1. The AP and Coach’s Poll were revealed Monday and Kansas had a nice bump up to #5 in the Coaches edition, up from #9 last week after its double-overtime win over Oklahoma State. Kansas State remained at #13 in both polls after easy wins over West Virginia and Texas, while Oklahoma State proved once again that while a single elimination, 64-team tournament isn’t the best way to crown a national champ, we should all be thankful we don’t rely on voters like football. The Cowboys lost by a point in double overtime to a top-10 team and dropped four spots, from #14 to #18 in the coaches poll. Did four teams suddenly become better than Oklahoma State this week because they made one less bucket against Kansas?
2. Baylor is far from a lock to make the NCAA Tournament, as Seth Davis points out in the video here. He has the Bears as one of his first 5 teams out of the dance, and it’s hard to criticize him. Baylor has lost three in a row and sits at just 16-11 overall. Their win over Kentucky earlier in the season looks far from impressive as the Wildcats are on the bubble as well. The Bears don’t have any great wins on their resume, either. Oklahoma State was a good win at home, but that’s the only decent win they have so far. They end the season on the road at West Virginia and Texas and home against Kansas State and Kansas. I think they need to go 3-1 in that stretch -or make a run in the conference tournament- to feel comfortable on Selection Sunday.
3. Blake Griffin was a stud at Oklahoma a few years ago, breaking out during his sophomore season on his way to becoming the #1 overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft and an All-Star as well. As Jeff Goodman points out, Griffin could have easily left Oklahoma after his freshman year and been a lottery pick. But Griffin is glad he stayed, and thinks other kids should, too. While it’s tough to drown out the people wanting to cash in on your talent, Griffin thinks it’s worth it in some cases. “You might drop a few spots,” he told Goodman. “But you might end up with a team that’s a better fit — and end up making more money in the long run.”
4. Can’t believe Baylor is on the bubble? Think Kansas State should be a #3 seed? Figure it all out here, with CBSSports.com’s RPI comparisons. Compare Baylor and Kentucky, for example. Look at their wins against the RPI top 100 or their record away from home to see which team deserves a tournament bid (I lean towards the Bears). How about Kansas and Florida for the top #2 seed? The Jayhawks are 10-3 against the RPI top 50 while the Gators are 5-3. Kansas also has a better Strength of Schedule, #12 to Florida’s #22. You could lose a lot of time on that page, so beware.
5. Speaking of brackets, I think the Jayhawks will lose one more game through the Big 12 tournament and end up with a #2 seed. But Brad Evans over at Yahoo! unveiled his latest mock bracket and has Kansas as the fourth #1 seed as of Monday morning. As he notes, the Bracket Big Board is pretty accurate, so Kansas fans should be happy. The loss to TCU is still a bad mark on their resume but with nearly every top team losing the last few weeks, Kansas has as good a shot as any to potentially steal one of the final top seeds. Indiana and one of Miami and Duke seem to be locks, but the other two spots are up for grabs. Kansas, Florida, Michigan, Gonzaga, and even Georgetown look to be in contention.

KoryCarpenter (150 Posts)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2013 at 7:30 am by KoryCarpenter and is filed under big 12, microsites, morning 5. Tagged: baylor, blake griffin, kansas state, oklahoma, oklahoma state, tcu, west virginia. 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.