With or without Preston, can we win the Big 12 with 4 or 5 league losses?
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I envision that as a probable positive scenario; and maybe in a 3-way tie.
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Not 5. 4 maybe.3 most likely.
WVU and TCU will be tough.
WVU and TCU will each beat us once on our 30% trey nights. Add an upset during a flu or injury game. That’s three.
Give us Preston and de Sousa and we are down to 2 losses.
If we fall to 5 losses, WVU or TCU. Higgs and Dixon tough outs for Bill.
Dixon’s Frogs would hop away with it,
3 losses max.
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@jaybate-1.0 don’t forget Trae Young. We aren’t going to win the league without two more bigs. Ain’t gonna happen.
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6 losses could win the league. The only team that’s going to have 3 or less is potentially KU. OU right now looks 2nd best followed by TCU & Texas Tech. West Virginia & Baylor might finish 5th and 6th in the league this year.
KU’s first 10 or so Big-12 games are brutal.
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Agreed; no days off in conference play this season. Holding serve at home is essential plus beating the weaker teams on the road and stealing a couple of wins against the better teams away will likely do it. I see Preston as the key since he could be effective almost immediately; DeSousa will take more time and he might be ready to contribute towards the end of the season and post season. Has KU ever won the conference with 6 losses?
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I’m still most concerned with WVU. Huggins, Jevon Carter, and they don’t lost many games at home.
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The good news is that each of those teams face the same problem + 1. They will knock each other off when they play each other and they have to play Kansas as well. Thankfully we don’t have that problem. Tie is worst case methinks. I believe 5 losses is a tie for b12 champ. I can’t see us losing more than that.
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So after a quick run through the schedule, and assuming no cavalry…we lose on road to TCU, ou, wv, and at home to OU again (which I hate saying cuz I am going to that one). Tie with OU for 14th straight. TCU 2nd.
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KU swept OU with Buddy Hield which was every bit as good as Trae Young and was also POY. The first game was 3 OT thriller in Lawrence and the second not as close as the first and Devonte went mano-a-mano with Hield and KU cane out ahead. No reason KU cannot do the same again or at least hold serve at home. KU staff is lot more familiar with OU that it was with Arizona State; the team will be ready.
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@JayHawkFanToo thanks captain obvious, I didn’t know any of that.
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@JayHawkFanToo Young is a very different kind of player than Hield. I don’t think we have anyone who can check Young - and, who knows, he may end up being better than Hield (way ahead of him comparing when both were frosh). He will get his - will need to make sure Manek and others don’t get theirs…
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It is almost bizarre to imagine the league being won with five losses. If I were much of a betting man I would lay my dollars on 4 losses, and likely a tie. WV, TCU, OK are going to be mighty tough for us to defeat twice. And someone else is likely to slip up on us once…perhaps Tech. I think Self is too proud to succumb to Shaka Smart. Jayhawks must brace up, not lose twice to same program. Even if Preston becomes eligible, his minutes could throw a monkey wrench into our mix for his first 100 or so minutes until he and current squad members gel. DeSousa…probably will take longer. Intriguing situations, but no quick fixes for nights we are cold from the 3.
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With 6 teams ranked right now we could see everyone beating up on each other. Winning on the road is going to be like finding gold this yr
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Don’t need to be so touchy, it was nothing personal. I was simply laying out the comparison to make the case that KU did it before against a somewhat similar player and can do it again.
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I understand they are different type of players, but if you remember, we did not think back then KU had anyone that could match up with Hield either; Hield got his point and Devonte did his as well. Also. KU is not playing freshman Hield or Senior Young and considering how well freshman Young is playing, he is the equivalent to senior Hield, both having POY type seasons, and in all likelihood we will not know how good senior Young would be since he is likely gone after this season.
Devonte is still around and might decide to take on Young, hopefully with the same result KU had with him on Hield.
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I could see a 5 loss team winning for sure. The conference looks fairly even at this point, lots of teams will lose on the road this season. Oklahoma has emerged as maybe our biggest threat with WVU not too far behind. Baylor will be tough I’m sure but they haven’t impressed me in the 2 games I’ve watched. TCU has played some serious cupcakes so they are hard to read. KSU actually looks decent from what I’ve seen.
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@JayHawkFanToo I’m thinking of it only in terms of speed. Hield was(is) not a point guard who could blow by people. Young is. We didn’t have anyone who could stay in front of Holder or the ASU guards. Just not sure DG has the straight line or lateral quickness to check Young. HCBS may have to throw one of his junk defenses at OU - e.g., triangle and 2 - for a few minutes here and there to keep him off balance…
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The Kansas team that beat Hield was better at this point than this KU team currently is. So I don’t really like the Hield comparison, it’s not as favorable as it seems at first blush. Ellis’ Sr. year should’ve been a national championship year, dang it. An Elite eight will be quite the accomplishment for this years squad without marked improvement.
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Fair enough. One thing that we have yet to see isDoke as the rim protector he was in high school. Granted, so far he has not done much of that because he is drawn out of position too often. If he can stay in position, he could be a factor in limiting drives to the basket.
Coach Self is very good at planning a defense for a player that has burned you before. Hield had 46 points the first game but only 24 the second game at home. I would no be surprised to see Garret guarding or trying to guard Young, but some sort of junk defense will likely be used. We know that some OU player will have a career day against KU, seems to be a tradition.
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In a year when we are vulnerable, I think it’s better to have more than one opponent with a chance at the Conference title. More good opponents may mean more losses for us, but also more losses among them. If we hold serve at Allen and the other contenders have home losses, that may save us at least a piece of the Big 12.
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Excellent point. This year KU, WVU, TCU, OU, TTU and even Baylor can win the conference; Texas is probably a long shot and the 3 “State” schools probably have little or no chance. Holding serve at home will be critical. A two or three way tie is not unrealistic.
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@dylans I see us as a Sweet 16 caliber team at this point, that can change if Billy is able to and Newman finds his groove. But I just don’t see this team being in the NC conversation anytime soon. Maybe it’s better that way and we won’t play tight in NCAA. If we make 3s at a high rate which we’ve done at times this year, we could beat anyone on any given night. @ParisHawk I agree, I think that having a bunch of evenly matched teams can be better for us when we haven’t looked near as dominant as some of our past teams.
