The Big 12 and American Athletic Conference are among the college athletic conferences holding annual conference basketball tournaments this week, and schools throughout Texas began their quests to win the tournaments on Wednesday.
Rice and Texas-San Antonio finished in the bottom two spots in the AAC during the regular season and lost their AAC Tournament openers on Wednesday.
SMU and North Texas will begin their postseasons in the AAC Tournament on Thursday night in Fort Worth. No.7 seed UNT will play No.10 seed Tulane at 6 p.m. CT, while No.6 seed SMU faces No.11 seed Temple, which beat UTSA, at 8 p.m. The winner of each game will advance to Friday’s quarterfinals and face No.2 seed Florida Atlantic and No.3 seed Charlotte, respectively.
Meanwhile, TCU kicked off postseason play as the No.8 seed in the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, looking to improve its NCAA Tournament resume. The Horned Frogs entered play on Wednesday just off the bubble, projected as a 10 seed by ESPN, a nine by CBS, and an 11 by Fox, and likely secured a spot in the tournament with a 77-70 win over No.9 seed Oklahoma.
Senior forward Emmanuel Miller scored 26 points to help TCU advance to play No.1 seed Houston — the top team in the country entering the week — at 2 p.m. CT on Thursday. The Horned Frogs upset the Cougars 68-67 in their only meeting this season.
The No.7 seed Texas Longhorns also play Wednesday, facing No.10 seed Kansas State at 6 p.m. CT. The winner will advance to play No.2 seed Iowa State at 6 p.m. CT on Thursday.
No.4 seed Texas Tech will open tournament play on Thursday against No.5 seed BYU, which defeated UCF on Wednesday. The Cougars and Red Raiders played just once during the regular season, with Tech coming out on top 85-78 in Lubbock on January 20.
No.3 seed Baylor will also begin its journey in the Big 12 Tournament on Thursday, taking on either No.6 seed Kansas or No.11 seed Cincinnati in the nightcap at 8:30 p.m. CT.
Elsewhere, Texas A&M will begin its uphill battle to reach the NCAA Tournament with an SEC Tournament game against Ole Miss on Thursday. The Aggies are seeking consecutive March Madness appearances for the first time since the 2010-11 season.
The Big 12 Tournament continues through the championship game on Saturday night in Kansas City. The AAC Tournament continues at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth through its championship game on Sunday afternoon, and the SEC Tournament in Nashville concludes the same day.
