‘This thing is going to be wild.’ What to make of the Big 12 basketball season to date
Just last week a West Virginia team that had lost its first five games upset Kansas. Kansas State continued its red-hot streak with wins over Oklahoma and TCU. Texas Tech lost consecutive games to Iowa State and Baylor.
“This is going to be wild as we know,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said after a 65-55 loss to K-State on Saturday.
“Everybody’s going to make judgments and predictions and then a week later they’ll be changing their predictions and writing different articles.”
All we know for now is that the Big 12 is wide open. KU is not a lock to win the conference regular-season championship for the 15th time.
The Big 12 had just three teams in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll. KU dropped to No. 9 after the loss at West Virginia; Texas Tech fell to No. 14; and Iowa State played its way back into the poll at No. 24. K-State, Oklahoma and TCU received vote(s).
Four teams are tied for the league’s top spot at 4-2. KU is joined by Texas Tech, Iowa State and K-State. Baylor is just a half-game back at 3-2, and Texas is one game back at 3-3.
TCU, along with Oklahoma, have teams that are good enough to contend for the title too.
“Obviously everybody is good in the league with two games separating everybody pretty much,” Dixon told reporters on Monday. “It is what it is. We’ve obviously played more road games than home games so we’ve got to win our home games and we’ve been doing that. When we get that we’ve got to figure out how to win conference games on the road. I think we get our whole group out there and be healthy we’re a good team.”
TCU is 0-3 in Big 12 road games, falling to KU, OU and K-State. But the Frogs have a pair of home games this week with Texas coming to town on Wednesday, and Florida on Saturday for the Big 12/ SEC Challenge.
The Frogs will be on the road next Monday with a game against Texas Tech in Lubbock.
Injury updates
Dixon told reporters that he expected sophomore forward Kouat Noi to return to practice today. Noi was sidelined for the K-State game with an illness.
Noi is the Frogs’ second-leading scorer, averaging 14.2 points.
Dixon went on to say that freshman guard RJ Nembhard is 100 percent after battling an illness as well.
Barlow impresses
TCU made the decision to play freshman center Russell Barlow in the K-State game, meaning the Frogs won’t be able to redshirt him this season.
The team needs post depth and Barlow provides that. Dixon would like to see Barlow improve his rebounding skills, but came away pleased with Barlow’s college debut. He finished the game with two points and four rebounds in 20 minutes of action.
“He finishes better and better around the rim every day. He constantly keeps getting better,” Dixon said. “We’ve seen him in the last month really progress and play well. I think he looked pretty good out there. You probably wondered why we didn’t play him but he wasn’t the player he is now probably because of health [battling knee injury] and just getting used to it.
“He’s going to be a good player for us and we’re excited about it.”
This and that
TCU, despite its worst offensive game vs. K-State, remains the Big 12’s top offense. The Frogs are averaging 78.9 points a game. ... TCU also leads the conference in field goal percentage (48.2 percent). ... Texas Tech has the league’s top-ranked defense, limiting opponents to 55.8 points. ... Iowa State’s Marial Shayok is the Big 12’s leading scorer at 19.4 points. ... Baylor’s King McClure and K-State’s Dean Wade were named co-Big 12 players of the week on Monday.