Saturday’s SEC/Big 12 Challenge Schedule
Texas A&M at No. 18 West Virginia (noon on ESPN)No. 25 Florida at Oklahoma (2 on ESPN)Kansas State at Tennessee (2 on ESPN2)LSU at Texas Tech (2 on ESPNU)Texas at Georgia (4 on ESPN)Iowa State at Vanderbilt (4 on ESPN2)Arkansas at Oklahoma State (4 on ESPNU)Baylor at Ole Miss (6 on ESPN2)Auburn at TCU (6 on ESPNU)No. 2 Kansas at No. 4 Kentucky (6:15 on ESPN)
Last year marked the third annual SEC/Big 12 Challenge in college basketball, and it was the first one to be held in late January on the weekend between the NFL’s conference championships and Super Bowl.
“It was a grand slam,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said after last year’s 10-game extravaganza. “We were all over as far as national attention, and it delivered. Two of the better games of the year were Kentucky-Kansas and Oklahoma-LSU. It felt more like a tournament.
“There are times I do and don’t root for the SEC for one reason or another, but I was rooting for all our teams.”
Kansas survived Kentucky 90-84 in overtime at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, but the best game may have been the LSU-Oklahoma showdown containing Ben Simmons (the top pick in last June’s NBA draft) and Buddy Hield (the No. 6 selection). Hield’s Sooners rallied from a 14-point deficit to win 77-75 in Baton Rouge, which also aided the Big 12 in going 7-3 against its Southeastern Conference counterparts.