The Big 12 Conference moves into league competition tonight with five games scheduled. Kansas, once again, must be considered the favorite — aren’t the Jayhawks always — with Baylor and West Virginia possibilities to climb into the throne room.
Kansas State, with a weak non-conference schedule — along with most of the other conference teams, for that matter — hasn’t proven much but may have a shot at fourth. Iowa State, Oklahoma and Texas, rated contenders last season, have looked less than mediocre in the non-conference games. Oklahoma State, TCU and Texas Tech are improved but they don’t have the talent to get into the upper echelons.
The conference posted a 97-21 record in non-league games but the caliber of opponents remains questionable at best.
The standings:
- Baylor 12-0
- Kansas 11-1
- Kansas State 11-1
- TCU 11-1
- Texas Tech 11-1
- West Virginia 11-1
- Oklahoma State 10-2
- Iowa State 8-3
- Oklahoma 6-5
- Texas 6-6
Tonight’s schedule:
- Kansas at TCU
- Texas at Kansas State
- West Virginia at Oklahoma State
- Texas Tech at Iowa State
- Baylor at Oklahoma
KU certainly had a difficult opening schedule, going to Hawaii then a couple of days later winding up at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The start was sour, losing 103-99 to Indiana. But the bounce-back was fun, downing Duke 77-75.
In the next 10 games, they outscored their opponents an average of 86-63. Not a toughie in that bunch.
Just before whipping UNLV 71-53 on December 21 in Las Vegas, the Jayhawks defeated Davidson 89-71 at Allen Fieldhouse. That may have been their best effort so far.
“We’ve had several teams that went home for Christmas emotionally before the game was actually played,” Coach Bill Self said before the UNLV game. “And we’ve had some teams that didn’t do that. We’ll emphasize how important it is to keep some momentum going into the Christmas break.”
Frank Mason III, Josh Jackson and Devonte’ Graham have been the main catalysts for KU’s offensive explosion, leading the team in points, assists, energy and attitude. They will need to get better inside play to continue their domination of the Big 12.
They’ll be on the road tonight against a team, TCU, trying to prove itself.
Kansas State certainly will get a chance to test just how good its record can be with the game against Texas. The Cats have played the Longhorns well through the seasons and this Texas team is not as talented. However, they will need to focus instead of looking ahead to a real biggie on Tuesday — at KU. Yikes, the rivalry game so early in the season.
The Cats played with camaraderie in the non-conference games, but too often dozed off into never-never land, as they did in the 67-54 victory over Gardner Webb on December 21.
They will need to continue the balanced attack. Wesley Iwundu and Dean Wade must show offensive consistency. And, can D.J. Johnson continue his strong play inside when he goes up against more talented big men in the conference? He’s shooting 66 percent from the field — and he should be with the number of close-in shots he attempts. Kamau Stokes is playing superbly at point guard. Barry Brown leads the Cats in scoring with a 12.5 average — he needs to avoid those 1 for 7 shooting nights as he did in the Gardner Webb game. Talented freshman Xavier Sneed may get more playing time as the conference season unfolds.
You still gotta classify K-State as an enigma. Coach Bruce Weber, well, you never know how he will handle the team. Then you must consider that the one loss for the Cats was to over-rated Maryland. And the teams they beat keep on losing.
Is Baylor that good? Well, the Bears have balance with four players in double figures, led by Jonathan Motley’s 16-point average and a former Raytown South High School player, Ishmail Wainwright, scoring, rebounding and dishing.
On December 21, they hammered Texas Southern 89-63 and Coach Scott Drew said in post-game quotes: “That’s how we wanted to go into Christmas, with a good feeling. In college basketball, it is hard to be on point every night with the parity in competition. That’s why there are only six undefeated teams. I think Ish and our upperclassmen have done a tremendous job making sure we are focused and on point.”
Southern Coach Mike Davis told reporters: “You hate to say that they’re the best team, because somebody will get upset at you if you say things like that, but they’re the best team that we’ve played. I thought last year – this is my opinion – their talent was better. The team this year is unbelievable. I think Coach Drew is doing an unbelievable job coaching these guys. This year, they counter everything you do.”
They’re still talking about West Virginia’s bump and run defense. No, no. Not the football team — the basketball team.
Coach Bob Huggins’ defense still is a search-and-destroy outfit, playing lots of guys in a tough up-tempo style. Just four players — Esa Ahmad, Nathan Adrian, Jevon Carter and Tarik Phillip — are averaging more than 20 minutes per game and nine different players have logged more than 125 minutes of game action so far this season. Ahmad and Adrian are the only two scoring in double figures.
Check the defense: The Mountaineers continue to lead the country in turnover margin (15.7), turnovers forced (23.4), offensive rebounds (16.8) and steals (13.6).
Could Oklahoma be another burnout for Coach Lon Kruger? His M.O. has been similar at Kansas State, Florida, Illinois and UNLV. Have some good years and then fade at the end. For example, at Florida, where he was 104-80, he took the Gators to the Final Four in 1994 and then left after the 1996 season when they were 12-16. Illinois never escaped double figure losses from 1996 to 2000 and the Illini went 14-18 and 22-10 in Kruger’s last two seasons. He never really got it going at UNLV and left in 2011 after a 24-9 season.
He has done well in his six seasons at OU, a .654 winning percentage and a 117-62 record. But they’re off to just a 6-5 start this season. Is it fair to write him off now? Probably not.
Guard Jordan Woodard, OU’s leading scorer with a 17.6 average, missed the 74-70 loss to Auburn last week after aggravating a leg injury in practice; it was the first miss in his career. His injury forced Kruger to use his fifth different starting lineup this year, moving Jordan Shepherd back to the point for the freshman’s second career start and returning Christian James to the starting lineup.
The Sooners suffered a 20-point loss to Wisconsin and have dropped games to Northern Iowa, Wichita State and Memphis. They have lost four of their five games.
Kansas State fans no doubt will be paying attention to Oklahoma State, where Brad Underwood left Stephen F. Austin to become the new coach. He’s a former K-State player and assistant coach from McPherson and he had lots of support to supplant Weber. Didn’t work out that way.
After a 71-70 loss to Maryland — does that sound familiar to K-State folks? — the Cowboys have reeled off four straight victories, including a 93-76 rout at Wichita State.
Quick and talented guard Jawun Evans is averaging 20.2 points a game.
The Cowboys aren’t deep and should have a difficult time getting into the first division.
TCU has a new coach, Jamie Dixon from Pittsburgh, and an 11-1 record. Not bad, huh. The schedule has been weak. Check the KU score vs. UNLV and TCU won out there just 63-59. The Frogs’ only loss was to SMU 74-59. They have posted routs in their last two games, 96-59 over Texas Southern and 74-42 over Bradley. Four players are averaging in double figures.
Texas Tech also has a new coach, Chris Beard. He spent just a few days at UNLV after leaving Arkansas-Little Rock. He left Vegas quickly to take the job at Tech. TCU’s only loss this season was to Auburn, 67-65. There’s not a big-time victory on the slate. The Red Raiders have five players scoring in double figures.
So far, Texas and Iowa State appear to have question marks with their second-year coaches, Shaka Smart at Texas who was 22-13 last season and Steve Prohm at Iowa State who was an underachieving 28-12 last season.