1. Ken Corbitt of the Topeka Capital-Journal has a good stat here about how well the Kansas State defense has played recently. The Wildcats are 14-4 overall, 4-1 in Big 12 play, and are #22 in the national rankings after beating West Virginia by 22 points on Saturday. Head coach Bruce Weber probably summed it up best when he told Corbitt: “If you guard people, it gives you a chance to win.”
2. Last season wasn’t a fluke for West Virginia, it seems. The Mountaineers are firmly in the Big 12 cellar with Texas Tech and TCU after losing their last three games. They are 10-8 on the season and haven’t beaten anyone of note, unless you count the two aforementioned teams. Other than that, West Virginia is 0-7 against power conference schools this season.
3. There is a reason Texas Tech head coach Tubby Smith is considered a pretty good coach. His Red Raiders knocked off a ranked Baylor squad last week and have a decent chance to even up their Big 12 record at 3-3 on Wednesday when they travel to West Virginia. “We haven’t always played with the intelligence we should,” Smith told Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News. “But the majority of them have been through things, and the experience of playing in the Big 12 has been a big help.”
4. Kansas freshman center Joel Embiid went from an unknown player from Cameroon to the potential No. 1 overall pick in next summer’s NBA Draft in the span of about 12 months. Even Self, who told Embiid he would be the top pick one day, didn’t think it would be so soon. “You’re going to be the No. 1 pick,” Self told Embiid (courtesy of Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star) “Now, it may not be this year, but you will be a No. 1 pick.” Self is right. It may not be this year. But don’t bet against it at this point. Embiid contributed 12 points, four rebounds, and a block in last night’s 78-68 win over Baylor. 
5. If Oklahoma wants to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament and make a run in March, freshman guard Jordan Woodard playing well would go a long way toward that goal. As Ryan Aber of The Oklahoman points out, Woodard had a four to one assist-to-turnover ratio in the Sooners’ 66-64 win over Baylor on Saturday. “I think he knows that we have confidence in him,” sophomore forward Ryan Spangler told Aber.

1. Kansas head coach Bill Self seemed to know of Joel Embiid‘s gifts before the rest of us, so the recent success of the freshman center from Cameroon isn’t surprising to him. “I told Joel as soon as he stepped foot on campus, ‘You’re going to be the No. 1 pick [in the NBA Draft],” Self told Gary Bedore of the Lawrence Journal-World after Embiid scored 13 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, and had eight blocks in the Jayhawks’ 80-78 win over Oklahoma State Saturday.
2. Before the season, Baylor looked like a potential candidate to knock Kansas off the Big 12 crown. Four games into Big 12 play, however, the Bears are 1-3 and face a red-hot Jayhawks team tonight in Allen Fieldhouse. Baylor lost at home to Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon, 66-64, and the Bears are suddenly in a must-win situation if they have any hopes of winning the Big 12 this season.
3. It’s easy to look at Oklahoma State’s comeback and near-victory over Kansas in a hostile gym Saturday and agree with Bill Self and Marcus Smart. “It’s a moral victory for us, but we should have just played like that from the tip-off,” Smart said. “I would say if they play well… when they make shots like that, they can beat anybody in the country,” said Self. The problem is that the Cowboys still have little to no post presence after losing Michael Cobbins for the season. Can they beat anyone on a given night? Sure. But can they win four or six consecutive games against quality competition to make the Final Four or win the national championship? Don’t count on it.
4. Like Baylor, Iowa State was supposed to challenge for a Big 12 conference title this season. Also like the Bears, the Cyclones have underwhelmed early and now sit at 2-3 in Big 12 play. They’ve been turning the ball over at a high clip lately and it has cost them. “We were going before we let the play develop,” head coach Fred Hoiberg said after losing to Texas Saturday. “We ran into each other on one occasion.” The Cyclones have this week off before welcoming Kansas State to Hilton Coliseum on Saturday.
5. Speaking of which, Kansas State has played well at home this season, but the Wildcats face a tough stretch of road games coming up. “We have a stretch where we have to see if we can stay in the top of the heap by winning on the road,” head coach Bruce Weber told Ken Corbitt of the Topeka-Capital Journal. “How do you do that? You have to guard, you have to rebound, and you have to be solid on offense.” The Wildcats are 4-1 in the Big 12 and have a chance to separate themselves from underachieving teams like Baylor and Iowa State in the next week or two.

Luke Winn over at SI.com came out with his annual “Magic 8” article on Tuesday, giving us the group of eight schools from which the eventual national champion will hail. This year’s teams? Arizona, Wisconsin, Syracuse, Kentucky, Kansas, Florida, Iowa State, and Michigan State. Winn’s reasoning is rather simple: “Title teams always — not sometimes, always — have high-efficiency profiles on kenpom.com,” he said. Top 25 rankings are virtually meaningless. It’s hard to go wrong when trusting advanced metric profiles, though, and Winn has a pretty solid list of title contenders. Notably, two contenders — Kansas and Iowa State — could rise from the Big 12.

The Big 12 Comprises a Quarter of This Year’s Magic 8

Winn had this to say about the Jayhawks: “Embiid’s rim protection and Wiggins’ rebounding against Iowa State on Monday were incredible, and if they continue on this trajectory, they’ll have a title-caliber defense.” In their last two games, Kansas has held Kansas State and Iowa State to under one point per possession (0.94 and 0.89, respectively), and the Jayhawks by no coincidence have started looking like a Final Four-caliber team. Bill Self’s defense this year still isn’t up to the standards of his other teams or previous national champions, though. As Winn notes, the last 11 national champions have had on average a national defensive efficiency ranking of 8.5, and Kansas currently ranks 19th. If that number holds up, this would be the worst defensive team Self has coached at Kansas since 2004-05, when they finished the season as the 25th best defensive unit in the nation. As Winn said, it will come down to whether the Jayhawks can continue on their recent upward defensive trajectory. They have an elite shot-blocking presence down low in Joel Embiid, and length on the perimeter in Wiggins and Wayne Selden; they can become an elite defensive team, but they still have work to do to get there.

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It’s true that a team’s conference opener is never a “must-win game,” but the road to Kansas’ 10th straight Big 12 championship would have gotten a lot tougher had the Jayhawks lost at Oklahoma Wednesday evening. The Sooners aren’t bad at all, but with the next four Kansas games coming against Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Baylor, the Jayhawks’ hole in the conference race would have felt much bigger than 0-1. Alas, Kansas escaped with a 90-83 victory in Norman, improving to 10-4 on the year and showing some glimpses of their potential in March. Here are four key takeaways from last night’s win.

Wayne Selden had everything working against the Sooners. (AP)

1. Wayne Selden scored in double-figures for just the fifth time this season, finishing with a career-high 24 points and showing us why he is a projected first round draft pick in June. He was 5-of-10 from three-point range, and while it appeared to be a flukish shooting night (his three-point shooting on the season is at 37.5 percent), it should give him plenty of confidence going forward. The Jayhawks desperately need consistent long-range shooting to open up the lane for its drivers and big men, and Selden is as good a candidate as any. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Of course it is too early for bracketology to mean anything at this point, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to consider. Jerry Palm at CBSSports.com unveiled his latest version on Wednesday and six of the 10 Big 12 teams made the list. And while it looks like those six teams will eventually all make the Big Dance, it’s obvious that Palm’s prediction is what would happen if the season ended today. That’s because Kansas is a #5 seed, Oklahoma State topped the conference as a #2 seed, followed by #3 Baylor, #4 Iowa State, #9 Texas, and #12 Oklahoma.
2. Texas had its biggest win of the season on Wednesday night against #14 North Carolina in Chapel Hill, improving their record to 10-1. And as C.L. Brown at ESPN.com points out, the Longhorns seemed to think they had plenty of doubters leading into Wednesday. And they were right. The schedule was weak up until that point, but Texas showed everyone that they could be serious contenders in the Big 12 by notching the huge road win. A win over #5 Michigan State Saturday would further cement that notion.
3. Gary Parrish updated his Top 25 (And One) rankings on Thursday and the Big 12 is in pretty good shape. Baylor (#7), Oklahoma State (#8), Kansas (#13), and Iowa State (#16) made the cut this time around. Baylor and Iowa State should have no trouble winning their final five combined non-conference games, setting up a potential blockbuster top 10 match-up on January 7 in Ames.
4. Kansas point guard Naadir Tharpe bounced back nicely after his demotion a few games into the season, returning to the starting lineup against New Mexico Saturday and finishing with nine assists and eight points in 37 minutes. He hasn’t been the most consistent or best point guard during his career, but he’s the only realistic option for this team if they intend on playing deep in March. Frank Mason, while talented, is still only a freshman and is learning how to effectively distribute the ball.
5. If Texas Tech players had listened to their head coach, Tubby Smith, they might have completed their comeback against LSU Wednesday night in Lubbock. The Red Raiders shot just 36.4 percent from the field but had a chance to win the game with 10 seconds left. Robert Turner missed a last-second three-pointer to win the game giving LSU the victory, 71-69.. “It wasn’t drawn up that way,” Smith told Krista Pirtle. “But it was my fault. They didn’t practice it today, but we’ll practice it tomorrow.”

1. The headline says it all here in a story from Ken Corbitt of the Topeka Capital-Journal. Kansas State could make a statement with a win over #21 Gonzaga Saturday in Wichita. The Wildcats are 7-3 and beat Ole Miss at home earlier in the season, but they don’t look like an NCAA Tournament team right now and Shane Southwell is right. He called the game against Gonzaga a chance at a “tournament resume win,” and with a tough Big 12 schedule ahead, the Wildcats need all the help they can get.
2. Not unlike dozens of other academic cases each season, West Virginia forward Jonathan Holton is waiting in limbo to see if he will be cleared to play this season. Head coach Bob Huggins originally said Holton would redshirt if the matter wasn’t resolved in a timely fashion, but Allan Taylor of West Virginia Metro News reported that Huggins is leaving the door open for Holton to play this season. Holton averaged 17.5 PPG and 14.1 RPG at junior college last season, so his promise is significant.
3. Bill Self believes Memphis transfer and senior forward Tarik Black will break out of his funk soon after averaging a measly 2.8 PPG and 2.4 MPG so far this season. He began the year in the Jayhawks’ starting lineup but eventually lost the job to rising star Joel Embiid. Black can, however, become a valuable third big man if he improves over the next few months, and we’re not one to typically question Self on his prognostications about talent development.
4. Oklahoma State led lowly Delaware State 30-16 at halftime Tuesday night, thanks to Delaware State’s strategy to hold the ball as long as possible to limit possessions. It worked for 20 minutes, but the Cowboys turned things up in the second half and eventually won, 75-43. Travis Ford’s halftime message, as told to John Helsley of the Oklahoman: “Guys, I don’t have a problem with your effort, but you’re not playing the way we’re capable of playing.” Thirty points against Delaware State at halftime? Talk about an understatement. 
5. You’ve probably seen this clip by now, but it’s worth posting for the few readers who haven’t yet caught. It’s Southern Illinois head coach and former Kansas staffer Barry Hinson unloading on his team after another disappointing loss Tuesday. There are too many great phrases here to pick just one for you. Hinson spent nine seasons as the head coach at Missouri State before working as the Director of Basketball Operations at Kansas from 2010-12.

1. If anyone knows what North Carolina head coach Roy Williams is going through with respect to the suspensions of Leslie McDonald and P.J. Hairston, it is Texas head coach Rick Barnes. Last season, Texas guard Myck Kabongo was held out for the first 23 games of the season for a violation of NCAA rules, but it wasn’t until December 21 until Barnes even knew if Kabongo would play at all. This season, Williams and North Carolina sit in a similar state of semi-permanent limbo waiting for rulings on McDonald and Hairston. What exactly is the NCAA waiting on?
2. Bill Self called his team’s passing so far this season “awful,” and he isn’t wrong. The Jayhawks have trouble in that department but thinks they are getting better as time goes on. “We’ve always played inside-out. I think we’ve been less effective doing that this year,” he told Jesse Newell of the Topeka Capital-Journal. Perhaps most frustrating for Self is that he has two guys — Naadir Tharpe and Wayne Selden — who can make as sweet of passes as you’ll see any player in the country make, but they’ll turn around and fail to make a simple post entry pass on the next play. Frustrating, indeed.
3. Oklahoma is 10-1 this season and senior forward Tyler Neal has been one of the reasons for the Sooners’ early success. At 6’7”, Neal has played all over the court this season, wherever head coach Lon Kruger needs him. “I’ve always kind of had that thought process that the more positions you can play — the more you can help the team and when guys go down whatever happens, foul trouble or whatever — the more you can be out there,” he told Ryan Aber of The Oklahoman. Neal is averaging 6.2 PPG and 3.6 RPG for the Sooners thus far this year.
4. If you’re a fan of West Virginia sports, you will have some downtime this month. The Mountaineers’ football team is done for the year, and as Dave Hickman of the Charleston Gazette points out, the basketball team plays just two games in a 20-day period. WVU beat Marshall in a nice win on Saturday, it plays Purdue on Sunday, and then Bob Huggins’ team has another week off before playing William and Mary on December 29.
5. Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall wants to play Kansas. Bill Self, on the other hand, doesn’t want to play Wichita State. Marshall told reporters recently that he offered Kansas a three-game series with sites rotating between Lawrence, Kansas City, and Wichita. Bill Self said he’s never heard from Marshall on the subject. You can tell the two sides won’t be playing anytime soon. The Shockers got another impressive win last night on the road at Alabama and improved to 11-0. They are ranked #11 in the country and would give Kansas a great game, but playing Wichita State doesn’t make sense for Kansas right now and likely won’t make sense as long as Self is coaching.

When you consider high school recruiting and player transfers, college basketball already has its own form of free agency. But what if college hoops adopted another NBA mainstay and began trading its players back and forth, and what if the trade deadline was December 31, right before conference play begins? Here are a few such hypothetical trades that could help Big 12 teams improve heading into January. And no, Kansas State fans — you can’t trade Bruce Weber.

1. Texas forward Prince Ibeh for Oklahoma State guard Stevie Clark: The Longhorns are 160th in the country in three point shooting percentage at 34.0 percent. They have guards that can score off the dribble and have gotten good production out of big men Cameron Ridley and Jonathan Holmes, so sending Ibeh to Oklahoma State wouldn’t kill their frontcourt. Stevie Clark would immediately become their best perimeter three-point shooter and would help spread the floor with his 43 percent shooting from deep. Oklahoma State has enough scoring potential in its backcourt already with Marcus Smart, Phil Forte, Markel Brown and Le’Bryan Nash, and Ibeh would be the only player in the rotation over 6’8”, helping a small frontcourt match up against the bigger teams in the Big 12.

Stevie Clark Would Help the Longhorns’ Backcourt Significantly (NewsOK.com)

2. Oklahoma forward Ryan Spangler and guard Jordan Woodard  for West Virginia guard Juwan Staten. West Virginia is in the bottom half of the Big 12 in rebounds per game, rebound margin, defensive rebounds, rebounding percentage, and blocked shots. Spangler would give them 9.0 RPG, 1.4 BPG, and a 65.6 percent shooting rate, making him the Mountaineers’ best post player. And while Woodard isn’t on the same level as Staten, he is still averaging 11.9 PPG and 4.9 APG and would complement fellow guard Eron Harris well. For Oklahoma, the Sooners would then have three of the top seven scorers in the Big 12 in Cameron Clark, Buddy Hield, and Staten, which would represent a go-for-broke type of deal for the Sooners. Losing Spangler would kill any interior presence they had, but it would make them one of the best perimeter teams in the league. They already play faster than all but seven teams in the country, so why not add another high-scoring guard, push the tempo even more, and see what happens?

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1. The Big 12 conference announced its weekly awards on Monday, and not surprisingly, Iowa State forward Georges Niang was the Big 12 Player of the Week after scoring a career-high 24 points in an 85-82 win over Iowa on Friday. Cyclones’ head coach Fred Hoiberg got the program going with his ability to lure transfers to Ames, but talented high school players like Niang will keep Iowa State relevant for as long as Hoiberg is around. Oklahoma freshman guard Jordan Woodard was the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week after also scoring 24 points and adding eight assists in a win over Tulsa.
2. CBSSports.com writer Gary Parrish was not happy in this week’s poll attacks, and it’s not hard to blame him. He went after Doug Doughty of the Roanoke Times yesterday, and it was a good read. Doughty left Kansas off his ballot while ranking Oklahoma 22nd. I’ll let you read Parrish’s argument through the link because it takes care of everything, but I’ll also add this: Does Doughty also think 10-0 Toledo is better than 9-1 Louisville or 9-1 Oklahoma State?
3. John Helsley of The Oklahoman has a good article on the improved Oklahoma State defense and what that could mean for the Cowboys moving forward. As Helsley notes, the Oklahoma State offense wasn’t great over the weekend against Louisiana Tech, but its defense made it a 15-point Cowboys win. “When your defense is on point, that’s what matters,” said Marcus Smart, and who could argue with him on that point?
4. Kansas State is on a five-game winning streak, but head coach Bruce Weber knows the next two weeks won’t be easy for his Wildcats. “We have finals but I told the guys these last three games are like our finals of the non-conference,” he told Ken Corbitt of the Topeka Capital-Journal. Kansas State faces Gonzaga in Wichita on Saturday before playing Tulane in Brooklyn and hosting George Washington on December 31.
5. Peter Bean of BurntOrangeNation has a good article on the rebuilt Texas Longhorns roster and the job head coach Rick Barnes has done so far this season. The Longhorns are 9-1 and will take on North Carolina in Chapel Hill tomorrow night on ESPN2. Junior forward Jonathan Holmes is leading the team with 12.9 PPG and is second in rebounding with 6.8 RPG for a team that faces its toughest test of the season tomorrow night in the Dean Smith Center.

Kansas rebounded from last week’s loss to Florida nicely Saturday night with an 80-63 win over New Mexico in Kansas City. The Jayhawks had lost three out of four games coming into that one, but showed signs of improvement against a good Lobos squad. It was a strong enough performance to jump Kansas from #13 to #6 on kenpom.com. Here are a few takeaways from Saturday night’s win.

Don’t expect Joel Embiid to be in Lawrence much longer. (Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports)

1. Naadir Tharpe looks to be Bill Self’s point guard going forward. He had lost the starting job over the previous two games to freshman Frank Mason, but the switch wasn’t successful. Mason has a higher ceiling but he isn’t a true point guard, at least not at this point in his career. In the two games he started against Colorado and Florida, Mason averaged only two assists per game and committed seven turnovers. Tharpe returned to the starting unit against New Mexico, played 37 minutes, and had a better than 2:1 assist/turnover ratio in the contest (nine assists, four turnovers). The question remains whether he can bring that kind of performance to bear for six consecutive games in March, but there is no use looking anywhere else at this point.
2. Bill Self joked after the game that the more freshman center Joel Embiid plays, the less time he will spend in Lawrence. The Cameroon native had 18 points in 25 minutes, shot 80 percent from the free throw line, grabbed six rebounds, rejected four shots, and gave us an Hakeem Olajuwon/Dream Shake impression that not many other college players can do (and really, how many pros?). With so few talented centers in the NBA and a history of GMs drafting on the notion of potential, don’t be shocked if Embiid jumps over the superstar freshman trio of Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and Julius Randle and gets selected No. 1 overall in next summer’s NBA Draft. He has that much upside. Read the rest of this entry »