NCAA Basketball: 8 bold predictions for conference play in 2019
By Brian Rauf
6) Oklahoma will finish in the bottom half of the Big 12
The Sooners found themselves ranked No. 25 this week thanks to an 11-1 record, yet I think they’re perhaps the most overrated team in the country (I explain why here).
How overrated? I don’t think they’ll finish in the top half of the Big 12. Heck, they may not even finish in the top six.
Let’s start with what we know about the conference. Kansas is going to win it or, at the very least, finish in the top two. Texas Tech looks like they’ll be up there as well. On the flip side, we know West Virginia and Oklahoma State are bad.
Outside of that, it looks like the other six teams are all fairly even. We expect Kansas State and TCU to be at the top of that heap, and I think both are more talented than Oklahoma. The same goes for Iowa State when they’re healthy, which they weren’t at the start of the year (plus the Cyclones are ranked No. 17 in KenPom).
That automatically puts the Sooners in the bottom half with Baylor and Texas. The Longhorns are talented but inconsistent and the Bears are just now starting to get healthy, so we don’t really know what to make of them yet.
The numbers suggest the Sooners aren’t quite as good as people think and, given the other quality teams in the conference, I see them crashing back to reality in 2019.