The Big 12 is the best conference in college basketball, with five of the nation’s top 14 teams.

As a nice mid-January Tuesday night treat, four of them faced off in two instant classics last night.

Following a pretty good undercard between Texas and Iowa State (won by the Cyclones), a national audience was treated to an intrastate rivalry between the second-ranked Kansas Jayhawks and 13th-ranked Kansas State. These are teams not only destined to vie for the Big 12 title, but also #1 seeds and perhaps a trip to the Final Four.

The last time K-State made the Final Four was the year LBJ was elected President. (KU has made a dozen such trips since ’64.) With their win last night over the bluebloods from Lawrence, all eyes will be on Manhattan… Kansas.

Proof again that there is really nothing the matter with that place.