The Big 12 Basketball Race Just Changed Dramatically
Heartland College Sports: The Big 12 Sports Podcast
Pete Mundo
4.8 • 870 Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2026
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Big 12 Conference suffered TWO big injuries that change the landscape of the Big 12 basketball race. And how many teams can realistically make a deep run in March Madness?
Heartland College Sports' Pete Mundo explains what these injuries mean for the Big 12 race, where the race goes from here and how it impacts March Madness and the Big 12 Tournament. Plus, Mundo discusses Big 12 teams getting bailed on in football by the SEC.
0:00 Big 12 Injuries and the Basketball Race Impact
11:24 SEC Football Bails on a Big 12 Team
16:00 Thinking About Our Fans Dealing with Fires in the Heartland
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Well, the Big 12's national championship odds took a huge blow this past week. |
| 0:05.4 | I'm Pete Mundo on Heartland College Sports. |
| 0:07.4 | We cover the Big 12. |
| 0:08.4 | Thanks for joining us, as always. |
| 0:11.5 | So this has been a horrific week for the league when it comes to its national championship odds. |
| 0:19.2 | J.T. Toppen tore his ACL on Tuesday night in that |
| 0:23.8 | lost to Arizona State. Let's be honest. Texas Tech can't get to a final four without J.T. Toppin. |
| 0:30.5 | He was in the conversation for Player of the Year in college basketball. He is as good as it gets |
| 0:36.5 | right now and as important a piece of his team as anybody in college basketball. He is as good as it gets right now and as important a piece of |
| 0:39.7 | his team as anybody in the league or in the country for that matter. I mean, even Darren Peterson |
| 0:46.4 | at KU doesn't mean to the Jayhawks as the future number one pick in the NBA draft, most likely, |
| 0:56.8 | what J.T. Toppin means to Texas Tech. |
| 1:01.2 | They were a team that was starting to develop their bench. |
| 1:04.5 | All season long, we talked about tech needing to develop its bench. |
| 1:07.8 | But you couldn't do any of it without J.T. Toppin. |
| 1:09.9 | Yeah, I love Christian Anderson. |
| 1:10.7 | Great player. Christian Anderson with J.T. Topping. Yeah, I love Christian Anderson. Great player. Christian Anderson with J.T. |
| 1:12.9 | Toppin, that's a final four team. Christian Anderson leading the way by himself is not. It's not. |
| 1:20.7 | And I, you know, I'm not saying that to rag on tech. It's just a reality. You're talking about |
| 1:25.4 | losing a player of the year candidate to a torn ACL. It's just a reality. You're talking about losing a player of the year candidate to a torn ACL. |
| 1:31.0 | It's not going to happen. And you have this in the wake of Richie Saunders at BYU, |
| 1:37.5 | tearing his ACL last weekend. And you have a back-to-back massive injuries for the Big 12, and it has a major impact in the |
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