Kansas University’s basketball players hoisted the Big 12 championship trophy on Saturday in College Station, Texas.

It was Texas’ turn Sunday down the road in Austin. The Longhorns tied KU at 13-3 in league play following a narrow 62-57 victory over Oklahoma State.

“We wanted to win it outright,” KU coach Bill Self said Sunday, “but Texas definitely is one of the premier teams in the country. We certainly hope to have the opportunity to play them again. To do that, we both will have to fare well in Kansas City this weekend.”

The No. 9-ranked Longhorns and No. 5 Jayhawks are on opposite sides of the Big 12 tournament bracket as No. 1 and 2 seeds. Texas won the tiebreaker over KU by virtue of a 72-69 victory over the Jayhawks on Feb. 12 in Austin.

Kansas will meet the winner of Thursday’s Missouri-Nebraska game at 6 p.m. Friday at Sprint Center. A KU victory would mean a 3:20 p.m. Saturday semifinal meeting against Texas A&M, Iowa State or Kansas State.

No. 1 seed Texas will play the winner of Thursday’s OSU-Texas Tech game at 11:30 a.m. Friday. If victorious, UT will play Baylor, Colorado or Oklahoma at 1 p.m. Saturday. The championship game will be 2 p.m. Sunday.

KU conceivably could play rivals Missouri and KSU in back-to-back tourney contests.

“It could be Nebraska, but if it is Missouri, there is the opportunity to play both of them. I don’t know if that’s ever happened – KU playing Missouri and K-State in the postseason tournament. I’m sure if that happened it would definitely add to some excitement for the fans in Kansas City,” Self said.

KU twice has played both K-State and Missouri in the same conference postseason tournament – in the 1981 Big Eight Tourney when the Jayhawks beat MU in the semis and KSU in the finals, and in the ’80 Big Eight tourney when KU beat MU in the semis and lost to K-State in the finals.

The Jayhawks today will start thinking about postseason play, officially putting Saturday’s 72-55 title-clinching victory over Texas A&M behind them.

“I’m proud of the guys and everything,” said Self, who said he received about 10 congratulatory calls from buddies in the coaching profession Saturday and Sunday. “Now we need to take it to Kansas City.”

¢ Commish lauds KU: Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe told the Jayhawks on Saturday he thought they won with class.

“It wasn’t just what happened after the game yesterday. He told the guys he thought they conducted themselves the way teams should conduct themselves,” Self said.

KU’s players did not rub it in the Aggies’ faces by celebrating their league title on the Reed Arena court.

They hugged each other in the bench area, went through the hand-shake line with the Aggies, then celebrated wildly in the visitor’s locker room.

“We told our guys we’d celebrate in the locker room. We said, ‘Let’s be classy and happy but celebrate in style,” Self said.

¢ Hinson out at Missouri State: Barry Hinson, one of Self’s best buddies in the coaching profession, was fired on Sunday after nine seasons at the Missouri State. Hinson was assisted by ex-Jayhawk Steve Woodberry and former KU assistant Ben Miller.

“They’ve all done a good job, they just didn’t get in the NCAA Tournament. The record’s been good, averaging 20 wins a season. That’s not easy to do at a mid-major school,” Self said. “Obviously it’s an extremely difficult situation for anybody to go through, but he (Hinson) is handling it like the pro he is.”

Hinson went 169-117 with four NIT berths at the Missouri Valley Conference school. The Bears had consecutive 22-win seasons in 2005-06 and 06-07, but, despite top-40 RPI ratings, the Bears were not granted an NCAA bid either season.

¢ Little’s team advances: KU signee Mario Little’s Chipola (Fla.) College team has advanced to the NJCAA Tournament March 18-22 in Hutchinson.

Little, a 6-foot-6 guard from Chicago, scored 24 points and had seven rebounds in Chipola’s 89-78 victory over Okaloosa-Walton in Saturday’s state finals.

Little, who hit four of nine three-pointers in the final, was named tournament MVP.

“I knew I had to assert myself offensively for us to win,” Little told the Jackson County Floridian. “I hadn’t been playing that well in the tournament before tonight (12 points total in first two victories), but I knew I was going to have to assert myself if we were going to get it done.”

KU signee Tyrone Appleton’s defending national champion Midland (Texas) College team fell in the Texas state semifinals and finished the season with a 28-4 record.

Midland beat Collin County CC, 76-58, in the first round, then lost to South Plains College, 90-78.

Appleton scored 18 points off 6-of-13 shooting (0-of-3 threes) and dished six assists in the win over Collin County before scoring 15 points off 7-of-19 shooting in the semifinal loss.

“We played hard but South Plains just wanted it more than we did,” the 6-foot-3 Appleton told the Midland Reporter-Telegram. “We wanted to go back to Hutchinson, but things don’t always fall your way.”

¢ Big 12 honorees to be announced: The Big 12 today will announce its coaches’ all-league picks.