Five weeks.

That’s the amount of time we as a microsite have had to regret our preseason projected Big 12 standings. Like most everyone else, we pegged the league as a two-headed horse race between Kansas and Oklahoma State but with the Jayhawks’ recent struggles and the Cowboys looking good but not great, two more teams have emerged as viable contenders. Baylor and Iowa State have compiled early resumes on par with the preseason leaders and our first batch of power rankings reflect, perhaps, the deepest league in college basketball. Plus, four-headed horses are prettier to look at anyway.

Texas scored a huge road win over North Carolina on Wednesday night. (photo via USA Today Sports)

1. Oklahoma State (10-1, 5 points)

Comment: “The Cowboys are 10-1 and their only loss, which came against #21 Memphis, doesn’t look as bad after the Tigers nearly knocked off Florida earlier this week.” – Kory Carpenter (@Kory_Carpenter)

T-2. Iowa State (8-0, 7 points)

Comment: “This year’s Cyclones are more than just a bunch of three-point shooters. Their fast pace, efficient offense and the fact that any of about seven different guys can emerge on any given night makes Iowa State one of the most entertaining watches in college hoops — unless you’re an opposing coach.” – Brian Goodman (@BSGoodman)

T-2. Kansas (7-3, 7 points)

Comment: “Yes, the Jayhawks have three losses. But they have faced one of the toughest schedules in the country and have impressive wins over Duke and New Mexico.” – KC

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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.

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.

Will Leitch over at SportsOnEarth.com gave us his top 25 jobs in college basketball last week. And while there are a few things we would change (Wichita State and Temple seem too high, whereas Michigan seems too low), the list was close to perfect. His criteria was spot on too, as you can see here. Building upon his idea, we thought we would try our hand at a Big 12 list of college basketball jobs. As Leitch explains, the list isn’t necessarily a rundown of the best programs, although that often comes with having a top job. It instead comes down to a simple question: Where would we want to coach if we had our pick of the litter in the Big 12?

Bill Self has the best job in the Big 12, and it isn’t close. (AP)

1. Kansas: Kansas was #2 overall on Leitch’s list and is undoubtedly the best job in the Big 12. It has one of the best fan bases in the country and the athletic department will pay a successful coach as much as anyone.
2. Texas: Texas hasn’t been great in a while, but it is still a top 10 job nationally with seemingly unlimited resources at its disposal and the benefit of in-state recruiting. Fans can be apathetic with respect to hoops, which could be a plus or a minus depending on the success of the coach. Stress about basketball is rarely an issue in Austin, as Texas hoops fans don’t seem to mind a coach who puts together an occasional winner without ever really challenging for a national title. If you can take advantage of everything Texas has to offer as a head coach, you could set yourself up for your career. Read the rest of this entry »

1. If you missed Iowa State’s annual game against Iowa Friday night, you missed a great one. Both teams were ranked for the first time in what seems like forever (26 years), and the sold-out Hilton Coliseum crowd was rewarded with an 85-82 Cyclones’ win over the Hawkeyes. Georges Niang had 24 points, telling Bobby La Gesse of the Ames Tribune: “I felt like it was my night.” Iowa State improved to 8-0 with the win and barring a home upset against George Mason or Northern Illinois over the next two-plus, will enter 2014 and Big 12 play undefeated.
2. If you haven’t seen Kansas center Joel Embiid’s Hakeem Olajuwon/Dream Shake impression yet, drop what you’re doing and watch the GIF at the bottom of this SI.com piece, or check out the full video here. It’s amazing that Embiid was a soccer player until just a few years ago who is still relatively new to playing basketball. He shot up the recruiting rankings during his last year of high school and is shooting up NBA mock drafts this season. Don’t be shocked if he becomes a top-three pick next summer.
3. Marcus Smart appears to have changed his game following Oklahoma State’s loss to Memphis two weeks ago. “I’m just trying to focus and make sure I don’t force a lot of things because I do have a talented group of guys around me,” he told John Helsley of The Oklahoman after the Cowboys’ 70-55 win over Louisiana Tech Saturday. Smart had 13 points, five assists, and four steals in the win.
4. CBSSports.com NBA writer Matt Moore updated his 2014 mock draft over the weekend and Andrew Wiggins fell to the second pick overall behind Duke freshman Jabari Parker. Joel Embiid was fourth, Marcus Smart seventh, Wayne Selden eighth, Perry Ellis 25th, and Isaiah Austin 29th. Second round selections included Cory Jefferson at 44th and Le’Bryan Nash at 51st. Moore had this to say about Nash, the former five-star recruit: “Such a highly touted high school player doesn’t seem to have enough to offer a sure player to make a roster, but he’s not bad enough to fall out of the draft completely, right?”
5. Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid have gotten most of the national spotlight this season, and rightly so, as both players are likely top-five picks. But it’s no coincidence that as Perry Ellis goes, so go the Jayhawks,  Jeff Borzello at CBSSports.com writes. As he notes, Ellis has struggled in Kansas’ bad games and been great in big wins, most notably his 24-point, nine-rebound performance in the Jayhawks’ 94-83 over Duke last month.

1. Jeff Borzello of CBSSports.com tells the story of how Iowa State point guard DeAndre Kane plays hard in memory of his father, who unexpectedly passed away from a brain aneurysm last year. If you see Kane in action this season, it’s difficult to not come away with the impression that he has a major chip on his shoulder, and we mean that in the best way possible. Look for more coverage of Kane and ISU on RTC Big 12 later today when we break down the Friday night battle between the Cyclones and their rival, Iowa.
2. Yahoo!’s Jeff Eisenberg runs down the five most surprising teams of the season to this point, and the list includes Texas. The Longhorns haven’t been particularly inspiring, but they do have eight wins against a decent collection of opponents. In a season that will largely be defined by whether Rick Barnes coaches his team into the NCAA Tournament, wins are what matter most. We’ll see if the Longhorns, currently ranked #74 by Ken Pomeroy, will make a statement next week when they face North Carolina and Michigan State in back-to-back contests.
3. Kansas called a players-only meeting yesterday in hopes of addressing the numerous issues that have held the team back throughout the last few weeks. While you can make the argument that two of Kansas’ three losses this year came down to a bounce here or there, that certainly wasn’t the case on Tuesday night. And even against Colorado and Villanova, there were things the Jayhawks could have done to avoid the outcomes in those games decided by last-second shots. For those reasons, we wouldn’t advocate for anyone to get too wound up over this development.
4. Sports On Earth‘s Will Leitch, with a little help from Matt Norlander, compiled a list of the top 25 coaching jobs in college basketball. It’s always an interesting discussion to have, especially in slower times like finals week, and this edition includes three Big 12 jobs (Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma State). Each are appealing for their own reasons: Kansas for its history and rabid fan base; Texas for its expectations relative to its resources and recruiting base; and Oklahoma State for its unmatched financial backer in T. Boone Pickens. It’s tough to quibble too much with Leitch’s selections, but if pressed, we’d probably advocate for the inclusion of Iowa State due to its homecourt advantage and an underrated local recruiting hotbed.
5. The NCAA on Thursday released its initial findings on the impact of the game’s new rules geared toward increased scoring. The article doesn’t point out any team-specific results, but it’s a good reminder that some of the conference’s most memorable games so far have been high-scoring affairs that probably wouldn’t have been possible without the tweaks made over the summer. Kansas’ win over Duke, Iowa State’s victory over BYU, and Oklahoma State’s dismantling of Memphis in Stillwater can be considered works of art compared to the last several years of chucking cutters, hand-checking guards and defenders sliding in to take charges after the driver has taken flight. Here’s hoping the adjustment period is now gone for good.

We are 96 days away from Selection Sunday so what better time is there than now to do a Big 12 Bubble Watch? Conference teams thus far have been a big surprise in non-conference play, scoring wins over the likes of Duke, Kentucky, Michigan, Colorado and Memphis. But some teams are more of a sure thing and the others just keep us guessing. So here’s how we’ll break it down: Those “in very good shape” are definitely in the NCAA Tournament if it started today; those that “might be getting in” have looked good so far but haven’t truly tested themselves yet; and those “on the outside looking in” have a chance to get in but still need a lot of work. As for those not listed, let’s just say that they have quite a bit of work to do at this point. Let’s get to it.

This was the scene in Boulder following Colorado’s upset win over Kansas. (ESPN; screengrab via The Big Lead)

In Very Good Shape

Oklahoma State: (8-1); RPI: 15, SOS: 28.

Analysis: I haven’t been crazy about who the Cowboys have played considering they were a preseason top-10 team, but they haven’t shown any reason to doubt that they will make the Tournament. They were able to split two games with nationally-ranked Memphis and scooted by Butler at the Old Spice Classic. The caveat about the Butler win, like most against the Big East this season, is that you might not know if it’s a good win until Selection Sunday. It’s great to have one, though, for security reasons. If that Butler win doesn’t hold up, the Cowboys have one more big test against Colorado (didn’t they leave the Big 12?) in Las Vegas. They’re certainly on the right track.

Kansas: (6-2); RPI: 2, SOS: 1

Analysis: Hugs for Bill Self. He challenges his team in the non-conference portion of the season each and every season and we love him for that. Some have been disappointed with the unspectacular play of Andrew Wiggins and have been surprised with the still-relatively-new-to-basketball Joel Embiid. Kansas has a neutral-court victory over Duke that is likely to withstand the season and it’s not like the Jayhawks won’t have time before the conference opener to change minds (if they need to). They have Florida to contend with tonight and Mountain West favorites New Mexico and San Diego State coming up soon. Plus, if you’re ranked in the top five in both RPI and SOS, you’ve pretty much in a good place.

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The AAC has missed several opportunities for quality wins early in the season, which will increase the difficulty of getting four or five teams safely into the NCAA Tournament come March. As it is finals week for many schools, we get a bit of a breather at the one month mark before wrapping up most of the non-conference slate and opening league play over Christmas break. There are enough games left that team RPIs are still of little use as a comparison metric, but there is RPI value in examining where the conference stands relative to other leagues. After Monday’s lone AAC game, the league currently ranks ninth in conference RPI, with just the barest of leads over the West Coast Conference one spot behind.

Shabazz Napier’s game winner over Florida gave the AAC one of its best wins in the season’s first month. (AP)

“[T]here’s no question in my mind that six teams will come out of this league to play in the NCAA Tournament,” Memphis coach Josh Pastner said at AAC Media Day in October – and he’s hardly the only coach who has overstated his conference’s prowess – but history suggests otherwise. Only once since 2000 has a conference ranked as low as ninth in the RPI sent even four teams to the tournament, but here’s the interesting part: Those four teams included Louisville and Cincinnati (along with UAB and Charlotte) from Conference USA in 2005, and Louisville made it to the Final Four that season.

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1.  The Kansas City Star’s Rustin Dodd tied up some loose ends from Kansas‘ heartbreaking loss to Colorado. In case you were too caught up in Saturday afternoon’s football action, lost in the shuffle of Askia Booker’s buzzer-beater were Joel Embiid showing off an impressive array of post moves against the Buffaloes’ undersized frontcourt rotation and Andrew Wiggins putting up a season-high 22 points. The Jayhawks very clearly have a few things to work on, but it’s tough to be too disappointed with Kansas’ two losses in non-conference play, as both came on last-second shots in games away from Allen Fieldhouse.
2. Iowa State needed an extra frame to beat Northern Iowa when Panthers guard Seth Tuttle banked home a three-pointer at the end of the second half. The Cyclones showed how vulnerable they can be when their threes don’t fall, as they shot just 28% from the perimeter in regulation. They made them when they mattered, though, as Melvin Ejim buried a pair of treys in overtime. Somewhat surprisingly, the win was Fred Hoiberg‘s first as a head coach over Northern Iowa. Iowa State, one of the most impressive programs in the still-young season, takes a well-deserved break until Friday, when Hilton Coliseum should be rocking for a meeting with Iowa.
3. Reserve center D.J. Bennett has given Lon Kruger some quality minutes down low on the defensive end. The Sooners boast one of the highest-scoring offenses in the Big 12, but the defense isn’t quite where it needs to be for Oklahoma to comfortably rank in the top half of the conference. If Bennett can continue to help the team get stops on the other end, that may change.
4. Dave Hickman of The West Virginia Gazette wrote an interesting piece late last week where he delved into the Mountaineers’ surprisingly low attendance numbers. If you ask us, the culprit isn’t hard to find: West Virginia‘s non-conference schedule has been short on attractive names. With all due respect to the following programs, no one is lining up to camp out for Mount Saint Mary’s, Duquesne, or Georgia Southern. To boot, the annual Backyard Brawl with Pittsburgh was put on hiatus when the two teams separated conferences. We’ll see how many fans show up at WVU Coliseum on Tuesday, when Gonzaga pays a visit to Morgantown.
5. Oklahoma State guard Stevie Clark returned to action Friday night against South Carolina after serving a four-game suspension handed down by Travis Ford for undisclosed reasons. Assuming Clark stays on Ford’s good side, the freshman will have plenty of time to ease back into the lineup, as the Cowboys play just two games between now and December 21, when they will take on a Colorado team that will almost certainly be ranked later today.