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

2. Texas Tech Red Raiders 27-10 (11-7)

2017-18 postseason result: NCAA Tournament Elite Eight

Season Grade: A+

Anytime a program makes history for their most successful basketball season ever, it automatically qualifies as an “A+” campaign. That’s what happened with Texas Tech, who made it past the Sweet Sixteen for the first time.

The Red Raiders used a top-notch defense, along with a combination of athletic youth and consistent experience to become the No. contender to end Kansas’ consecutive regular season titles. They also ended up being the only team to stop Villanova on offense, giving them as tough a test as they faced in their title run.

The only disappointing part of the season was the injury to Keenan Evans at the end of Big 12 play. Had he been healthy, who knows what would’ve happened to Texas Tech and the team’s chance to end the streak.

1. Kansas Jayhawks 31-8 (13-5)

2017-18 postseason result: NCAA Tournament Final Four

Season Grade: A+

It was incredibly impressive to see how head coach Bill Self handled the roster issues, with only having seven scholarship players for half the season.

But even with reinforcements, this was the toughest group of opponents in the Big 12 that the Jayhawks had to deal with. Yet somehow, someway they held strong, to win both the regular season and conference tournament titles.

Next: Way Too Early Big 12 Rankings for 2018-19

It didn’t stop there, with Kansas navigating through a few underseeded teams to get to the Final Four, including beating Duke in the best matchup of the Big Dance. Even though it’s become something we as college basketball fans have been accustomed to, doesn’t make what this team did any less impressive.