2008 Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament
| 2008 Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Division I |
| Season | 2007–08 |
| Teams | 12 |
| Site |
Sprint Center Kansas City, Missouri |
| Champions | Kansas Jayhawks (6th title) |
| Winning coach | Bill Self (3rd title) |
| MVP | Brandon Rush (Kansas) |
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The 2008 Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament was the 2008 edition of the Big 12 Conference's championship tournament held at the Sprint Center in Kansas City from March 13 until March 16, 2008. It was the 12th Big 12 tournament in the series. Texas and Kansas shared the regular season title, with Texas receiving the top seed in the tournament due to its win over Kansas earlier in the season. The top four seeds, including the two regular season champs, Oklahoma, and Kansas State automatically advanced to the quarterfinal round.
The first round featured several close games, with a combined 29-point margin of victory for the four matchups. Oklahoma State upset Texas Tech in a game that flip-flopped throughout, and the 12-seed Colorado Buffaloes defeated the 5-seed Baylor Bears in double overtime. This was both the first double-overtime game in tournament history and the first 12-seed win in tournament history. Texas A&M and Nebraska both won matches against Iowa State and Missouri, respectively.
To kick off the beginning of the 2007–2008 Big 12 men's basketball season a poll of the head coaches of the Big 12 men's basketball programs found that Kansas was the preseason favorite to win the conference for a second consecutive year and receiving 10 of 12 first place votes. In second place was Texas, the 2006–2007 season's runner-up for both the regular season title and tournament title. Texas A&M was dubbed for third place and received the remaining 2 first place votes. Aggies head coach Billy Gillespie left at the end of the previous season to take up the head coaching position at Kentucky. Another important coaching change came when Bob Huggins left Kansas State after one season to return to his alma mater, West Virginia. Nonetheless, KSU was selected for fourth place in the poll, the school's highest ever selection in the conference pre-season poll.Missouri and Oklahoma tied for fifth place while Oklahoma State and Texas Tech came in seventh and eighth place, respectively. Baylor, Nebraska, Iowa State, and Colorado took the final four spots, respectively. With identical conference records of 13–3, the Texas Longhorns and the Kansas Jayhawks share the 2008 regular season title. Because Texas won the head-to-head game with Kansas, they claim the No. 1 seed for the tournament.
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