Big 12 Semifinals Preview

No. 5 Texas Tech vs. No. 1 Oklahoma State
Bob Knight has his team playing as well as it has since early January, so this is a great match-up with Oklahoma State. In fact, when the Cowboys came to Lubbock when the Red Raiders were hot, TTU blitzed OSU 83-62. This is a very winnable game for Tech, especially if Mikey Marshall and Ronald Ross give the unexpected contribution they did today against Colorado.

At the same time, if the Cowboys’ one-two punch of Joey Graham and John Lucas continues to dominate the way it did in the quarterfinals against Iowa State, this game belongs to the men in orange. Robert Tomaszek, TTU’s big man, will have do better than he did against CU. This one may come down to intangibles. Knight said Dallas Cowboys’ coach Bill Parcells spoke to his Red Raiders before the quarterfinal, and it seems that Knight was well-prepared to go deep into this tournament. But OSU is playing for a No. 1 seed, and it will be tough for Tech’s guards to stop Lucas and Tony Allen.

Prediction: Oklahoma State 80, Texas Tech 75

No. 3 Kansas vs. No. 2 Texas
Originally, I was going to pick Texas against the KU-MU winner no matter which team it was, but after seeing the destruction Kansas brought against the Tigers, it’s hard to see them losing. Then again, they won’t shoot 69 percent in the second half again. Kansas is dangerous team when Wayne Simien and Jeff Graves are both playing as well as they did Friday night, but I don’t know if the duo, especially the foul-prone Graves, can dominate Texas’ army in the paint like that.

Texas crushed Kansas by more than 20 points two weeks ago, but since then, Texas’ level of play has dropped and KU’s has skyrocketed. Look for the Jayhawks to come out looking for revenge, but this time the bid falls just short.

Prediction: Texas 81, Kansas 79