Kansas City, Mo. ? If the Big 12 Conference is going to cash a bigger NCAA Tournament check than it did last year, Texas had better get its short-handed act together in a hurry.

Or maybe Iowa State — yes, Iowa State — will ride to the rescue. The streaking Cyclones, once given up for dead, are turning into one of the Big 12’s most intriguing stories.

The good old days for the Big 12, not so long ago, saw six teams get into the NCAA Tourney and swell conference coffers with all that money. Then last year, only four teams made it. Now, with Texas lacking healthy players, that could happen again.

With only a couple of weeks to go in the regular season, No. 3 Kansas University (20-1, 10-0 Big 12) is angling for a No. 1 seed as well as an unbeaten conference season. Tenth-ranked Oklahoma State (19-3, 9-2) also is certain to be right there.

Beyond that, things get murky, with No. 25 Texas Tech (15-6, 7-3) and No. 16 Oklahoma (17-6, 6-4) each having sustained hurtful losses Saturday. But they have the players, the well known coaches and probably the records that are good enough to qualify unless the bottom drops out between now and Selection Sunday on March 13.

The problem for the Big 12 could be Texas (16-7, 5-5). The Longhorns could be in trouble even though they won a game they absolutely had to have Saturday, getting 14 points in overtime from Daniel Gibson to put away Kansas State, 75-72.

Only once since the Big 12 was formed in 1996 have the Longhorns failed to make the NCAA Tournament. But they can’t afford to falter any more during the regular season. Gibson and his teammates have six games left and will need to go at least 3-3 to be in decent position going into the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City.

Road games are at Baylor, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. Left at home are Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Missouri. Baylor seems like a winnable road game, and Missouri hasn’t won on anyone’s floor but its own all year.

Oklahoma and Texas Tech, in the meantime, did themselves no favors Saturday with losses on the road. The Sooners blew a big lead and lost in overtime, 68-65, to Missouri (11-13, 3-8), which had lost eight of nine.

Texas Tech became the latest victim in the resurrection of Iowa State. The Cyclones (13-8, 5-5) came up with one of their best efforts of the season with an 81-68 victory over the Red Raiders, who had won seven of eight.

Iowa State lost six straight and everyone wondered whether the Cyclones would go winless through the conference schedule. Now they’ve won five straight.

No one is thinking they might catch up with Kansas, but the Cyclones are making at least a modest move. Still to go are three winnable home games — against Kansas State, Nebraska and Missouri.

Left on the road are KU, Colorado and Texas A&M. Sweep the last three in Hilton Coliseum and get at least one win at either Colorado or Texas A&M, and the Cyclones could go into the Big 12 tourney with 17 wins overall and a winning conference mark.

Then, let them have at least one victory in the Big 12 tournament, and who knows what might happen when NCAA bids are extended?

If Kansas is destined for an unbeaten conference season, the Jayhawks will have to get over one of their biggest hurdles tonight at Texas Tech.

On Tuesday, Kansas State is at Iowa State. Wednesday will feature Baylor at Missouri, Nebraska at Oklahoma, and Texas A&M at Texas.