With the 2011-12 campaign now just a memory, it’s difficult to actually remember all of the drama and agony the Big 12 experienced during the last five months. Kansas’ thrilling loss to Duke in the Maui Invitational seems like ages ago, as does the Jayhawks’ first loss to Kentucky at Madison Square Garden. Remember when Missouri and Baylor were only a few of the remaining unbeaten teams in college basketball? Or when Texas found a way to lose game after game in the most heartbreaking fashion? These memories are hard to digest, but you’ll probably never forget the Border War drama between Kansas and Missouri, nor will you forget Iowa State’s rise thanks to the brilliant play of Royce White. The Big 12 kept playing until the final game of the 2011-12 season, ending with Kansas’ loss to Kentucky in the title game on Monday. And with the conclusion of this wild campaign, the final grades are in. Kansas earns an A+. Big surprise. Texas A&M earns an F. Big surprise, too, but for different reasons. The other eight teams settled into a grade somewhere between those two extremes.

We’ll cover the bottom half of the league today, and the top half tomorrow.

10. Texas Tech (8-23, 1-17)

Gillispie's First Year in Lubbock Wasn't Great

FINAL GRADE: D

The Red Raiders get a free pass in Billy Gillispie‘s first season. Playing almost exclusively with newcomers, Texas Tech had no chance this year. Robert Lewandowski was the only senior on the roster, but not even he could lead this team to any sort of success. Their inexperience was just too much to overcome. The Red Raiders were plagued by turnovers all season and they never got consistent point guard play. Jordan Tolbert emerged as the leading scorer in the frontcourt, and he played the most consistent basketball on the team from November through February. Still, even after a last-place finish, Texas Tech should not worry about the state of this program. Gillispie’s success at UTEP and Texas A&M proves he can win in this state, and he’ll have almost everybody back next season.

9. Texas A&M (14-18, 4-14)

FINAL GRADE: F

Sorry, A&M. You fail. Picked in the pre-season to win the Big 12, the Aggies suffered through a nightmare year, though there are extenuating circumstances to consider here. Coach Billy Kennedy learned of a Parkinson’s diagnosis in the fall, which kept him sidelined for fall practice and away from his team during critical teaching moments. As a first-year coach, Kennedy never had the chance to establish himself to his new players. Adding to the woes, many of those players missed time themselves with injuries. Star wing Khris Middleton had surgery on his knee in November and sat out part of Big 12 play. Point guard Dash Harris missed a handful of games, too, and his backup Jamal Branch transferred before conference play. Kourtney Roberson played only nine games before his season ended due to injury as well. As the troubles mounted, the losses began to pile up. The Aggies simply could not score because of all the roster turnover and the lack of creators on the offensive end. We thought this team could muscle its way to a Big 12 title by playing with the principles former coach Mark Turgeon instilled, but that never happened. Now, Kennedy must revamp this program and forget about the 2011-12 nightmare.

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1. Lorenzo Romar met with local media on Wednesday and had a ton of news as Washington heads to the offseason. While the early entries of Tony Wroten and Terrence Ross to the NBA are by now old news, it is newsworthy that freshman point guard Andrew Andrews underwent hip surgery and junior center Aziz N’Diaye is scheduled for wrist surgery, although neither issue is serious enough to impact their availability for next season. Romar also noted that although the Huskies have yet to sign any new recruits for next season, he expects to land two or three new players. Mark McLaughlin, a recruit from Tacoma Community College, verbally committed to the program but has yet to sign a letter of intent. And, among other things, Romar said an offseason focus would be on improving perimeter defense and finding an inside scoring presence. That last goal does not have an immediately obvious answer, although guys like Shawn Kemp Jr., Jernard Jarreau and Martin Breunig will all get a chance.
2. When Trent Lockett announced his decision to transfer from Arizona State, he cited his desire to be closer to his mother who is fighting cancer at her home in Minnesota. So, while schools like Iowa State, Minnesota and Wisconsin all made perfect sense as possible landing grounds, the news that Gonzaga is somehow in the conversation comes as a bit of a shock. Still, Iowa State appears to be the leader for Lockett’s services, but the graduating senior must find a school that offers a graduate program that ASU does not in order for Lockett to be eligible to play next season.
3. It’s no secret to anyone that’s read this spot this season, but Shabazz Muhammad is more or less a must-get for UCLA. If Muhammad goes to Westwood, it means Ben Howland has landed an elite recruiting class and it means the Bruins may even have a shot to land power forward Tony Parker as well. If Muhammad chooses Kentucky, it reinforces the idea that John Calipari and the Wildcats are the place to be for potential one-and-doners and it likely slams the door on the potential for Parker in blue and gold. Sure, the Bruins will still have a nice little recruiting class with Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams, but with Muhammad in tow, the Bruins are possibly the Pac-12 favorite and a force again on the national stage. My gut feeling? Muhammad will be wearing a blue and gold hat on April 10.
4. A day after Muhammad’s decision will be announced on ESPNU, Tony Parker will announce his decision, with UCLA also among the favorites. On Wednesday, the Memphis Roar reported that Parker’s father had said that his son had cut his list of potential schools to UCLA, Duke and Memphis, but later in the day he retracted that statement, noting that his son would not be trimming his list until the April 8. Still, for the three schools on the supposed short list, this should be seen as good news, while the others – Kansas, Ohio State and Georgia – should probably start making other plans. And, if Brooks Hansen – the author of the piece – is to be believed, the Bruins are the leader in the clubhouse for Parker’s services.
5. Arizona would certainly have something to say about the idea that the Bruins would be the Pac-12 favorite with the addition of Muhammad. After all, as of right now, the Wildcats have the best incoming recruiting class in the country. And, with the proliference of all the silly 2012-13 preseason rankings that have come out in recent days, it is interesting to see UA, presently sans a set-in-stone answer at the point guard, showing up near the top of many lists. Andy Katz, for instance, has the Wildcats at #12, but two writers at the Daily Wildcat have differing thoughts on such a lofty ranking. One thinks the love is deserved, even if Josiah Turner never wears an Arizona uniform again, while the other prefers to see the team prove it before giving them such praise.

1. Backing The Pack: One of the best posts of the year is back for its sixth edition. That’s right it’s time for @akulawolf”s postseason awards. Not only do the awards make you laugh, they’re also informative. For instance, did you know DeShawn Painter sported a smooth 37.6% effective field goal percentage this year? I don’t know how many times I told myself, “He’s really developed that 15-17 footer this year.” Well, apparently it was all a mirage.
2. WxMoose: Speaking of informative and ironic, I did a double-take when I read this analysis of way-too-early rankings. No, it wasn’t NC State‘s frequent top-10 rating (CBS was the only early Top 25 to rank the Wolfpack in double figures). It was CollegeHoops.net ranking Duke number one. Yeah, their rankings are from before the NCAA tournament finished (and Austin Rivers declared), but number one?! By the way, these rankings are your ACC basketball reminders of the Mayan calendar: NC State is ranked above its Tobacco Road foes in all but two of the polls.
3. Tar Heel Blog: With the news that North Carolina recruit Marcus Paige has already joined the list of Tar Heel injuries, Brian Barbour took the time to list all of the injuries during the Roy Williams era. It’s safe to say the last three years haven’t been kind, with 15 UNC players missing a total of 122 games.
4. Run The Floor: ESPN reported that Pittsburgh and Syracuse won’t be at Big East meetings this summer; rather, the two schools will join the ACC proceedings. The strange thing is that neither team is slated to join the ACC until after the Big East bylaw-mandated 27-month waiting period. My guess is this is a sign that things are moving more quickly than anticipated (the Big East already replaced the departed schools).
5. Baltimore Sun: Obi Enechionyia (I have no idea how this is pronounced, but it could be epic) is interested in Maryland. He’s only a rising junior, but he’s already on local schools’ radars, notably Maryland, Virginia and Virginia Tech. He really came out of nowhere this year to average 18/13 as a sophomore. If he improves again over the next year, you should expect to start seeing bigger names on that list. Mark Turgeon and his staff should have an advantage for getting into the recruiting race early.

EXTRA: This is real.

1. A year after announcing in the losing locker room that he would be returning to Ohio State, Jared Sullinger has decided to forego his final two years of eligibilty and will enter the NBA Draft. As we noted after what turned out to be Sullinger’s last game in a Buckeye jersey he still need to work on his game quite a bit. Although Sullinger did show signs of rounding out his game as a sophomore by losing weight and developing an outside shot it was not evident in that game for Sullinger. Sullinger will need to continue developing his game to have a long NBA career. He will still end up being a lottery pick and most likely a top 10 pick despite his limitations, but those flaws probably cap his ceiling.
2. Sullinger may be joined by another Big Ten underclassman as an initial report indicated that Michigan freshman Trey Burke was going to announce his intent to enter the NBA Draft. A few hours later his father released a statement indicating that Trey had not declared for the NBA Draft yet and was still taking classes at Michigan. While some viewed this as a denial of the earlier report to us it was just semantics as his father never said that Burke was not planning to declare for the Draft. Burke’s decision to continue classes is a little less reassuring to Wolverine fans because Michigan is currently in their Winter Term, which ends in less than two weeks with exam week the following week, so Burke could finish classes to preserve Michigan’s APR score and not affect his NBA Draft stock, which is important because he is a borderline first round pick.
3. Yesterday, one key member of Kentucky‘s national championship team announced his intention to stay in Lexington as John Calipari announced that he was not looking to pursue a NBA coaching career at this time. The most obvious suitor would be the New York Knicks, who some believe have the inside track to steal him from Big Blue Nation. On some level we could understand Calipari’s desire to stay with a passionate fan base who no doubt reveres him after he brought them their eighth national title, but if Calipari is given a chance to shine on the NBA’s stage (and with the NBA’s millions) it may turn out to too tempting to pass up after his brief run in New Jersey went so poorly.
4. Alex Oriakhi has listed his preliminary plans for his college visits. The Connecticut transfer will “definitely visit” North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, and Missouri while also listing Xavier, Ohio State, and UNC-Charlotte as potential visits. Outside of the UNC-Charlotte visit, which seems kind of random, the Ohio State visit becomes intriguing with the possibility that Oriakhi could potential step in to replace Sullinger. Clearly, Oriakhi is not quite the same caliber of player that Sullinger was at Ohio State, but he would be a nice bridge to the next dominant big man the Buckeyes want to bring in.
5. Early this morning, Samford  will introduce Indiana assistant Bennie Seltzer  as its next head coach. Seltzer, who has also worked as an assistant at Marquette and Oklahoma, will be returning to his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama for his first job as a head coach. With two new head coaches without any previous head coaching experience in college basketball, Birmingham’s beat writers should be very active next season.

*A special thanks goes out to LG for providing RTC with lodging, travel expenses and an LG Nitro HD phone to take pictures and video with this weekend in New Orleans. 

New Orleans always has a festive atmosphere, but Championship Monday carried a buzz from start to finish. Kentucky and Kansas fans filled the streets from dawn to dusk and well afterward in the Big Easy. Here are some of the sights and sounds from the last day of the season.

UK Fans Getting into the NOLA Spirit Before Da Game

KU Fans Also Hyped and Ready to Go

The Streamers and Fireworks Go Off As UK Celebrates the Title

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Over the course of the next two weeks, the Pac-12 Microsite will break down each team’s season: what went well, what didn’t, and a look ahead at the future. Today’s subject: Arizona.

What Went Wrong

The Wildcats came into the season expecting to compete for a Pac-12 title and find their way back into the NCAA Tournament for the 27^th time in 28 years. With a class of four highly regarded freshman coming in, it seemed that while Sean Miller might struggle a bit with inexperienced players, they would have enough talent to establish enough of a resume to earn a postseason invitation. Instead, one of those freshmen – Sidiki Johnson – played exactly nine minutes in his Arizona career before getting run off by Miller for behavioral problems. Another freshman – Josiah Turner – lost his starting job in the second game of the season for being late to a shoot around, blew his chance at regaining that spot by missing a practice and getting suspended just before the trip to Florida in December, then got suspended a second time in March leaving his future with the team in jeopardy and leaving his Wildcats on the outside looking in on Selection Sunday.

Josiah Turner's Inability To Stay Out Of Trouble Left Arizona Without A Leader At The Point (Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star)

What Went Right

Veterans like Kyle Fogg, Jesse Perry, and Solomon Hill all did their best to step up and lead the team, with each turning in their best season in the careers. Fogg was excellent during the conference season and ends his Wildcat career with several places in the program’s record book alongside Wildcat legends while Hill was at his versatile best leading the team in rebounds and assists while finishing second on the team in scoring. Between the three of them, they accounted for 56.1% of the scoring, 54% of the rebounding, and 44.3% of the assists. Plus, despite the struggles that Miller had with immaturity among his freshman class, the coach showed his willingness time and again to put discipline as a priority in his program, a decision that may have cost Arizona a game or two this season, but one that should pay dividends in the long run.

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1. The Hoosiers are getting some love for next season from ESPN. Several media outlets have ranked Indiana as one of the top teams in the country based on the talent returning to Bloomington. Now, we all know this is way too early. But for what it is worth, Andy Katz of ESPN ranked Indiana as his top team for the 2012-2013 season. If Cody Zeller comes back next season, Tom Crean’s squad should compete for a Big Ten title and beyond.
2. The Jared Sullinger watch officially started, which started Sunday, ended today as the Ohio State junior announced that he would be entering the NBA Draft. Last season, after the loss to Kentucky in the Sweet 16, Sullinger did not take much time letting the media know that he would return for his sophomore season. This season, however, he was almost as quick with his decision. It does not seem surprising that Sullinger is leaving Columbus even if his last performance in a Buckeye uniform raised plenty of questions about his ceiling as a pro.
3. Tom Izzo‘s team has some issues off the court after an excellent season on the court. Derrick Nix was with marijuana and Izzo suspended him immediately after his arrest. Nix will be out indefinitely and Izzo has made it clear that such behavior will not be tolerated. Nix is a crucial part of the rotation for the 2012-2013 season and his suspension could be troubling news for Spartan fans.
4. Tubby Smith‘s contract is still in works, but all reports indicate that he will be sticking around Minneapolis for a few more years. He has two years left on his current contract, but the administration is leaning towards giving Smith a multiple year extension by the end of April. The Gophers’ late season charge towards the NIT final has boosted his resume especially after losing his best player, Trevor Mbakwe to an injury for the whole season.
5. Big Ten teams are not the only ones losing their cast upon graduation or to the NBA Draft. The Big Ten Network will be without one of their analysts next season as Keno Davis has been hired at Central Michigan. Davis coached at Providence before moving on to a job at the Big Ten Network for one season. Davis has midwestern roots because he coached at Drake in the Missouri Valley before heading to the Big East job at Providence. Davis won’t be a huge loss for BTN, but they need to make sure to hold on to Gus Johnson!

1. With the college basketball now, sadly, in the books, things are about to slow down here just a bit. But, we’re still going to keep you up to date on the Pac-12 as the interminable offseason rolls on. While we may not have Morning Fives on a regular basis, we will crank them out from time to time when we have Pac-12 hoops related content. Beginning this afternoon, we will begin posting report cards for each conference teams, and throughout the summer we’ll keep you posted on what these teams will look like in the future. And, we will hopefully toss in some fun little things from time to time as well.
2. The most important Pac-12 news of the last couple days is Tony Wroten’s decision to forgo his final three seasons of collegiate eligibility and enter the NBA Draft; he’ll hire an agent, precluding any chance of a change of heart. Coupled with the graduation of senior Darnell Gant and the previous decision of Terrence Ross to go pro, Washington will lose a shade over 52% of their scoring from this year’s team. Still, Lorenzo Romar will get senior guard Scott Suggs back from a redshirt season due to injury, while redshirt freshman point guard Andrew Andrews, who sat out last season year due to the combination of Wroten and Abdul Gaddy already locked in at the point, should be ready to make an immediate impact. As for Wroten, projections on his draft status show him currently a late first round pick, but he’ll need to impress between now and the June draft in order to secure first round status and the guaranteed contract that goes with it.
3. Utah fans got news on Wednesday of another outgoing defection, as it was announced that freshman forward George Matthews would be transferring out of the program, making him the fifth player to transfer out since the end of the season. Matthews was the most highly regarded of last year’s six-man recruiting class, but he struggled with injuries in the offseason and was never truly healthy this season. Still, this is not exactly a blow to Utah’s plans. They needed to cull the flock a bit in order to make room for next year’s incoming recruits, and, really, this roster needed to be remade in a bad way. Part of that remake is the addition of 5’9” point guard Brandon Taylor who’ll join the team next year as a freshman and have a chance to compete for starters’ minutes from day one.
4. While here on the second day of the offseason, it still seems quite a long way away, little by little we’re hearing about games being scheduled for next year. On Wednesday word filtered down that UCLA would be playing San Diego State in the Wooden Classic on December 1. While this is not official yet, it marks a couple of interesting occasions. First, and perhaps foremost, it represents the return of the Wooden Classic to a weekend non-conference game for UCLA early in December, rather than the thrown-together Thursday night conference matchup with Arizona that took place last year. Hopefully there will be another interesting game of some sort on the same card as the SDSU/UCLA game and the event to honor one of college basketball’s most enduring icons will be on safe footing against. Secondly, it also marks the first time these two teams will have met in the Steve Fisher era with the Aztecs and the first time since 1991. With SDSU welcoming in some high profile transfers and UCLA potentially sporting one of the nation’s best recruiting classes, this could be a game to watch in next year’s non-conference slate.
5. Lastly, on Monday the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced their 2012 inductees, and a couple of Pac-12 players were on the list – UCLA’s Jamaal Wilkes and Reggie Miller. While both are probably more well known for the exploits at the professional level, each excelled with the Bruins. Wilkes won two championships under John Wooden (‘72 and ‘73) and was twice a first-team All-American (’73 and ’74), averaging 15 points and 7.4 rebounds per game over his three-year career in Westwood. Miller certainly didn’t have anywhere near the team success that Wilkes did with the Bruins (although he did lead UCLA to the first-ever Pac-10 conference tournament title in his senior year), but was a spectacular talent, averaging almost 24 points per game over his final two seasons.

1. Raleigh News & Observer: Want to know every NCAA tournament game refereed by an ACC official? Well Luke DeCock is your man. He tracked the top 14 conference officials with all of their games from the Big Dance. Les Jones and Jamie Luckie both made it to New Orleans (Roger Ayers was an alternate). The NCAA Tournament is also a tournament for officials, with the league trimming down the officials each round. For the record Karl Hess made it all the way through the Phoenix regional.
2. Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Tony Parker is a bit of a mystery. Every time it seems like Duke is out of the mix, Mike Krzyzewski will go out of his way to go see Parker and another school will take a step back. This time it’s Kansas moving backwards, as Danny Manning (Parker’s primary recruiter) is going to Tulsa. Thad Matta also missed on an opportunity to go see Parker because he was coaching in the Elite 8. Coach K may be able to overcome Parker’s knock (that Duke struggles to develop big men) by process of elimination and sheer resilience.
3. Wilmington Star-News: It’s a photo gracing more and more articles on Wake Forest basketball. What should have been a very promising offseason took a turn for the worse as the Jeff Bzdelik era transfer count climbed to eight with Tony Chennault, Carson Desrosiers and Anthony Fields announcing their intentions to leave Winston-Salem. I don’t need to tell you that Bzdelik should be on a short leash. He’s got a promising class coming in. But if he’s in the bottom tier of the ACC again, he may not get a chance to develop those guys.
4. ACC Sports Journal: Barry Jacobs looks at the ACC season through some numbers, highlighting everything from declining scoring margin and Kendall Marshall‘s assists amongst other topics. This was the first time in the past 15 years the ACC wasn’t significantly above the national scoring average (the conference scored 68.5 points a game compared to the nation’s 68 points). Obviously some of this decline is a part of the national trend, some is a fundamental change of style, and some reflects conference expansion and coaching turnover. How much? Who knows?
5. Raleigh News & Observer: Wisely, CJ Leslie is seeking a report from the NBA’s “draft advisory committee.” I say wisely because Leslie isn’t projecting as a first round lock, so jumping head-first into the NBA draft might be unwise. However, many of the mock drafts predicting Leslie in the second round show him falling behind Mason Plumlee. Having watched both play quite a bit, I’m not sure how a GM could justify that.

EXTRA: Speaking of NC State, The Big Lead is very high on the Wolfpack next year. Jason McIntyre ranked Mark Gottfried’s team fifth, only two spots behind North Carolina (a ranking that required a lot of leaps considering its losses). Still the bigger surprises from the ACC lay further down the rankings, where Maryland comes in at 13 and Duke at 25. I don’t see it with Maryland. Duke should be better than 25, but there are a lot of questions facing the Blue Devils.

1. Syracuse will play San Diego State on the USS Midway Museum on November 9. This event is similar to the Carrier Classic from last November except that it is being run by a different corporation and will not be on an active duty carrier. We have not heard how tickets will be allocated as the security presence at the event should be significantly less than what was seen last year as this is not an active duty ship and is in fact a museum that you can visit on a regular basis. We are also not sure if President Obama, who may or may not be returning to Washington for another term depending on the outcome of a small straw poll a few days earlier, will be coming to the game.
2. There are conflicting stories on the report that the Sun Belt Conference would be adding Georgia State to its conference. A report filed early yesterday suggested that the move was imminent, but a subsequent report including a quote from the Sun Belt Conference’s commissioner appears to indicate that the decision is still very much up in the air. Given our history of hearing conflicting reports we are going to side with the initial report as it is more likely that Sun Belt is trying to conceal its hand until everything is certain and also to potential build up some buzz about the new announcement well at least as much buzz as a Sun Belt Conference move can have.
3. The 2012 NBA Draft will not be short on point guards as two more probable first round picks–Tony Wroten Jr. and Damian Lillard–put their names into the Draft. For Washington the loss of Wroten is compounded by the loss of Terrence Ross will leave them significantly weakened as they try to rebound from a disappointing season. For Weber State the loss of Lillard will likely take them off the national radar for the time being. To us the interesting thing with these announcements is just how much talent there will be available to the NBA with Wroten and Lillard joining Kendall Marshall and Austin Rivers (ok, maybe he is a stretch as a point guard) as almost certain first round picks who have left school early. Will the presence of four such highly coveted point guards lead other point guards, who might have otherwise considered leaving (like Marquis Teague) to stay in for at least another year?
4. Derrick Nix‘s offseason got off to a bad start as the Michigan State rising senior was suspended indefinitely following an arrest for marijuana possession and operating a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs. Nix probably will not miss any significant time for the Spartans, but the arrest may indicate a lack of maturity and leadership for the Spartans as Nix was their lone rising senior. Tom Izzo says that he wait until the legal process works out before making a decision on Nix’s punishment. We would be surprised if the punishment is anything more than missing a game or two.
5. There were a lot of “way too early” 2012-13 preseason polls released yesterday, but there was one poll that was different from the others–the final ESPN/USA Today Poll. The rankings are not particularly surprising, but they do place a heavy emphasis on the NCAA Tournament. With few exceptions teams are ranked based on how they finished in the NCAA Tournament. The big moves (up and down) were the “Cinderellas” that made deep runs and the highly ranked teams that were upset on the opening weekend.