Big 12 Conference Tournament Preview for Games on Wednesday, March 11, 2026

By Juan Carlos Blanco | Mar 11, 2026, 6:37am

The Big 12 tournament got off to a rousing start Tuesday, and is often the case in single-elimination, high-stakes scenarios, even the lowest-seeded teams came to play.

Arizona State and Baylor put on quite the opener, with the Sun Devils avenging a five-point regular-season loss to the Bears by prevailing in another hard-fought battle, 83-79. ASU overcame an impressive 25-point performance by Cameron Carr with a well-balanced offensive effort that included five double-digit scoring tallies.

The No. 16-seeded Utah Utes also put up quite the fight against the No. 9 Bearcats, but they ultimately succumbed by a 73-66 score when Cincinnati’s Jalen Celestine drained two key free throws with 29 seconds remaining. Then, as afternoon turned to evening, it was the nation’s leading scorer’s time to shine. BYU’s AJ Dybantsa put the Cougars on his shoulders with a 40-point, nine-rebound, six-assist performance in a 105-91 victory over Kansas State.

Colorado and Oklahoma State made sure to close out the night in style, with the Cowboys prevailing in an offensive showcase that culminated with a 92-83 score. Anthony Roy led the way for the victors with 24 points, and OK State managed to break open what had been a 41-40 game at intermission with the help of a 7-0 run to open the second half and 52 total points over the final 20 minutes.

For each of the tournament’s five days, Lineups.com will provide a betting preview for the day’s games, along with a best bet. One of the intriguing aspects of Wednesday’s four-game schedule is it will feature rest advantages for each of the higher-ranked teams, thanks to their first-round byes.

Without further ado, let’s dive into Wednesday’s second-round matchups.

Wednesday’ Big 12 Conference Tournament Schedule

Arizona State vs. Iowa State – 12:30/ESPN
Cincinnati , vs. UCF – 15:00/ESPNU
West Virginia vs. BYU , – 19:00/ESPN2
TCU , vs. Oklahoma State – 21:30/ESPNU

2026 Big 12 Conference Tournament Resources

Arizona State vs. Iowa State Game Preview

Iowa State prevailed in the Big 12 tournament last spring, and the Cylcones check into their title-defense quest fresh off a 25-6 regular-season record, including a 12-6 conference mark. T.J. Otzelberger’s squad finished third in the Big 12 and started 16-0 before suffering their first loss of the season against Kansas State on Jan. 13, but they did drop three of their final five games of the season.

However, they finished off the campaign with a commanding 86-65 win over Arizona State, which should certainly afford the Cyclones some confidence coming into Wednesday’s rematch. The victory featured a 24-0 second-half run for Iowa State, which got matching team-high 16-point contributions from Joshua Jefferson and Milan Momcilovic and forced the Sun Devils into 23 turnovers.

Arizona State’s aforementioned four-point victory over Baylor on Tuesday was a wire-to-wire battle, as the final score indicates. Four members of ASU’s first unit logged at least 29 minutes, while Anthony Johnson also put in 28 minutes off the bench. Therefore, fatigue could play a role as Wednesday’s game moves into the second half, especially against an Iowa State team that finished No. 42 in the country with 81.8 points per game while also clamping down on teams by allowing just 65.7 points per game, the 13th fewest in the nation.

Given both the regular-season result and the rest advantage, the Cyclones are unsurprisingly double-digit favorites.

Arizona State vs. Iowa State Game Odds

Cincinnati vs. UCF Game Preview

The UCF Knights put together a solid 20-10 regular season, although they went just 9-9 against conference opponents. Johnny Dawkins’ crew also limped into the tournament on a three-game losing streak, and they were just 5-5 outside their home arena on the season.

The Knights and Bearcats did battle twice during the regular season, with drastically different results. UCF squeaked out a 73-72 home victory in the first game Jan. 11, escaping with the win

thanks to Themus Fulks’ jumper with 11 seconds remaining. However, Cincinnati got redemption in significant fashion just under a month later, handing the Knights a 92-72 thumping that saw the Bearcats rack up 52 second-half points and shoot a blistering 59%, including 61% from three-point range.

Cincinnati’s defense once again played a significant role in Tuesday’s win over Utah despite some second-half success on the part of the Utes, as they still held Alex Jensen’s team to 37% shooting, including 28% from behind the arc. UCF, which ranked No. 37 in the nation in scoring (82.2 PPG) and saw five players shoot better than 38% from three-point range during the regular season, should represent a significant bump in caliber of competition.

Nevertheless, the Bearcats are 3.5-point favorites at multiple sportsbooks, an intriguing line that could offer some value on the underdog.

Cincinnati vs. UCF Game Odds

West Virginia vs. BYU Game Preview

The seventh-seeded West Virginia Mountaineers have their work cut out for them against Dybansta and co. in this second-round matchup, and they come into the tournament after putting together a somewhat uneven 18-13 regular season that included a 9-9 conference record.

However, the Mountaineers do have some legitimate reason for optimism coming into Wednesday’s second-round battle. West Virginia handed BYU a 79-71 loss when the two teams finally met on Feb. 28. WVU built up an impressive 40-26 first-half lead and held Dybansta to a

respectable 20 points, albeit while conceding 23 to the Cougars’ second-leading scorer, Robert Wright III.

BYU made quite the impression in Tuesday’s tournament-opening win, and although Dybansta’s performance naturally stole the headlines, the Cougars got useful complementary efforts from Kennard Davis Jr. (15 points), Wright (14 points) and Aleksej Kostic (11 points) while also handily winning the rebounding battle, 40-29. They also enjoyed a significant offensive advantage over the Mountaineers, who only averaged 69.9 points per game during the regular season (291st out of 365 teams) while shooting a middling 44%.

Despite the rest advantage for the Mountaineers, the Cougars are solid 4.5-point favorites, with the disparity in the two teams’ offensive arsenals undoubtedly playing a part.

West Virginia vs. BYU Game Odds

TCU vs. Oklahoma State Game Preview

The TCU Horned Frogs finished the regular season with impressive momentum they’ll hope survived their first-round tournament bye. Jaime Dixon’s group rattled off five consecutive victories to finish 21-10, a resurgent campaign after they’d endured a 16-16 season in 2024-25.

If the two regular-season meetings between TCU and Oklahoma State are any indication, we should be in for a treat in Wednesday’s rematch – the Frogs prevailed in both games, but those victories came by 68-65 and 95-92 scores, the latter in overtime. However, the Cowboys will be missing a player who was critical to keeping the second game as close as it was – Parsa Fallah, who scored a season-high 27 points in the overtime loss, suffered a torn ACL three games later.

OK State put in some significant effort into Tuesday night’s nine-point win, with four of the five members of the first unit logging 29-minute-or-higher workloads, and Jaylen Curry putting in 25 minutes off the bench as well. TCU’s defense, which allowed a solid 71.4 points per game during the season, including 65.3 over the last three contests, could therefore be even more effective than usual if the Cowboys experience any listlessness.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma State ranked 342nd out of 365 teams in points per game allowed (82.5) during the regular season and essentially gave up that amount Tuesday. Therefore, TCU, which is favored by 4.5 points at some sportsbooks, could be in for one of its higher-percentile performances after ranking 103rd in the country with 77.9 points per game during the season.

TCU vs. Oklahoma State Game Odds

Big 12 Conference Tournament Betting Pick

As covered earlier, the Knights are somewhat surprising underdogs for Wednesday’s second-round battle, and the spread is as narrow as 2.5 at some sportsbooks. However, we’ll take the extra point on FanDuel in a game where UCF has a four-day rest advantage, particularly significant at this point in the calendar.

The Bearcats had a -5.1-point average scoring margin outside of their Fifth Third Arena home floor during the regular season, and UCF’s ability to put up points in a hurry is legitimate. The Knights shot 37.8% from downtown as a team, and they also did a solid job capitalizing on free-throw opportunities by generating a 74.8% success rate from the line.

Meanwhile, while the Knights’ 78.8 points per game allowed represents a liability, it’s fair to question whether the Bearcats will be able to take full advantage. Cincy averaged only 73.4 points per game (220th in the country) during the season while shooting a poor 43%, and the Bearcats got to a relatively modest 73 against Utah on Tuesday despite the Utes having ranked 300th in the country with 79.1 points per game allowed during the season.

Given the metrics cited and the fact the Knights could have a bit more spring in their step, I like them to at least keep any loss to three points or less.

Bet Bet: UCF (1 unit)

Big 12 Conference Tournament Betting Tracker

Record: 1-0
Units: +1.0

Juan Carlos Blanco

Juan Carlos Blanco has been writing about fantasy sports and sports betting for over a decade, crafting a wide range of articles including those focused on picks, industry news and analysis, and personality profiles of others in those spaces. Juan Carlos’ work has appeared on leading sports, fantasy sports and sports betting sites including RotoWire, RotoBaller, The Gameday, TheLines.com, Legal Sports Report, CBS Sports, Yahoo Sports, NBA.com, Pro Football and Sports Network, Forbes and Lineups. Juan Carlos has covered an extensive number of sports leagues, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, CFL, USFL, XFL, UFL and BIG3 Basketball.