Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Missouri Valley and Big 12 Conferences.
Current Records and my standings (Last Week)
- Oklahoma (12-0) (1)
- Baylor (10-1) (2)
- Texas A&M (11-1) (3)
- Texas (10-2) (4)
- Missouri (10-2) (5)
- Kansas (8-3) (6)
- Kansas St. (8-3) (8)
- Oklahoma St. (8-3) (9)
- Texas Tech (9-4) (7)
- Iowa St. (8-4) (11)
- Nebraska (7-3) (10)
- Colorado (7-3) (12)
A very bad week for the Big 12. With about a week left in non-conference play, the cream of the crop is starting to shake out. Kansas St. and Oklahoma St. did not play this week.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Texas (1-0 this week)—Texas rebounded after the loss to Michigan St. to take it out on another Big 10 team in the Wisconsin Badgers to get a nice road win. The news in Texas is that former Florida guard Jai Lucas has chosen to transfer to Texas and will join the Longhorns. It is still to be determined whether he needs to sit out a full year and become eligible for the 2nd half of next season or if he will be able to play right away. I can’t see how he could be eligible for the beginning of next season, but stranger things have happened.
TEAMS DOING WELL THIS WEEK
Oklahoma (1-0 this week)—Oklahoma keeps chugging along defeating Rice in their only game of the week. They head to Arkansas this week to take on the revamped Razorbacks before hosting Coppin St. this weekend. Blake Griffin has been taking cheap shots from opponents all season, but at least he takes it in stride.
Baylor (1-0 this week)—In Baylor’s only game of the week, they needed everything from Curtis Jerrells triple-double to beat Hartford. More on that later. They have a busy week hosting 3 games, the toughest one probably against South Carolina.
Texas A&M (1-0 this week)— A&M continues to win and you can’t discount what they are doing. They might be in for a trap game at Rice this week, but should continue with their one loss into conference play. Freshman Dash Harris and David Loubeau haven’t played significant minutes, but are coming along nicely for the Aggies.
Colorado (2-0 this week)— The Buffaloes are on a 4-game winning streak right now including an opening round win in the Rainbow Classic. Cory Higgins led CU with 21 points and 10 rebounds. The sophomore shooting guard was 12-for-12 at the line and has made 28 consecutive foul shots this season. They have two more games this week in Hawaii.
TEAMS THAT ARE STRUGGLING THIS WEEK
Missouri (1-1 this week)— No Braggin’ rights for Missouri this year as they got pretty well spanked against Illinois. For their Christmas present, they got to have a three hour practice on Christmas night.
Texas Tech (1-1 this week)— This team is going down in flames quickly. After playing pretty well against Centenary earlier in the week, Tech went out to undefeated Stanford and just got destroyed 111-66. Head coach Pat Knight took the blame for this loss. Well, he may need to take the blame for the rest of the season. The wheels are falling off this train as they host Stephen F. Austin on New Year’s Day.
Kansas (0-1 this week)— As somewhat expected, Kansas got beat pretty well by a gelling Arizona team. In an opposite coaching theory than Missouri, the Jayhawks got a 3-day break and held a youth clinic.
Iowa St. (1-1 this week)—Greg McDermott has got to be pulling his hair out with this team. They go and get beat pretty bad at home by South Dakota St. and then went down to Houston to pull out a win. Lucca Staiger got a visit from his parents from Germany this week for the holidays. They cancelled their summer trip just to go over and see their son play. How sweet.
Nebraska (0-1 this week)— Let’s just say that expectations have been lowered quite a bit in Lincoln this year. It is one thing to lose to Maryland-Baltimore County. It is another thing to be down by 20 at one point and to lose at home. As Doc Sadler said, ““Big loss. Huge loss, Huge.” There will be plenty more this season.
GAME OF THE WEEK
Texas 74, Wisconsin 69—This game was back and forth throughout the game as AJ Abrams and Damion James carried the team on their shoulders to gut out a tough win. Gary Johnson hit a nice bank three-pointer to put Texas up by the final margin in the final seconds.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Curtis Jerrells, Baylor —This week in Baylor’s lone game against Hartford, Jerrells turned in the first Triple-Double (17 pts., 11 rebounds, 10 assists) in 11 years and only the 4th in Baylor history. A triple-double in college basketball is quite a feat and that by itself earns player of the week honors, but Curtis has been playing quite well over the past few weeks.
WEEK AHEAD AND GAMES TO WATCH
The last of the big non-conference matchups.
- 1/2, Baylor vs. South Carolina (ESPN Full Court)
- 1/3, Kansas vs. Tennessee (ESPN)—The Tennessee machine comes into Lawrence hoping to steal a win from an up and down Kansas team
- 1/3, Missouri @ Georgia (ESPN Full Court)—Can the SEC lose more games to their large conference brethren?