College Basketball Week 17: 5 biggest takeaways

By Chris Stone | Mar 6, 2017

Mar 2, 2017; Madison, WI, USA; The Wisconsin Badgers team waits as officials determine a call that finalized a flagrant one foul against Iowa Hawkeyes guard Peter Jok (14) at the Kohl Center. Iowa defeated Wisconsin 69-67. Mandatory Credit: Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports /

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Mar 4, 2017; Manhattan, KS, USA; Kansas State Wildcats forward Zavier Sneed (20) and others on the Wildcats bench react to a three-point shot during a game against the exas Tech Red Raiders at Fred Bramlage Coliseum. The Wildcats won 61-48. Mandatory Credit: Scott Sewell-USA TODAY Sports /

Big 12: Can a sixth Big 12 team play its way into the Dance?

The Big 12 may have the best adjusted efficiency margin of any conference in America, according to KenPom, but now, it looks like just five of the league’s 10 teams — Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma State and West Virginia — are locks to make the NCAA Tournament. The league, quite frankly, has beaten itself up during conference play as the remaining five teams in it finished with losing records during league play. That means that the Big 12 tournament will be incredibly important if a sixth team from the league hopes to make it into the field.

The program with the most compelling case is Kansas State. The Wildcats, though, rank No. 58 in the RPI, have a 3-8 record against the RPI top 50 and have won only four of their last 12 games. The good news is that one of those three RPI top 50 wins came on the road against Baylor, a top 10 team according to the metric.

To make things even more interesting, Kansas State will open the conference tournament against the Bears who have played without point guard Manu Lecomte and have lost three of their last six games. A second win over Baylor for the Wildcats would seem likely to be enough to get the Big 12 a sixth team into the Dance.