Comments on: 2009-10 Conference Primers: #4 – Big 12

By: Justin Hulsey

Justin Hulsey — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:38:36 +0000

Mizzou has their consistent scorer you said they were lacking. Sophomore Kim English has been ballin’ so far this year.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:25:00 +0000

Yeah, Texas at UConn will be a great game. I just wanted to get a mix of Big 12 teams in there, and not have Texas in there three times (even though they play a very tough non-conference schedule). So I picked the Longhorns two toughest games, IMO.

By: Orbea

Orbea — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:07:36 +0000

How did you miss Texas at UConn for one of the top 10 RPI boosters. I would put that game ahead of K State and Xavier.

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:33:32 +0000

“Despite being a KU fan I’m someone who can write about the Big 12 from an educated, inforrmed, unbiased perspective…I’ll chime in the comments from time to time.”

Obviously, you are not someone who can write about the Big 12 from an educated, unbiased perspective, based on your comments on this thread.

We all know that KU is a “great” team this year, and that Bill Self is a “great” coach. And I think we can all agree that they will be a top championship contender. Fine.

But why knock on Mizzou just for the sake of knocking them? Anderson has a nice system that worked last year, and people want to see if it can work again this year. So what if he’s only beaten KU once? KU is always relevant. Anderson had to work to pick up the mess left by Quinn Snyder. Of course it’s not going to be easy. Of course it’s going to be tough to come back again this year.

That’s why Mizzou was the focus of much this article. They’re just a much more interesting team in the sense that they could be really good or could be really bad. There’s room for debate. It beats only talking about Kansas and Texas all the damn time and having everybody agree with each other.

I guess only a Kansas fan could not be intrigued by Missouri this year, and that’s fair. But every other college basketball fan who doesn’t have any sort of connection to either team will be watching the Big 12 to see three teams: Kansas, Texas and Missouri. Sorry, that’s just a fact.

Signed,
A Michigan State fan

By: rtmsf

rtmsf — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:54:45 +0000

In reply to Willie. Willie - take a breath, man. It's ok. My job as editor of RTC is to make sure that the materials posted here by our correspondent writers are well-written, thoughtful, factually correct and defensible. Again, I don't believe Patrick showed an inherent bias against Kansas in his writeup. He picked the 'Hawks to win the conference and the national title. If anything, I was a little concerned about a bias for the Big 12 in making that pick, as he stated that KU was an "overwhelming" pick, as I believe there are numerous really good teams who will be in the mix this year. But I let it go b/c it is entirely defensible. Had he picked Missouri to win the national title... not so much. As for the credibility of the Missouri pick, going 9-7 and finishing fifth in the league is also defensible. We recently have taken part in an exercise over at Vegas Watch where we use regression analyses to take a look at teams this season based on what was lost and what was gained. Mizzou finished sixth in that exercise (take a look here). The point is that Missouri, in our eyes, will be a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 team this year, and in no way does that claim threaten Kansas, so I'm not sure why you're so agitated about this. Finally, whether Anderson is a "great" coach depends on how you define the word. I wouldn't use "great," but my threshold for greatness is pretty darn high. I would say that he's very good at getting players who fit his system and running that system. Whether that will turn into conference championships and F4s, I'm uncertain. But I think we can all agree it's better than what Quin Snyder was doing. As always, we appreciate the comments, and certainly those like yours where you put some time and energy into the thinking behind it. But I think you're being a little too hard on Patrick here simply for picking Missouri in a zone very similar to what others (including myself) happen to believe. Take care!

By: Zach

Zach — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:54:30 +0000

Apparently they do say MU. Never mind.

By: Zach

Zach — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:52:44 +0000

You’d think fans of a team that should be the best in the nation wouldn’t be that bitter.

I’m with Patrick. Missouri will be right in the NCAA discussion because of their system and returning backcourt. The loss of their top 3 scorers surely stings, and anything close to another Elite 8 won’t happen, but Missouri should be able to pull a couple wins out of their ass pressing like crazy and playing efficient basketball. Their guards have a lot of upside, too. They’ll be solid.

Willie…MU? Go Missouri University!

By: Willie

Willie — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:34:27 +0000

I never said you had bias against KU…I didn’t have to, it’s pretty damn clear in your writing with your subtle little digs at KU and you weirdly inserting Mizzou into multiple parts of the Big 12 preview as if they will somehow be a factor in the league or nationally. There is a lot of reason to believe there will be drop off at MU…they lost their top 3 scorers and have no inside game whatsoever. It was clear you were just chomping at the big to write something about your beloved Tigers.

You shouldn’t have ranked KU first, that would have really helped the credibility of this blog and yourself as a writer. Not having the consensus preseason #1 team in the country winning the league would certainly have gotten this blog a lot of hits/publicity… because people around the country would be running over here to point and laugh at you. (No offense RTMSF…I love this blog and think you do a great job)

You’re right it was a nice little accomplishment for MU to make the Elite 8 last year. Especially when you realize it was just the 4th time they made the Elite 8 in their 103 year history of playing basketball. In contrast Bill Self has 5 Elites Eight appearances since 2000 (3 of those at Kansas).

And yes I’m sure Bucknell and Bradley really burns me up KU fans. That national title two years ago just didn’t do anything to ease the horrible pain. LOL, silly mizzou fans. It should be noted that Mizzou was not even in the tournament either of those years that KU got upset….and has only been in the NCAA tourney 4 times this decade. But yeah at least you didn’t lose to Bucknell! *rolls eyes*

And I can’t let you go without addressing the Mike Anderson is a “great” coach line. Sports fans often throw around the word “great” flippantly…and this is another example of that. Mike Anderson has been a head coach for 8 years and has made it past the first weekend of the tourney twice and past the Sweet 16 only once. This is not anything great…at a lot of good basketball schools that track record would get you fired.

Mike Anderson is an ok coach who plays a goofy style of basketball that every once in awhile gives teams with comparable or better talent some problems. Usually though teams with better talent just kill the 40 minutes of hell press and it becomes a layup drill for teams playing MU. Which is why Mike Anderson is 1-6 against Bill Self at Kansas…because KU always has the better talent and that style doesn’t give them much problem.

Despite being a KU fan I’m someone who can write about the Big 12 from an educated, inforrmed, unbiased perspective…I’ll chime in the comments from time to time.

By: rtmsf

rtmsf — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:38:52 +0000

In reply to Patrick. Yeah, I don't have a dog (or a Tiger or Jayhawk) in this ancient battle, but I happen to believe that the natl. media is underrating Mizzou as well. Anderson is a system coach, and as long as he has athletes who are interchangeable, he'll have successful teams there. There's no reason to believe we'll see a huge dropoff, although winning 30 games again would be very unexpected.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:30:50 +0000

Mizzou was supposedly a non-factor at the beginning of last season, but everyone knows how well they did under Mike Anderson. Anderson is a great coach that has developed a very good system that combines fast paced play with great defense (see the fun with KenPom portion of this article), and I think that he will be successful as long as he has a deep, athletic team.

As for my “apparent” biases against Kansas: I picked them to win the conference, and the national championship (I think someone that hates Kansas as much as you say I do would have just picked Texas to tick off all KU fans).

My “What You Need to Know” section on the Tigers was simply in there to remind people that they were also ranked seventh in the Big 12 last season and ended up finishing in the Elite Eight and were very close to making the Final Four (Oklahoma was the only other Big 12 team to make the Elite Eight). I believe that a team that sees a huge turnaround in their program, like Mizzou did last season, deserves some recognition coming into the next season.

And the fact about Kansas being a two seed each year they shared the Big 12 title was not at all a shot at the Jayhawks. It was just simply an interesting fact. Had I really wanted to make all the Kansas fans mad I simply would have had a “Blast from the Past: Bucknell and Bradley” section in my preview.

And I was actually wearing my Kenny George jersey when I did this preview, for the record.

By: Willie

Willie — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:58:18 +0000

Mizzou at 5? “What we need to know” section about the Tigers? The thorough breakdown of a national non factor team like Mizzou.

I think it’s pretty obivous just from reading this article what Big 12 team Patrick is a fan of. What really tipped me off was this though:

“KU was the #2 seed everytime they shared the Big 12 regular season title”….what relevancy does that have to a Big 12 preview other than some silly barb that Mizzou fans use to make themselves feel better?

Were you wearing your Jason Sutherland jersey when you wrote this article?