Texas’ runaway victory over Oklahoma on Sunday assured the Longhorns a tie for the Big 12 Conference men’s basketball title.

It also provided UT – not co-champion Kansas University – the top seed in this week’s Big 12 tournament at American Airlines Center in Dallas.

Texas (25-5, 13-3) won the tiebreaker over KU (22-7, 13-3) by virtue of the Longhorns’ winning the head-to-head meeting over the Jayhawks, 80-55, Feb. 25 in Austin, Texas.

As No. 2 seed, the Jayhawks will play at 6 p.m. Friday against the winner of Thursday’s 6 p.m. contest between No. 7 seed Oklahoma State (16-14, 6-10) and No. 10 seed Iowa State (16-13, 6-10).

Texas will play at 11:30 a.m. Friday against the winner of Thursday’s 11:30 a.m. game between No. 8 seed Texas Tech (14-16, 6-10) and No. 9 Kansas State (15-12, 6-10).

KU coach Bill Self, ecstatic after Saturday’s 66-52 victory at Kansas State, wasn’t as giddy Sunday.

“I wasn’t excited about playing anyone in that group that tied for seventh,” Self said. “I don’t think it’s a great draw by any means.”

Iowa State and Oklahoma State, he said, both present challenges.

“Iowa State is a team we beat twice, but we certainly had to play well to do it,” Self said. The Jayhawks defeated the Cyclones, 95-85, Jan. 28 in Ames, Iowa, and 88-75 on Feb. 11 in Lawrence.

“You shouldn’t look at them as a 10 seed, you should look at them as a No. 7. Every coach in the league would agree that they have good-enough players to finish in the top part of this league. They just went on a cold streak for a couple of weeks.

“Oklahoma State was a tie game with 10 minutes left. They’re playing a lot better now,” Self added.

KU clipped OSU, 64-49, Feb. 13 in Stillwater, Okla.

“They’re guarding better. It started with Texas A&M when they lost down there by a point (46-44), but they guarded them well. Two days later, they pressured us out of everything,” Self said of the Cowboys.

“We didn’t play well in the first half, and they were the biggest reason. They should have won in Norman. They’re a team that’s capable of putting a string of wins together in this tournament.”

If KU wins Friday, it would play at 3:20 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals against either Oklahoma, Nebraska or Missouri. Sunday’s finals are set for 2 p.m.

¢ One day off: The Jayhawks, who celebrated wildly in the locker room after Saturday’s Big 12 title-clinching victory at Kansas State, took Sunday off. They’ll be back at practice today.

“We need to practice,” Self said. “We won’t go real hard. We may spend a lot of time shooting and working on situations. Every time I’ve been nice to this team and given them more time off than I should’ve, we’ve come back and not played well. I’m not going to do that again.

¢ Many titles for Self: Self, the obvious choice for Big 12 coach of the year – the top seven scorers on his league title team are freshmen and sophomores – has won six league crowns, with two second-place finishes in the past eight seasons.

KU tied for the Big 12 title the past two years; his Illinois team tied for first in the Big Ten in 2000-01 and 01-02; and his Tulsa team placed first in the Missouri Valley in 1999-00 and tied for first in 1998-99. Self’s four Oral Roberts teams played as an independent.