday night:

Kansas 79, Colorado 72


Scores from Wednesday night:

Texas A&M 69, Oklahoma State 52
Texas Tech 48, Baylor 65
Kansas State 41, Texas 62
Iowa State 50, Nebraska 60

Iowa State had the chance to prove they were for real by handing undefeated Nebraska its first loss of the season tonight. A big part of why it didn't happen? Alison Lacey missed the game with a mild concussion she suffered yesterday in practice. She may not play on Saturday against Missouri, either - it will depend on how she recovers. Freshman Jessica Schroll was the point guard for most of the game, but shared point duties with Denae Stuckey. Schroll had a career high in points with 14, while Kelsey Bolte had 15, including 4-6 from long range. The Cyclones committed 24 turnovers (vs 10 for NU), while sending the Huskers to the line 25 times (making 19). ISU only attempted 5 free throws, but sank 10 3 pointers. Nebraska freshman point guard Lindsey Moore, who had never scored more than a free ticket to a local tractor pull, hit four 3 pointers and had 18 points on the night. ISU did a decent job shutting down Kelsey Griffin (11 points, 11 boards) and Yvonne Turner (8 points). Typically Coach Fennelly will key the defense around a proven scorer or two and dare an unsung opponent to shoot. Moore, who averaged under 5 points per game, was up to the challenge. I have to think that had Iowa State been able to play Lacey, this would have been a much different game. Here's hoping we meet up in Kansas City next month, because it's game on!

Texas A&M never trailed in their 69-52 blow-out of Oklahoma State in Stillwater. OSU's Andrea Riley scored only 2 points on two free throws after going 0-10 in the first half. Riley had been ill before the game and never took to the court after halftime. Toni Young had 16 for the Cowgirls along with 9 rebounds. Tyra White scored 15 for A&M. OSU has now lost four in a row and three straight at home.

Baylor led Texas Tech 41-22 at the break and never looked back in Waco, winning 65-48. Brittany Griner was back to her usual double-double self with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Baylor was 25-31 from the line, vs 9-18 for the Raiders. Baylor also out-boarded the Raiders 49-22 (yikes). This game is a momentum killer for Tech, which had won two in a row and is looking to sneak into the eyes of the NCAA selection committee. A game like this doesn't help their case. Baylor got a much needed win to move to within a game of .500 in the league.

After a low-scoring first half (21-18, UT, at the break), Texas pulled away from a 35-34 lead over Kansas State in Austin to win by 21. UT's Kathleen Nash was a perfect 5-5 from beyond the arc, scoring a total of 22 points. KSU's Brittany Chambers led the Wildcats with 11 points, the only 'Cat in double digits. Texas was 6-8 overall from long range, while Kansas State was 4-23. Texas moved into a tie with Oklahoma for second place with the win.

I will post new rpi numbers and league standings on Thursday.

Standings as of this morning (February 18th):

(rpi, team, B-12 record, overall record)
3 Nebraska 11-0, 24-0
9 Texas 8-3, 19-6
7 Oklahoma 8-3, 18-7
24 Iowa State 7-4, 19-5
10 Texas A&M 6-5, 18-6
15 Oklahoma State 6-5, 18-7
22 Baylor 5-6, 18-7
26 Kansas 5-6, 15-9
88 Kansas State 4-7, 12-13
42 Texas Tech 3-8, 15-10
106 Colorado 2-9, 12-12
102 Missouri 1-10, 11-13

Game schedule for this weekend:

Saturday, February 20:
Texas at Texas A&M, FSN (national) 12:00 p.m.
Colorado at Nebraska, 1:00 p.m.
Missouri at Iowa State, Mediacom (local) 7:00 p.m.
Oklahoma State at Baylor, 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, February 21:
Oklahoma at Kansas State, FSN (national) 2:00 p.m.
Kansas at Texas Tech, ESPNU (national) 5:00 p.m.

Texas and A&M should be a good game. UT has been playing with extra intensity for the last three weeks that has propelled them to second in the league. A&M is trying to regain its footing after stumbling badly over the same period.

Iowa State may have to play its second game in a row without Alison Lacey (concussion). At least the game is at home and Angie Welle will be there to have her jersey retired. If that's not motivation for the current team to step up, I don't know what will be.

Oklahoma State gets a chance to stop the bleeding at Baylor. They already beat the Bears in Stillwater, but does the losing streak end at four in Waco?

Nebraska will go for (and get) consecutive win #25.

Kansas and Tech both need a win here to remain in the NCAA hunt, I think. Both ESPN and collegerpi.com have them in the field of 64 (with collegerpi having both teams as two of the last four in the Dance), but I think the loser of this game is out of the picture.

Oklahoma can view the game at KSU as a gimme, to solidify their top 4 spot. But Kansas State probably sees it as an opportunity to open some eyes and climb back to .500 overall.

Results from the weekend...

Sunday, February 21:
Texas Tech 68, Kansas 51
Oklahoma 64, Kansas State 58

Saturday, February 20:
Baylor 80, Oklahoma State 69
Iowa State 55, Missouri 42
Nebraska 89, Colorado 73
Texas A&M 58, Texas 44

(and) Monday, February 22:
Baylor 65, Texas A&M 63

Ok, so about that OU/KSU game. Kansas State led at the break in Manhattan, 34-18, and 43-22 four minutes into the second half. OU went on a 20-2 run that cut the margin to three points about mid-way through the period. Then the teams traded leads several times until the Sooners finally took control at the end and won by six. I cannot tell you the last time I saw a team implode the way K-State did yesterday. I watched the second half on a Fox Sports replay late last night and they looked like a high school team on the floor - no leadership on the court or off. There are still games left to play, but I think this one pretty much solidified the fact that Kansas State ain't going anywhere this post-season (except for a first round loss in the Big 12 Tournament).

Kansas saw their NCAA hopes take a big hit Sunday. They lost big at Texas Tech, 68-51. Of KU's starters, only Monica Engelman scored more than 6 points (18), and she missed 13 shots. Jordan Murphree led Tech with 20 points. Tech also made it to the line 25 times, making 17 of those shots, compared to KU's 9 attempts. Honestly, I don't think either Tech or Kansas will make the tournament this year. KU's rpi is high enough (in the 20s), but sitting at 5-7 in the league isn't the best position to be in. Iowa State comes to Lawrence on Thursday night, and ISU tends to struggle at KU more often than not. I'm hoping that is not the case this time, though.

Colorado set a Devaney Sports Center (in Lincoln) record making 15 three point shots (on 27 attempts), but still managed to lose by 16 to Nebraska. CU's Brittany Spears had a game-high 26 points, including 6-7 shooting from long range. Nebraska countered with balanced scoring, having four starters in double figures. Kelsey Griffin led NU with 25. Nebraska missed more free throws (16-25) than Colorado attempted (8). CU has now lost nine of ten, while the Huskers won their 25th straight.

Texas A&M beat Texas for the seventh consecutive game on Saturday, 58-44. Texas led 15-4 early, but A&M charged back and battled back and forth with the 'Horns for the lead until the Aggies finally took the lead for good with about 11 minutes to play.

A&M had a quick turn-around, though, as they hosted Baylor tonight (Monday). The game was tied at the break (33-33) and remained close until the very end. Baylor ended up with the two point win when Sydney Carter's attempt with one second remaining bounced off the rim and into the hands of Brittney Griner for her 21st rebound (along with 22 points). A&M's Danielle Adams fouled out early with only 10 points, so it fell to the rest of the team to save the day. They had their chances, but Baylor pulled out a win to move into a tie with Texas A&M at 7-6 in the league, good for 5th place, one game behind Iowa State and Texas.

As this was A&M's second game in two days, it was also Baylor's as well. But in their case, it was also their second win. The Bears handed Oklahoma State it's fifth straight loss after starting the Big 12 season 6-1. OSU's Andrea Riley was back in form after her dismal 2 point performance earlier in the week and hung 38 points on Baylor, but she got little help from the rest of the team. Tegan Cunningham was the second leading scorer with 11 for the Cowgirls. Baylor had four starters in double figure scoring, including Kemetria Hayden with 27 in her first start as a freshman for the Bears. Hayden was also announced as this week's Freshman of the Week by the Big 12.

Iowa State swept Missouri for the third straight season, winning in Ames, 55-42. The second half was ugly as Mizzou adjusted their defense and disrupted the flow of the game. The closest the Tigers got was 13 points after the break, but ISU could not pull away any further than 22 points. ISU led by 18 at the half (30-12). Freshman Chelsea Poppens led the Cyclones with 21 points (one shy of a career high), and 16 rebounds, the most by any Cyclone player in a single game since Brittany Wilkins in 2006.

Remaining games for this week:

Tuesday, February 23:
Colorado at Missouri, 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, February 24:
Nebraska at Oklahoma, Sooner Sports Net 7:00 p.m.
Texas Tech at Kansas State , Fox Sports Net Kansas City 7:00 p.m.
Texas at Oklahoma State, 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, February 25:
Iowa State at Kansas, Fox Sports Net (national) 6:00 p.m.

The new ESPN poll for this week:

1. Connecticut (31) 27-0, 775
2. Stanford 25-1, 742
3. Nebraska 25-0, 715
4. Tennessee 25-2, 679
5. Xavier 22-3, 646
6. Duke 23-4, 608
7. West Virginia 24-3, 580
8. Notre Dame 23-3, 558
9. Florida State 24-4, 533
10. Oklahoma 19-7, 467
11. Georgetown 22-4, 460
12. Ohio State 26-4, 441
13. Iowa State 20-5, 373
14. Kentucky 23-4, 367
15. Texas A&M 19-7, 304
16. Texas 19-7, 293
17. Baylor 20-7, 289
18. Virginia 20-7, 222
19. St. John's 21-5, 201
20. Gonzaga 23-4, 188
21. Oklahoma State 18-8, 140
22. Vanderbilt 19-8, 120
23. Hartford 23-3, 119
24. Georgia 20-7, 64
25. Michigan State 19-8, 26

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
UCLA 23, Dayton 21, LSU 17, Gardner-Webb 15, Princeton 13, Georgia Tech 11, TCU 11, Wisconsin-Green Bay 11, Middle Tennessee 10, Tulane 7, Vermont 6, Arkansas-Little Rock 5, Fresno State 5, Lehigh 5, Delaware 2, DePaul 2, Marist 1

Here are the results from the last couple of days...

Wednesday, February 24:
Oklahoma State 73, Texas 72 OT
Texas Tech 75, Kansas State 67 OT
Nebraska 80, Oklahoma 64

Tuesday, February 23:
Colorado 80, Missouri 79 OT

Interesting that there were three overtimes in the last four league games.

Nebraska wrapped up their first Big 12 title with a big win at Oklahoma (and their first in Norman since 1998), 80-64. NU had a ten point lead (52-42) with eleven minutes to play before OU made a run to pull even. The Sooners led 63-62 with under four minutes to play and then they simply disappeared. Nebraska closed the game out on an 18-1 run for the win. All-American candidate Kelsey Griffin scored 30 points and 13 rebounds, while Cory Montgomery added 24 points. Abi Olajuwan led OU with 16 points, while Thompson and Robinson each contributed 15. The loss puts OU one half game ahead of Iowa State for second place. If the Cyclones win at KU tonight, they will hold the tie-breaker for the 2 seed if the tournament were held tomorrow.

Texas Tech won at Kansas State in OT, 75-67, helping their post-season cause. The game was close through most of regulation before Tech broke it open in the extra period. Jordan Murphree led the Raiders with 26 points, 10 of which came in OT. Kari Kincaid led the Wildcats with 18 points. The win brings Tech to 5-8 in the league, which is probably only two wins away from getting them a bid to Dance.

Texas led OSU by 14 with under eight minutes to play before Andre Riley scored the Cowgirl's final 17 points of regulation, forcing the overtime. The win snapped a five game losing streak for OSU, while the loss put Texas in (temporarily, at least) 4th place by themselves at 8-5. Riley finished with 33 points. Brittainey Raven led Texas with 18.

Missouri blew a 15 point first half and 11 point second half lead over Colorado to lose in OT in Columbia, 80-79. Colorado knocked down 14 more 3 point shots, making a total of 29 made 3s over their last two games. They needed every one of them Tuesday night for the win. Missouri was 29 of 35 from the charity stripe, while CU was only 8-9. The loss keeps Mizzou in dead last at 1-12.

Iowa State plays Kansas at Lawrence with 2nd place on the line tonight at 6 p.m. Central. The game will be on national television, broadcast by Fox Sports Net. Go STATE!

HUGE win for Iowa State tonight against Kansas. ISU beat the Jayhawks 57-54 in Lawrence. The game was close throughout and nearly every statistical category was even. The game had twelve ties and twelve lead changes, and neither team led by more than five points at any time. It came down to Iowa State holding a one point lead with under 30 seconds to play. KU's Nicollette Smith tried to pass the ball inside to Carolyn Davis, but ISU's Chelsea Poppens intercepted the pass, dished it off to Alison Lacey who was fouled with under seven seconds remaining. Lacey hit both free throws to put the Cyclones up three. KU inbounds the ball with Monica Engleman taking it up the court and she put up a 3 that bounced off the iron as the buzzer rang. Lacey had 22 points for ISU, while Anna Prins added 12. Kelsey Bolte tossed in 3 long-range bombs for 9 points on the night. Kansas was led in scoring by freshmen Davis and Engelman with 17 and 15 points respectively.

This win puts Iowa State in a tie with Oklahoma for 2nd place in the conference with three games to go in the regular season. Oklahoma has games remaining at Texas, at Texas A&M, and at home vs Oklahoma State. Iowa State's three final games are at home vs Kansas State, at Oklahoma State, and at home vs Colorado. Hopefully, the (comparatively) easier end to the season pays dividends for the Cyclones and they wrap up the conference season 11-5 at worst, 12-4 at best (allowing for a road loss).

This loss for Kansas probably knocks them out of the running for an NCAA berth, considering who they have remaining on their schedule: at Baylor, at Nebraska, hosting Texas A&M. At 5-8 in the league right now, two wins might still get them in, paired with a Big 12 tournament win, but I don't know where those first two wins come from, quite honestly. The freshmen will have to carry them, but they'll need more scoring help than they've been getting in their close losses recently. Sade Morris needs to step up her game and Krysten Boogaard (6'5") seriously should be playing more than 10 minutes a game (like she did tonight). She's of no use to the Jayhawks on the bench.

Standings as of Thursday night:

Nebraska 13-0, 26-0
Iowa State 9-4, 21-5
Oklahoma 9-4, 19-8
Texas 8-5, 19-8
Baylor 7-6, 20-7
Texas A&M 7-6, 19-7
Oklahoma State 7-6, 19-8
Texas Tech 5-8, 17-10
Kansas 5-8, 15-11
Kansas State 4-9, 12-15
Colorado 3-10, 13-13
Missouri 1-12, 11-15

Here is the schedule for this weekend's games (times Central):

Saturday, February 27:
Texas A&M at Colorado, 3:00 p.m.
Oklahoma at Texas, Fox Sports Net (national) 4:00 p.m.
Kansas State at Iowa State, Mediacom (local) 7:00 p.m.
Missouri at Nebraska, 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, February 28:
Oklahoma State at Texas Tech, Fox Sports Net (national) 12:00 p.m.
Kansas at Baylor, ESPN2 (national) 4:00 p.m.

Scores from Saturday's games:

Saturday, February 27:
Nebraska 67, Missouri 51
Iowa State 48, Kansas State 39
Oklahoma 75, Texas 60
Texas A&M 95, Colorado 61

Yeah, the Iowa State/Kansas State game was nearly as ugly as the score looks. ISU suffered through a 13 minute scoring drought that spanned both halves. Fortunately, Kansas State is really bad and they could not take advantage of our limited offense tonight. Kelsey Bolte scored her 1000th career point on a 3, which fortunately she made as it was the ONLY 3 the Cyclones got to fall (1-12 for the game). That keeps a streak of 477 consecutive games with at least a single 3 pointer made. Canisius still leads Iowa State with a streak that started four games before ISU's began. Chelsea Poppens led ISU on the glass and in the scoring column with 7 rebounds and 18 points. Alison Lacey was held to single digits for only the second time this season (8). KSU's Ashley Sweat scored 13 to lead the Wildcats, who fell to 12-16, 4-10. Iowa State improved to 22-5, 10-4 and remained tied for 2nd place in the league with Oklahoma. The Cyclones are now only five wins away from giving Coach Fennelly his 500th career win.

Oklahoma beat Texas, 75-60. OU's Nyeshia Stevenson dropped in six 3 pointers for 28 points. After Texas made a small run to cut the Sooner's lead to 33-23 at the break, OU scored seven more points, causing Texas Coach Goestenkors to call a time-out and replace all five players that were on the floor in a effort to make a point and try to stop the bleeding. It didn't work. Coming out of the time-out, Stevenson knocked down that sixth 3. The teams combined for 41 turnovers, but OU managed to shoot over 47% for the game, while Texas managed only 30%. Oklahoma led by as many as 26 as they handed UT it's third straight loss after winning six in a row.

Nebraska handled Missouri, 67-51, in front of the first sell-out at the Davaney Center for a women's basketball game - 13,595 people. The Big 12 presented the regular season trophy to the Huskers after the game and they cut down the nets as well. Kelsey Griffin scored 19 points on 1-10 shooting, but was 17-18 from the free throw line. She also grabbed 17 rebounds. Missouri was led by BreAnna Brock with 21 points. Mizzou falls to 1-13 in the league with the loss.

Texas A&M beat up on Colorado, 95-61. In the loss, Bianca Smith became Colorado's all-time leader in 3 pointers made with 255. Smith totaled 22 points, while Brittany Spears was held to 7 after notching 60 in the previous two games. Adaora Elonu led A&M with 21 points, while four other Aggies were in double figures.

Tomorrow's schedule looks like this:

Oklahoma State at Texas Tech, Fox Sports Net 12:00 p.m.
Kansas at Baylor, ESPN2 4:00 p.m.

Texas Tech is still trying to play it's way into the NCAA tournament. A home win against another ranked team would look good for the resume'. OSU is just trying to stay afloat. I think they are in even with another loss due to the strength of the league and their over-all rpi and schedule ratings.

If Kansas doesn't win this game (as mentioned in a previous post above), I think they're looking at another WNIT year. Their freshmen are playing lights-out, but I just don't think it's enough with their remaining schedule. Baylor is trying to move into a tie for 4th place with A&M and Texas. Both A&M and Baylor have been climbing the standings after poor starts to first half of the conference season. Of course, everyone wants that all-important first round bye in the Big 12 tournament. Man, from the quarterfinals onward, it's going to be a bloodbath.

The league standings as of Saturday night:

Nebraska------------- 14-0, 27-0
Iowa State----------- 10-4, 22-5
Oklahoma------------ 10-4, 20-8
Texas A&M------------ 8-6, 20-7
Texas------------------ 8-6, 19-9
Baylor----------------- 7-6, 20-7
Oklahoma State------ 7-6, 19-8
Texas Tech------------ 5-8, 17-10
Kansas----------------- 5-8, 15-11
Kansas State---------- 4-10, 12-16
Colorado--------------- 3-11, 13-14
Missouri---------------- 1-13, 11-16

Both Baylor and Oklahoma State took care of business today. Baylor dismantled Kansas, 70-47, in Waco. Kansas could never get any offensive momentum and trailed by as many as 12 in the first half before a small run cut the deficit to four points with under five minutes to play in the first half. The Bears went into the lockerroom with a 12 point lead (35-23). An 11-4 run to begin the second half put Baylor up 19 and they never looked back from there. BU's Brittany Griner had 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Bears. KU's Carolyn Davis was the only Jayhawk to score more than 6 points - she had 15. Baylor is guaranteed no worse than a .500 record in conference play, now standing at 8-6. Kansas can finish no better than 7-9.

Oklahoma State beat Texas Tech in Lubbock, 80-70, in spite of Tech hitting 13 of 25 three point shots. Tech held a four point lead (52-48) with fifteen minutes to play, but OSU went on a 13-3 run to take the lead for good and win their 8th league game and 20th overall. Andrea Riley led the Cowgirls with 21 points, while Jordan Murphree notched 21 for the Red Raiders. Tech is still in the same boat as Kansas with a 5-9 Big 12 record and games remaining against Baylor (home) and Missouri (away). The game at Columbia seems to lean more towards a "W" than not, but Mizzou has played many of the better teams in the league fairly well, coming up short at the end (except for the lone win against Baylor). If Tech can drain 3s against Baylor and find ways to stop them from scoring, they could reach seven league wins - possibly enough to get an at-large invitation to the Big Dance when paired with at least one win in the Big 12 tournament. A lot of "ifs," I know, but it could happen. One more loss and they're looking at the WNIT or simply staying home (Curry has turned down a WNIT invitation in the past with Tech).

There is now a four-way tie for fourth place in the league at 8-6 with Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma State. Fortunately, there are still two games left for everyone, so it is unlikely a four-way tie breaker will need to be used. Iowa State has guaranteed itself a finish no worse that 4th, meaning a first round bye in the Big 12 tournament (a bye goes to each of the top 4 seeds). Nebraska has the #1 seed locked up. Iowa State and Oklahoma appear to be in control of #s 2 and 3 as of now. The real battle appears to be for that 4th spot.

I will post up-to-date league standings along with new rpi numbers Monday.

News on the Big 10...

The Big 10 regular season ended with a thud today. Ohio State had already wrapped up the regular season title and #1 seed for the conference tournament. Michigan State emerged to finish three games back (12-6) in second place. Purdue had been running in second place much of the season in spite of hovering around .500 nearly the entire time. The Boilermakers fell to 5th place (9-9) and one game below .500 overall. Only a healthy run in the Big 10 tournament will get them into any kind of post-season play. The biggest surprise is that Iowa managed to finish 10-8, good enough to tie for 3rd place with Wisconsin (whom they swept this season, including an overtime win today). Honestly, with as poorly as Iowa has played the last few years, the fact that they can still finish in the top four of their conference year after year speaks volumes as to the level of mediocrity in the Big 10 for women's hoops. Only three games separated third place from tenth place this year.

Big 10 end-of-regular-season standings:

Ohio State----------15-3, 27-4
Michigan State-----12-6, 21-8
Wisconsin-----------10-8, 20-9
Iowa-----------------10-8, 17-12
Purdue---------------9-9, 14-15
Michigan-------------8-10, 16-12
Penn State----------8-10, 16-12
Northwestern-------7-11, 16-13
Illinois---------------7-11, 15-13
Indiana--------------7-11, 14-15
Minnesota-----------6-12, 13-16

Here are the current Big 12 standings and rpi ratings.

(rpi, team, B-12 record)

4 Nebraska 14-0
20 Iowa State 10-4
7 Oklahoma 10-4
11 Baylor 8-6
8 Texas A&M 8-6
13 Oklahoma State 8-6
16 Texas 8-6
35 Texas Tech 5-9
37 Kansas 5-9
102 Kansas State 4-10
99 Colorado 3-11
107 Missouri 1-13


New AP poll released today:

1. Connecticut (40) 29-0, 1000
2. Stanford 27-1, 959
3. Nebraska 27-0, 920
4. Tennessee 27-2, 880
5. Xavier 24-3, 822
6. Notre Dame 25-3, 764
7. West Virginia 26-3, 726
8. Florida State 26-4, 708
9. Duke 24-5, 692
10. Ohio State 27-4, 683
11. Oklahoma 20-8, 582
12. Georgetown 24-5, 533
13. Iowa State 22-5, 509
14. Baylor 21-7, 494
15. Texas A&M 20-7, 443
16. St. John's 23-5, 385
17. Gonzaga 25-4, 286
18. Texas 19-9, 274
19. Kentucky 23-6, 248
20. Oklahoma State 20-8, 214
21. LSU 20-8, 189
22. Georgia 22-7, 174
23. Hartford 25-3, 135
24. Virginia 21-8, 96
25. Michigan State 21-8, 77

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES:
Georgia Tech 44, TCU 34, UCLA 27, Fresno State 22, Wisconsin-Green Bay 20, Middle Tennessee 15, Arkansas-Little Rock 12, Vanderbilt 10, Princeton 6, Dayton 5, North Carolina 5, Bowling Green 3, DePaul 2, Illinois State 1, Wisconsin 1

The ESPN poll was released this afternoon:

1. Connecticut (31) 30-0, 775
2. Stanford 27-1, 737
3. Nebraska 27-0, 720
4. Tennessee 27-2, 681
5. Xavier 24-3, 652
6. Florida State 26-4, 595
7. Notre Dame 25-4, 569
8. Duke 24-5, 534
9. West Virginia 26-4, 508
10. Ohio State 27-4, 486
11. Georgetown 25-5, 485
12. Oklahoma 20-8, 462
13. Iowa State 22-5, 422
14. Texas A&M 20-7, 355
15. Baylor 21-7, 326
16. St. John's 24-5, 291
17. Gonzaga 25-4, 237
18. Kentucky 23-6, 234
19. Virginia 21-8, 201
20. Oklahoma State 20-8, 160
21. Hartford 25-3, 137
22. Texas 19-9, 124
23. Michigan State 21-8, 79
24. Georgia 22-7, 68
25. UCLA 20-7, 38

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES:
Vanderbilt 33, Dayton 30, LSU 26, Princeton 20, Middle Tennessee 18, Gardner-Webb 15, Arkansas-Little Rock 10, North Carolina 9, Wisconsin-Green Bay 9, Fresno State 7, Lehigh 5, TCU 5, Georgia Tech 4, DePaul 3, James Madison 2, Syracuse 2, Vermont 1


The schedule for mid-week games looks like this - virtually nothing on tv, though:

Tuesday, March 02:
Oklahoma at Texas A&M 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, March 03:
Baylor at Texas Tech 7:00 p.m.
Iowa State at Oklahoma State, CSN (local) 7:00 p.m.
Missouri at Texas 7:00 p.m.
Kansas at Nebraska 7:00 p.m.
Kansas State at Colorado 8:00 p.m.

Missouri will have a new coach next year. This from AP via espn.com:

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri coach Cindy Stein has announced she will step down after the season.

The school released a statement on its Web site on Monday saying that Stein will "actively coach" until the team's last game of the season "whenever that may be."

The Tigers (11-16, 1-13 Big 12) have lost nine straight with two regular season games remaining at Texas and at Texas Tech.

Stein is 184-175 in 12 seasons with the Tigers and reached NCAA regional semifinals in 2001. Missouri hasn't qualified for the tournament since 2006 and is 12-50 in Big 12 play since.

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

Stein wasn't going to have her contract renewed, so she's not exactly 'stepping down' so much as not being able to return if she wanted to. It will be interesting to see what Mizzou's AD ends up doing - the Tigers have woefully underfunded women's athletics for some time and there is little reason to believe they will start doing any better now. Most coaches would have their hands full rebuilding this program, even the best ones, especially if they aren't getting much support from the administration. It might be hard to lure a quality name to Columbia without a renewed commitment to women's basketball on the part of the University.

Oklahoma took a beating last night, losing at Texas A&M, 78-55. The deficit at the break was 19 (43-24), but the Sooners never made a run in the second half and never got closer than 13 points. OU was 0-8 from 3 point land and shot just under 30% for the game. A&M put 44% of their shots in the basket. OU did have an advantage from the line, going 21-24 (7 more makes than the Aggies), but it wasn't enough to overcome poor shooting from the field. A&M had four players score in double figures, led by Tanisha Smith with 19. OU was led by Danielle Robinson with 16 (8 from the line).

The loss (temporarily, at least) drops Oklahoma into third place by one half game. The win for A&M lifts them to sole possession of 4th place (again, for now). Everyone else plays tonight, so things are bound to change once again. Iowa State has an opportunity to lock up the 2 seed for the Big 12 tournament with a win tonight at Oklahoma State.

Scores from tonight:

Baylor 69, Texas Tech 60
Nebraska 77, Kansas 52
Texas 60, Missouri 41
Oklahoma State 78, Iowa State 70

I can't even begin to say how disappointed I am in the result of Iowa State's game at Stillwater. Not because we lost, necessarily, but because Alison Lacey didn't even make the trip down - she was sick. So, once again, for a big road game, our leading scorer is out before the opening tip. We actually played pretty well at certain points. ISU led early, 8-4, then had to play catch-up after suffering another long scoring drought (nearly seven minutes) to end the first half. OSU led by 10 at the break (38-28). We scored 5 quick points to cut the deficit in half before the Cowgirls went on another run to open up an 11 point lead. The Cyclones tied it up at 57, but went through another four minutes without a point. OSU built another 10 point lead and Iowa State had to start fouling. OSU's Andrea Riley scored 14 of her 32 points from the line (she bricked 17 of her 25 field goal attempts). They also got 20 points from Tegan Cunningham. Iowa State was led by Kelsey Bolte with 20 points - she also made six 3 point shots (on 17 attempts). Three other Cyclones scored in double figures and the bench chipped in 22 points. On the plus side, the 3s started falling again for ISU - after hitting only one against Kansas State, the Cylcones dropped in 13 against the Cowgirls. Also a plus, freshman Chelsea Poppens pulled down an amazing 17 rebounds!

I have to say that while Iowa State didn't do a particularly good job defending tonight, OSU was bailed out time and time again by the whistle. Riley had several drives where she was simply out of control and fouls would be called on ISU. Plus there was at least one phantom foul where the replay showed no contact whatsoever by Bolte on a Cowgirl shot attempt. There is no way OSU should have been at the line 27 times to ISU's 11. Yeah, yeah, yeah, bitching isn't going to change the outcome of the game. Iowa State remains in a tie with Oklahoma for 2nd place, but now the game on Saturday with Colorado is critical. With so many teams within a game of one another now in the top half of the standings, another loss could spell disaster (and missing out on the first round bye in the Big 12 tournament).

Baylor beat Texas Tech, 69-60. Brittney Griner scored 21, but was ejected from the game for throwing a punch at Tech's Jordan Barncastle. Barncastle fouled Griner under the basket and apparently shoved her in the face. Griner foolishly retaliated by taking a swing (and hitting her mark). No immediate word on how long Griner will be suspended from coach Kim Mulkey. I believe it is mandatory to sit one game after an ejection like that, plus more if the coach feels it necessary to make a point. Mulkey hinted that may be the case. I'll keep an eye on the situation. Anyway, Baylor had led up to that point, 51-31, but the lead was cut to 5 (60-55) with three minutes to play. The Bears hit their free throws the rest of the way and held on for the win. Texas Tech committed 23 fouls, sending Baylor to the line 30 times (they only made 19 shots, though), which didn't help the Red Raiders any. This loss probably puts Tech out of reach for the NCAAs, barring a big run in the conference tournament. (The punch was just posted on youtube - check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ade3-Wya7w0 )

Texas had a pretty easy time with Missouri as the Tigers suffered through another dismal offensive night. Jessra Johnson led MU in scoring with 10. Texas was led by Brittainey Raven with 13. Texas is part of the log-jam for 4th place at 9-6.

Nebraska fans had to suffer through another yawner as NU rolled to its 28th straight win, 77-52, over Kansas. KU's high scorers were Annette Davis and Monica Engelman, each with 9 points. Kelsey Griffin again led the Huskers with 18 points. Like Tech, this loss pretty much wraps up their hopes for an at-large bid to the NCAAs (although it probably happened with the previous loss). Nebraska keeps their grip on a likely #1 seed in the big Dance. At this point, I doubt there is much they could do to lose that top seed.

Kansas State beat Colorado in Boulder, 72-70, for its first road win since January 13th and ended a five game skid. Five Wildcats scored between 11 and 15 points each, with Kari Kincaid leading the way. CU was led by Brittany Spears with 19.

Here is the schedule for the final regular season games this weekend:

Saturday, March 06:
Nebraska at Kansas State 12:00 p.m.
Colorado at Iowa State 2:00 p.m.
Texas A&M at Kansas, Sunflower Network (local) 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, March 07:
Texas Tech at Missouri 1:00 p.m.
Texas at Baylor, FSN (national) 2:30 p.m.
Oklahoma State at Oklahoma, SSN (local) 4:00 p.m.

Standings in the Big 12 heading into the final weekend of the regular season:

Nebraska-------------- 15-0, 28-0
Iowa State------------ 10-5, 22-6
Oklahoma------------- 10-5, 20-9
Baylor------------------ 9-6, 22-7
Texas A&M------------- 9-6, 21-7
Oklahoma State------- 9-6, 21-8
Texas------------------ 9-6, 20-9
Texas Tech------------ 5-10, 17-12
Kansas----------------- 5-10, 15-13
Kansas State---------- 5-10, 13-16
Colorado--------------- 3-12, 13-15
Missouri---------------- 1-14, 11-17

ESPN.com has a good article by feature writer Mechelle Voepel about Baylor's Brittney Griner situation from last night. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/columns/stor...&id=4964568

On the Brittney Griner/Jordan Barncastle incident from Big12sports.com:

During last night's Big 12 women's basketball game between Baylor University and Texas Tech University, Baylor's Brittney Griner was ejected for a fighting act. By NCAA rule (Rule 10.7), Griner is automatically suspended for the next contest (the March 7 game versus the University of Texas). In addition, Big 12 Conference Commissioner Dan Beebe has accepted Baylor's action of suspending Griner for the opening game of the Big 12 Championship.

"Due to the severity of the act, it is appropriate that Ms. Griner is suspended for an additional game," said Commissioner Beebe. "Therefore, I have accepted Baylor's action and commend athletics director Ian McCaw and head coach Kim Mulkey for taking a strong stance to support good sportsmanship."

Along with the fighting act, players and/or personnel from both institutions violated NCAA rules by leaving the bench area when an altercation occurred. The head coach is the only individual who may leave the bench area to prevent a situation from escalating and others who enter the court are to be ejected for the remainder of the game by the officials. Unfortunately, the officials were not able to determine those individuals who left the bench area. The Big 12 also is issuing a public reprimand to both basketball programs for failure of their teams to comply with this rule.

"We are proud of the athletic success the Big 12 Conference has enjoyed in women's basketball, and we expect proportionate excellence in sportsmanship from our student-athletes and coaches," said Beebe. "I have advised both institutions that future violations of the sportsmanship code will result in more severe penalties."

***

So, at least Kim Mulkey added another game on top of Griner having to sit out Baylor's final regular season game against Texas. She'll have to sit out their first Big 12 tournament game as well. I'm not sure it's enough, considering what happened, but it's better than nothing. In case you are interested, here is another link to the punch. It shows more of what happened during the play so you can see how physical it was getting under the basket.

http://tinyurl.com/yehfo6g


Also, bad news for Iowa State (from the Des Moines Register)...

Iowa State point guard Alison Lacey will miss Saturday's game against Colorado with a bronchial illness that also kept her out of Wednesday's loss at Oklahoma State.

Lacey contracted mononucleosis at the end of last season, but coach Bill Fennelly said that has been ruled out as the cause this time.

"She has trouble breathing, she's really run down," Fennelly said. "She doesn't have mono. It's some kind of normal Midwest sickness where it's fatigue and she can't breathe. She's better today, but not anywhere near where we would gamble at all to play her on Saturday."

Lacey, a 6-foot senior, is Iowa State's leader in scoring and assists, at 17.1 points and 6.7 assists per game. She leads the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Saturday's game is Iowa State's final game of the regular season and also its senior day. However, Fennelly said he wants Lacey to rest up for next week's Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City. The Cyclones, 22-6 and tied for second in the conference at 10-5, will receive a first-round bye and open play on March 12.
"We have to figure out the best way for our team to have its best chance in the postseason, and our best chance is to have 'Aus' as rested and as ready to go as possible," Fennelly said. "We don't play again until next Friday, so that gives her a whole another week to get rested up and ready to go."

***

Definitely NOT what ISU needs at this point in the season, especially on senior day. Hopefully since we know Aus won't be playing on Saturday, they will be a little more prepared to come out and get a win without her on the court.

Scores from today:

Iowa State 59, Colorado 41
Nebraska 82, Kansas State 72
Texas A&M 78, Kansas 54

Iowa State managed to get Alison Lacey on the floor (and the start) for senior day - for two seconds. She was announced during starting line-ups along with the four other seniors, they tipped the ball, and we immediately fouled Colorado so a substitution could be made. Lacey is still recovering from a respiratory infection that has sidelined her since last weekend, but was well enough to dress for the game, take the floor for the last time as a regular season starter, and make her speech with her parents from Australia at her side when the 59-41 win over CU was over.

Fortunately, Iowa State didn't need her services today. Kelsey Bolte led ISU with 19 points, while Anna Prins added 12 and Chelsea Poppens had 10 to go with 9 rebounds. Senior Denae Stuckey had 9 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and 0 turnovers in 37 minutes (and the loudest ovation during post-game senior day introductions). Colorado was led in scoring by Alyssa Fressle (pronounced fress-lee) with 10 points. Scoring leader, Brittany Spears had 8 points, all in the first half. She didn't return to the game after the break - word is she has been battling some sort of flu bug. CU 3 point specialist, Bianca Smith, was held scoreless, going 0-6 from the floor. Iowa State closed out the game on a 12-0 run. With the win, ISU locked up the 2nd seed for the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City next week. The Cyclones will play the winner of the 7-10 game on Friday. Seeds 3-10 have yet to be decided.

Nebraska became the first Big 12 team since the league's formation in 1996 to have an undefeated season (29-0). Oklahoma went 16-0 in conference games a few years back, but no team has even gone an entire regular season without a loss. Today in Manhattan, they had to come back from 11 down in the first half and 8 down at the break (45-38) against Kansas State to win 82-72. The second half began with an 18-3 run that put the Huskers in command. The Wildcats never got within 8 points in the final ten minutes of play. NU's Kelsey Griffin scored a career high 36 points, going 15-19 from the floor. Ashley Sweat , Kansas State's #3 all-time leading scorer, put up 24 points to lead KSU in points in her final game at Bramlage Coliseum. Nebraska has likely locked up a #1 NCAA seed regardless of what happens in Kansas City this coming week.

Texas A&M blasted Kansas at Lawrence, 78-54. The Aggies forced 30 turnovers in the game, 20 in the first half alone. Danielle Adams scored 18 for A&M in only 20 minutes on the floor. Kansas couldn't get any offense going - Aishah Sutherland led KU in points with 13. What seemed to be such a promising season for Kansas has (nearly) ended in disappointment. KU was picked to finish in 2nd place in the Big 12 at the start of the season, but is now in a muddled situation, looking at tie-breakers to determine if they finish in 8th, 9th, or 10th place (they tied with Kansas State, but split the season series with them).

Scores from today (comments later on Monday):

Oklahoma 95, Oklahoma State 62
Texas 70, Baylor 54
Missouri 58, Texas Tech 55, OT

Missouri picked up it's second conference win in the final regular season game for both the Tigers and Raiders. The game was close throughout and came down to Missouri going to the line more and fouling less than Texas Tech. Jessra Johnson put up 18 points for Mizzou, while Kierra Mallard had 17 for Tech. Even with the win, Missouri is the 12 seed in the Big 12 tournament, while Tech is the 8 based on holding the tie-breakers over Kansas and Kansas State.

Oklahoma set a school record with 16 made 3s against Oklahoma State in Norman, winning by 33 points. The lead was 19 at the break and OU never looked back after that. OU's Amanda Thompson scored a career high 29 points along with 11 boards on 11-15 shooting, including 4 of 4 from beyond the arc. OSU was led by Andrea Riley (duh) with 25 points. OU secured the 3 seed, while OSU dropped to the 7.

I was commenting watching the UT/BU game in the first half, wondering if Gail Goestenkors is considering leaving Texas for an easier conference. She and her team looked lost heading into halftime as they trailed a Brittney Griner-less Baylor by 4 and had no spark nor energy the last ten minutes of the first half. Something must've clicked in the lockerroom, or Gail yelled at them like she never had before because Texas came out and blew Baylor away, eventually going on a 19-0 run to take a 21 point lead. The defense played well enough for the 'Horns that Baylor did not score it's first second half basket until 4:44 remained in the game. Texas won by 16 and locked up the 5 seed for the Big 12 tournament. Baylor dropped to the 6 seed.


Final standings:

Nebraska--------------16-0, 29-0
Iowa State------------11-5, 23-6
Oklahoma-------------11-5, 21-9
Texas A&M ------------10-6, 22-7
Texas------------------10-6, 21-9
Baylor------------------9-7, 22-8
Oklahoma State-------9-7, 21-9
Texas Tech------------5-11, 17-13
Kansas-----------------5-11, 15-14
Kansas State----------5-11, 13-17
Colorado---------------3-13, 13-16
Missouri----------------2-14, 12-17


This is how the Big 12 tournament schedule will look later this week...

Thursday, March 11 (Metro Sports - KC area):
Game 1: No. 9 Kansas State vs. No.8 Texas Tech, 11:00 a.m.
Game 2: No. 12 Missouri vs. No. 5 Texas, 1:30 p.m.
Game 3: No. 10 Kansas vs. No. 7 Oklahoma State, 5:00 p.m.
Game 4: No. 11 Colorado vs. No. 6 Baylor, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, March 12 (Fox Sports Net - national):
Game 5: Game 1 Winner vs. No. 1 Nebraska, 11:00 a.m.
Game 6: Game 2 Winner vs. No. 4 Texas A&M, 1:30 p.m.
Game 7: Game 3 Winner vs. No. 2 Iowa State, 5:00 p.m.
Game 8: Game 4 Winner vs. No. 3 Oklahoma, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 13 (Fox Sports Net - national):
Game 9: Game 5 Winner vs. Game 6 Winner, 12:00 p.m.
Game 10: Game 7 Winner vs. Game 8 Winner, 2:30 p.m.

Sunday, March 14 (Fox Sports Net - national):
Game 11: Game 9 Winner vs. Game 10 Winner, 12:30 p.m.

The Big 12's end of the year awards were announced today. I think they pretty much went as expected, but I was personally happy to see Iowa State get some recognition.

2009-10 PHILLIPS 66 ALL-BIG 12 AWARDS:
Coach of the Year: Connie Yori, Nebraska
Player of the Year: Kelsey Griffin, Nebraska
Newcomer of the Year: Danielle Adams, Texas A&M
Freshman of the Year: Brittney Griner, Baylor
Co-Defensive Players of the Year: Brittney Griner, Baylor and Yvonne Turner, Nebraska
Sixth Man Award: Bianca Smith, Colorado

All-Big 12 First Team:
player, school, height, class (alphabetical by school)
Brittney Griner, Baylor, 6-8 Fr
Alison Lacey, Iowa State, 6-0 Sr
Ashley Sweat, Kansas State, 6-2 Sr
Kelsey Griffin, Nebraska, 6-2 Sr
Cory Montgomery, Nebraska, 6-2 Sr
Yvonne Turner, Nebraska, 5-8 Sr
Danielle Robinson, Oklahoma, 5-9 Jr
Amanda Thompson, Oklahoma, 6-1 Sr
Andrea Riley, Oklahoma State, 5-5 Sr
Tanisha Smith, Texas A&M, 6-0 Sr

(Lacey, Griffin, Robinson and Riley are unanimous 2009-10 First Team selections)

All-Big 12 Second Team:
player, school, height, class (alphabetical by school)
Danielle McCray, Kansas, 5-11 Sr
Nyeshia Stevenson, Oklahoma, 5-9 Sr
Tegan Cunningham, Oklahoma State, 6-1 Sr
Brittainey Raven , Texas, 6-0 Sr
Danielle Adams, Texas A&M , 6-1 Jr

All-Big 12 Honorable Mention: (alphabetical by school)
Kelli Griffin (Baylor), Morghan Medlock (Baylor), Brittany Spears (Colorado), Kelsey Bolte (Iowa State), RaeShara Brown (Missouri), Jessra Johnson (Missouri), Dominique Kelley (Nebraska), Ashleigh Fontenette (Texas), Kathleen Nash (Texas), Sydney Carter (Texas A&M), Jordan Murphree (Texas Tech), Ashlee Roberson (Texas Tech)

Big 12 All-Defensive Team:
player, school, height, class (alphabetical by school)
Brittney Griner, Baylor, 6-8 Fr
Denae Stuckey, Iowa State, 5-8 Sr
Kelsey Griffin, Nebraska, 6-2 Sr
Yvonne Turner, Nebraska, 5-8 Sr
Danielle Robinson, Oklahoma, 5-9 Jr

Big 12 All-Freshman Team:
player, school, height, class (alphabetical by school)
Brittney Griner, Baylor, 6-8 Fr
Anna Prins, Iowa State, 6-7 Fr
Carolyn Davis, Kansas, 6-3 Fr
Lindsey Moore, Nebraska, 5-9 Fr
Cokie Reed, Texas, 6-4 Fr

The only thing I would change would be to have Chelsea Poppens be the Iowa State representative for the All-Freshman team. I think she has improved the most and been the definite go-to person after Lacey and Bolte, especially over the last six weeks). To be fair, Prins has battled injury and illness and hasn't been able to improve the way Poppens has. As a nice cap to the regular season, the Big 12 named Poppens the Freshman of the Week today. She averaged 10.5 points and 13 rebounds over two games. She's the third different Cyclone to nab than honor this season.

Here's the new ESPN poll that came out today:

1. Connecticut (30) 32-0, 750
2. Stanford 28-1, 716
3. Nebraska 29-0, 694
4. Tennessee 30-2, 659
5. Xavier 27-3, 628
6. Duke 27-5, 584
7. Notre Dame 27-5, 566
8. West Virginia 28-4, 528
9. Ohio State 30-4, 520
10. Florida State 26-5, 444
11. Texas A&M 22-7, 421
12. Oklahoma 21-9, 396
13. Georgetown 25-6, 387
14. Iowa State 23-6, 359
15. Gonzaga 27-4, 298
16. Kentucky 25-7, 276
17. St. John's 24-6, 272
18. Baylor 22-8, 252
19. Hartford 27-3, 192
20. Texas 21-9, 181
21. Oklahoma State 21-9, 176
22. Virginia 21-9, 115
23. UCLA 22-7, 95
24. Michigan State 22-9, 50
25. Middle Tennessee 24-5, 24

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES:
Georgia 22, Princeton 20, Vanderbilt 19, Arkansas-Little Rock 17, Gardner-Webb 15, LSU 11, Iowa 10, Fresno State 9, Dayton 8, Wisconsin-Green Bay 8, DePaul 5, Marist 5, James Madison 4, TCU 4, Lehigh 3, Rutgers 2, Vermont 2, Western Kentucky 2, Syracuse 1

I thought it would be interesting to post the final standings (in order of tie-breakers) and show where the pre-season predictions said teams would end up.

(teams in Big 12 tournament seeding order, October prediction in parenthesis)
Nebraska (6)
Iowa State (7)
Oklahoma (5)
Texas A&M (4)
Texas (2 - tie)
Baylor (1)
Oklahoma State (9)
Texas Tech (10)
Kansas State (8)
Kansas (2 - tie)
Colorado (11)
Missouri (12)

Three of the predicted top four finished fifth or lower and the middle of the pack moved up to claim the top three spots. This is the first time two north teams have ever finished 1-2 in the final standings. NU and ISU benefitted by having the southern teams beat up on one another. Only Colorado and Missouri ended up where people thought they would. Texas A&M finished in the "right" spot, but that can be at least partly attributed to tie-breakers and a wild final two weeks of the season.

Injuries and youth hurt Baylor and Kansas. Although in the case of Kansas, youth ultimately kept them in games through the end of the season - it just didn't help them win many of them. Youth was the saving grace for Iowa State as nearly 70% of playing time was taken up by underclassmen, while experience paved the way for Nebraska's record-setting run through the regular season (thanks to six seniors). In the case of both Iowa State and Oklahoma, never count out brilliant coaching strategies to come up with game plans against teams that, on paper, should come away with a win.

Scores from the Big 12 first round games from Kansas City. I watched the first three in person, but bailed on the fourth (Baylor vs. Colorado) and was worried I missed the only upset of the day. I worried for nothing.

Baylor 72, Colorado 65
Oklahoma State 76, Kansas 69
Texas 64, Missouri 59
Kansas State 59, Texas Tech 51

Here's the schedule for Friday's games (all times Central, televised on Fox Sports):

Nebraska vs. Kansas State, FSN @ 11:00 a.m.
Texas A&M vs. Texas, FSN @ 1:30 p.m.
Iowa State vs. Oklahoma State, FSN @ 5:00 p.m.
Oklahoma vs. Baylor, FSN @ 7:30 p.m.

Again, a quickie post about results, including the suck-tastic quarterfinals.

Quarterfinals from Friday:
Oklahoma 59, Baylor 54
Oklahoma State 62, Iowa State 59
Texas A&M 77, Texas 64
Nebraska 63, Kansas State 46

Semifinals from Saturday:
Oklahoma 74, Oklahoma State 69
Texas A&M 80, Nebraska 70

Finals from Sunday:
Texas A&M 74, Oklahoma 67

So, Texas A&M gets the automatic bid to the NCAAs. I got to see all but three games - Colorado/Baylor on Thursday, Oklahoma/Baylor on Friday, and the finals on Sunday (we had left town before the game started).

Iowa State could not figure out how to guard OSU's Andrea Riley in the quarterfinals. She scored 43 points, setting the all-time Big 12 scoring record set just last year by Oklahoma's Courtney Paris. Here's the thing - she took 44 shots to get those 43 points. Iowa State only took 51 as a team. Anyway, she kept running around screens and hitting open jumpers. We never made an adjustment the entire game to try and take that away from them, something I attribute to a bad coaching decision. Fennelly doesn't make many, but this was one of them. Plus we had the worst officials of all-time. Maybe not all-time, but they sucked. Couldn't be consistent in foul calling if they tried. ISU started in a 22-7 hole, but got to within four at the break and even took a five point lead in the second half. With around five to play, it was tied at 50, but we didn't have it in us to get stops when we needed them. So, Oklahoma State moved on to the semi-finals (gave me a rare chance to be a Sooner fan).

Nebraska suffered it's first loss on Saturday to Texas A&M. A&M looked like they were not going to be denied as soon as they took to the court. They pounced immediately and never looked back. The lead was 11 at the half and it grew to as much as 19 in the second period. NU closed the gap late to make it look more respectable, but they were held in check by the Aggies the entire final 20 minutes.

Oklahoma was able to guard OSU's Riley effectively in the other semifinal. The Cowgirls started the game leading 16-4, but OU had caught up and taken the lead early in the second half. It went back and forth until the end when they were able to hold OSU off in the final seconds with free throws.

Texas A&M took advantage of an exhausted (and small) Oklahoma line-up. OU kept up with A&M , tying the score three times in the second half, but never taking the lead. Defensively, A&M has really turned up the heat and kept teams from doing what they like to do. A&M's Danielle Adams was named MVP for the tournament - pretty good for not being a starter.