The Fighting Irish had an auspicious start to a season that was expected to represent a major step forward for Mike Brey’s program. But a slow start and sputtering finish to conference play, coupled with frustrations experienced against the Big East’s top teams, prevented the Irish from matching last year’s top three finish. Despite fielding one of the league’s most talented starting fives, a lack of depth hampered the Irish late in the season and contributed to yet another early exit from the NCAA Tournament.

Preseason Expectations

We ranked Notre Dame third heading into 2012-13, as did the coaches at Big East media day. Mike Brey’s roster returned its top five scorers from 2011-12 and was loaded with talented upperclassmen, namely preseason all-Big East center Jack Cooley, versatile super-senior Scott Martin and the backcourt scoring tandem of juniors Eric Atkins and Jerian Grant.

Mike Brey must adjust to a life without Cooley in 2013-14 (AP Photo/Joe Raymond)

The Good

The Irish raced out to a blistering start, winning 12 in a row for the first time since 2006-07. By early January, they’d blown out #8 Kentucky at home, edged #21 Cincinnati on the road, won their first two Big East games and earned a #16 Coaches Poll ranking alongside their 14-1 record. Cooley (13.1 PPG, 10.1 RPG) lived up to his first team all-Big East billing as he shot 58% from the field and led the Big East in literally every rebounding category. Deep reserve big men Tom Knight and Garrick Sherman filled the void left by Scott Martin’s absence, and keyed huge victories over the likes of Louisville, Marquette and Villanova. The highlight of the season was, unquestionably, enduring five overtimes against the eventual National Champions after Jerian Grant scored 12 points in the last 45 seconds of regulation. Brey’s program claimed its sixth NCAA Tournament bid in seven years, and has averaged almost 13 Big East wins in each of the last three regular seasons –– a figure surpassed only by Syracuse.

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Coming off a Sweet Sixteen appearance last season, hopes were high for this season’s version of the Cincinnati Bearcats. Unfortunately, after a hot start in the non-conference portion of their schedule, some of their weaknesses were exposed in conference play and a clear inability to score consistently held the team back as it finished 22-12 and 9-9 in the Big East before losing in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament to Creighton. It was a relatively disappointing season after coach Mick Cronin had raised the bar in the 2011-12, but let’s dig a little deeper and see just how disappointing it really was.

Preseason Expectations

Both the conference coaches and the esteemed group at this microsite saw the Bearcats’ finish last season and promptly pegged Cincinnati to finish fourth in the conference this season. Mick Cronin’s career was starting to take off following an impressive run to the Sweet Sixteen, and heading into this season, he boasted one of the league’s most experienced and talented backcourts in senior Cashmere Wright and junior Sean Kilpatrick, and an influx of junior college talent and improving underclassmen were supposed to prove serviceable in the frontcourt following the departure of do-everything big man Yancy Gates.

Mick Cronin’s Team Fell Well Short Of Expectations This Season

The Good

Although it didn’t look particularly exciting at the beginning of the season, whoever put together the Bearcats’ non-conference schedule this season might have legitimately influenced the program’s chances of making the NCAA Tournament. The team finished the non-conference slate 12-1 with good wins over Oregon, Iowa State, and Alabama, and their only loss was a one-point defeat versus New Mexico. The Bearcats ended the season on the bubble and you better believe that two wins and a close road loss to good NCAA Tournament teams helped make a difference.  There is something to be said for how consistently good Mick Cronin-coached teams are defensively.

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In a big-picture sense, the Big 12 provided us with no surprises this season. Kansas won the league again, TCU finished in last place, five teams made the NCAA Tournament, and all was right with the world. It wouldn’t have taken Nostradamus to make those predictions. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t an interesting six months, however. There were flops–most notably from the state of Texas. There were overachievers–most notably from the state of Oklahoma. There were thrilling finishes, blown calls, standout freshmen and that one time Kansas somehow lost to TCU. Oh, and one team even won a championship this season in, well, the wrong tournament.

Game of  the Year: Kansas 68, Oklahoma State 67 (February 20)

This showdown in Stillwater was simultaneously the best and worst game of the Big 12 season. How’s that for logic? After the Cowboys stunned Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse earlier in the winter and literally celebrated by doing back flips on the court, this revenge game took on even more importance in the league standings. Had Oklahoma State won, it would have seized the proverbial driver’s seat along with Kansas State and would have made the Jayhawks’ path to the regular season title very difficult. We had drama. We had overtime. Two, actually. And we had a game-winner in the final minute of regulation by Naadir Tharpe, who shook off a rusty performance to hit the go-ahead jumper with 16 seconds to play. Instant classic, right? Certainly. The problem was, it was perhaps the ugliest game ever played by two top-15 opponents on the same floor. Kansas did not make a field goal in the first overtime and it did not make a field goal in the second overtime until Tharpe’s game-winner. That’s almost 10 minutes of basketball without a basket. In overtime! Overall, the two teams combined to shoot five for 32 from beyond the arc. Ben McLemore played 49 minutes, missed nine of 12 shot attempts and finished with seven points after barely touching the ball in the overtime periods. And that’s the best game of the year? We still stand by our decision. This was the game that changed the complexity of the Big 12 title race, and two free periods of basketball is never a bad thing.

Bill Self Won Another Big 12 Title (Photo credit: AP Photo).

Honorable Mentions:

• Kansas 108, Iowa State 96 (February 25): Asterisk on this one. Kansas beat Iowa State in Ames — where the Cyclones hadn’t lost in more than a year — but it needed a blown call at the end of regulation to get the opportunity. You remember the situation. Elijah Johnson‘s charging toward the basket with five seconds left in the game, his team trailing by two points. Georges Niang sets his feet and takes what appears to be a pretty standard charge. But there’s no call, the ball bounces on the floor and the officials eventually blow the whistle on Niang during a scramble. That allows Kansas to tie the game and win in overtime behind Elijah Johnson’s epic 39-point performance. The Big 12 would later admit its referees should have called a charge, but that’s a moot point right now. It’s a shame we’ll remember this game as the No-Call Game as opposed to the Elijah Johnson Game.
• Oklahoma State 74, Baylor 72 (March 14): The Bears needed a victory in this Big 12 quarterfinal to give themselves a chance for an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament. Then they fell behind by 20 points. Dead in the water. Except Pierre Jackson started raining jumpers and floaters all over the place, and Baylor inexplicably tied the game in the final minute of regulation. But the officials made a controversial foul call (that’s a trend this year, across all conferences) and sent Phil Forte to the line, where he made both. That’s an exciting finish in and of itself. But it got even better: Nobody’s quite sure how it happened, but with just seconds left on a desperation, mad-dash possession, Jackson dribbled straight through two Oklahoma State defenders and found himself absolutely, completely wide open from three-point land. He had a chance to win at the buzzer. No hands contesting him, no defender in sight. He missed. That sent the Bears to the NIT, and at least they won that tournament. But Jackson’s failed buzzer-beater signaled the end of Baylor’s tourney chances, and it was another dark moment during an underachieving season.

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1. More news surfaced yesterday of Iowa State’s internal investigation stemming from a number of impermissible phone calls over the last couple of years. According to this Associated Press article, a former undergraduate assistant under Fred Hoiberg, Keith Moore, was caught talking to high school recruits at an AAU Tournament in 2011. Hoiberg saw Moore at the event and confirmed he was illegally contacting players. Moore was subsequently fired and the Iowa State Athletic Department began an investigation. It was then turned over to the NCAA, who audited phone calls and text messages over a three-year period and found the impermissible contacts. Are the illegal phone calls or texts much different than what happens at other schools? Probably not. But the moral of the story is to not give the NCAA a reason to start digging.
2. With less than 15 months to go, NBADraft.net released its latest 2014 mock draft here. The top five players are all incoming freshmen, led by top recruit Andrew Wiggins, who is expected to decide between the Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Florida State in the next few weeks. Incoming Kansas freshman guard Wayne Selden is projected to go #7 to the Sacramento Kings. Other Big 12 players include Oklahoma State’s Markel Brown (#22) and Le’Bryan Nash (#44), Texas’ Myck Kabongo (#23), and Baylor’s Cory Jefferson (#47).
3. Beware Kansas and Iowa State fans: The following link won’t be good for your NCAA Tournament recoveries. Matt Norlander over at CBSSports.com ranked the 10 best NCAA Tournament games, and both Big 12 schools made the cut. Kansas’ epic overtime collapse against Michigan, led by Trey Burke’s 30-footer at the end of regulation, came in at #5. As Norlander points out, playing against the eventual AP Player of Year and a team that nearly won the national title makes the Jayhawks’ collapse a bit easier to take. But with less than two minutes left, Ken Pomeroy claimed that Kansas had a 99.4% chance of winning. As for Iowa State, it was another heartbreaking loss on the season. Aaron Craft probably should have been called for a charge late in the game to give the Cyclones the likely win. He wasn’t, and they didn’t. Craft’s three-pointer with 0.2 seconds left gave the Buckeyes the 78-75 win.
4. For Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber, winning the Big 12 regular season championship and earning a #4 seed in the NCAA Tournament earned him a one-year contract extension, theoretically keeping him in Manhattan until the 2017-18 season. He will earn $1.75 million next year, a raise of $250,000. For a school that hadn’t won a regular season conference title in over three decades, the move makes sense. But for a coach that has a history of winning with another coach’s players before struggling to stock up on players himself, it’s a bit puzzling. I would have waited until more of Weber’s recruits make their way to Manhattan before extending his deal.
5. If you were wondering which team (subjectively) is the best NCAA Champion of all-time, ESPN has you covered. They ranked all 74 champions heading into this season. The 1945 Oklahoma State team (then known as Oklahoma A&M) comes in at #67, followed by the 1946 edition at #51. Clyde Lovellette and the Kansas Jayhawks’ 1952 team are #60, just behind ‘Danny and the Miracles.’ The 1988 Jayhawks won the title as an #6 seed and come in at #57. The 2008 Kansas team fails to crack the top 20, coming up just short at #22.

1. In a move that surprised absolutely no one, Kansas freshman guard Ben McLemore announced his intention to enter the NBA Draft yesterday. McLemore apparently told coaches in February that he was coming back, but Bill Self was having none of it. “If he told me he wanted to come back, I would have told him, ‘We need to look at this again,'” Self told the Associated Press. As a near-lock to be a top-three pick, there was little chance McLemore would return for his sophomore season. While it would have obviously helped next year’s team, having a four-star player turn into a top five pick in the NBA Draft will boost Kansas recruiting down the line. Ultimately, McLemore leaving early is a benefit to all parties.
2. Iowa State has been playing basketball for over 100 years but it wasn’t until this season that the Cyclones led the nation in a statistical team or individual category. They made a remarkable 9.9 three-pointers per game this season, tops in the country, thanks in large part to Tyrus McGee. The senior guard led the country in three-point field goal percentage, knocking down 46.4 percent from deep this season. The Cyclones’ small lineup made them one of the toughest match-ups in the country this season. They spread the floor and could knock down shots from anywhere on the court, making double-teams useless and forcing defenses to defend well past the three-point line.
3. The final USA Today/Coaches poll was announced yesterday and not surprisingly, Kansas led the Big 12 representatives at #8. The Jayahwks were #3 in the final pre-NCAA Tournament AP poll, but a disappointing Sweet Sixteen loss to Michigan deservedly dropped them a few spots. Kansas State, the only other Big 12 school to make the cut, also dropped from its final AP ranking. The Wildcats were #12 a few weeks ago but a Second Round loss to La Salle dropped them to #20 in this final poll.
4. Because we can’t get enough college basketball and the dullness of mid-summer baseball is staring us down more with each passing day, the CBSSports.com crew unveiled their way too early Top 25 (And One) rankings. Kentucky, Michigan State and Louisville top the list, but there isn’t much love for the Big 12. Kansas comes in at #20, and it’s hard to argue the Jayhawks should be any higher. All five starters are gone and at least five new freshman are coming to campus. As far as the Big 12 goes, though, that’s it. The conference isn’t supposed to be very good next season as schools like Iowa State, Oklahoma State, and Baylor all lose key cogs from this year’s teams.
5. One surprise team next year could be the Texas Longhorns, who struggled mightily this season with one of the youngest rosters in the country and spending a large portion of the season without point guard Myck Kabongo in the lineup. With most of the rotation returning — except for Sheldon McClellan, who will transfer — next season likely hinges on the draft decision of Kabongo and whether he will stick around Austin. Most people seem to think he is NBA bound as a likely late first rounder.

1. Kansas center Jeff Withey has been named the co-defensive Player of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches announced on Sunday. Indiana’s Victor Oladipo shares the award with the graduating Jayhawk. Withey leaves Kansas with a number of records and awards. Last season his 31 blocked shots set a single NCAA Tournament record. This season he broke school and conference records with 146 blocks, breaking his own record of 140 which he set last season. In addition to his defensive awards, Withey also earned Second-Team All-America honors.
2. While Michigan and Louisville prepare to win a national championship tonight, Iowa State waits to hear its fate after reporting NCAA violations stemming from impermissible phone calls and text messages between 2008 and 2011. Bobby La Gesse of The Ames Tribune thinks the Cyclones should look at Baylor, who faced a similar situation last year. As Le Gesse notes, the Bears were placed on three years probation and lost one scholarship for two seasons. With the NCAA involved, it’s anyone’s guess if Iowa State will face a similar punishment. At this point, predicting how the NCAA will react is a losing game. On a different note, for any readers dreaming of a career in collegiate coaching, check out the fine print in the column. The NCAA reviewed 900,000 phone calls made by Baylor coaches. That’s a lot of time on the phone with teenagers.
3. Kansas freshman guard Anrio Adams announced that he was transferring last week. Then he announced he was staying. Now we don’t know what will happen. He was officially released last week but told The Lawrence-Journal World that is going to talk to Bill Self today when Self returns from the annual coaches convention at the Final Four. It’s hard to imagine Self telling Adams he doesn’t have a spot next season. But it’s hard to imagine him welcoming Adams back with open arms a week after he wanted to leave the program. But with only two point guards on the roster -one of which is a true freshman- Self may need Adams in the back court next season.
4. As was previously discussed by Danny last week, Tubby Smith is now the head man at Texas Tech. The Big 12 now has six coaches who have been to a Final Four. And as Berry Tramel points out, there are now five coaches in the Big 12 with at least 500 wins: Bill Self, Tubby Smith, Bob Huggins, Lon Kruger, and Rick Barnes. It’s one of the best collection of coaches in the country and will look even better if Smith can resurrect the Texas Tech program. The league was decidedly average this season, but if Huggins and Barnes can rebound from sub-par seasons (which they should) and Bruce Weber can recruit to Kansas State (still up in the air) the league is set up to be great for the next half decade or more.
5. Is there still a chance prized recruit Andrew Wiggins ends up at Kansas? The #1 recruit in the country is down to the Jayhawks, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Florida State, and is likely to announce his decision this month. His brother, a junior at Wichita State, told NBC Sports that he doesn’t think Kentucky is the best fit for his brother’s services. His parents attended Florida State and Kansas and North Carolina offer the obvious benefits of a blue blood. Good luck trying to dissect Wiggins’ recruitment any deeper though.

1. Last night at Madison Square Garden, Baylor became what no Big 12 team has ever been before: NIT champions. Once again, Cory Jefferson had a great performance (23 points) to go along with seven rebounds. Isaiah Austin was all over the court: nailing shots (6-of-7), rebounding (nine) and altering attempts (five blocks). If Austin and Jefferson decide to come back next year, they are easily the best frontcourt duo in the conference. Pierre Jackson ended his career with, what else, a double-double (17 points, 10 assists). Though the game was a blowout, it should be noted that Iowa had its one and only lead at 2-0 with 18:39 left in the first h alf. It lasted 31 seconds.
2. Iowa State director of basketball operations Jeff Rutter has decided to leave Ames to take an assistant coaching job with Drake University. Rutter has been around the Cyclones program for the past seven seasons, coming over with Greg McDermott from Northern Iowa in 2006. He served as an assistant coach up until Fred Hoiberg’s arrival in 2010 and then became ISU’s director of basketball ops. Drake tabbed Gonzaga assistant Ray Giacoletti to be its next coach last Thursday and offered Rutter a job just seven days later. I guess you can’t blame Rutter. Coaches gotta scratch that itch.
3. Get a load of this: In a preseason conference tournament with Texas as a participant, it is Wichita State that is the headliner. The 2013 edition of the CBE Hall of Fame Classic should be an interesting one to watch with Brigham Young and DePaul joining the Shockers and Longhorns on November 25 and 26 in the City of Fountains. UT will be a different looking team by then with Sheldon McClellan transferring, and we know the Shockers won’t resemble this year without Malcolm Armstead and Carl Hall. But gee, Wichita State’s the headliner in all of this. What a crazy, beautiful world we live in.
4. Michael Orris didn’t play very much. Yes, he was a freshman on a veteran-laden team but his numbers were microscopic. He played in 15 of the team’s 35 games (about 3.3 minutes per game) and scored just four points for the entire season. On Monday, Orris announced his intention to transfer from Kansas State. He was previously committed to Illinois but after Bruce Weber’s firing, he decided to follow the coach to Manhattan. According to The Times of Northwest Indiana, Orris was originally committed to go to Creighton but said in a text message, “I don’t know where I am going at this present time.” Maybe we’ll see him making an impact somewhere, say in March 2015?
   
5. Bill Self, along with fellow national championship winning coaches Bobby Bowden, Jim Calhoun and John Calipari, will headline a star-studded cast of coaches and TV personalities at the eighth annual Dick Vitale Gala benefiting the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. This year of course marks the 30th anniversary of his NC State team pulling off the major upset in the national championship against Houston and “Phi Slama Jama.” It also marks the 20-year anniversary of his inspirational speech that brought down the house at the ESPY Awards.

1. Another day, another win for the Baylor men. The Bears took care of BYU for the second time this season with a 76-70 win in the NIT semifinals. Cory Jefferson had his third consecutive 20-point effort in the NIT with 21. It also makes the Bears 7-0 in games where Jefferson scores 20 or more points. Senior Pierre Jackson had 24 points and 10 assists which happens to be his third straight game with at least 20/10. (How Jackson didn’t even get an AP All-American Honorable Mention is beyond me.) When the Bears play Iowa for the NIT championship on Thursday, it’ll be the second NIT title game in the Scott Drew era. They played another Big Ten team in 2009 — Penn State — when the Bears were at the time led by Curtis Jerrells and LaceDarius Dunn.
2. The Iowa State athletic department announced Tuesday that it has discovered an impermissible number of phone calls were made and text messages were sent between 2008 and 2011. ISU then self-imposed penalties on itself for the 2011-12 academic year which included a reduction in the number of coaches traveling to recruit potential prospects as well as a reduction of phone calls and text messages over a four-month span. The school has also asked the NCAA to place it on probation though details were not released. Another thing we don’t know yet is which sports committed these violations. The NCAA still has the power to place additional restrictions on ISU on top of those already self-imposed. There’s still a lot to be determined in this case so stay tuned for more.
3. TCU made news on the recruiting trail yesterday as the Horned Frogs picked up a commitment from 2013 forward/guard Hudson Price. Price, the son of four-time NBA All-Star guard Mark, pledged for TCU, spurning offers from schools like Saint Louis, Vanderbilt, and Miami (FL). Price is described as an excellent three-point shooter but at 6’6″ and 210 pounds, he isn’t afraid of taking it to the rim either. The addition of Price shores up an already solid class for Trent Johnson led by Karviar Shepherd (four-star) and Brandon Parrish (three-star).
4. As you might know, the mayor of #DunkCity Andy Enfield was hired (perhaps misguidedly) to be the new head coach at Southern California. Now who will replace him? Here’s a list of potential candidates with a couple of names that Big 12 folks should recognize. The first is Jeff Capel, the former Oklahoma coach and current Duke assistant. He doesn’t make any sense for FGCU seeing how he doesn’t have any known connections in Florida, and he could get a better offer than an A-Sun job. The other possibility is Texas assistant Russ Springman, which makes more sense. He worked with Billy Donovan at Florida as a graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach, but if he were offered the job, he’d take it in a heartbeat. These next few weeks or months may be the only time in world history where a job in Fort Myers looks more attractive than one in Austin.
5. It was a year ago yesterday when Kansas State hired Bruce Weber to be its new coach, replacing South Carolina-bound Frank Martin. Bring On The Cats did a very cool thing by archiving fans’ comments on the hire only to revisit them after a full calendar year has passed. What surprised me the most was even before Martin bolted, some fans already sensed that he was beginning to lose his team. Sure there were a fair share of fans who were angry at first but even they cooled off and came to the conclusion that reason will prevail. Wonder what they’ll say next April 2.

1. The worst kept secret in college basketball these past few days came to light Monday as Texas Tech has formally agreed to hire Tubby Smith to be its new basketball coach. Smith won’t coach a game for the Red Raiders until November but he will enter the Big 12 as arguably the most decorated coach in a league with the likes of Bill Self and Bob Huggins. While it was unfortunate that interim coach Chris Walker did not get the job, hopefully this hire will give the basketball program some much needed stability.
2. The Associated Press released its list of first, second and third team All-Americans on Monday. For the fourth consecutive season, the Big 12 has a representative on the second team with Ben McLemore of Kansas there. The league had two others on the third team in McLemore’s teammate Jeff Withey and Oklahoma State superfrosh Marcus Smart. Kansas State’s Rodney McGruder was named an Honorable Mention recipient and yet nowhere to be found was Pierre Jackson (19.7 PPG, 6.9 APG) of Baylor. It’s not clear what more he could have done to please the AP.
3. Iowa State senior Will Clyburn has been invited to participate in Sunday’s College All-Star Game. The game, sponsored by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, features 20 of the top seniors in all of college basketball. Clyburn of course came over from Utah to lead the Cyclones in scoring and was second on the team in rebounding. It also doesn’t hurt that Clyburn will play for ISU head coach Fred Hoiberg in this game.
4. Class of 2013 forward Julius Randle spurned Texas to join what may become the greatest recruiting class of all time at Kentucky. Instead, Dallas area prospect Kendal Yancy-Harris committed to the Longhorns on Saturday. The 6’4″ point guard is the third member of Rick Barnes’ recruiting class, joining Demarcus Croaker from Orlando and Isaiah Taylor of Houston. Yancy-Harris is the only ESPN Top 100 prospect, which is weird for Texas’ standards but was probably the best it could do at this point. With Sheldon McClellan and Jaylen Bond announcing their plans to transfer, how happy could the UT administration be with Rick Barnes right now?
5. Some sad news to pass along from the Kansas State family. Former K-State athletic director H.B. Lee passed away at his home in North Carolina. Lee became the youngest AD in the then-Big Seven when he took over in Manhattan at age 39. Before then he was a pretty good basketball coach at Colorado, taking the school to its one and only Final Four in 1955. He also played a role in establishing land for Bill Snyder Family Stadium and Bramlage Coliseum. While we are sad at has passing, he was 96 years old after all. He lived a full life.