Oklahoma's strong performance in the 76 Classic did a lot to boost the team's confidence and increase fan support but it didn't do anything to move the Sooners up in the Power Rankings.
It still seems like teams are trying to find themselves. One game they look good, the next, not so much. And scary for the conference is that our number one ranked team gets their best player back this week. - Big 12 Hoops
T1. Baylor BearsOverall Record: 5-0Last Week's Record: 2-0 Last Week's Ranking/Movement: 1, same What Nathan Says: Almost a toss-up for the top spot after the week Missouri had, but Baylor gets Perry Jones III back tonight vs Prairie View A&M. Hopefully we'll see the Bears take off as well. |
T1. Missouri TigersOverall Record: 6-0Last Week's Record: 2-0 Last Week's Ranking/Movement: 3, up two spots What Evan Says: All Mizzou has done in the past week is beat ND by 29, Cal by 39 and Kim English set a career-high while going 7-10 from three against Binghampton. I'd say they're looking pretty darn good. |
3. Kansas JayhawksOverall Record: 3-2Last Week's Record: 1-1 Last Week's Ranking/Movement: 2, down one spot What Nathan Says: KU had a good week too as they made the championship game in Maui and then took Duke to the wire. I don't believe this team is rebuilding anymore. |
While Sooner and Cowboy fans are gearing up for a Bedlam battle that will decide the Big 12 champion the Baylor Bears are gearing up for a game that will crown them as the best team in the state of Texas not named Houston.
We have finally reached the penultimate week of Baylor's season. With a bowl yet to be played, this will not be Baylor's final game of 2011, but it will be the last chance that Baylor has to compete against its brethren in the Big XII and demonstrate how far it has come this year in this conference. The opponent is our old friend Texas, cause of and solution to much of the conference instability that has so greatly vexed Baylor's fans this season. Texas, the school that thinks it has everything and needs no one. Texas, the school that considers itself the undisputed King of football in our state. Texas, the #22-ranked team in the latest BCS, sitting at 7-4 on the season before coming to Waco on Saturday.
To say that this game will be big for both teams is to take understatement to ridiculous new heights. Texas wants to show that its win over A&M was no fluke and that its resurgent defense will lead the way for the team going forward. How better to do that than to shut down one of, if not the, nation's best offenses? Baylor wants to establish a new high-water mark for Big XII wins in a season (after setting a new record this past weekend), keep its hopes for a 10-win season alive, and propel RGIII from Heisman candidate into possible Heisman favorite. Baylor's players and coaches have to know that the only reason last week, the week before that, and the week before that mean anything is so that this week means something. Finishing strong before the bowl is and always will be the goal. - Our Daily Bears
Cowboys Ride For Free is trying to match CCM blow-for-blow on Hate Week YouTube jabs but when you can't fix the html code to make the video fit your site the laugh is on you my Cowboy friend.
Its funny how fans of both sides can have the exact same feelings in regards to their team's performance despite the outcome.
If I were to sum up the game in one sentence, it would be that the defense did its job and the offense did not on Saturday. To be honest, I was a bit surprised the defense did as well as it did. Typically with Iowa State, we see something good happen only to be followed up by something much worse. After beating the #2 team, one might have expected not only a blowout, but some season ending injuries and rumors that Paul Rhoads would be leaving the program.... If your expectation was similar to that, Saturday wasn't such a bad day.- WRNL
The coaching search at Kansas is in full swing and Rock Chalk Talk is running down the list of possible candidates.
Yesterday Sheahon Zenger outlined his ideal candidate as he begins this weeks coaching search in an interview with Jayhawkslant.com.
"I am looking for someone with a strong pedigree. It could be a former head coach, current head coach or a coordinator. I think it is important that a coordinator comes from a highly successful program and he's been in that role for some time... I want someone that has strong football values and knows X's and O's. He must have a level of discipline above most."
If we're using that as our model our first two profile's fit the bill as a current head coach or a former head coach. Our next profile will be our first candidate that fits in the coordinator category and it's a name that was floated around in early discussions last time, but one that never surfaced for some fairly obvious reasons. That person is Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables. - Rock Chalk Talk
Oklahoma isn't the only school in the Big 12 looking at the possibility of losing a defensive coordinator.
Don't look now, but this is shaping up to be one of the busiest years in recent memory in terms of coaching turnover. When it's all said and done we could see as many as 17 head coaching vacancies open up in FBS college football, including 10 potential slots at BCS schools.
And as well as the Texas defense has been playing over the past month, I fully expect to see Manny Diaz's name pop up throughout the hiring season. It's impossible to say what any given school, or Diaz himself, will do, but let's take a look at the openings and speculate a little bit. We'll use a Diaz Danger Rating on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 being no danger to 5 being high alert.- Burnt Orange Nation
Texas Tech already looking at what needs to be done during the offseason.
I think it was after the Oklahoma St. debacle that I was going to try to work out some sort of methodology in reviewing the work that Texas Tech football head coach Tommy Tuberville in year two of his tenure at Texas Tech. Here are the five things that I'm considering for review, but I think as I continue in this process, I'll add more (I'd also be completely open to anyone suggesting or adding to the list in the comments). - Double T Nation
Bob Stoops has quotes on Bedlam and we've got them posted. Bye the way, out YouTube videos also fit on the page.
Big game this week. Think we'll get any big questions from the local media? Yeah, me neither. Regardless, we're here to recap all that Bob does
n'tsay in his weekly presser today. As always, you can watch the videohere. Here we go.As usual, Stoops opens things up talking about last week's game. Very happy with how they played considering the weather conditions. Says it was the worst weather he's ever played in. Says Landry managed the win pretty well. Had too many drops, partially due to the conditions. - Crimson And Cream Machine
Quaterback James Franklin was the the primary difference the the Boarder Way between Missouri and Kansas. He literally was the good, the bad and the ugly for the Tigers on Saturday.
I'm serious ... watching James Franklin in the first half of Missouri's win over Kansas was like watching me play tennis in high school. Once the wind got in my head, I was through. With the wind, I would take too much off the ball; against the wind, I wouldn't put enough on it. I would over-compensate, under-compensate, etc.
The same thing happened to Franklin. Against the wind, he was throwing even dump-offs behind running backs and T.J. Moe, and his first interception was a bomb knocked down by an invisible hand. On his third interception, with the wind, he had Michael Egnew breaking free toward the corner, only he overcompensated and threw the ball far too lightly. (His second pick, as far as I could tell, was just a terrible read and a pass thrown into triple coverage.) - Rock M Nation
Oklahoma checks in with a basketball RPI of 90 this week. How do I know? Because Bring On the Cats has it covered!
The Good: Loyola and Southern Illinois finally won a game, Virginia Tech won two in a row, Iowa State collected a pair of neutral-site wins, and Alabama, Missouri and Xavier continued to pad their undefeated records and climb the polls.
The Bad: UMES is a mess, losing three more to fall to a woeful 1-7; Southern Illinois and UTEP aren't much better at 1-3; and Long Beach State continued not to build on a great win at Pitt by losing its second straight.
The Ugly: After a brilliant 2-0 start in Anaheim, Oklahoma was thoroughly dismantled by Saint Louis. Also, Oklahoma State was 0-2 in the Garden and Texas Tech was 0-3 in Orlando. 'Nuff said. - Bring On The Cats