NCAA men’s basketball conference titles come into focus with No. 7 Kansas’ upset loss

The GIST: With last night’s scores, the picture for two men’s conference regular-season championship races became clearer. Keep that crystal ball out, because women’s titles will also find more clarity tonight and tomorrow.

The Big 12 men’s race narrows: New–No. 1 Houston’s path to the Big 12 title grew more certain with last night’s 67–59 win over Cincinnati. No. 7 Kansas is still technically in the mix, but last night’s shocking 76–68 choke job against BYU made their title hunt near-impossible — meaning No. 8 Iowa State, who hosts Oklahoma tonight at 8 p.m. ET, has the best shot to take it should Houston stumble.

Tensions rise in the SEC: The SEC is absolutely popping off, with a mind-boggling six men’s teams in striking distance of the regular-season title. No. 16 Kentucky barely stayed in the race with last night’s 91–89 comeback road win over Mississippi State, but they’ll still need several lucky breaks to win their first trophy since 2020.

• No. 4 Tennessee is currently tied with No. 14 Alabama atop the conference, but the Vols have a brutal slate to finish out the season, starting with current second-place squad No. 11 Auburn tonight at 7 p.m. ET. The stakes for every game are through the roof.

Women’s titles on the line: The No. 20 Oklahoma Sooners are this close to clinching their first outright Big 12 regular-season title since 2009 — but first, they’ll have to take down a searing-hot No. 3 Texas tonight at 7 p.m. ET. The Sooners have already stunned the Longhorns once — if they can pull off the season sweep, the hardware’s theirs for the hoisting. No pressure.

• In the Pac-12, No. 4 Stanford will lock down sole ownership of the trophy with just one more dub. But No. 11 Oregon State, who’s in a three-way tie for second, could claw back a share of the crown when they host the Cardinal tomorrow at 10 p.m. ET. This conference, man…