Big 12 men's tournament
First off: Aw, man, Tanner Groves was crying in the handshake line! That was a sad taste of the month to come. Groves has had a long and eventful five-year college hoops career, from the breakout run of the 2020-21 tournament at Eastern Washington to the past two post-portal seasons with Oklahoma. On Wednesday night, with a relative whimper, it all came to an end. This is how it goes this month: One super-senior’s despair is another team’s gain.
The Cowboys are in the hunt for a tournament bid, after all, and Wednesday night’s win was a very useful step in that process. A neutral-court Quadrant 2 win might not feel like much, but with margins as tight as they are on the bubble — and with Oklahoma State having won six Quadrant 1 games but also just straight up having lost a ton of games, full stop — a win of that caliber might make all the difference.
