Rush The Court

Patrick Marshall of Bluejay Basketball is the RTC correspondent for the Big 12 and Missouri Valley Conferences.

Current Records and my standings (Conference Standings) (Last Week)

1. Oklahoma (25-1)(11-0) (1)
2. Missouri (22-4) (9-2) (3)
3. Kansas (20-5)(9-1) (2)
4. Kansas St. (17-8) (6-5)(5)
5. Texas (17-7) (6-4) (6)
6. Nebraska (15-8) (5-5) (4)
7. Baylor (16-9) (4-7) (8)
8. Oklahoma St. (15-9) (4-6) (9)
9. Texas A&M (17-9) (3-8) (7)
10. Texas Tech (13-12) (3-7)(10)
11. Iowa St. (13-12) (2-8) (11)
12. Colorado (8-14) (1-9) (12)

Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas has shown at this point they are the class of the conference while Texas, Kansas St., Baylor try to separate themselves upward. Texas A&M, Oklahoma St. and Nebraska are on the outside looking in needing to have a quick turnaround if they are even to be considered for the NCAA’s.

GAME OF THE WEEK
Missouri 62, Kansas 60—The Big Monday match-up did not disappoint. The home crowd was intimidating and some Missouri players were not used to the big game environment. However, Missouri settled down and rallied down 14 points in the second half to hit a shot with 1.6 seconds left to get the win against Kansas. Kansas leader Sherron Collins was held to nine points, nine below his average, on 4-for-13 shooting. This win for Missouri has sort of solidified their play and knocked Kansas from the conference unbeatens.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Blake Griffin, Oklahoma—I think people need to go ahead and start shining up the Player of the Year trophy to Griffin. Obviously, he is head and shoulders above the rest of the players in the Big 12 and appears to be above the rest in Division I. His career-high 40 points and 23 rebounds against Texas Tech wasn’t too shabby either.

TEAMS PLAYING WELL

• Texas (2-0 this week)—Texas has recognized that they were squarely on the bubble coming into this week and took their frustrations out on Oklahoma St., but then had to survive in overtime against bottom feeder Colorado. The play of Conner Atchley has probably been one of the things that has kept Texas from playing like they should (oh and not having a real point guard), but Atchley finally came alive since being benched for the Oklahoma St. game.
• Oklahoma (2-0 this week)—Oklahoma has only lost to Arkansas this season and they are just rolling through the conference at this point. Blake Griffin and the boys appeared to toy with Texas Tech on Saturday and I think could have blown them out more than the 21 point win showed. Griffin’s 23 rebounds were just 5 shy of the whole Texas Tech team.
• Missouri (2-0 this week)—Missouri has solidified itself as a top tier team in the conference with the exciting come back from behind victory against Kansas on Big Monday and then destroying Nebraska. J.T. Tiller has been a force on defense shutting down Sherron Collins on Monday night but then a balanced attack from the Tigers on Saturday ran Nebraska off the court.

TEAMS UP AND DOWN

• Kansas (1-1 this week)— Kansas all but wrapped up the win against Missouri, but somehow didn’t hold on in the last few minutes as Missouri was able to escape with a win. Kansas St. tried to make it two in a row, but Cole Aldrich did not let them and rallied Kansas from a 16 point deficit to a win .
• Kansas St. (1-1 this week)—Kansas St. isn’t doing itself any favors losing anymore. The weak non-conference season is starting to catch up with them any losses they have the rest of the way. In fact K-State is going out of conference this week to play North Carolina Central—with a Pomeroy ranking of 343. This is not good for them. Denis Clemente is trying to hold his own and doesn’t mind getting T’d up.
• Baylor (1-1 this week) –Baylor is treading water keeping their NCAA hopes alive by beating Texas A&M this weekend. Things were made a little interesting at the end as Curtis Jerrells was pushed as time expired and officials and coaches had to separate players and lead them off the court. However, losing to Oklahoma for what seems to be forever– is keeping them from rising in the South division.
• Oklahoma St. (1-1 this week)—The Cowboys are consistently inconsistent. However all of their conference wins have come against the bottom of the league while they cannot win against the likes of Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. They don’t have many chances left. Travis Ford started 5 guards against Iowa St. this week.
• Texas Tech (1-1 this week)— At this point, the Red Raiders are hoping to finish the season at .500. Going big at Oklahoma didn’t help.
• Iowa St. (1-1 this week)— You can see what level Iowa St. is at. They aren’t as good as Oklahoma St. who blew them out this weekend, but then blew out Colorado who is just not good. So I guess that is progress. Craig Brackens continues to be a bright spot for the Cyclones.

TOUGH WEEK

• Nebraska (0-1 this week)— Someone pinched Nebraska and they woke up. They had a week to prepare for the game at Missouri when they already beat them in Lincoln, but then got blown out in Columbia. Pretty much everything that could go wrong went wrong. Getting inspirational speeches from the football team may not be the answer. Colorado and Kansas are on the horizon for the Huskers and this week will probably finish dashing the hopes of the Huskers for any NCAA aspirations. It wouldn’t surprise me if there is a bit of a hangover in the game against Colorado and then going to Allen Field House will not be easy.
• Texas A&M (0-2 this week)—As conference season started, I said that Texas A&M had a great resume for the NCAA tourney if they did not totally melt down in conference play. Well, they have done exactly that—melted down. Losing two more games this week and sitting at 3-8 in the conference, A&M can almost kiss their chances goodbye. However, their only chance is if they win out the rest of the way which is possible since they have Texas, Texas Tech, Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa St. and Missouri to finish the regular season.
• Colorado (0-2 this week) – Colorado has had a lot of close games with the top of the conference including the two games against Kansas, and the game against Texas and Oklahoma. However, they are still 1-9 and will have a lot of experience next year.

WEEK AHEAD AND GAMES TO WATCH
Other than Big Monday and Oklahoma/Texas, the Big 12 kind of has a quiet week as most of the top tier teams are playing lower tier teams and even Kansas St. is stepping out of conference to play North Carolina Central. But here is the best of the week:

• 2/16, (Big Monday) Texas @ Texas A&M (ESPN)—A&M loses this one, they can probably kiss their at-large hopes goodbye.
• 2/21, Oklahoma @ Texas (ESPN) –Will Oklahoma lose a Big 12 game this season?
• 2/21, Baylor @ Oklahoma St.(ESPN Full Court)—Baylor tries to inch its way back into contention for tourney status.
• 2/21, Nebraska @ Kansas (ESPN Full Court)—After the blowout at Missouri this last week, the wheels could completely fall off for Nebraska @ Kansas.