Big 12 Tournament 2022: Bracket Seeds, Odds, Matchups and Predictions

Championship week is here. The madness has begun.

But before the men's college basketball world turns its attention to the always thrilling NCAA Tournament, the league must first lock in its 68-team field for the Big Dance. While most of that will be done on Selection Sunday, a number of automatic bids will be claimed during conference tournaments.

Securing that spot from the loaded Big 12 Conference will require a combination of basketball brilliance and a healthy serving of good fortune. With multiple national championship contenders in the mix and no real bottom-feeders to speak of—West Virginia is the lowest ranked team at 71st in the nation, per KenPom.com—the basketball should be as good as the barbecue in Kansas City.

Let's dig in, then, with a rundown of the tournament bracket, a look at the latest odds and a prediction for which school will come out on top.

Bracket

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Wednesday, March 9

No. 8 Kansas State vs. No. 9 West Virginia, 7 p.m. ET

Thursday, March 10

No. 1 Kansas vs. Kansas State/West Virginia winner, 12:30 p.m. ET

No. 4 Texas vs. No. 5 TCU, 3 p.m. ET

No. 2 Baylor vs. No. 7 Oklahoma, 7 p.m. ET

No. 3 Texas Tech vs. No. 6 Iowa State, 9:30 p.m. ET

Friday, March 11

Semifinal No. 1, 7 p.m. ET

Semifinal No. 2, 9:30 p.m. ET

Saturday, March 12

Championship Game, 6 p.m. ET

Odds

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Kansas: +200 (wager $100 to win $200)

Baylor: +200

Texas Tech: +350

Texas: +600

TCU: +2000

Oklahoma: +3000

Iowa State: +3500

West Virginia: +7000

Kansas State: +8000

Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook.

Predictions

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If you see a Big 12 tournament prediction crowning anyone other than Kansas, Baylor, Texas Tech or Texas as the champion, go ahead and discard it in the nearest recycling bin. It's one thing to be bold—it's quite another to leave reality behind.

The conference's top four seeds earned those spots for a reason. They were the only four teams to post winning records in conference, and only the Longhorns came close to a .500 mark (10-8).

Trimming down to this quartet feels like it should make the prediction process easier than it does. All four are threats to win the whole thing, even if oddsmakers rightfully regard Kansas and Baylor as a notch above the rest.

The Jayhawks have the tournament's best player (Ochai Agbaji, the conference's leading scorer) and its best coach (Bill Self, a three-time Final Four participant and one-time national champion). They could have something like a home-court advantage too since Kansas City is a stone's throw from their homebase of Lawrence, Kansas.

The Bears, meanwhile, bring the best balance, as KenPom puts them ninth on offense and 15th on defense. They have arguably the Big 12's top point guard in James Akinjo and its best defender in Jeremy Sochan.

Don't count out the Longhorns, either. They split their season series with Kansas, and while they were swept by Baylor and Texas Tech, their last loss to each team was by a maximum seven points.

All of that said, our crystal ball likes the Red Raiders here. They have the nation's best defense, and their resume includes a split with Kansas and sweeps of Baylor and Texas.

The offensive end can be a grind (52nd in adjusted efficiency), but they only need to score so much to make their dominant defense the deciding factor. Bryson Williams is their leading scorer, but Terrence Shannon Jr. is the one who can make them almost unstoppable when he gets rolling. Texas Tech has gone 7-2 this season when Shannon finishes in double figures.

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