Top 25 Voter Pod

• The Baylor men are a 3 seed in the South Region vs. UC Santa Barbara, and they're headed to Denver. The winner gets Creighton or N.C. State, a 6-11 matchup. Could this be a favorable road to the Sweet 16 for the Bears, do you think?

• As for the Baylor women, they're a 7 seed — better than the 8/9 some projected, largely on the strength of their wins. They get to play Alabama in Storrs, Connecticut, on Saturday, and then the winner will likely get UConn, a 2 seed. Is there any chance the Bears can pull a big upset of the host and face the second weekend?

• The brackets are set and prognostications are flying everywhere, it seems. Who do you like to win it all, on the men's and the women's side? 

• Hitting the road for Denver and Connecticut for the NCAA Tournament: John and Brice talk food, attractions and more as they get out of town for a few days (and hopefully not just one weekend).

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• The Baylor men lost both games to Iowa State in the regular season by 15 points, and that's who they get Thursday morning to open the Big 12 tournament in front of a hostile crowd that will be packed with Cyclones fans. Is Kansas City a fair setting for Texas teams? What do the Bears need to do to get over that gold-and-red hump, and how do you peg their odds to win the tourney?

• Meanwhile, the Baylor women will also see some partisan crowds with a Friday night game vs. Iowa State. The Bears and Cyclones split their regular-season series with an early win up in Ames for BU and then a heartbreaking double-OT loss in Waco for Baylor. What do they need to do to pull off a win, and how do you see them going?

• Let's talk NCAA Tournament: With Selection Sunday just days away, what are your final predictions for the Baylor men and women, and how far do you see each of them going?

• In addition to being Top 25 pollsters, Brice and John get to vote for All-America teams, too: Here are their picks for those teams, as well as Player of the Year and Coach of the Year.

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• It's Senior Day at the Ferrell Center on Saturday, as the Baylor men host Iowa state and the women welcome in West Virginia. Let's talk about those seniors and what they've meant to these programs — Adam Flagler, Flo Thamba, Caitlin Bickle, Ja'Mee Asberry and others, fuzzy COVID eligibility or not. 

• That win over Texas in Austin last week was certainly Nicki Collen's best coaching job at Baylor, as Brice wrote in a recent column. She seemed to push all the right buttons in a nothing-to-lose situation and thwart the Longhorns' title hopes with a 63-54 win. And now her team could end an up-and-down year on a four-game win streak. 

• The Baylor men won't 3-peat for the conference title as Kansas has it sewn up, but could the Bears, who were injury-riddled are much healthier than a year ago, wind up going much deeper in the NCAA Tournament this year after bowing out last year in the second round? This team seems to have a deeper bench, is healthy and could go pretty far if they can overcome some streaky shooting. 

• Who are your Big 12 Player of the Year and Coach of the Year picks? Teams in the state of Kansas should sweep the men's awards, it seems, while the bests on the women's side are a bit of a toss-up — especially after Rori Harmon's eyebrow-raising comments after Texas' loss to Baylor last week. 

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Special guest Kelly Hines (@KellyHinesTW), veteran sportswriter of the venerable Tulsa World, joins Trib sports guys John Werner and Brice Cherry for some Big 12 and Top 25 basketball talk.

• Houston moved back to No. 1 this week for the fifth week this season, which has seen several different teams holding the top spot. That indicates may indicate there's no clear-cut favorite to win it all, but as of today, who's most likely to cut down the NCAA nets in April? Does that team come out of the Big 12 for the third year in a row? What about four Texas teams getting to the Final Four?

• On the flipside of the college basketball powerhouse that is Texas is what's happening with Oklahoma's Big 12 teams, which is ... not great. OU is in something of a rebuilding mode with second-year skipper Porter Moser; meanwhile, while OSU is in the bottom half of the league, it looks fairly likely to make the NCAAs this year, and Mike Boynton has only taken the Cowboys there once before. What's the feeling among the faithful north of the Red River? Heck, Oral Roberts may be the best team in the state.

• No. 1 South Carolina continues to reign on the women's side. Consider this: Dawn Staley's team's last six NCAA finishes are national champs, Elite Eight, Sweet 16, COVID-19 (with a 32-1 record), Final Four and another natty last year. Have the Gamecocks supplanted UConn as the premier program in women's college basketball? Parity is on the rise.

• John's back from a quick trip to Manhattan, Kansas, aka the "Octagon of Doom," which looked pretty great on TV. We've made trips to Allen Fieldhouse and other cool places in Big 12 play over the years, but what's the best basketball venue Kelly and John have ever been to, and what's on your bucket list?

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• There's a big game Saturday in Lawrence, as the Baylor Bears face Kansas in a Top 10 matchup. BU won the first round by 6 in Waco last month. Can the Bears do it on the road, where they've only one once all-time?

• The Baylor men have now won 10 out of 11, with the last 4 by an average of 13 points — coinciding ing with the return of Everyday Jon, incidentally. They're tied for the conference lead at 9-4, with Texas and Kansas, with five games left to play. But they've got by far the toughest schedule of the three. What are their chances of pulling off a third straight Big 12 title?

• Meanwhile, the Baylor women are bordering on a dumpster fire — they've lost three straight (two incredibly lopsided) for the first time since 2000-01 (i.e. Mulkey's first season). And they allowed 60% shooting against Oklahoma, which hadn't happened since the Sonja Hogg era. What are the issues here?

• NCAA seeding is just about a month away. What seeds do you see Baylor's men and women getting? Is it possible the the women miss the tournament entirely?

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• Everyday Jon returns to a huge ovation from the Baylor faithful. What does his return from injury, unexpected as it is, mean for these Bears?

• It's a jumbled Big 12 race out there with Texas holding a narrow lead and then four teams in a logjam behind then. With Tchamwa Tchatchoua back, how do you see the race shaking out? Does Baylor have a shot?

• Meanwhile, the Baylor women blew a 12-point lead in the second half and a 5-point lead with 24 seconds left on Tuesday, somehow managing to lose at home in overtime. How does that even happen? How big of a blow is that to the Bears' title hopes?

• There's a big game Sunday: Not that one, but the Super Duper Women's Basketball Bowl with No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 3 LSU. Both teams are undefeated, which is great to see this late in the season. Who you got, and what do you think about Kim Mulkey's Dawn Staley comments? (Plus, stick around for a pretty good Geno Auriemma story.)

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• Championship check-in: Here we are at the midpoint of the Big 12 season for the men and the women. Which teams look like the most likely title contenders?

• With six of the top 15 teams in the country, the Big 12 is clearly the elite conference in men's college basketball (sorry, SEC). But with such parity and continued tough conference play among those squads, does that hurt the league's chances of getting a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament?

• Sarah Andrews is having a tremendous year, ranking top 5 in scoring, assists and 3-point percentage. Is the Baylor star the best guard in the Big 12?

• The 2023 football schedules came out this week, reminding us all that next year we'll have four new faces in the Big 12. When you look at BYU, UCF, Cincy, Houston, does that make the Big 12 a better men's or women's basketball conference?

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We're joined by special guest Danny Davis (@_dannydavis), longtime Austin American-Statesman sports writer and a fellow AP Top 25 voter, for some college hoops talk with the Trib's Brice Cherry and John Werner. 

• History was made this week in the AP women's basketball poll, as no Texas teams were ranked in the women's top 25 for the first time, ever. Is this just a fluke or a hiccup, or more of a trend? Has the level of Lone Star basketball slipped? 

• The Texas women have been up and down this year, already with six losses, and you're never sure which team will show up. Vic Schaefer has taken the Longhorns to the Elite Eight in both of his first two seasons. What are the odds they can make another deep run? 

• One guy who's fun to watch is Keyonte George: The Baylor men are on a five-game win streak after an 0-3 start, including a big Big Monday win over the defending national champs in the Kansas Jayhawks. What has been the key to their hot stretch? 

• As AP poll voters, what's your approach week in and week out? What's the method to your voting madness? 

• We've got the Big 12-SEC Challenge in the men's game this weekend, with Kansas at Kentucky, a Top 10 matchup with Texas visiting Tennessee and Baylor hosting Arkansas, among others. How much do you think these coaches get into these conference battles? Do they have any lasting benefits beyond bragging rights or what? 

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• The Baylor women snapped a two-game losing streak Wednesday night with an impressive 69-48 win over K-State at the Ferrell Center. What does Nicki Collen's team need to do to keep this momentum going?

• Meanwhile, the Baylor men got another good win on the road in Lubbock to even its Big 12 record at 3-3. What's been the key to the Bears' turnaround thus far after an abysmal start?

• Obviously, the 2021 Baylor national title team had three incredible guards in Butler/Mitchell/Teague. How does this trio of George/Flagler/Cryer stack up?

• The Baylor women (and the Lady Bears) ended their 365-week run in the AP poll this week — that's 19 years. How mind-blowing is that streak, and will we ever see anything like it again, given the rising parity in women's college basketball, especially in a fiercely competitive Big 12?

• Let's give K-State some love after a thrilling 92-90 overtime win over Kansas in Manhattan, putting the Wildcats in a tie for the Big 12 lead. Doesn't ex-Baylor assistant Jerome Tang have to be the frontrunner for coach of the year at this point?

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• Keyonte George went off for 32 points the other night as the Baylor men finally won a game, is averaging 17.8 ppg, 4.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists. He's a lottery pick, obviously, but is he the best Bears freshman of the Scott Drew era?

• The Baylor women suffered their first Big 12 loss of the year  Wednesday night at home vs. OSU, and a large part of that was an ugly 6-for-29 from beyond the arc. Are the Bears balanced enough to suffer these poor shooting nights? Nicki Collen was practically despondent.

• Speaking of defense, the Baylor men are dead last in the Big 12, allowing 81 points during this 1-3 start. Which of these guys can step up as "the stopper," and how can this team improve on defense?

• We know the Big 12 is a top hoops league, if not the best in the country. How many men's teams do you think will make the NCAAs? Could it be 9 teams, or even all 10?

• What about the women's side? The parity has really improved in that side and the Big 12 has four teams ranked.    

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