Kansas City, Mo — Iowa State earned the best of the Big 12 Conference's six NCAA Tournament bids Sunday even though the No. 7 Cyclones weren't anywhere near the site of the Big 12 championship game when the bids came out.
And the selection committee further mystified conference coaches and players when it didn't send a Big 12 team to the Midwest Regional's first-round game in Kansas City.
No. 9 Kansas, Missouri, No. 7 Iowa State, Oklahoma State, No. 20 Oklahoma all within a day's drive of Kemper Arena were all sent elsewhere. Kansas was assigned to the Midwest Regional, but the Jayhawks open at Dayton, Ohio.
Oklahoma State, which saw 10 members of its traveling party killed in a January plane crash, is just glad to be going anywhere.
The Cowboys (20-9) were made the 11th seed in the East regional. They will play No. 6 seed Southern California (21-9) on Thursday at Uniondale, N.Y.
"It doesn't make any difference as long as we make the big dance," Sutton said. "I was really thrilled and so happy for our team. It means so much to them after what they've been through. I think they've been very courageous to get their team to this point."
Iowa State is the NCAA's No. 2 seed in the Mideast Regional, despite being stunned by Baylor in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament. The Cyclones (25-5) play Hampton (24-6) on Thursday at Boise, Idaho.
"I was like, 'Where's Boise at?'" Iowa State forward Martin Rancik said. "I mean, it's not the most attractive spot in the United States. But it's the NCAA Tournament and no matter where we go, we've got to take care of business."
Iowa State's position is two seeds better than tournament champion Oklahoma and four better than runner-up Texas which didn't sit well with either of those two teams.
"Why play a tough nonleague schedule if you're not going to be rewarded for it?" said Texas coach Rick Barnes, whose 20th-ranked Longhorns dropped to the sixth seed in the South Regional after falling 54-45 to No. 16 Oklahoma in the conference title game. "It doesn't make sense. They say 'Go out and play a tough schedule,' which we did, and to come out with a sixth seed it is disappointing."
If anyone deserved a No. 2 seed, Barnes said, it was the Sooners.
"I said coming in that the winner of this tournament deserves a No. 2 seed," said Barnes, whose Longhorns (25-8) meet Temple (21-12) in the first round at New Orleans. "Oklahoma should have had that seed. They ended up winning more games in Big 12 competition than anyone all year, and they deserved a better seeding than they got."
Instead, the Sooners (26-6) also in the South were given a No. 4 seed and will meet 13th-seeded Indiana State (21-11) on Friday in the first round at Memphis, Tenn.
They groaned when they heard their seeding.
"We played well enough to earn a three seed," said Nolan Johnson, the Big 12 tournament MVP. "Not many teams beat three great teams in three days. This wasn't an easy weekend for us."
The Sooners defeated three NCAA-bound teams in the Big 12 tournament including Kansas, the No. 4 seed in the Midwest.
And Missouri (19-12), which appeared to be on the bubble after a quarterfinal loss to the Sooners, is the No. 9 seed in the East Regional and will play Georgia (16-14) on Thursday at Greensboro, N.C.
"I never had any doubt in my mind," said forward Kareem Rush, named to the All-Tournament team on Sunday. "This is a tribute to the team we have and the kind of team we can be."
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.