The top four seeds, including the two regular season champs, Oklahoma, and Kansas State automatically advanced to the quarterfinal round.
Oklahoma State upset Texas Tech in a game that flip-flopped throughout, and the 12-seed Colorado Buffaloes defeated the 5-seed Baylor Bears in double overtime.
[3] Another important coaching change came when Bob Huggins left Kansas State after one season to return to his alma mater, West Virginia.
[5] With identical conference records of 13–3, the Texas Longhorns and the Kansas Jayhawks share the 2008 regular season title.
[10] After gaining the lead early, Colorado managed to hold off a 2nd-half Baylor rally, taking the game into overtime twice.
Baylor came within two during the second OT, but Kevin Rogers missed two free throws and Colorado quickly scored.
They were ahead near the end of the first half, but the Cornhuskers went on a 10–3 run late and scored at the buzzer to carry the halftime lead, 28–30.
[13] In a physical game dominated by defensive play, Texas A&M scored their second-ever Big 12 tournament win in history.
The Cyclones were held to 27% shooting from the field throughout, and their high-scorer Craig Brackins' 20 points and 12 rebounds were not enough to carry the team.
The Aggies made 43% of their field goals, and were led by Donald Sloan, whose mother had died earlier that day, and Dominique Kirk with 12 points each.
[16] After going scoreless for the first five minutes, Colorado fought back, holding star Sooner forward Blake Griffin to four points and keeping the game close.
However, this along with Colorado's slow play, waiting the shot clock out for each possession, was not enough to keep the Sooners from advancing to meet Texas in the semifinals.