NCAA Basketball takeaways: No. 1 team in the country, Pitt’s rise and Big 12 bids
By Joey Loose
2. Can the Big 12 get all 10 teams to the Big Dance?
Arguments have been made by many people in the past about conferences getting too many teams into the NCAA Tournament. Specifically, some have argued that if a team finished under .500 in conference play then they shouldn’t qualify for the Big Dance. On paper, this argument doesn’t seem too crazy, as a handful of people would rather see that 25-win mid-major qualifying over a team that goes 8-10 in conference play and barely wins 20 games.
However, the Big 12 might just tear that argument apart this season, because there will absolutely be a team finishing below .500 in conference play that deserves their shot. At this very moment, all ten teams in the Big 12 sit in the Top 40 in KenPom, the top 45 in Bart Torvik’s rankings, and only Oklahoma (52) sits outside the top 45 in the NET. These ten teams also have the ten toughest remaining strength of schedules in the nation.
Defending champion Kansas looks as lethal as ever, while Kansas State has had an insane resurgence under first-year coach Jerome Tang, including a road win at Texas on Tuesday night. Baylor dropped a tough one at a talented Iowa State squad, while both Oklahoma schools have looked good at times this year. A revamped West Virginia team was nearly a Top 25 program, whereas Texas Tech has sniffed that ranking this season already. TCU also got a huge road win at Baylor.
In all reality, a few of these teams will pull ahead of the pack while a few will fall behind. The Big 12 is likely not going to have some crazy even standing at the end where 10-8 or 11-7 wins this league. That being said, nobody expected Kansas State to win at Texas, and you’re going to keep having these kinds of results for the coming weeks and months in this conference. When the dust settles, we expect Kansas and Baylor and Texas and a few others to have impressive resumes, but just how many schools can this one league send, especially in a down year for the ACC and Pac-12?