The ball has dropped, the champagne bottles have been emptied, and the black-eyed peas have been begrudgingly eaten. The resolutions have been made, and now it is time to meet your new goals. With 2011 ending, so too has the Big 12 non-conference season. Missouri and Baylor appear to be the favorites for conference supremacy, but the league is still so wide-open that there is a lot of work to be done for every team. So, I present to you my suggested new years resolutions for each team. If they attain these new goals, a conference crown will be in their sights.

Kansas Celebrates the Fact That Thomas Robinson Plays For Them, and Nobody Else

Baylor: “In 2012, I will be more dominant.” Baylor has been impressive this season, entering conference play with a perfect 13-0 record. However, the Bears have not earned a dominant victory against a marquee opponent, sans Northwestern. To truly impress the nation, Baylor needs to beat good teams by big margins.

Missouri: “In 2012, I won’t be afraid to travel.” Missouri has been the surprise of the Big 12 season, if not the entire college basketball nation. But Missouri has played only one true road game, a game in which they barely scraped by an average Old Dominion team. If they want to avoid the collapse they encountered in the 2010-11 season, they will need to be able to earn victories on the road.

Kansas State: “In 2012, I won’t back down from challenges.” The Wildcats are an impressive 11-1, and in my mind, are better than their #22 national ranking. Unfortunately, it will not be easy for the Wildcats to prove they are being nationally disrespected, as they have a very challenging early-conference slate. They start with in-state rival Kansas at the Phog, then host Missouri and Baylor, then travel to Norman for a trap game against the Sooners. The Wildcats cannot back away from these early season challenges if they’re going to compete for the conference crown.

Oklahoma “In 2012, I will be more confident.” The Sooners are a good team. It’s official. Their great start cannot be considered a fluke. But just as the college basketball nation needs to believe in the talent of the Sooners, so too does the Sooner roster. After grabbing a big lead against Big East team Cincinnati, the Sooners collapsed, seemingly losing all confidence and the game in the waning seconds. In the second half, the Sooners seemed unsure of themselves and didn’t perform like talented teams with a lead should. They turned the ball over 18 times, which led to 16 Cincinnati points.

Kansas “In 2012, I will count my blessings.” The Jayhawks lost an abundance of talented freshmen due to eligibility issues, but it’s time for the Jayhawk faithful to stop dwelling on it. KU has the very talented Tyshawn Taylor and Thomas Robinson and a team that is good enough to once again be crowned Big 12 champions. And man, is Thomas Robinson good. His numbers look like Dwight Howard in a pick-up game.

Check back tomorrow for the rest of the Big 12 teams’ resolutions…

cwilliams (48 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, January 2nd, 2012 at 2:16 pm by cwilliams and is filed under big 12, microsites. Tagged: baylor, kansas, kansas state, missouri, oklahoma, thomas robinson, tyshawn taylor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.