When the Big 12 tournament is under way this time next week, OSU will take the floor having completed their worst season in some time. Betting on the Cowboys to win the tournament this year would be like betting that Whitney Houston will win another Grammy (Too soon? You bet!). According to the first site that Yachoff came to when he Googled "Big 12 tournament odds", a bet on the Cowboys is an astronomically laughable extralegal investment. On this site, where their methods of calculation are assuredly "sophisticated", we are listed as having a 0.43% chance of winning the tournament and punching our ticket to the NCAA dance. One seeming lock next week is that we will win our first game. We have never lost the first match in the history of the Big 12 tournament, but after this years dismal play any game is ours to lose. We could be out of this as soon as Wednesday.
The highest seed to win the tournament in it's fifteen years was a three seed. The highest seed to place second was a ten seed. OSU will most likely be a 7 seed, if not an 8 seed, when the seeds are announced after the regular season wraps this weekend. With two less teams this year, the higher seeds will be facing a high-caliber opponent on fresh legs the second day as the 7-10 seeds are now a entwined in a play-in game the first day. OSU will first have to beat another stooge, hopefully a final thump of Texas A&M, then turn and face a big-dog Kansas or Missouri. Winning the tournament will take a quick turn around that the Cowboys just haven't shown or developed in themselves this season. Winning will take all of our team playing lights-out basketball at the same time for four consecutive days and this season the Cowboys have struggled to play to their potential in consecutive weeks.
In 2009, 9th seeded Baylor was able to kill a Kansas team that was the number one seed and 11th in the country. An eighth seeded Baylor also beat a #1 seeded Iowa State in 2001. In 2007, 7th seeded OSU was able to beat second seeded Texas A&M for a spot in the next round. However, none of these teams made it past the semi's. Why? Because they had the heart to get them past the first David and Goliath round, but not near the legs to sustain them through the second, let alone the third. Tournaments are largely wars of attrition.
OSU has a chance, but Yachoff wouldn't quite call it a "good chance". Yachoff wouldn't call it a "fighter's chance" either. According to Yachoff's "sophisticated methods", OSU stands somewhere between "no chance in hell" and a "chinaman's chance", meaning our odds hover just around 0.43%.