2023 Big 12 Tournament odds, betting trends: Second-seeded Texas taking most action of any team nationally to win its league tournament

Without question, the best league in the country during college basketball's regular season was the Big 12 – ESPN Bracketology currently has seven of the its 10 teams reaching the NCAA Tournament. The conference tournament tips off tonight in Kansas City, and while second-seeded Texas won't take the court until Thursday in the quarterfinals, the Longhorns are taking more money at Caesars Sportsbook to win this tournament than ANY team is nationally to win its league this week.

At Caesars, the Big 12 was the lone conference to have six teams open with odds under +1000 to win the tournament: Kansas and Texas were originally +330 co-favorites, followed by Baylor (+450), Iowa State (+700), Kansas State (+750) and TCU (+800). Now the regular-season champion Jayhawks are at +220, while the Longhorns have dropped to +300.

Texas has taken 35.4% of the tickets and 33.6% of the handle among all Big 12 tournament bets. Yes, even with those relatively smallish leans, it is still the most action of any team nationally this week. Bettors generally like to wager on longer shots in conference tournaments.

UT (23-8, 12-6 Big 12) continues to play under interim coach Rodney Terry, who may or may not have done enough to earn the full-time job with a 16-7 record. The Sporting News named him National Coach of the Year for his work taking over for the fired Chris Beard. Texas closed the regular season with a very impressive 75-59 home win over Kansas, and that no doubt is in the mind of bettors. UT has five wins against ranked foes under Terry and is 7-1 overall under him in games decided by five points or fewer OR in overtime.

Guard Marcus Carr became the first Texas player to earn first-team All-Big 12 honors since Isaiah Taylor in 2015-16. Carr leads the team in scoring (16.2 ppg), assists (129), steals (51) and minutes (33.2 mpg).  Sir'Jabari Rice became just the second UT player (Kai Jones, 2020-21) to earn the Big 12's Sixth Man Award. Rice ranks second on the team in scoring (12.6 ppg).

The No. 2 seed is the highest in the Big 12 Tournament for Texas since it was also a No. 2 in 2011. The Horns' lone tournament title was in 2021 when it was a third seed and beat No. 5 Oklahoma State in the final. Texas was supposed to play Kansas in the semifinals that year, but KU was unable to take the court due to COVID issues so UT got a free pass to the title game.

On Thursday, Texas will face either Oklahoma or Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals – this writer picked OSU to advance as it swept the Sooners during the regular season. The Longhorns swept the regular-season series this year against the Pokes, winning both by double digits in January. Texas holds a 5-2 lead against the Cowboys in seven previous meetings at the Big 12 Tournament.

Sixth-seeded TCU is now +500 to win this tournament, and the Frogs have taken the second-most tickets at 23.0% and third-most handle at 24.9%. They open Thursday vs. third-seeded Kansas State (+850 to win the event). 

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