The Big 12 crashes and burns on the NCAA Tournament's opening day

The best conference in college basketball had its worst NCAA Tournament day ever on Thursday.

The Big 12 was the top conference in college basketball in 2015, finishing first in both conference RPI and KenPom's conference ratings. And it went 0-3 in NCAA Tournament action on Thursday, the worst mark in conference history:

Today is the 1st day in Big 12/Big 8 history that the conference lost 3 NCAA Tournament games on the same day.

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 19, 2015

Only eight of the 32 conferences in Division I even placed three teams in the NCAA Tournament, and the Big 12's seven bid tied the Big Ten for the most of any conference. But the Big 12's faceplant is a significant one, no matter how you slice it: Two of the losing teams were No. 3 seeds (Baylor and Iowa State), and while Iowa State went belly-up against a 15-loss UAB squad, Baylor lost to a Georgia State team without its starting point, Ryan Harrow — and blew a 12-point in the game's final three minutes. In that context, Texas losing to a Butler team despite Bulldogs forward Roosevelt Jones sustaining an injury that left him limping for much of the second half almost seems good. Almost.

On the bright side, an 0-4 encore on Friday would seem difficult, with No. 2 seed Kansas and No. 3 seed Oklahoma both favored by double digits.

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