Oklahoma basketball: Big 12 bounces back

After a tough first weekend where four of the seven Big 12 teams in the NCAA Tournament lost, the conference bounced back with two of its remaining teams advancing to the Elite Eight and one other, Iowa State, making it to the Sweet 16 before losing.

The conference hasn’t had two teams in the Elite Eight since Kansas and Baylor both made it in 2012. That season, the Jayhawks made it to the championship game while Baylor didn’t advance to the Final Four.

“It really doesn’t hurt because the last couple years we haven’t validated it in the postseason and we’ve thought of ourselves anyhow as the best conference in the country,” Sooners coach Lon Kruger said. “Other people have probably thought…