A look ahead to Conference Play
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The New Year is here. Happy New Year fellow Bucketeers.
Conference play starts Saturday against TCU if you can believe it. The non-conference part just flew by and again KU is in a great position to win the league but it will be very tough as always. Just saw the graphic this morning that KU has won 21 of the last 27 Big-12 Championships so we know how to win these. We still have Billy Eugene roaming the sidelines ready to feast on fellow Big-12 brethren. We have a team that’s capable of winning it.
Some changes of course due to the non-stop conference realignment greed-fest going on. The Big-12 welcomes Houston, UCF, Cincinnati & BYU to the league making it the Big-14, for a year. Next year Texas and Oklahoma go bye-bye-bye to the SEC. More teams join with Arizona, Arizona St, Utah & old friend Colorado reuniting to make it a 16 team league in 2024-25. It’s hard to keep up. How long will it be the Big-12 with 16 teams before the next round happens. The ACC collapse is next which is Jim Phillips new baby.
With 14 teams comes a new 18 game league schedule. Gone are the glory days of playing all the teams twice which created this crazy tough league if you ask me over the last several years. What remains is 5 home and homes and the rest (8 games) KU is playing everyone once.
KU plays these teams twice - Baylor, Houston, Kansas St, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St. It’s clear Houston was made the lone newcomer we play twice for TV purposes. Facing OU twice in their last year in the conference is appropriate. It appears they have their best team in several years as well.
KU plays these teams once at home- TCU, Cincinnati, Texas, BYU. KU’s last conference game against Texas unless they meet in the Big-12 Tournament will be in Allen Fieldhouse on February 24th. At least we can send them to their new league the proper way, losing. BYEEEE
KU plays these teams once on the road- UCF, West Virginia, Iowa St, Texas Tech. UCF is a giant unknown as far as tough places to play. The other 3 have certainly given us fits over the years when we come to town. Will feel odd not seeing Iowa St coming to the fieldhouse and only going to Hilton Tragic.
Game breakdown by Month:
8 games in January (4 home, 4 away)- Oklahoma is the lone ranked team (#11th) KU faces the entire month although TCU and Iowa St certainly look like they are tournament teams. KU, if they take care of business should win all 8. Perhaps there’s a road lull with back to back games against West Virginia & Oklahoma St that’s possible but both of these teams are not good so there’s optimism we can leave both with W’s.
7 games in February (4 home, 3 away)- If January is easy, well the rest of the schedule is a nightmare. The final 10 games of the season KU will face 5 ranked teams and play 7 total games against ranked opponents. Two of the 3 non-ranked teams are against Kansas St. The action picks up immediately in February with Houston coming to Allen Fieldhouse on Feb 3rd. 2 days later ESPN needs those views for Big Monday so they put KU on the road in the Octagon of Doom with Tang’s Gang. The next game Baylor comes to town for the first of two meetings where Scott Drew tries to figure out why Bill Self is his master. Two road games in a week follow that crazy 3 game stretch going to Lubbock and Norman. They follow that up with home games vs Texas and BYU and both are ranked so you know they won’t be easy at all. If there’s a tougher schedule in America post it because that’s just an insane stretch yet again.
3 games in March (1 home, 2 away) - You can tell the schedule was intentionally backloaded this year with how it’s setup & it’s hard not to see the bias against KU here as well when looking at other Big-12 team schedules. The last 3 games of the conference season are @Baylor, home vs Kansas St & @Houston to end. Those 3 games seem like they will decide who wins the crown. I don’t know how you predict what’s going to happen.
If you don’t believe that KU got the tougher schedule then others look at Houston’s. Only Texas school they play twice all year is Texas. Don’t play Baylor, TCU or Tech twice which makes zero sense. They get home/homes with Cincinnati, Iowa St, UCF, Texas, KU.
Baylor has KU, Texas, TCU, BYU & Texas Tech for their home/away tilts for another example.
So what’s everyone feeling coming into Conference Play with the new format and teams? Will KU hang another banner? What are the keys to doing so? The guantlet of February/early March will make every game in that time period feel like the most important game. So crazy!
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@BeddieKU23 Forget the Texas teams. I feel like all those other teams are at a disadvantage because they will have 2 Ls playing against KU!
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Get to say Hello to Udeh to open things up Saturday - -Had himself a game last time out for them , BUT you have to consider who they played ( Texas A & M Commerce ) so keep that in perspective.
Ernest had 13 points - - And 18 Rebounds against them but again remember played 20 minutes - -still decent, see how he does against Hunter
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Isu will be tough, are they still undefeated?
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Excellent work. Thank you.
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11-2 currently. They lost consecutive games at the ESPN Events Invitational to Virginia Tech & Texas A&M. They have wins against VCU, Depaul & Iowa but really haven’t played anyone that great outside of A&M. I think they will be average this year in conference play. No star on offense imo, Lipsey, their PG is their leading scorer & hitting the 3 at a good clip so far. Outz getting the most out of his group once again.
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A quick review of the Big12 teams records seems to indicate most members are playing lower rated teams. Houston has scheduled that way forever but it looks to be prevalent now. Most Big12 teams have great W/L records but opponents have been weaker. When playing against ranked opponents, their record is poor. #3 Houston has yet to play a ranked opponent, but faces KU, K-State, BYU and Texas in consecutive games later this month. #18 Baylor lost to the only ranked opponent they played (Duke). #11 OU lost to UNC at home, with no other ranked teams on their schedule for pre-season. #12 BYU lost only to unranked Utah away but beat #17 SD State.
It should be interesting as the season progresses, but we all know KU is circled on their schedules.
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I’m disappointed to not have a home and home with ISU in basketball. Also not playing them every year in football two very long rivalries. The conference looks super tough and I think it’s the best in the land for probably the 4th time in the last five season. Would not be shocked to see 2 teams reach the final four. Need to follow formula of taking care of business at home and stealing some road wins.
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@Gorilla72 said in A look ahead to Conference Play:
A quick review of the Big12 teams records seems to indicate most members are playing lower rated teams. Houston has scheduled that way forever but it looks to be prevalent now. Most Big12 teams have great W/L records but opponents have been weaker. When playing against ranked opponents, their record is poor. #3 Houston has yet to play a ranked opponent, but faces KU, K-State, BYU and Texas in consecutive games later this month. #18 Baylor lost to the only ranked opponent they played (Duke). #11 OU lost to UNC at home, with no other ranked teams on their schedule for pre-season. #12 BYU lost only to unranked Utah away but beat #17 SD State.
It should be interesting as the season progresses, but we all know KU is circled on their schedules.
Fair assessment. The B12 did win the SEC match-up handily and most (not all) B12 teams have a few quality wins (OU has probably 4 of those), but no one other than KU has a marquee non-conference win.
That is a stark departure from recent years when, in addition to the Hawks, Baylor has had 2 or 3 marquee wins, and the rest of the conference has added another 2 or 3. For example, at this same point last year, Baylor and UT had each beaten two ranked teams and ISU had beaten then #1 ranked UNC.
So, it is a bit more difficult to weigh the relative strength of the conference this year.
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The conference might be a bit down overall from a talent perspective but collectively the league has won nearly 77% of their games to date (and that’s including 5-8 West Virginia) so it’s clearly going to be difficult to win this conference once again.
There’s a bottom to the league in West Virginia, Oklahoma St & UCF but KU has to play all 3 of them on the road so none of them will be easy on paper. I think there’s 3 or 4 more that aren’t that good but have good records until the meat of conference play exposes their weaknesses. This league will have at minimum 6 NCAA bids, possibly 10 or 11 depending on how it goes. It’s still crazy
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@BeddieKU23 said in A look ahead to Conference Play:
The conference might be a bit down overall from a talent perspective but collectively the league has won nearly 77% of their games to date (and that’s including 5-8 West Virginia) so it’s clearly going to be difficult to win this conference once again.
There’s a bottom to the league in West Virginia, Oklahoma St & UCF but KU has to play all 3 of them on the road so none of them will be easy on paper. I think there’s 3 or 4 more that aren’t that good but have good records until the meat of conference play exposes their weaknesses. This league will have at minimum 6 NCAA bids, possibly 10 or 11 depending on how it goes. It’s still crazy
10 would be the max. The Big 12 has 10 teams in the top 50 of the NET rankings right now. With conference play starting, there won’t be many radical changes up or down.
