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Welcome to March Madness
Published: 3/8/2012 12:40 PM
Last Modified: 3/8/2012 12:40 PM

You hear how Kansas City embraces the Big 12 Basketball Tournament, but you can't appreciate it until you see it first hand.

Even with the four lowest seeds playing Wednesday night, downtown Kansas City was crawling with basketball fans.

Fans wearing all colors of the Big 12 rainbow packed restaurants and sidewalks despite the fact games involving tournament heavyweights Kansas and Missouri were still a day away.

A crowd of close to 10,000 watched Oklahoma and Texas A&M in the day's first game. No more than 3,000 fans watched the same two teams play last Saturday in Norman.

Enough said.

It speaks to the tough road Tulsa has in trying to land events like the Big 12 women's basketball tournament and the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

There's no question the BOK Center can stand toe-to-toe with Kansas City's Sprint Center. But the show KC puts on and the way fans flock to town are tough to overcome.

More from Kansas City
It was a little surprising Oklahoma lost Wednesday to a Texas A&M team that looked last weekend like it had quit on the season.

The Sooners could have used the momentum of a Big 12 tournament victory to cap off Lon Kruger's first year. But I still like the Kruger hire.

The Sooners new coach has won at every college stop, and I don't think Norman will be any different.

I got the chance to meet Kruger last Saturday for the first time. He was standing on the court, happily signing autographs long after OU's final home game. He walked toward where I was sitting, and before I could even introduce myself, he was interacting with my 3-year-old daughter.

Despite a history of previous success, Kruger is still willing to build the Sooner program one fan at a time -- no matter their age. Because of that, my daughter is a big fan of "Coach Kruper."

I think it's a sentiment all OU fans will eventually share.

Cowboys keep state alive
Oklahoma State kept the state's Big 12 men's basketball season alive for one more night, knocking off Texas Tech 76-60 on Wednesday.

The Cowboys face Missouri on Thursday.

Thursday could mark the final game of Keiton Page's OSU career. Page, who has reached folk hero status in these parts, put on a nice show Wednesday night with 20 very hard-working points on better than 50 percent shooting from the field.

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The Editor's Desk

Tulsa World Sports Editor Michael Peters has nearly 20 years of daily newspaper experience. A 1993 graduate of Texas A&M, he worked at papers in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, and Galveston, Texas, before joining the Houston Chronicle as High School Sports Editor in 2008. While in Houston, he coordinated coverage of the 2008 Texas Class 5A state football championships and the 2011 NCAA Men's Final Four.

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