BigXII rundown:
KU: Jekyll-hyde team exposes both its youthful inexperience as well as its talent-loaded roster almost on a nightly basis. Steady, game-long performance was seen vs IowaSt in AFH, and at Texas, but has been hard to reproduce reliably. Self using a deeper lineup only compounds the difficulty in sustained consistency of effort and of result. (KU comments big-pix only, as we know our players.) The main driver of this team is Frank Mason III, without question.
OU: The league's best teams are all guilty of blowing double digit leads. OU has had meltdowns. OU has played tough. Got to love Hield's enthusiasm--clearly the team leader. He will have a shot at NBA play. Their bigs are a bunch of tough scrappers. They are a BigXII version of MichiganState. Scrappy bigs, toughness all around, and above-avg guard play, along with sound, fundamental coaching. Kruger is getting it done in Norman. I wonder what his next 2 recruiting classes will bring? OU is serious about Men's basketball, from some of the OU alums I know. Much money on the Men's facilities was spent 3-4 yrs ago, along with getting Kruger. They've had some past tradition, lets see where they can take it.
IowaSt: It all starts with Hoiberg. Credit him for bringing a different philosophy, the players to make it work, and showing that he can sustain top20 level of play now with his 2nd set of players. Contrary to a poster above, I think Niang is a very skilled guy, very much like Ellis, but both a question-mark at the pro level because of their size. He is dominant at the college level. He has post moves, and a trey gun, and a Marcus-like jab-step pullup midrange J. Their most important, dynamic player. The now-emerging flaw with IowaSt is their lack of planB (now that Deandre Kane is gone), when the 3 bombs are off target, OR if Niang is in foul trouble. McKay has helped. Hoiberg has lamented poor D in their losses for 2 seasons now. Can they hit 3s for a 6 game run in the Madness? Statistics say "NO". KU was a better 3 shooting team for the season than IowaSt...what??? And KU even pulled an 0-13 vs WVU.
WVU: Gritty, scrappy, intense. They do exactly what Huggins wants. Watching Huggins go at Self is like watching a Big10 grinder. Staten may be the heart and soul, and maybe what was missing in the WVU game at AFH. Scary thought. Jayhawks got taught about toughness in that game, at least without having to taste an L.
Baylor: Check if Drew has a new assistant coach, and how many coaching medals that asst may have under his coat...because this season's Bears are a gritty bunch. I sadly missed the Baylor 18pt beating of WVU in Morgantown, and am totally flummoxed as to how Drew's bunch pulled that off. They have battled in every game. KU was lucky in the 1pt win in Waco. A dynamic Chery + athletic bigs + 1 power-big-body = a tourney-capable pkg. And they have credible wins to give confidence.
TCU: Ah, there's a new purple in town (ftball and bkball). Trent Johnson proving he is a worthy adversary for more than just Topeka-Y caliber opponents. He has a young squad that got about 2 notches better this year. And, not hard to recruit to the DFW area. Keep an eye on this program. Other than Karviar Shepherd, a list of who-dat? players, but they could be next season's OU or Baylor. (You read it here on kubuckets first...)
OklaSt: Missing some pieces from last year, as well as some bench depth, but that didn't stop them from playing tough and inspired ball, especially against KU. Don't they like their fellow alum, Bill Self? Why do they play so hard against Self's team, but not against others as consistently? I guess their motivational issue may lie with Travis Ford. The KU win may have bought Ford another season. Mid-tier program at best. Clearly getting eclipsed by OU, and I don't know how in-state Oklahomans see that, especially OkieSt alums. Travis Ford is treading water at best regarding that legacy in Gallagher-Iba that Sutton built and maintained for years.
TxTech: The TubbyTechies! Another program, painstakingly building from the ground-up with freshman. A young team with consistency issues, physicality issues, and some injury issues. Tubby knows what he is doing, and frankly, west Texas is lucky he still wants to coach, as obviously he still feels he has something to prove. And he will. Another mid-pack team next season. They have battled close in some games. It took KU's #1 lotto pick Wiggins to beat them last year. "easy win=TxTech" is a phrase whose days are numbered, and is pretty much dying this season.
KState: This university has had basketball tradition in the distant past. The current players have fought and hustled at times, other times there seem to be strife and issues on this team. It must be remembered that after 3-4 games of conf play, KState was co-leading the conference. My, how the wheels fell off. Losing your most dynamic player and scorer (Foster) to off-court silly stuff simply was a disaster. Weber is a walking, talking contradiction. Lackluster professionals often point to past accomplishments to keep hope up, but that only works for a while. And the poor KSU fanbase is a very odd collection of (historical) basketball pride, misplaced football-driven enthusiasm that isn't being done justice by the state of their basketball program, and simply inappropriate behavior for intercollegiate athletics by a sizable segment of their fanbase--some fellow Kansans have called them an embarrassment nationally. (And for that matter, their football enthusiasm is barely supported by their football program, an in-state + quasi-regional power, with zero pretense of being able to take on the likes of Urban Meyer or Nick Saban, or the recruits that such elite coaches are able to get). The inferiority complex shown by their basketball fans must be disturbing to the KSU bball players. How will Weber be able to recruit to Manhattan. Frank Martin could, but the other (older, more conservative) segment of the KSU fanbase didn't like Frank. Unfortunately a program on a power-slide, and you saw it happen this season, beginning in January.
TX: Another year of Texas not equaling the sum of their parts, looking like a top10 team for 1 half vs. Kentucky, then dropping some no-no games. For example, losing to KSU, there is simply no excuse for (same as KU, no excuse). On paper, this team has some nice pieces with a dynamic PG, Ridley, Holmes, Lammert. The feeling is that Myles Turner is underutilized, and perhaps mis-used in the mpg that he does play. These guys have consistently blocked shots, they play decent D, yet they look too often undisciplined on the offensive end. Unfortunately, while I like Rick Barnes more than most KU fans do, that failing falls on him and his staff. Or maybe allowing their offense to be the Isaiah Taylor show is all by design. The kid is legit...a lot better than Myck Kabongo. But he doesn't try to make his teammates better. Probably the most damning idea, is if Bill Self were coaching the Texas team, he'd be contending for the BigXII crown with them. Texas simply does not strike fear in me. While Taylor absolutely plays his heart out, there always is a piece missing for TX, and this year it is toughness and lack of unifying identity about how they want to play.
