Friday was as busy day for the Big XII, and if you had any money riding on K-State to beat LaSalle, your dreams were crushed.

We kicked off Big 12 Madness with the K-State/LaSalle game, which ended up being a heartbreaker for the Wildcats, who lost 63-61.

Despite their best effort, the Wildcats comeback attempt wasn’t enough in the end. The No. 12 seeded LaSalle stunned the No. 4 KSU by taking a 19-point lead in the first half. The Cats came back in the second, but by the end of the game, they were worn, missing 12 of 13 final shots.

Wildcats head coach tried to call a timeout with two seconds left on the clock, which went unnoticed by officials and in the end, probably wouldn’t have mattered much.

The Wildcats ended the season with a 27-8 record.

Next up on the Big 12 plate was No. 10 Oklahoma and No. 7 San Diego State in Philadelphia. The Sooners ended up losing, 70-55. Oklahoma had been ahead or keeping the game within one point up until the final five minutes.

The shooting to a turn and they couldn’t have bought a basket. They missed 16-31 three-point attempts in the second half and were only shooting at 37% by the end of the game.

The Iowa State Cyclones ended up being the little engine that could last night when they stunned Notre Dame, 76-58.

The Cyclones have been deadly from the three-point range all season, being No. 1 in the country in that stat. But Friday night, they were just as deadly inside the perimeter. They turned it on in the second half and ended up shooting over 70% to turn a close game into a beat down.

Sorry Irish, y’all have fun in ACC basketball next season.

The last game of Friday was the Kansas Jayhawks taking on Western Kentucky. I didn’t get to see much of this game due to watching the Sooners, but I kept seeing the score and saying WTF.

The mighty Jayhawks were losing every time I looked. YOU CAN’T DO THAT KANSAS, I HAVE YOU GOING TOO FAR IN MY BRACKETS. Ok. I know that doesn’t matter, but that’s what I was thinking.

A No. 16-seed almost pulled off the upset of beating a No. 1 seed. The Jayhawks pulled off, with a 64-57 win. But WKU was not going to go away easy.

Next up for the Big 12 – Kansas will take on North Carolina and their former coach, Roy Williams and the Cyclones will be facing Ohio State. Both games are scheduled for Sunday.

The March Madness time! Here is a look at how the Big 12 field will face-off over the next couple of days in the Round of 64:

March 21st -

Midwest Region:

No. 5 Oklahoma State will face No. 12 Oregon @ 3:40 PM CST

March 22nd -

West Region:

No. 4 Kansas State vs No. 13 LaSalle @ 2:10 PM CST

No. 10 Iowa State vs No. 7 Notre Dame @ 8:45 PM CST

South Region:

No. 10 Oklahoma vs No. 7 San Diego State @ 8:20 PM CST

No. 1 Kansas vs No. 16 Western Kentucky @ 8:50 PM CST

The Big 12 Quarterfinals concluded on Thursday with a couple of huge wins and a pair of blowouts. The blowouts being: Kansas beating Texas Tech an embarrassing, 91- 63 and Kansas State beating Texas, 66-49.

The other two games were closer, Oklahoma State beating Baylor, 74-72 and Oklahoma losing to Iowa State 73-66.

Oklahoma/Iowa State game notes:

This one is the only one I got to watch the entire game of, for obvious reasons. The Sooners lead most of the game and completely dominated the first half. A late second half meltdown resulted in a 12-point run by the Cyclones and the Sooners were unable to recover. The Cyclones are the best scoring team in the Big 12 right now, which came as a surprise to most everyone.

Iowa State improved to 8-15 all-time in the Big 12 Championship and 4-9 in first-round games, while Oklahoma fell to 20-14 in Big 12 Championship history and 4-3 in first-round contests. OU still holds a slight edge at 12-11 when the two teams meet up in Kansas City.

The victory marked ISU’s first in the Big 12 Championship since a first-round win over Baylor on March 10, 2005, when the Cyclones were also a No. 5 seed.

Kansas/Texas Tech game notes:

Kansas improved to 33-8 all-time in the Big 12 Championship and 15-2 in quarterfinal games, while Texas Tech fell to 13-17 in Big 12 Championship history and 4-6 in quarterfinal contests.

KU’s 91 points are the most in a Big 12 Championship game since Colorado scored 91 in a double overtime win against Baylor in 2008. The 28-point margin of victory is the largest in a championship game since March 10, 2006, when Texas A&M defeated Colorado, 86-53.

Kansas State/Texas game notes:

K-State improved to 10-16 all-time in the Big 12 Championship and 4-8 in quarterfinal games, while Texas fell to 22-17 in Big 12 Championship history and 12-4 in quarterfinal contests.

K-State advances to play the winner of tonight’s Baylor-Oklahoma State match-up in Friday’s semifinals. During the regular season, the Wildcats split with Oklahoma State and swept Baylor.

UT and K-State have now split their only two meetings in the Big 12 Championship with both games coming in the quarterfinal round. They last met in 2009, a Texas win of 61-58 in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma State/Baylor game notes:

The Bears were wearing those highlighter uniforms that make your eyes bleed.

Oklahoma State improved to 22-14 all-time in the Big 12 Championship and 7-10 in quarterfinal games, while Baylor fell to 11-16 in Big 12 Championship history and 4-4 in quarterfinal contests. It was the first meeting between the two squads since the 1999 Big 12 Championship. OSU also won that contest, 83-57.

After being held to seven points in the first half, BU’s Pierre Jackson poured in 24 in the second period to tie his season high and the Baylor Big 12 Championship record. It was the 21st recorded 30-plus point game in Championship history. Jackson also set Baylor’s Big 12 Championship free throw percentage record at 92.8 percent (13-of-14) and the Sprint Center record for free throws made.

The semi-finals are scheduled for Friday and will feature Iowa State facing Kansas at 6:30 CST and Oklahoma State facing Kansas State at 9:00 CST.

My prediction? A state of Kansas showdown for the Finals.

On Wednesday, the Big 12 kicked off their men’s basketball championship. Wednesday’s game weren’t much of a surprise results-wise.

Texas Tech beat West Virginia, 71 - 69. Game notes from Big12Sports:

Texas Tech improved to 13-16 all-time in the Big 12 Championship and 8-7 in first round games, while West Virginia fell to 0-1 in Big 12 Championship history. TTU is now 1-3 all-time against the Mountaineers and 2-1 as the No. 9 seed in the Championship.

Texas Tech advances to play Kansas in Thursday’s quarterfinals. TTU dropped both regular season contests against the Jayhawks this season, falling 60-46 in Lubbock (March 12, 2013) and 79-42 in Lawrence (March 4, 2013).

The two-point victory was the closest contest the Red Raiders have played in the Big 12 Championship. It also marked their first win since 2010.

Texas beat TCU, 70-57. Game notes from Big12Sports:

Texas improved to 22-16 all-time in the Big 12 Championship and 4-1 in first-round games, while TCU fell to 0-1 in Big 12 Championship history. UT is now 3-0 in postseason play against the Horned Frogs, defeating them twice in the Southwest Conference Tournament (1989 and 1994).

The Longhorns won their first tournament game for the eighth year in a row, and head coach Rick Barnes added to his win total (20) as winningest coach in Championship history – two more than second-place Bill Self of Kansas.

Texas advances to play No. 2 Kansas State in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Longhorns dropped both regular season contests against the Wildcats this season, falling 83-57 in Manhattan (1-30-13) and 81-69 in Austin (2-23-13).

The new bracket looks like this:

Oklahoma takes on Iowa State Thursday morning, while Kansas/Texas Tech will play in the afternoon. The night games tonight are Texas/Kansas State and Baylor/Oklahoma State.

I am thinking that maybe WVU, but not so much TCU is having conference-jumping remorse after two major sports have finished up the season. Most of their fanbase thought they were going to come to the Big 12 and dominate. Oh.

Now that conference play is officially over in the Big 12, its tourney time! The Big 12 tournament kicks off on Wednesday, March 13th in Kansas City at the Sprint Center.

Those teams that didn’t qualify for quarterfinals will square off on Wednesday. The four teams that didn’t qualify include: West Virginia, Texas, TCU and Texas Tech. The bracket:

 Notice the bracket background picture is of Kansas. It’s like they are predicting fate. The favorite to win at the moment is actually not the Rock Chalk, it happens to be Kansas State. Kansas has had a meltdown or two so far this season, but when you look at predictions of the NCAA tournament, quite a few sports outlets have them going to the Final Four. Shocker.

All games will be televised on the Big 12 Network/ESPN. Come back to the Neutral Zone for a daily recap of the happenings of the Big 12 tournament.

The AP preseason poll came out on Saturday and the USC Trojans overtook LSU as the No. 1 spot. Recently, the USA Today poll was

USC QB, Matt Barkley. Barkley is looking to complete “unfinished business” his senior year as a Trojan

SEC strong in the top two spots, with LSU and Alabama being 1 and 2. USC sitting at No. 3.

USC Head Coach, Lane Kiffin spoke to the AP after the announcement:

To be handed down what they said could be a death penalty, could take USC 10 years to come back from, then to have this recognition and be preseason No. 1 is very exciting for our fans because a lot people thought two years ago that this would not be possible for USC.

The departure of Tyrann “Honey Badger” Mathieu from the LSU defense was the deciding factor in a lot of the AP votes.

The Top 25 AP Preseason Poll:

Four Big XII teams are started their road to Omaha on Friday, competing in the 64-team Regional brackets.

Oklahoma was scheduled to take on Appalachian State in Charlottesville, Virginia but was delayed due to severe weather in the area. The entire Charlottesville Regional was postponed till Saturday. As reported on Ride Schooner, Ride on Friday: Army, Virginia and Appalachian State are in the bracket with them.

Big XII Championship winner Missouri, is in the Tuscon Regional. They took on No. 1 Arizona late Friday night and was pounded by Arizona. Mizzou will play in the elimination game on Sunday against New Mexico State.  Also in their bracket is Louisville and New Mexico State.

Texas A&M is hosting the College Station Regional and took on No. 4 seeded Dayton. The Aggies beat Dayton 4-1, with Michael Wacha pitching 7 shutout innings.  Future conference mate, TCU is also in the bracket and took on the No. 3 seeded Ole Miss, who are also the SEC champions. The Horned Frogs lost to the Rebels, 6-2.

Baylor is hosting the Waco Regional where they took on No. 4 Oral Roberts. In a shocker, Oral Roberts defeated Baylor 4-2,  snapping the Bears 22-game home field winning streak. DBU and UT-Arlington are in the same bracket. DBU shut out UTA, 10-0 on Friday.So Baylor will take on UTA next.

A tweet from a Clemson beat writer...

It’s finally (virtually) official – and it’s apparently for real this time. After news reports went back and forth with “truths” all day, multiple tweets have just confirmed that current Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brett Venables is leaving the Sooners to join Dabo Swinney’s staff at Clemson.

Stories flew back and forth between Clemson and Norman today with the Tigers saying Venables was coming and OU saying he wasn’t going anywhere, but it appears that was just delaying the inevitable.

...and a tweet from an Oklahoma beat writer.

After their atrocious showing in the Orange Bowl, the Tigers defense urgently needs help, and they’re hoping Venables will be able to right the ship.

As for Oklahoma, Mike Stoops, brother of Sooners coach Bob, was set to share DC duties with Venables, so now I guess they’ll be his alone.

Look for all the details on this story from Amanda on Ride Schooner, Ride.