Following an epic blowout of traditional national powerhouse Kansas on Saturday that gave the Houston Cougars the outright Big 12 regular-season basketball title, attention now shifts to the Big 12 conference tournament in Kansas City.
The top seed in the tournament, Houston will play either TCU or Oklahoma in a quarterfinal game on Thursday.
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While it would be nice for the Cougars to take home another trophy and have the prestige of winning both the regular-season and conference tournament titles in the same year, it can be argued winning the conference tournament won’t mean much at all in the big picture.
In fact, it could end up doing more harm than good. Of course, Houston won’t take the court trying to lose. But fans shouldn’t be watching the games with much suspense that a whole lot is at stake, either.
If you are among the Power Five Conferences such as the Big 12 is, conference tournaments are nothing more than moneymaking showcases. The only teams they typically benefit are teams that finished in the middle or the bottom of the standings who might be on the bubble for NCAA tournament consideration and need more wins to strengthen their NCAA resume.
For the top seeds, they are already firmly in the NCAA tournament and pretty much have their seeding set. The NCAA tournament committee likely won’t be shifting their seeding solely based on what the top seeds do in the conference tournament, especially since they don’t want to make many last-minute adjustments to the 68-team field hours before setting it in stone on Sunday.
No matter what the Cougars do in Kansas City, they will be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Houston won what’s been regarded as the toughest conference in college basketball outright.
Regular-season titles are more prestigious than tournament titles if you are in a Power Five conference, simply because it’s a season-long grind where you have to win road games, not a glorified exhibition over a few days on a neutral court where anyone can get hot.
Maybe the only thing at stake for Houston is a chance to get the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA tournament, which might have some tangible benefits.
But would it really be worth the price that has to be paid? If Houston wins the conference tournament or reaches the final, that means it will play three grueling games in three days, which could leave the tank emptier for the start of the NCAA tournament.
Playing more games could also lead to more injury risk, and quite frankly, a loss wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to just go home and rest up for when the big tournament begins next week.
Again, Houston players and coaches won’t want to hear this. They’re all competitors who’ll want to go to Kansas City, play their hearts out and win.
But this is simply a message for the fans that if the Cougars don’t reach the Big 12 tournament final at all, it won’t be that big of a deal. On the contrary, it might be beneficial for their national title hopes.