One of the biggest upsets of the college basketball season occurred Monday night when the Kansas State Wildcats knocked off the top ranked Kansas Jayhawks 84-68 in the Little Apple. I'm willing to bet that Big 12 Hoops.com moves KSU up in next week's power poll. As for Oklahoma...
10. Oklahoma Sooners
Overall Record: 12-12
Big 12 Hoops.com
Last Week's Record: 0-2
Last Week's Ranking/Movement: T8 - Down two spots
What Matt Says: If basketball is a game of runs, Oklahoma is a basketball team. Have six streaks of three or more wins (or losses) so far this season. -
Here's what's being said on the rest of SBN's Big 12 blogs.
We are now #21 in the AP men's basketball poll, and moved up to #17 in the coaches poll. I'm still convinced our guard play says we are nowhere close to being a top 20 team, but maybe everyone else in college basketball is struggling enough that we're just good enough to be in that group. We still need two more conference wins, minimum, to guarantee our Dacing card. - I Am The 12th Man
Sandy question #2: Is Colorado a done deal for our 2011 schedule? What about the other open slot in the schedule, would it go to an "A" level team like TCU?
Response: Colorado was just formally signed today (Tuesday, Feb 8th), so that's official and they will not count as a conference game. We consider them the "A" team for the schedule, and we will absolutely NOT (she was very adamant about this point) schedule TCU. We will play Fresno at a NEUTRAL (again, emphasis) site in Candlestick Park, and consider them to be our "B" level opponent. We will schedule some lower division team as our "C" level opponent.
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Sandy question #4: What's going on with BCS contraction? Will we see fewer BCS conferences in the near future?
Response: This is on the minds of all AD's right now, as we're discussing the feasibility of contracting from 6 BCS conferences down to 4 within 4-5 years. - The Ralphie Report
And the answer is, of course, yes. One of the biggest reasons people reject a playoff system is that it makes the regular season meaningless. The thought is that in a playoff system, you merely have to get into the playoff system, and once you qualify for the playoffs, there is no reason to worry about the regular season anymore.
That argument gets skewered by pointing out that teams who make the playoffs get seeded based on how they finish the regular season, and there are two rewards for getting a higher seed. First of all, higher seeds host games all the way through the semi-finals. Second, the #1 seed gets rewarded with a home game against the #16 seed, who almost always will be the Sun Belt Champion. And when you win that game, you get another home game. Win that, and the #1 seed gets rewarded with a third home playoff game for the semi-finals, with a reward of a national championship berth. - Corn Nation
At was highlighted in this article, the Big 12 referees have been blowing the whistle a lot this season, like at the rate of a foul per minute. Well this weekend, 5 of the 6 games came in under that 40 foul/game average, and all the games together only averaged 34 fouls. As a result. there was actually some free flowing action on display instead of the constant start and stop that we have unfortunately become accustomed to. Look at the amount of personal fouls per team:
ISU:12, KU:7, BAY:24, TEX:15, OU:17, Mizzou:12, TAMU:16, TTU:20, OSU:20, NU:18, K-State:20, CU:27. Colorado ended up as the only team that went above the 20 foul/game average! - Cowboys Ride For Free
This became official earlier today. The Cyclones have received an LOI fromQuinton Pompey, a 3 star DT from Bradenton, FL. According to Rivals he had received offers from Miami (FL), Penn State, Missouri, Louisville, and others, although his official visits look to have been Marshall, Georgia Southern, Eastern Kentucky, and Iowa State. - Clone Chronicles
Kansas dropped a game in embarrassing fashion last night to the Kansas State Wildcat team that came out with something to prove. Fortunately for Kansas fans losing isn't something that happens very often in life. Unfortunately that means it's sometimes difficult to keep things in perspective and it without question becomes very easy to overreact. - Rock Chalk Talk
Oklahoma had a good year last year. They were fortunate to win a home regional then had a nice super regional win over UVA. Who cares if they haven't beaten Texas in a series since Clinton was in the White House and their greatest advantage (the home run) may have been devastated by new NCAA rules? Anyhow, the coaches like Oklahoma. - Burnt Orange Nation
I think this team will miss the work of Batch, but there's lot of depth and I actually think that a guy like Crawford (discussed below) could take over that role. The bottom line is that Batch isn't irreplaceable, there are plenty of options at running back and there are plenty on the way. Still, I thought that Batch had a pretty good year, but he actually rushed for fewer yards in 2010 than 2009, but had more carries. And most of the time, I'd be concerned about replacing over 800 rushing yards, but the only thing that I'm remotely concerned about is replacing the type of runner that Batch is. Batch is a good size running back, bigger than Stephens, and has better speed than Crawford. I like Batch's combination of size and speed with the other running backs, I don't know that there's a similar combination like Batch in the top 4 possible replacements. - Double T Nation
Oklahoma returns two All-Conference caliber pitchers in seniors Bobby Shore and Michael Rocha as well as the best closer in the Big 12 in Ryan Duke. However, they'll need to look to some new faces to finish out both the weekend rotation. - Crimson And Cream Machine
The Beef: Where would this team be without Kristin Nottelmann? She stepped up her game when Chelsea Thomas got hurt in 2009, then she did so again in 2010. She has put together a 35-11 career record as a third starter, a second starter, and an ace. Whatever the team has needed from her, she has done. Nottelmann blossomed throughout her first two seasons, improving to about six strikeouts per game in 2010, shutting opponents out eight times and allowing a batting average of just .210. She is good enough to the be the No. 1 starter for probably all but the top teams in the country at this point, and she will likely be the No. 2 for Mizzou in 2011. The next step in her development (in my mind) would be for her to become a little more overpowering (improving the strikeouts and bringing down the Batting Average Against even more) while also stretching out a bit and finishing more games. Nottelmann did notch 16 complete games in 31 starts, but true aces in this league typically finish about 75 percent of their starts. (Obviously she showed great potential in this department late last season, finishing eight of her final ten starts.) If Nottelmann can eat up more innings, this could also keep Chelsea Thomas a bit fresher as the season goes along, saving her from having to close out some of Nottelmann's starts. - Rock M Nation
K-State got back to playing like the Junkyard Cats, or the Dobermans, or whatever moniker you preferred from the team that made an Elite Eight run last season. Coming off a loss to Colorado on Saturday to drop to 4-6 in conference play and facing top-ranked and arch-nemesis KU, the story was looking bleak for K-State.
But Jacob Pullen put together a performance for the ages, dropping 38 points on the Jayhawks in a game in which KU never really threatened. The win gives K-State a much-needed boost and quickly improves their NCAA Tournament resume. If the Wildcats can sustain the level of play we saw tonight, we could quickly forget about how disappointing the last two months have been for this team. - Bring On The Cats