Top 10 stories from the Big 12 regular season

#3: Rick Barnes rights the ship at Texas

Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

Not one person saw this one coming. Rick Barnes was probably on the hottest seat of any basketball coach in America before the year started. There is no way of denying that the Texas basketball program had a lot in common with a train wreck before. With four new starters this year and ugly incidents like the one with Myck Kabongo, it was the general consensus that Barnes was nearing the end of his tenure in Austin.

Barnes responded by leading the Longhorns to a fourth place finish in the conference including a great win against Kansas on February 1st. Joe Lunardi has Texas projected as a six seed in his most recent Bracketology. Anyone outside of the most die-hard fans would have been expecting to see the Longhorns in the NIT. With even more games left to silence his critics, it was a great season for Barnes to cement his status among basketball’s elite coaches