NCAA Basketball Roundtable: Worst Big 12 team, Jabari Smith No. 1 pick?
3. Who is the worst team in the Big 12 and why?
Mauro
Kansas State is the worst team in the Big 12. They don’t have the talent to compete with the rest of the league and while they will be better than last year they are still talent deficient and are not going to score enough to beat anyone in the league consistently. Even still the Wildcats may win 4-5 games in the league because I think that league is very competitive overall.
Burgess
The bottom of the conference has been better than first thought, but I think the worst team is Kansas State. Nigel Pack and Markquis Nowell, the transfer from Little Rock have been good, but I think their record is a product of a soft schedule, and once conference play starts defenses will force someone other than those two to beat them.
Melton
It’s a toss-up between Oklahoma State and Kansas State, but I’ll say that OSU is the worse team at the moment. The Cowboys have struggled at home this season, and aside from the Houston game, matchups with Oakland, Wichita State, and Xavier were all games that OSU had a chance to win.
Heiser
This was one question I was hoping I wouldn’t have to answer because the Big 12 has been really good to start the year. Process of elimination, it’s either Oklahoma State, Kansas State, or TCU. Oklahoma State is too talented for me to pick them, plus I’m standing in solidarity with them over the whole postseason ban thing.
The Cowboys have nothing to play for, so at this point, I can’t blame them too much for weird losses like they had against Oakland early in the season. They have also played a harder schedule than the other two teams. I think I’ll default to Kansas State here because they are 1-3 in games against Power Six opponents while TCU is 3-0 in those games.
Zacher
There genuinely isn’t a single “bad” team in the Big 12, considering the 10 teams share a combined record of 88-16 and there are still two undefeated teams in Baylor and Iowa State. Even Kansas State – against recent history – has looked solid with road wins over Wichita State and Nebraska, and single-digit losses to Arkansas, Illinois, and Marquette.
Ultimately, I’d have to say Oklahoma State right now. The Cowboys’ loss to Oakland may be the worst loss of any Big 12 team – which is nothing against Oakland, as one of the best teams in the Horizon League – but only TCU’s loss to Santa Clara and Kansas’ buzzer-beating loss to Dayton come close. The Cowboys’ resume isn’t bad, per se; they have overtime wins against Oral Roberts and Cleveland State, as well as a victory over N.C. State – but they’ve missed out on opportunities for crucial wins in narrow losses to Wichita State, Xavier, and Houston.
They’re one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the nation and they lack a real go-to guy like they had with Cade Cunningham last season. Again, Oklahoma State is not a bad team at all – but comparatively, they’ve looked the weakest of the 10.