Utah earned the No. 11 seed for its first Big 12 tourney, despite firing coach Craig Smith a few weeks ago, and will play UCF on Tuesday. Arizona State landed the No. 15 seed and will play No. 10 seed Kansas State. And Colorado, which returned to the Big 12 after a foray in the Pac-12, is seeded last and will open against No. 9 seed TCU on Tuesday.

There is reason to believe Houston is susceptible to an upset. The No. 1 seed has only won the Big 12 Tournament a single time over the past seven years. The Cougars strolled into Kansas City last season with a record of 28-3 but lost to Iowa State 69-41 in the tournament final. It could happen again.

Houston will have the luxury of resting an extra two days with the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship basketball tournament starting Tuesday. The Big 12 regular-season champion Cougars (27-4) won’t be playing until Thursday’s quarterfinal round at Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center,