Back-to-back Bedlam basketball games?

Bedlam basketball takes place Saturday at OU’s Lloyd Noble Center. If the Sooners win, as expected, another Bedlam game would commence Thursday at the Ford Center.

An OU-OSU match in the conference tournament, which has happened only thrice since 1977, will occur if 1) heavy home favorites win Saturday (OSU at OU, Texas at Kansas, Colorado at Kansas State) and 2) OSU wins its first-round game in the Big 12 Tournament.

Here’s how. If Missouri beats Texas A&M on Saturday in College Station, Texas, the Tigers will be the Big 12′s No. 2 seed and relegate OU to No. 3. That also would drop A&M below OSU, giving the Cowboys the No. 6 seed. Seeds 3 and 6 are matched in the Big 12 quarterfinals, provided the No. 6 team survives its opening round game. If A&M beats Missouri, OU would be the No. 2 seed and OSU the No. 7, and those seeds also are aligned on the bracket, in the quarterfinals.

Remarkably, Bedlam in the Big 12 Tournament is rare. From December 1962 through December 1976, OSU and OU played six times in the Big Eight Holiday Tournament in Kansas City. But since then, the arch rivals have played only three times in the conference tournament:

* March 1985, OU won 116-91 at Norman, in the days when first-round games were played on campus sites.

* March 1995, OSU won 74-58 in the Big Eight semifinals, en route to the championship.

* March 1999: OSU won 60-57 in the Big 12 quarterfinals.