Three Key Takeaways.

1. Great start… In the early minutes of the game, South Dakota State was all energy while Baylor was flat as a pancake. The Jackrabbits made their first four baskets and scored 19 points on their first 12 possessions. Meanwhile, the Bears were just standing around on offense, blowing layups and turning the ball over (four turnovers on their first eight possessions) and it looked like we would be in for a surprise as South Dakota State built up a 12-point lead. Even the crowd support was a blowout with the upstart Jackrabbit fans loud and proud while Bear fans were still wandering in from the parking lot.
2. But…  The athletic mismatch in this game was apparent from the start. When the teams first walked on the court, the size disparity was obvious and astounding. While some of the more high profile Bears struggled through the game, they had enough talent to find players to make plays. Junior point guard Pierre Jackson was the first Bear to take charge, getting to the rim and playing with fire, while senior Anthony Jones came off the bench and chipped in 11 points in a perfect (4-4 FG, 1-1 from 3-point range, 2-2 FT) first half. Throw in Brady Heslip who dialed in the range from deep on his way to 17 points and Baylor has a lot of weapons.
3. Hibernating Bears. They are the all-airport team. They are amazing in the pregame layup line. And NBA scouts drool over their potential. And then they get out on the court and there’s no energy, unfocused offense, sloppy defense and unforced turnovers. They are your Baylor Bears, folks. They have the potential to be as good as anybody in the country, but for all the good things they do, often seemingly effortlessly, there are far too many minutes where they seem literally without effort. Perry Jones III, for all the talent in his 6’11” frame, scored just two points and did little to distinguish himself, while Quincy Acy was a mess, struggling to handle the ball and getting beat on the glass by less athletic South Dakota State players.

Star of the Game.  Nate Wolters, South Dakota State. Even in a losing effort, Wolters wowed. All of the Jackrabbit offense ran through him, he spent time dogging Heslip in the first half and Jackson in the second (the halves during which those players were quiet) and he scored 19 points, handed out four assists and grabbed four boards. Sure, he turned it over five times and too often got suckered into some bad three-point attempts, but he was primarily responsible for helping South Dakota State keep this game fairly interesting.

Sights & Sounds. My god. Those uniforms. My eyes! Andy Katz calls them “the highlighters,” the day-glo yellow unis that Baylor sported, replete with fluorescent socks and shoelaces, definitely took a while to get adjusted to. Maybe that’s an excuse the Bears can use for their slow start, but those things definitely took a few minutes (or more) to adjust to.

Wildcard. On the season, Heslip has shot roughly 79% of his field goal attempts from behind the three-point arc. Tonight, it was 100%, as he shot ten balls from deep and made five, all in catch-and-shoot situations. The interior talent for the Bears is apparent, but a gunner like Heslip could make a big difference in this potential Baylor run.

What’s Next? Baylor will face the winner of the nightcap in Albuquerque between UNLV and Colorado on Saturday. If it’s the Buffs, the Bears will be playing in front of a hostile crowd, while if it is the Rebels they will face a team that has at least a similar caliber of athlete.

Despite hiding relatively under the radar for most of the regular season, 60% of the Big 12 will represent the league in the NCAA Tournament this week. Texas was the last team to cement its at-large bid, knocking off Iowa State in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament to secure an 11 seed. Here’s a team-by-team look at the burning questions this weekend (apologies in advance for that Jim Rome reference):

Missouri

Will its lack of size eventually be its downfall? The Tigers have proven this season that they are capable of overcoming a thin frontcourt. If it was really such an issue, they would not have won a Big 12 Tournament title and finished with 30 victories. Still, when Frank Haith‘s team runs into a team with dominant bigs, it will simply have less room for error. A foul-ridden game by either Ricardo Ratliffe or Steve Moore could end Missouri’s season.

Can Frank Haith Continue To Highlight Missouri's Strengths & Hide Its Weaknesses?

Kansas

Will it overlook Detroit? Hard to say. The idea of “overlooking” anyone in the NCAA Tournament is a little trite, but the Jayhawks actually did draw a scary matchup in this instance. Nobody’s going to doubt Bill Self with all of his Big 12 titles and a national title to his name, but you have to take the good with the bad. He has suffered four fairly enormous upsets during his tenure: Bucknell (2005) Bradley (2006), Northern Iowa (2010), and VCU (2011). Will the trend continue? Probably not, but Detroit is a team that has high-major talent and underachieved in the regular season. Remember, they were a trendy pick to win the Horizon over the two-time national runner-ups.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Here’s a nice breakdown of how the Big 12 could fare in the NCAA Tournament complete with thorough analysis and best/worst-case scenarios. The only criticism we have here is the ceiling for Baylor. The article caps the Bears’ chances at the Elite Eight, and that’s fair considering their inconsistency during Big 12 play. Still, Perry Jones made this a different team in the Big 12 Tournament. This is a team that actually outworked Kansas State in Kansas City, which is the type of effort Scott Drew will need to make a Final Four run. If it all comes together, this team can hang tough with anybody on a neutral floor.
2. Bill Self‘s team fell short of its goal of cutting down the nets in Kansas City. That’s disappointing for the fans, players and coaches in front of a friendly crowd. But is it a good thing? This is an age-old argument that always makes us laugh. It’s probably never good to lose a basketball game, but let the debate rage on. And read Self’s take on the situation in that article for another perspective.
3. Remember how hilarious it was when Iowa State hired a guy with no coaching experience to revitalize its program? Not hilarious anymore, as the Cyclones are reaping the benefits with Fred Hoiberg. As well as Frank Haith has coached and as surprising as Missouri‘s run has been, it’s easy to forget what Hoiberg has done with this program in such a short amount of time.
4. Speaking of Iowa State, here’s a chance to get to know them. If you have followed this league all year like we have, you probably know the potential of this team already. Great shooters. Great star in Royce White. Solid all-around defensive team, solid guard play, and capable of beating anybody. That’s why this is the type of nothing-to-lose eight seed that has traditionally scared the daylights out of people in the NCAA Tournament.
5. And finally, your boring business news of the day: the Big 12 is working on a multi-billion dollar media deal. This simply reaffirms what we’ve known all along– it’s all about the money. Under this deal with ABC and Fox, each school would receive about $20 million. Not bad, eh?

Danny Spewak is a Big 12 Microsite writer and will provide wall-to-wall coverage of the Big 12 Tournament from the Sprint Center in Kansas City this weekend. He filed this piece after Baylor’s 82-74 victory over Kansas State. You can follow him on Twitter @dspewak.

On the first possession of the game, the man they call “soft” rose high into the air, catching a pass from point guard Pierre Jackson to slam home an alley-oop from the left side of the rim. The team they call “soft” played so tough on Thursday it actually made Frank Martin speechless as he sat on the bench in the final minutes with his chin resting on his left hand in dismay. Baylor isn’t supposed to play like this, not against a Kansas State team that prides itself on physicality and intimidation. And Perry Jones isn’t supposed to play so aggressively, not after every member of the mainstream media ripped him to pieces these past two years for failing to reach his potential. He’s supposed to back down in the face of pressure, especially against a seven-foot behemoth like Jordan Henriquez in the post. But Jones looked every bit like a future NBA lottery pick after that alley-oop just ten seconds into the basketball game. It didn’t matter who guarded him or where he was on the floor. It didn’t matter whether he pulled up from three, from 15 feet or from two inches under the basket. Jones swished everything, scoring 21 of his 31 points in the first half. “I guess I was just in a zone today,” Jones said. “Just being aggressive and more assertive.”

Baylor Played Like Men on Thursday. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Kansas State looked helpless against Jones and the rest of the Bears’ half-court offense, which Jackson ran by controlling tempo and finding the open man. He finished with eight assists and added 13 points, wowing the Sprint Center crowd with his quickness from end to end. On Thursday, Baylor was the team that dove for loose balls, hustled for offensive rebounds and earned deflections on the defensive end. Backup point guard A.J. Walton, still an important part of this team despite losing his starting spot to Jackson, tallied four steals and harassed the Wildcats all afternoon. “I thought A.J. was huge tonight,” coach Scott Drew said. “Defensively he did a very good job, and those four steals were huge. He guarded without getting in foul trouble.”

Read the rest of this entry »

1. As if Fred Hoiberg needs any more recognition in Ames, fans can now refer to The Mayor as a member of the National High School Hall of Fame. The organization announced it will induct him in the Class of 2012, making him one of 12 new Hall of Famers. Hoiberg’s playing career at Iowa State and in the NBA is well-documented, but it appears he was a pretty darn good high school player too. He won a Mr. Basketball award in Iowa in 1991, averaging nearly 30 points a game. For as many accomplishments as this guy has already in his career, it’s amazing to consider how his legend will grow if this whole coaching thing works out.
2. We still have one weekend remaining of regular season games in the Big 12, but it’s not too far ahead to look at the Big 12 Tournament. Once again, Kansas City will be the host, and the city has become a mecca of sorts for college hoops in the Midwest. Even with Missouri’s move to the SEC, the city is situated in a market near Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and Wichita State. If only we could all have moved to KC for the season.
3. Perhaps then we’d be able to see Tyshawn Taylor more often. The Kansas senior will make his final appearance at Allen Fieldhouse on Senior Day this weekend. If you know anything about Taylor’s career, then you know why this Senior Day has extra emotion to it. Until this season, Taylor struggled to excel to his potential on the court, often butting heads with coach Bill Self. And off the court, Taylor had skirmishes with the football team and social media, making him an obvious target for opposing fans. In the end, though, Taylor figured out how to become a star as a senior. On Senior Day, he’ll get a warm applause from thankful Jayhawk fans for sticking out an up-and-down career.
4. These days, it’s trendy to call Perry Jones “soft” or “overrated.” That’s what fans and writers do– they make judgments, and they are often relentless. ESPN’s Jason King tries to consider the Jones story from the other side, though. What’s it like to be the next basketball god at such an early age? It has to be difficult for Jones, who by all accounts is a good guy with a good attitude. It’s hard to call his story a “tragedy” because he’ll soon make millions of dollars, but we don’t envy his position.
5. That’s why Rob Dauster over at NBC Sports is rooting for Jones. It’s nice to see at least one member of the blogosphere show some sympathy. Writers have attacked Jones for two years now, and they won’t stop when he reaches the pro ranks. There are absolutely some criticisms of his game that deserve attention, but he has become the classic victim-of-his-own-success case.

1. With all of the scandals in college sports that seem to occur without the schools suffering significant on-the-field repercussions it is sometimes hard to remember that sometimes programs actually do suffer. Such is the case for Binghamton as Pete Thamel notes. Thamel goes through the program’s decision to chase Division I glory and looks at the result for a program that earned a NCAA bid by winning the America East Tournament leading their fans to rush the court and our site to get its first on-air mention later that night on SportsCenter. This year, the students rushed the court again, but instead of doing it for a coveted NCAA bid it was for their first win of the year after losing their first 27 games.
2. For college basketball fans, Perry Jones III is one of the most enigmatic players in the country. But as Jason King writes there is more to the Perry Jones story than just what you see on the court. King tells the fascinating story of Jones including his time bouncing between cheap hotels during his senior year of high school because his family could not afford a house. After reading this piece you may still struggle to understand Perry Jones the player, but you will have a greater appreciation of Perry Jones the person.
3. No coach at a major program utilizes social media quite like John Calipari and his post on “The great myth of our program” is an excellent example. After taking some heat for being labeled as a “one-and-done factory” Calipari took to his blog on his personal site to defend his program and more importantly his kids. We are sure that fans of rival programs will inevitably find a few parts to take issue with, but Calipari’s ability to sell his program is phenomenal. If you want to know why he cleans up on the recruiting trail, you could do a lot worse than to start by reading this piece and getting a sense of how he promotes his program.
4. In this week’s edition of his power rankings, Luke Winn takes a look at many of the statistics he has tracked all season giving a few interesting updates. However, the one statistic that he cites that is the most interesting to us is one regarding Kentucky and Marquis Teague that he mentioned in a post the day before. All season long, fans and analysts have pointed to Teague’s play as the key to Kentucky’s long-term success. Along with that there has been a sense Kentucky is at its best when they are using their athleticism and getting out and running rather than playing at a slower pace. So it would seem to make sense that Teague and Kentucky would be at their best when they got out and ran except that it does not appear to be the case for Teague. As Winn notes, an analysis done last year showed a similar trend for Brandon Knight so perhaps it is more a reflection of the team, position, and opposition, but it is something worth watching over the next month to see if the narrative fits reality.
5. Most of the major recruits in the class of 2012 have already committed to their schools and fans of most teams will soon be looking forward to next season. Fans of course are asking the natural questions: what impact will these new faces have and how long will they stay? Drew Cannon of Basketball Prospectus takes a look at the latter by looking at the relationship between class rank and transfer rates. Looking at top 100 recruits from classes from 2002 to 2009, Cannon analyzes how long players who are on their team by the end of their freshmen year stay at the school. While there are a lot of factors involved in these decisions, it is interesting to look at the analysis and the accompanying chart to get a better sense of what you can expect.

Tonight’s Lede. Championship Fortnight is under way! With three days still left in February, the Big South Tournament tipped off its opening round at two different campus locations to mark the arrival of the best time of the year. Elimination basketball, baby. Most of the nation is still focusing on the last week of the regular season in the power conferences, and the final Big Monday of the 2011-12 season featured one of the country’s two NPOY candidates in action, an RTC that went oh-so-badly, and an impressive defensive performance by a team we’re having trouble figuring out. Let’s jump in…

See That? Tournament Basketball Has Started... (credit: Big South Conference)

Your Watercooler Moment. When RTCing Goes Very Wrong. You all know our general set of guidelines when it comes to rushing the court. Make it special. Listen to your gut. Full and complete coverage. Easy enough, right? Well, it goes without saying that you shouldn’t be RTCing for any reason until the game is actually over. Delaware State’s fans must not have gotten the memo tonight against Morgan State, and it severely cost them. After a tip-dunk by Tahj Tate gave the Hornets a one-point lead very late in the game, players and fans spilled onto the court in jubilation of the apparent victory. The only problem — there were still 1.1 seconds remaining on the game clock. After a significant delay, the officials levied a delay of game technical foul on Delaware State, allowing Morgan State’s Aric Brooks to hit two free throws to win the game. It’s not very often that MEAC basketball is highlighted on the national stage for something significant — this certainly isn’t the PR hit that the league offices were probably hoping for.

Survive and Advance. Big South. The Big South Tournament got under way on Monday night with High Point overtaking Gardner-Webb, 68-58, and VMI (remember when they could score?) outlasting Radford, 55-53. High Point will advance to play the top seed, UNC-Asheville, on Wednesday night, while VMI will take on the #2 seed, Coastal Carolina.

Read the rest of this entry »

Steve Fetch is the RTC correspondent for the Big 12. You can also find his musings online at Rock Chalk Talk or on Twitter @fetch9.

The Week That Was

• Game Of The Year: Kansas was 16:42 away from being swept by Missouri and perhaps letting the Big 12 title slip away. Perhaps recognizing the importance of the last meeting as conference foes, Kansas overcame a 19-point deficit, took the game to overtime, and behind 28 points and 12 rebounds from Thomas Robinson, as well as 24 points and five assists from Tyshawn Taylor, the Jayhawks clinched no worse than a share of their eighth straight Big 12 title and perhaps have the inside track on a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
• Wildcats Looking Strong: Kansas State notched a huge win on the road at Missouri last Monday, and coupled with its victory over Baylor on Saturday, it was the first time Frank Martin’s team had beaten top ten teams back-to-back on the road. The Wildcats lost to Iowa State on Saturday, but the wins over Baylor and Missouri perhaps locked them into an NCAA Tournament berth.
• A Coaches’ League: Frank Haith and Bill Self have gotten a lot of ink for national coach of the year, but the Big 12 Coach of the Year might be Fred Hoiberg. The Mayor has taken Iowa State from the conference basement to a probable NCAA tournament berth, as the Cyclones currently sit in a tie for third in the league. Royce White and Chris Allen have been great as transfers, but it’s Hoiberg who gave them the second chance and has gotten everyone to buy in. Impressive stuff up in Ames.

All Eyes Were On Allen Fieldhouse Saturday, And The Jayhawks And Tigers Delivered A Game For The Ages. (David Eulitt/The Kansas City Star)

Power Rankings

1. Kansas (24-5, 14-2): The final regular season of the Border War was one of the best ever and with the win Kansas clinched a share of its eighth straight Big 12 title. A win in either of its last two games – at Oklahoma State or at home against Texas – can clinch it outright, continuing perhaps the most underrated streak in sports.
2. Missouri (25-4, 12-4): In the span of a week, Missouri went from Big 12 favorites to having next to no shot at even winning a share of the Big 12 title. After being ahead by ten points or more for much of the second half, Missouri fans are no doubt questioning Frank Haith’s decision to stall on offense for much of the half (a strategy I tentatively agree with, by the way) as well as the final possession when Missouri did not even get a shot off. They didn’t have a timeout so Haith could not draw up a play, but not having a better option built into the offense there was a bad move. Read the rest of this entry »

Evan Jacoby is a regular contributor for RTC. You can find him @evanjacoby on Twitter. 

What is and what isn’t against the NCAA law these days? The line between a ‘good deed’ and a ‘violation’ has become so thin that not even the original lawmakers are able to easily distinguish the difference. And coaches in fierce competition for recruits? Forget about it. There are so many minor rules about extensive contact that it is impossible to police every one of them. That’s why the NCAA is finally working to create a slimmer and more efficient rulebook to make it easier for all parties to follow the rules. We certainly love the thought of trimming down the book, but it will not be an easy task.

The NCAA Rulebook is Far Too Complex to Consistently Enforce

“It’s very complicated to take a 400-plus-page rule book and shrink it down to something sensible, but we’re going to do it,” said NCAA President Mark Emmert last month. The most meaningful idea changes being discussed include making all transfers eligible to play immediately during the next semester rather than having to sit out a full year at their new school. The transfer rule has been noted as unfair for players, considering that coaches are allowed to bolt from school to school whenever they see more money or a better opportunity, but student-athletes need a waiver signed by the school and are required to sit out a full year before they can even join a new team. Another idea being discussed is to allow coaches to talk publicly about unsigned recruits since Twitter and other social media have made it so difficult to track everything being mentioned publicly. It’s unclear if public discussion would even have an influence on recruits’ decisions.

Read the rest of this entry »

With College Gameday in the house, the Big 12 Conference lead on the line and a century-old rivalry nearing its end, the stakes could not possibly be any higher for Saturday night’s Border War showdown between Kansas and Missouri. It’s not just the league’s must-see game this weekend. It’s one of the most important regular-season games of the entire 2011-12 college basketball season, second maybe only to the rematch in Lawrence later this month. As for the rest of the league, Baylor must keep pace with a road game in Stillwater, while Kansas State will look to salvage its season when it hosts Texas A&M. 

GAME OF THE WEEKEND

• #8 Kansas at #4 Missouri, Saturday, 8 PM CT (ESPN)

Jeff Withey Could Be a Difference-Maker Against Missouri (KemperLesnik/B. Spurlock)