Big 12 Basketball: Buy Or Sell Texas, Baylor, Oklahoma, and TCU
By Chris Kern
Big 12 basketball is full of competitive teams. Here we take a look at teams on the bubble and predict their chances of making the NCAA Tournament.
The Big 12 basketball season has been full of surprises this season. We have seen a lot of good competitive basketball as we have been accustomed too when following this league.
The biggest disappointment is the play of West Virginia. Excluding their upset win over Kansas they have not looked like a Bob Huggins led team. Coming into the season some even speculated they could compete with the Jayhawks for the Big 12 regular season title. Now they will be lucky to not finish in the last place in the standings.
The other team in the conference who won’t be competing for an NCAA Tournament bid are the Oklahoma State Cowboys. They have dealt with a lot of turmoil this season as multiple key players have been kicked off the team. Mike Boynton is building a program there so give him a year or two and he will have that program back to their winning ways.
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The top four in this conference are essentially locked in to make the big dance at this point barring an epic collapse. Kansas is led by Dedric Lawson and despite having dealt with a lot of turmoil themselves this season they’re probably locked into a top four seed come March.
Their in-state rivals have been playing at a high level recently. The Kansas State Wildcats have won eight straight conference games with a bad loss at Texas A&M there. They are in a prime spot to dethrone the Jayhawks on top of the conference and secure a top six or seven seed for the NCAA Tournament.
The Texas Tech Red Raiders are another team who is in a good spot to land a favorable seed in March. They have some offensive issues but with Jarrett Culver leading the way and being an elite defensive team they are in a good spot as they head down the stretch of the season.
Then we have the Iowa State Cyclones who are the most talented team in the conference. They were slated as a four seed in the March Madness preview show. Led by Virginia transfer Marial Shayok they have a deep roster and Steve Prohm has them ready for a deep tournament.
The other four teams still have work to do if they want to make the NCAA Tournament. Some of them are heading in the right direction while some are trending down in a big way. We take a look at each of these teams and decide whether to buy or sell them as a team to be selected for the big dance in March.