1. Amidst the hoopla of the NFL wildcard playoffs, Sunday afternoon gave us a sneaky good game with Kansas taking on Temple in Lawrence. At halftime, KU held on to a six-point lead while in the locker room, Bill Self laid into his senior Travis Releford, who had committed two turnovers and two fouls in 12 first half minutes. “He [Self] got into me. I can’t relay the message over an interview. He let me know I need to change it because I didn’t come ready to play early on,” Johnson said in a post-game interview. Whatever Self said must have worked. He finished a perfect 5-of-5 from the field including a key three-pointer with 35 seconds left to finish off the victory. It’s scary how good of a coach Self is. Score 2,945,967 for Self. (WARNING: scoring may be unofficial but probably isn’t.)
2. Moving back one day to the first Saturday of the conference slate, we got a showcase of two nationally-ranked teams and a couple of the best players in the Big 12. For Oklahoma State, it could have gone better. The Cowboys went into the locker room with a narrow 32-30 lead but later lost it as Kansas State erupted for 43 points in the second half to run away with a 73-67 victory. Maybe this mini-slide from OSU was to be expected. We know that they’ve longed for the tougher part of their schedule to arrive but since they have now lost to Gonzaga and K-State in back-to-back games, maybe they aren’t who we thought they were either. It’s not time to panic just yet, as OSU has TCU, rival Oklahoma and Texas Tech in their next three (all winnable) games. Hopefully winning those three games is what they need to get back on track.
3. On the other side, it’s time we officially welcome back Rodney McGruder as a premier player in this league. He had a 22-point effort against USC Upstate on December 2 but then went a combined 7-of-27 in the two games afterward. Now it seems that he’s learning to flourish in Bruce Weber’s motion offense. In the last five games, McGruder is averaging 19.8 PPG which includes making nearly half of his field goal attempts (49%). Kansas State is now 2-2 against ranked opponents and should now see their national ranking improve. I know the Wildcats can’t afford to overlook opponents but I can. January 22 vs the Jayhawks in the Octagon? Can’t wait. 
   
4. I guess West Virginia has become an unexpected punching bag in the Big 12. A program that made the Sweet Sixteen in 2008 and then a Final Four two years later lost to Oklahoma for the second time — 67-57, this time — in its conference home opener. I didn’t expect the Mountaineers to contend for an NCAA Tournament bid this year but I thought Bob Huggins would at least be able to get this team to overachieve and make things interesting down the stretch of the season. A 7-6 record just one game into January? If I’m Huggins, I believe it’s time to see what you have to develop this season and start looking towards 2013-14.
5. A day before the Longhorns fell to Baylor in overtime Saturday, Texas received its first verbal commitment for the Class of 2013. Isaiah Taylor, a 6’2″ point guard out of The Village School in Houston, was evidently the only point guard offered by UT. Barking Carnival describes the three-star prospect as a guard with “elite quickness” who “excels at breaking guys down off the dribble and dishing for easy shots.” That sounds like just about every starting point guard at Texas since T.J. Ford. According to ESPN, Taylor chose Texas over Alabama, SMU, Fresno State, and Creighton, among other schools. Texas still has one scholarship available for next season.

On New Year’s Eve Monday the Gonzaga Bulldogs played (and won) their fifth non-conference game against a Big 12 opponent when they beat Oklahoma State in Stillwater. They won their first four games against West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kansas State and Baylor… which got me thinking: Why shouldn’t the Big 12 consider bringing along basketball-only institutions to help shore itself up in conference realignment? The Big East’s attempt at having football and basketball schools coexist was unsuccessful for two primary reasons: The league was created for basketball, not football, in the late 1970s; and the conference’s mainstays in football, Miami and Virginia Tech, were ultimately poached away by the ACC.

Don’t know about you but I’d love to see Gonzaga and Baylor play on the regular (James Snook/USA Today Sports)

The Big 12 is arguably the second best power conference in college football. The league will enter a new alliance with the Champions Bowl in New Orleans, which will place the Big 12 football champion against the SEC champion each season. A new television deal with ESPN/ABC and FOX will keep their football anchors in place (Oklahoma and Texas) through the year 2025. With Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby saying recently that larger isn’t necessarily better, he would however listen if adding a school geographically or financially “moved the needle.” Whether that would happen in this scenario is up for debate, but that’s what makes it fun. Now if the Big 12 were to look at adding hoops-only schools, two would be the best number to add in order to get back to the original 12-team format. The league would have to move quickly as the seven basketball-only schools leaving the Big East are expected to meet Friday to discuss their options. With a “lot on the agenda,” you can bet expansion will be a big part of the conversation. So who should the Big 12 pursue?

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When Ben Braun was hired to be the head coach at Rice University in 2008, it looked like a home run hire. For Rice’s standards anyway. Here was a guy who did a great job with Eastern Michigan, taking a five-win team in year one of his tenure to an NCAA Tournament appearance two years later and then a Sweet Sixteen two years after that. He took the California job in 1996 and went on to four more Tournaments in his first six years in the Bay Area. He was Mr. Fix It. But walking into Tudor Fieldhouse last night was like walking into the old Autry Court. It was the same school that hasn’t been to the NCAAs since 1970. It was still the place where Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, not former athletes, get more attention even in an athletic facility. It was still the place where visiting team’s fans outnumbered Owls’ diehards. It had the same feel of a program stuck between neutral and reverse, the worst feeling a program can have.

Ben Braun has had some trouble getting Rice basketball off the ground. (Houston Chronicle)

But then Mr. Fix It was methodically at it again.  The Owls finished last season 19-16 and had a solid core returning to make a run at some kind of postseason action with second team all-CUSA forward Arsalan Kazemi along with Tamir Jackson, Dylan Ennis, Ahmad Ibrahim and Omar Oraby. Everything was going according to plan. Or so it seemed.

Then a May article in the Houston Chronicle announced that Rice assistant Marco Mocros, an integral part of the recruitment of Kazemi and Oraby, would not return to the staff and unfortunately set off a dangerous domino effect. Ibrahim was the first who decided to leave the program to play basketball overseas. Ennis transferred to Villanova, Oraby left for Southern Cal and Kazemi alighted to Oregon. CBSSports.com then reported that the transfers of Kazemi and Oraby were both due to racial discrimination by Rice athletic director Rick Greenspan. The AD and Braun vehemently denied those dangerous accusations (which can put a black eye on the program for years) but as far as this season was concerned, they were already cooked. All the hard work Braun had put in for four years at Rice was gone in a matter of  months.

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1. According to yet another Yahoo! Sports report, Texas is going to appeal the NCAA’s season-long suspension leveled on sophomore guard Myck Kabongo. In an interesting turn of events, the NCAA can come back with a final verdict as soon as today. What you tend to see with players who have been caught taking impermissible benefits is that the NCAA will deem them ineligible from somewhere between three and 10 games. In Kabongo’s case, they waited until game #11 which might mean that they plan to stick with their harshest penalty: suspension for the entire season. One thing we will probably never understand is the timeline the NCAA has on declaring student-athlete’s eligibility.
2. The 2013 Bob Cousy Awards Watch List was announced yesterday with the Big 12 represented with players from five of the 10 conference members. The league’s nominees are Baylor’s Pierre Jackson, Iowa State’s Korie Lucious, Kansas’ Elijah Johnson, TCU’s Kyan Anderson and Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart. I don’t have a problem with any of the names listed but will quibble about one left off the list. I think K-State’s Angel Rodriguez should have been there. He’s showed nothing but improvement as an offensive option plus he’s cutting down on turnovers he used to make as a true freshman starting at point guard. Oh well.
3. Texas Tech found themselves down 20 early in the second half against Alabama, then they pulled off a comeback to cut the Crimson Tide lead to two with under 90 seconds in regulation. And then the Red Raiders never got any closer. Alabama improved to 7-3 while ending their three game losing streak. I’m curious to find out how Tech managed to get Alabama, Arizona and Arizona State (whom they will see on Saturday), plus every other non-conference game at home. Chris Walker may have attended the Jim Boeheim School of Scheduling.
4. While this may be the winter break for most guys, top college prospects aren’t taking the time off to decide where they’ll be taking their talents next year. The big story Thursday was Jabari Parker’s announcement for Duke, but on Tuesday night, Baylor’s 2013 recruiting class just got sweeter (as if it isn’t already). JuCo guard Kenny-Fred Chery has committed to the Bears. He is a 6’1″ point guard from Canada who currently plays for State Fair Community College in Missouri. So far this season, Chery is averaging 14.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game while shooting well from the field (44%) and behind the line (41%). Seems like an underrated get for Scott Drew.
5. Why do we have AP and Coaches’ polls in college basketball? Is it for Gary Parrish’s entertainment? RockChalkTalk explains why we don’t need them, and quite well I might add. For weeks Indiana was pegged as the number one team in the country while we witnessed Duke  beat a bunch of elite teams and yet barely make the top two in each poll because others had not yet lost. Though if the polls were in fact eliminated, I wouldn’t have my regular Poll Attacks!

1. Here’s some news we’ve been waiting to hear all season long. According to a Yahoo! Sports report, the NCAA will suspend Texas guard Myck Kabongo for the remainder of the season. As the article notes, most cases involving players and impermissible benefits result in a three to 10-game suspension followed by a repayment of the benefits. However, the NCAA believes Kabongo provided false information in his interview and has decided to end his sophomore season before it even began. Javan Felix has done a solid job in Kabongo’s place this season by averaging 8.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game, which is good for second in the Big 12. Can’t make excuses for Texas anymore.
   
2. Just as the Kabongo news was breaking, Texas was putting the finishing touches on a wire-to-wire blowout of North Carolina, 85-67, at the Frank Erwin Center in downtown Austin. I happened to be in attendance at the game last night and to be honest, I was expecting the Horns to cool off from their hot start and Carolina to eventually take control of the basketball game. I prepared myself for this to happen but it never did. Both teams were sloppy with the basketball all game long and it felt like I was watching two AAU teams who were wrongfully wearing burnt orange and Carolina blue. Here’s an encouraging tidbit from last night’s game: The Longhorns bettered their season scoring high by 10 points, knocking off the 75-point mark set last game vs Texas State. Maybe, finally, this team is turning the corner offensively. Our eyeballs thank you.
3. TCU announced that guard Jarvis Ray will be out for the next six to eight weeks after suffering a leg injury in Tuesday’s game versus Southern. After a jump shot, Ray came down awkwardly on a defender’s foot and is now the third Horned Frog to miss significant time due to injury; junior Amric Fields and freshman Aaron Durley are the other two. TCU was picked to finish dead last in the Big 12 anyway so it’s not as if we’re losing a possible tournament team. Trent Johnson’s group knows that this is a do your best kind of season. At least you can’t fall any further than rock bottom. 
   
4. A day after posting an article about Le’Bryan Nash playing down to his competition, Oklahoma State beat up on UT-Arlington 69-44 in Stillwater. The statistical line of the game goes once again to Marcus Smart, who scored 10 points (on four shot attempts), grabbed four rebounds, dished out five assists, and had four steals. And what about Nash? 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting. In reality the entire Cowboy team probably didn’t care about this game that much. At halftime, coach Travis Ford said that Oklahaoma State really has “a lot of respect for UT-San Antonio.” Speak for yourself, coach.
5. After Saturday’s loss to Michigan, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins complained about his team in front of the media. It appears now that his Mountaineer players understand his frustration and are trying to do something about it. The super early return on his investment is looking pretty good so far with West Virginia defeating Oakland 76-71 last night. They hit better than 50% of their shots as a team and made eight threes. Aaric Murray returned from a one-game suspension to drop 12 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, and blocked five shots. Maybe this is the week that Texas and WVU have chosen to do complete 180s. Good idea.

1. Yesterday I talked about the success Oklahoma had in Saturday’s win over Texas A&M when the Sooners went on a important 8-0 second half run using a four-guard lineup. Well, they probably could have used some of that last night. The Sooners fell to Stephen F. Austin by a score of 56-55, making this OU’s first non-conference loss in Norman since 2007 (coincidentally enough to these same Lumberjacks). OU led 30-26 at halftime but SFA came out on a 19-4 run to start the second half and led by as many as 11 points. The Sooners then countered with an 18-6 spurt to take a brief 52-51 lead, but OU’s Buddy Hield had a chance to possibly force overtime with four seconds left but obviously he didn’t. I don’t think we’ll see a whole lot of OU-SFA games again in the future.
2. The struggles of Rodney McGruder in Bruce Weber’s brand-new motion offense are well documented, which makes last night’s performance against Texas Southern all the more encouraging. K-State won the game but McGruder lit up the Tigers for 26 points on 12-of-17 shooting. If the Cats want to do anything in March, much less Big 12 play, the senior McGruder needs to be at the top of his game this season. One fun note from this game: Former Oklahoma State and current Texas Southern guard Ray Penn made the most of his return to a Big 12 arena, pouring in 24 points and dishing out five assists in the defeat.
3. If you’re a fan of Big 12 basketball as a whole, there hasn’t been much to stick your chest out about this year. But I found something to be proud of: all the über-talented freshmen. CBSSports.com ranked the top five freshmen in college basketball and two of them hail from the Big 12. Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart has arguably become the most versatile freshman point guard in the country, or maybe just point guard, period, in America by putting together averages of 13 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals per contest. The newbie on this week’s list at number three is Ben McLemore from Kansas. The St. Louis native has had an impressive three game stretch against Oregon State, Colorado and Belmont by averaging 20.7 points per game which includes 9-of-15 shooting from behind the arc. Freshmen — this is our silver lining.
4. “I don’t know about my teammates but I play at the level of the competition.” That quote is the last thing you want to hear if you’re a coach or fan but it comes from Oklahoma State’s LeBryan Nash. If I may play Devil’s Advocate, can you blame him? The Cowboys are 8-1, with quality wins, a Top 25 ranking, and talent everywhere. But if there’s a time to not slack off, it’s now. They have UT-Arlington and Tennessee Tech on the schedule before playing Gonzaga on New Year’s Eve prior to Big 12 play. Nash said that he wants to change his attitude of playing down to teams, though. The first step in dealing with a problem is acknowledging that there is one to begin with. Now prove it.
5. Here’s a weekly favorite of mine — and it should be yours too. Gary Parrish’s Poll Attacks spotlights the horrible mistakes writers and coaches make on their Top 25 ballots. This week, there’s some confusion as to why a certain Big 12 team received two votes from coaches that didn’t even deserve one. If there’s just one vote, it probably looks like a mistake. But a second vote makes you think otherwise.

1. The Big 12 announced the weekly winners for Big 12 player and rookie of the week. POTW honors went to Iowa State’s Melvin Ejim. Though he only played one game last week, Ejim filled up the stat sheet against Drake with 21 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and four steals in 31 minutes. It was Ejim’s 11th career double-double and he has already registered four of them on the young season. This week’s ROTW is now a repeat winner. Baylor freshman Isaiah Austin won the award with his dominant performance in the Bears’ 85-68 win over Lamar on December 12. All the seven-footer did was put up season highs in points (23) and rebounds (17) against a helpless Cardinals’ front line. I have a feeling Austin will win another ROTW honor before season’s end.
2. Back on March 2, Chris Lowery was fired as head coach at Southern Illinois, and just seven days later, his former boss Bruce Weber was fired at Illinois. So when Weber landed feet first in Manhattan, Kansas, during the offseason, Lowery was on the short list of possible assistants to call. Even though the season is young, I’ll go ahead and call this a home run hire. In his first three seasons at SIU, Weber had just one NIT appearance but once Lowery came on staff in 2001, the Salukis made the NCAA Tournament twice including a run to the Sweet Sixteen. He even joined Weber at Illinois for a year to help guide another Sweet Sixteen team. Now if only he and Weber could sign a lifetime deal at K-State…
3. Burnt Orange Nation gives us a recap of the first month of basketball for Big 12 teams. I can’t remember a season when the Big 12 has had so many teams show signs of incompetence. West Virginia was supposed to succeed the role of Missouri with a solid history and recent success, yet they find themselves at 4-5. Texas‘ crop of talented young guys can’t put the ball in the hoop; Baylor has been a vulnerable team at home; and then a collection of teams (Oklahoma, Iowa State and Kansas State) have solid records but haven’t been able to get wins against significant opponents yet. Hopefully, next month’s recap will be more flattering for the Big 12.
4. We know Oklahoma’s Lon Kruger is into trying new things, seeing how he changes jobs every five years (I kid) but Saturday’s win over Texas A&M saw Kruger add what The Norman Transcript calls a “new wrinkle” to another possible lineup. The Sooners went with a four-guard set with 6’6″ forward Cameron Clark at the center position for a large part of the second half. Clark went on to score 12 of his 17 points in that half and, while his team searches for an identity, Kruger left the door open for the Sooners to experiment with that lineup in the future.
5. To borrow a line from Houston Rockets radio voice Craig Ackerman, Baylor very nearly pooped their big boy pants again last night to USC Upstate but rebounded in the second half to beat the Spartans 73-57. Cory Jefferson ruled the paint going 6-of-8 from the field for 17 points to lead all scorers. Fresh off his second ROTW award, Isaiah Austin recorded his second consecutive double-double (12 points, 10 boards) while the best all-around game went to A.J. Walton who threw in 10 points, four rebounds, eight dimes and five steals. It’s another tally in the win column for Scott Drew, but the uneasy feeling about the Bears playing at the Ferrell Center isn’t going away just yet.

1. Kansas whipped another non-conference opponent at home Saturday, beating Belmont 89-60. While the Jayhawks’ top three scorers in Ben McLemore (17 points), Travis Releford (17) and Jeff Withey (14) all got theirs, it was seldom-used guard Andrew White III who made the most of his playing time. White III hit a trio of three-pointers, six shots total, and scored 15 points in just 10 minutes of action. Just one game earlier versus Colorado, White scored eight points in eight minutes. So I guess the question is, will Bill Self carve out consistent minutes for the freshman guard? I’m all for seeing players put up crazy points-to-minutes played ratios. Do it, coach.
2. As for that other school in the state, Kansas State fell to Gonzaga Saturday in the normally exciting Battle in Seattle. The Wildcats found themselves down one point at the half but it was only a matter of time before the Bulldogs were going to get rolling offensively. But second-half flameouts are becoming a trend against quality opponents like Michigan and the Zags. They were down 29-24 to the Wolverines before folding in the second half as well. After a home tilt against Texas Southern on Monday, the Cats will play another top five team in Florida on Saturday. I blame scheduling for all of this. We knew this Wildcats team is essentially the same as last year and will probably finish in the top four of the Big 12 but their non-conference schedule is either against top flight teams or scrubs. Why aren’t there more games against consistent mid-majors like Gonzaga or other power conference schools? No one can properly evaluate the Cats when all their losses are to ranked teams and their best win is probably against South Carolina Upstate.
3. I’m giving up on West Virginia. I thought their win over Virginia Tech (who is responsible for Oklahoma State’s one loss) was a sign that the Mountaineers were possibly turning the corner… but no. WVU predictably lost to a deeper, athletic and more talented Michigan team coached by ex-‘Eers coach John Beilein. They lost without Aaric Murray, who didn’t even make the trip to New York for committing a violation of some sort. What did Bob Huggins have to say about Murray not being with the team? “I’ve left guys home way, way, way better than Aaric Murray.” And his team’s performance on Saturday? “I’m sick of watching guys stand around. I’m sick of watching guys not compete. I’m sick of guys missing shot after shot after shot but never coming early, never staying late, don’t think about coming in on an off-day and then telling me they care? I haven’t had guys like that before. I want some guys that care.” It’s going to be that kind of year in Morgantown.
   
4. Iowa State‘s breakthrough 2011-12 season was welcomed with open arms to the college basketball world but its return to prominence was perfect except for one thing: The Cyclones lived with the sting of an early season loss to in-state rival Drake (ok, it’s probably not that serious). But ISU did get their revenge on the Bulldogs Saturday with an 86-77 win. Melvin Ejim poured in 21 points and 11 rebounds to lead the way. Ejim continues to be a fantastic rebounder (9.3 per game) for his 6’6″ frame. The last thing the Cyclones want to be seen as is a one-hit wonder.
5. Texas head coach Rick Barnes earned his 550th win as a college coach in Saturday’s 75-63 win over Texas State. While winning 550 games in any sport isn’t easy, Barnes’ teams have tended to be disappointments. Touted recruits have come to Austin and left quickly enough to not make a big impact on teams. As for Saturday’s game, the Longhorns’ 75 points were a season-high. They might need to score a little more than that if they want to give themselves a chance against North Carolina’s scorers (84 PPG) on Wednesday night.

Welcome to our second installment of the Big 12 Conference Call here on the microsite. Danny (@dspewak), Kory (@Kory_Carpenter) and Nate (@natekotisso) are back to answer the tough questions in the league, and lord knows there’s plenty of them. Today, they’ll discuss Baylor’s struggles, Colorado’s return to Allen Fieldhouse, sixth man of the year as of now and much more. 

As Drunk Joe Namath would say, Big 12 basketball is “struh-guh-ling.”

Here are this week’s five questions:

1. The Big 12 has only two teams ranked in the AP and coaches’ polls. What do we make of this?
2. Colorado will make its first return to Allen Fieldhouse Saturday since leaving for the Pac-12. Will the Buffs beat KU?
3. Which Baylor team are we going to see more of this season, the team that lost to College of Charleston and Northwestern at home or the team that ended Kentucky’s 55-game home winning streak?
4. If you had to pick a sixth man of the year right now, who would it be?
5. If there was a non-conference game with a Big 12 team you’d like to see live, which would it be?

***

1. The Big 12 has only two teams ranked in the AP and coaches’ polls. What do we make of this?

• Danny Spewak: It’s been a difficult first few weeks for the Big 12. Texas has crashed and burned without Myck Kabongo. Baylor, save for that win at struggling Kentucky, has been perplexing. Kansas State had only one attempt to prove itself on a major stage, and it lost to Michigan by double-digits. At this point, you’ve had only one team overachieve (Oklahoma State) and really only one team (Kansas) play to expectations. Thus, two representatives in the Top 25.
• Kory Carpenter: Baylor would have been firmly in the Top 25 had they not lost to the College of Charleston. Coupled with the losses to Colorado and Northwestern and it doesn’t make up for the nice win over Kentucky on the road. No one else on the outside of the Top 25 has beaten a team with a pulse. Oklahoma’s best win is over an awful West Virginia team, Kansas State’s crowning jewel is a three-point win over Delaware, and Iowa State lost to the two ranked teams they’ve played. Until the resumes improve, there’s no reason any of the other eight teams should be ranked.
• Nate Kotisso: You guys hit the nail on the head. Other than Oklahoma State, the Big 12 has floundered in important non-conference games. Watching Baylor defeat Kentucky on Saturday was more about UK losing than the Bears winning. Kentucky had 16 more offensive rebounds and turned the ball over fewer times than Baylor, yet their horrid shooting lost the game. K-State still has tests coming later in the month and with Rodney McGruder playing better, there’s a chance for them to slide into the rankings before New Year’s. Oklahoma is 6-2 but they have yet to register an impressive win outside of West Virginia. And geez the Mountaineers are a whole other story. But you gotta stay positive, you guys.

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1. TCU basketball is doing an amazing job making us forget about this performance from a week ago. The Horned Frogs won their third game in a row last night, beating Southern Utah 61-52 in Fort Worth. Kyan Anderson had 21 points and six dimes while Arkansas transfer Devonta Abron scored 17 with 11 of them coming in the second half. So now they’re 6-2 but we all know this is a 6-2 that will be here today and gone come January. They don’t have a lot of weapons offensively and actually average more turnovers as a team than assists. I had the Horned Frogs finishing better than Red Raiders by season’s end and now I regret ever believing that. But it’s ok; this is a learning year. They will get there eventually.
2. Cowboys Ride For Free has released their totally unbiased predictions from now until New Year’s Eve. On the schedule, Oklahoma State has games at Virginia Tech and home contests vs. South Florida, Missouri State, Central Arkansas, Texas-Arlington, Tennessee Tech and Gonzaga. CRFF has the Pokes going 6-1 with their sole loss coming against the Zags. I also think they’ll go 6-1 during the stretch but I see them losing to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg rather than Gonzaga. There’s no doubt in my mind that the Hokies can score toe-to-toe with OSU, but hey, 11-1 going into conference play? Sounds prrrr-etty good to me.
3. Viva The Matadors dissects what’s trending for Texas Tech at the moment. According to the piece, Tech’s new style of “controlled chaos” is a big part of their recent turnaround. They’ve adopted a “40 Minutes of Hell” scheme with a 1-2-1-1 defense, forcing 13 steals a game, which is good for fourth in the nation. Those forced turnovers have led to more scoring opportunities, hence their 89 PPG scoring average. The Arizona game on Saturday means so much to the Red Raider program. They haven’t had a big-time opponent come to Lubbock since another top-10 team (Washington) lost to Tech in overtime back in 2009. Texas Tech fever: catch it!
4. Baylor’s SB Nation blog, Our Daily Bears, had a nice feature exposing the Bears’ poor play on defense so far this season. The article uses a couple of defensive scenarios from the Baylor-St. John’s game in Charleston last week. On one Red Storm fast break, the Bears had three guys checking just one man. When you have a team with their size, athleticism and speed, putting three players on one guy in transition is not just unacceptable but nonsense. Another scenario was Baylor’s ineffectiveness to run a proper screen-and-roll defense which allowed the Red Storm’s D’Angelo Harrison to hit 6-of-9 from three-point land. Guess how College of Charleston runs their offense? Pick. And. Roll. So if a team wants to exploit the Bears, P & R seems to be the way to go. Think John Calipari is looking at that DVD?
5. This FanPost I found on the Bring On The Cats has nothing to do with basketball. It’s a post that asks the question: What if each Big 12 team were different countries of the world? This will not make you a more savvy Big 12 fan than you already are, but what it will do is make you laugh while at the same time have you nodding your head in agreement at some of these answers. Have a great weekend, everyone.