1. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 36 hours, you’ve heard by now that Kansas‘ win over Oklahoma on Monday night extended their streak of regular season conference titles to a remarkable ten in a row. During that streak, three times Kansas has replaced all five starters from the previous season in 2005-06, 2008-09, and 2013-14 and still managed to capture the league crown. Brian Hamilton at Sports Illustrated took a look at those three seasons in particular and ranked them in order of which is most impressive.  Sooner or perhaps later, the streak will come to an end, just not this season.
2. When the NCAA Tournament rolls around, you can bet Iowa State will be a sleeper team many people around the country like to advance deep because of their ability to score the ball. While point guard DeAndre Kane and forward Melvin Ejim receive most of the attention, forward Georges Niang may be the most important piece to Fred Hoiberg’s Cyclones. Niang has been a model of consistency as of late, scoring at least 17 points in nine of his last 10 games. Niang’s ability to stretch opposing defenses away from the basket creates a difficult matchup, especially for a team having to potentially prepare for Iowa State in just one day in the NCAA tournament format.
3. Speaking of NCAA tournament play, the Oklahoma Sooners and head coach Lon Kruger have proven during conference play that they can score points with any team in the country, but for Oklahoma moving forward, the key is being able to get stops on the defensive end of the floor. As NBCSports.com points out, in six of the Sooner’s eight losses, their opponents scored over 80 points. Part of the problem for Oklahoma is that while their ability to score from so many different places on the floor, that versatility resulting from a smaller lineup leaves them vulnerable to taller frontcourts, especially when forward Ryan Spangler gets in foul trouble.
4. This season we’ve learned quite a bit about Marcus Smart, both good and bad. On Monday night, Smart showed that superstition wasn’t a concern for him after a student manager left his jersey back in Stillwater, forcing Smart to wear number 43 instead of his usual 33. In all seriousness, as bad as things have been for Smart this year, he still has an opportunity in front of him to make a meaningful and positive impact on college basketball. That opportunity starts on Saturday night, when the Cowboys host league leading Kansas with ESPN’s College Gameday in attendance.
5. After dropping two disappointing games in a row, Bob Huggins’ West Virginia team is in need of a great end to conference play to really make a push to the NCAA tournament. The Mountaineers will have three opportunities against RPI Top 25 teams in their last four games which could drastically help improve their tournament resume. It will be important for Huggins’ squad to tighten up on the defensive end, and hope that point guard Juwan Staten can continue his impressive play that jump-started the Mountaineers in league play.

Taylor Erickson (54 Posts)

Taylor Erickson is a Big 12 contributor for RTC. You can follow him on Twitter @tc_erickson.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 26th, 2014 at 9:01 am by Taylor Erickson and is filed under big 12, microsites, morning 5. Tagged: georges niang, kansas, marcus smart, oklahoma sooners, 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.