CBS SPORTS PICKS KU #1 OKLAHOMA #2 AND IOWA STATE #3
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Baylor will be good and so will West Virginia.
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I kind of shook off this read because of the way it started…
“The Big 12, which had one heck of a season in 2014-15 (it rated as the best conference overall in KenPom)…”
Proclaiming the Big 12 as having a “heck of a season” last year because it ranked high with KenPom says a lot. Nothing about the failure of the Big 12 advancing in March.
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I tend not to place that much importance in the tournament record since it can be very misleading.
For example, the top two conferences last year were the big 12 and the Big 10 and each sent 7 teams to the dance while the weakest major conference was the PAC12 that sent only 4 teams. The big 12 and the Big 10 each had two team in the sweet 16 while the PAC 12 had 3; granted that the two Big 10 teams made it to the Final Four…MSU as usual with smoke and mirrors and eventually ran out of luck and got destroyed by Duke. The PAC 12 finished with an 8-5 record but if not for the refs “giving” them the game against SMU they would have finished 5-5. Remember that if OU does not give the game away to MSU the Big 10 and the Big 12 each has one team ion the Elite 8
The lowest Wichita State was ranked (both polls) all season was 16 and in the final polls they were 13 and 14 due to losing to Illinois State in the MVC conference tournament, otherwise they would have easily been top 10…and yet they were seeded #7, where a #3 or a #4 would have been more realistic…were they at least 24 teams better than WSU last season? I don’t think so, and as result KU ended up playing a team that was grossly under-seeded and was a bad match up…and the Tournament is all about match ups and a fair amount of luck…and a few (or a lot) favorable calls don’t hurt either. Of course this is just my opinion and I know others look at the tournament as the only or at least primary criteria to determine if a season was successful or not.
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@wrwlumpy After reading that article about Texas and the impact Shaka is having, I think they deserve a top 5 rank in the Big 12 based on potential alone. Maybe even top 3.
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I don’t go too much off of March performance by one team. But a conference is a different story. Any single team can have a bad game and get upset. But half a dozen teams? It’s enough numbers to show a trend… at least for that one year.
I’m just pulling this next statement out of my rear… but I’m thinking if you pull Kansas out of the equation, and examine March results for the past 20 years, the B12 (former B8) does not appear to be a powerhouse conference at all. It makes me laugh at fans at ISU (for example). I’m glad they are being discovered nationally, but until they have at least something on their resume, they remain a ghost program…
Like I said… I don’t like to pass judgments on a single team in March. But a conference showing starts to show the real trend, especially if you look at the results over a broad period.
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Right of the top pf my head, in the last dozen years or so Texas has 1 Final Four, 3 Elite 8s and 5 sweet 16s, Oklahoma State has 1 Final Four. Oklahoma has 3 Elite 8s and a couple of Sweet 16s, Baylor has a couple of Elite 8s and 1 or 2 Sweet 16s, ISU has one Sweet 16, KSU one Elite 8, West Virginia, 1 Final Four, 1 Elite 8, 3 Sweet 16s, Texas Tech, 1 Sweet 16… TCU is the only team that does not have a least one Sweet 16 appearance in the last dozen year or so…not really as bad as it seems. Just sayin’
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Perhaps not that bad. But it seems bad, even for us, a school in the B12. Why do we feel like our conference performance is inferior? Perhaps because we are the only team in the B12 who can nail a championship?
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…because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence…or over the septic tank.
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“…because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence…or over the septic tank.”
Could you be talking about the State of Kentucky… it is the BLUEgrass State! Big Blue Nation can keep their blue grass… I’ll take green grass any day!
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No Kentucky involved. Human nature being what it is makes us think that we are not as well off as other people when in reality we are much better ff. The septic part portion is a tribute to the late…and great Erma Bombeck, a real American Treasure.
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But, but, but…
Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis work for CBS Sports.
Doesn’t that automatically discredit CBS Sports as a reliable forecaster in pre season polls?
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You should know me by now… any time I can take a pot shot at Kentucky I usually take it!
But yes… good call on it being human nature. Since we are talking about grass… I put a lot of energy into my lawn. I never considered mine to be as nice as some other lawns on our street. But one evening I had my family out for a walk and looked closer at some of those lawns and I have nothing to be ashamed of.
