The Big 12 basketball tournament starts in just 8 days and there is still a lot to play for coming into the final week of the regular season. Kansas pretty much has the top seed wrapped up while Oklahoma and Missouri will take the #2 and #3 seeds depending on how their game Wednesday night goes. That leaves the #4 seed up for grabs with three teams competing for it.

Kansas State is in the driver's seat. They currently hold the conference's 4^th spot but have to make a visit to Stillwater tomorrow night to play the rejuvenated Oklahoma State Cowboys who are just behind the Wildcats in the standings. That is what makes tomorrow night's game so crucial. Winner keeps the dream of being off next Wednesday alive and the loser not only forfeits a first round bye but also severely damages their NCAA Tournament hopes.

Should the Cowboys knockoff the Wildcats on Tuesday night they would take over that coveted 4^th seed in the conference tournament but hanging on to it won't be easy. Unlike Kansas State who gets to close out their season at home against Colorado the Cowboys have to come to Norman on Senior Night to face the Sooners.

Waiting in the shadows are the Texas Longhorns who try to rebound from their O-State loss against Baylor tonight on ESPN's Big Monday. The Longhorns have to win tonight because they finish the season at Kansas.

A very likely scenario would be that all three teams finish the week at 1-1. If that should happen then look out for the Texas A&M Aggies. Once left for dead the Aggies have now won four games in a row. They play at Colorado Wednesday night and then finish up at home against Missouri on Saturday. They could pull off the fantastic finish pole-vault themselves into the 4^th place finish. All in all it makes for a great week of basketball.