The Big 12 has always had a Playboy physique: immense on top, and trim at the bottom.
This year doesn't seem to be a notable exception, but the meat in the middle is a bit of a surprise. Baylor has been steady as the conference's 3rd best team, suffering their only loss of the season to unbeaten Wake Forest. Texas A&M and Missouri have been pleasant early season surprises, while Kansas has performed admirably reloading after the mass departures from their championship squad.
When you think about it, not a BAD build at all...The strength of this conference is definitely at the top. Oklahoma looks like one of a small handful of challengers to North Carolina and Blake Griffin has to be the leader for the Naismith Award at the turn. Texas has played a daunting schedule, but has performed well in MOST tests, and looks to be no worse than a second weekend NCAA Tourney team.
The bottom of the conference is not outstanding, but is not terrible either. Oklahoma St and Kansas St. will win some ballgames and look like possible NIT teams. Texas Tech has been disappointing, but even Nebraska, Iowa State and Colorado are not as bad as some leagues bottoms (Big East, Pac-10).
All in all, it's been a pretty good start to the season for the Big 12. Missouri's latest loss to Illinois notwithstanding they still have two elite teams, three more likely tourney teams, and two or three who could make it interesting. That makes the Big 12 one of the deepest conferences in the country.
"Pre" Season Grade: A- (click for game details)Tourney Outlook:
Locks: Oklahoma, Texas, Baylor
Likely: Kansas, Texas A&M
Hopeful: Missouri
Longshot: Oklahoma St, Texas Tech, Nebraska
Nope: Kansas St, Colorado, Iowa St.
No comments:
Post a Comment