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Texas battles Hateful Eight member Iowa State tonight at the Moody Center, the end of a tight Big XII race that features three teams with great chances to take the regular-season crown: Kansas, Texas, and Baylor.

The big "Implication?" Texas can catch Kansas, but only with a win tonight. Here are the remaining schedules for the top three teams.

Kansas Jayhawks:

• @ (24) TCU (W, 63-58)

• vs. West Virginia

• vs. Texas Tech

• @ (8) Texas

Baylor Bears:

• @ (12) Kansas State (tonight, 6PM)

• vs. (8) Texas

• @ Oklahoma State

• vs. (19) Iowa State

Texas Longhorns:

• vs. (19) Iowa State (tonight, 8PM)

• @ (9) Baylor

• @ (24) TCU

• vs. (3) Kansas

Here are the standings as of noon on Feb 21st:

Last night, Kansas took a half-game lead over Texas after a win versus (22) TCU on the road, 63-58, to avenge an earlier-season loss at home to the Horned Frogs. This absolutely ups the ante on the importance of tonight's game if Texas wants a share of, or an outright win, in the Big XII title race.

Iowa State beat Texas earlier this season in Ames, a game in which the fans focused their ire on Tyrese Hunter, who left the Cyclones to join the Longhorns this season. While his impact has been pretty unimpressive in conference play outside of a 29-point outburst against Kansas State in a home loss, Hunter still drew the hatred of Cyclones backers everywhere.

REMINDER: CONFERENCE ARTICLES USE CONFERENCE STATISTICS.

The ISU offense ranks seventh in conference in points per game at 69.1. A trio of guards lead the Cyclones' offense: Gabe Kalscheur (14.5 points), St. Bonaventure transfer Jaren Holmes (12.5 points), and sharp shooter Caleb Grill (10 points). Forward Aljaz Kunc is also putting up 10.6 points, albeit in limited games due to a broken finger suffered in late December.

Overall, their offense isn't their strength. Like many (most of?) the Big XII, they are a grind-it-out team that plays games with low possession counts. While this makes every possession of that much more importance to Texas, it means the same for ISU. Every take is so important in a slow game like this, meaning the key for both teams will be to take care of the rock.

ISU's offensive identity revolves around hitting the three, where they rank third in conference at 34.8%, which given the conference's defenses, is pretty impressive. They're also third in conference in threes made per game at seven per.

Last game against the Longhorns in Ames, the Cyclones' leading scorer was Jaren Holmes with 21, followed by Gabe Kalscheur with 16. Iowa State dominated this game.

Look at the stats below in the Longhorns' 78-67 loss.

The key for ISU today is going to be hitting well from deep as well as preventing Texas from doing the same thing. Last game, the Cyclones hit 9/24 from three to Texas' atrocious 4/17. This can't be the story of this game, or Iowa State will do the same thing they did last time.

The Cyclones make their bread playing excellent, conference-best defense; they currently rank first in points allowed per game, in this conference. This means they are without a doubt one of the best defensive teams in the country, right up there with Tennessee and UCLA. The Cyclones rank seventh overall in the country in KenPom defensive efficiency, and in conference, rank:

• Second in steals (8.1)

• Second in blocks (3.9)

• First in PPG allowed (61.4)

This team is an absolute nightmare to score consistently against, as the other St. Bonaventure transfer, center Osun Osunniyi, protects the paint, averaging 1.2 blocks per, good for fourth in the conference. Tamin Lipsey is also averaging two steals per game, good for third in conference, as well as Kalscheur's averaging 1.5 steals. They get their hands in passing lanes, get deflections, and force awkward takes.

In order to pull off this crucial victory tonight, the Longhorns are going to have to use ball reversals and other tricks to try to find open guys. Particularly, they're going to need to pass better than they did in their last matchup with the Cyclones, where they turned it over 13 times to ISU's seven.

The biggest difference between this game and last is pretty simple: home court advantage.

On any given night, a better team will lose against a road team in this conference. Texas is 0-2 in their last two in Ames, but have an 18-2 record against ISU at home in basketball in the last 20. The Longhorns have to take advantage of the opportunity given to them here.

Winning in Ames, which is one of the most underrated home courts in college basketball, is a lot more difficult than winning at home in the Moody Center. Their home record is really impressive, at 15 victories to just one singular loss. The energy in the building is astounding, and will give Texas the lift it needs to pull this off.

No excuses – Texas needs to take care of business in this one.

I think Texas takes this one at home against a team that they are better than. I won't be easy, no doubt. But they simply have to take this one home en route to competing for a conference championship.

Texas 75, Iowa State 71