NBC Sports breaks down the Big 12 for this year.
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I would have Oklahoma and TCU ranked higher.
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Next season will be a crap shoot. UT, TCU, Tech, OU, WVU and Baylor could all have solid teams. That is the reason KU has won so many titles in a row. Solid programs up and down the league, beat up on each other too much.
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@Kcmatt7 and we have the best home court advantage in the country, and we have Bill Self
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I think that’s a pretty accurate take. KU and WVU should be better than everyone else, with a decent gap from KU to WVU, and another decent gap from WVU to the rest. The next six should be fairly close, with TCU possibly as a sleeper to finish in the top 4. KSU and OSU should be at the bottom because neither appears to have the personnel to keep up with the rest of the conference. Even in a league without tons of top shelf talent, both of these squads seem to be fairly barren.
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I think Oklahoma is going to be #2
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Texas has all the pieces to field a team that should contend for the conference title. If you look at all the star rankings coming out of HS, Texas has probably more than anyone else…but, it still has Smart that has yet to show he can run with the top dogs.
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KU wins the Big 12. Zzzzzzz.
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@JayHawkFanToo it’s definitely going to be interesting to watch Texas. Seemingly few excuses left for Smart. That’s a lot of pressure on a freshman point guard isn’t it? Is this kid legit?
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Is there any Big12 team that can break Self’s loud snoring thru the conference season?
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Kid doesn’t have to be an All American. He just has to be able to run the offense so the talent around him can excel. An average performance from him will do wonders for Texas overall because they were simply unable to get any sort of production from PG last year.
I watched Texas in a few non-KU games. There were times where they just couldn’t get into their offense to get good shots in key moments. Texas lost the following games by 5 points or less last year:
at Michigan, vs. Arkansas, vs Kent State, at K-State, vs TCU, vs West Virginia, at Georgia, at Oklahoma, vs. K-State.
Decent PG play probably turns 6 or 7 of those 9 games into wins. Good PG play probably turns all 9 into wins. I watched the Michigan game and the Oklahoma game. They went three or four possessions in both of those games without getting a shot up (bad turnovers). They couldn’t even get the ball in to Allen. And yet they still lost by 3 and 4 on the road respectively. A solid PG gets them shots in those games and they probably win most of them.
They probably don’t make the tourney unless they win all 9 of those games (18-15 with a 7-11 conference record won’t cut it), but 20-13 with a 9-9 conference mark would have gotten them a bid with wins over tourney teams Michigan, Arkansas, KSU (2) and WVU. They probably replace KSU or Michigan on the bubble.
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Part of it is poor coaching too. But yeah if Coleman is a stud that changes everything.
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If you don’t have a PG, you won’t be good, period.
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Maybe, but we may have lost to the Topeka YMCA when we had PG problems.
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@justanotherfan I’d really kind of like a rematch with those pompous asses…
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@justanotherfan Hmm, so you think the Texas freshman PG can just come in and run that team, in addition to making the transition to D1 speed and opposition and the big lights? Ok, maybe Shaka found himself some kind of Frank Mason or Devonte…we shall see.
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They don’t need great. They need competence. That’s not a huge ask. They aren’t looking for a star here.
