Big 12 Basketball: Final Team Grades and Rankings for the 2017-18 season

It’s time to take one final look into the 2017-18 Big 12 Basketball season. Here are the final rankings and grades for each team.

10. Iowa State Cyclones 13-18 (4-14)

2017-18 postseason result: None

Season Grade: C

This season was going to be expected, after losing the players responsible for the golden era of Cyclones basketball. With transfers and freshmen coming in, there were nearly double-digit newcomers for head coach Steve Prohm to deal with.

The overall record isn’t great, but the progress made by several key players puts Iowa State in great position to have a successful 2018-19 season. That really was all they could hope for.

9. Baylor Bears 19-15 (8-10)

2017-18 postseason result: NIT Second Round

Season Grade: C-

I don’t have it in me to give the Bears a “D” grade, only because of how difficult the Big 12 was from top to bottom. Doesn’t make this any less of an extremely disappointing season, considering that the top players for Baylor were all seniors.

Whether it was offense, defense, rebounding, or shooting, Baylor was simply okay in every category, but not really that good. It clearly cost them at the end, along with that bad non-conference schedule. This was the NCAA Tournament or bust, and it was the latter for them.

8. Oklahoma State Cowboys 21-15 (8-10)

2017-18 postseason result: NIT Third Round

Season Grade: B-

This was a difficult team to grade. They were a win-now team because of the seniors, but the expectations weren’t really there, with Michael Boynton in his first season with the Cowboys. They also had to deal with losing an assistant coach to the FBI Investigation as well.

Although Oklahoma State failed to make the Big Dance, the team did manage to sweep Kansas in the regular season, which nearly catapulted them to the NCAA Tournament.