Big 12 Conference Reset: Will the league get eight Dance cards?

By Travis HinesDec 28, 2017, 7:37 AM EST

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

College basketball’s non-conference season is finally coming to a close.

To help you shake off post-holiday haze and the hangover of losing in your fantasy football playoffs, we’ll be providing you with some midseason primers to get you caught up on all the nation’s most important conferences.

Who has been the best player in the biggest leagues?

Who is on track to get an NCAA tournament bid?

What have we learned about the conference hierarchy, and what is left for us to figure out?

We break it all down here.

Today, we’ll be taking a look at the Big 12.

MIDSEASON BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Trae Young, Oklahoma

The McDonald’s All-American said before the season that the weight of expectation of being a star freshman from his hometown program wouldn’t be a pressure point for him this season. Boy, was he not lying. Young has been nothing short of spectacular in the first two months of his career, not only earning him Midseason Big 12 Player of the Year honors here, but making him our frontrunner for National Player of the Year. The 6-foot-2 freshman is leading the Big 12 in scoring (28.7) and assists (10.7) while shooting 48.5 percent from the floor and 41.1 percent from 3-point range. That’s helped the Sooners to rush out to a 10-1 start to the season to put last year’s 11-20 record well in the rear-view. Young has not only out-shined fellow freshman phenom Mo Bamba of Texas but established veteran stars like Kansas’ Devonte Graham and West Virginia’s Jevon Carter. He has been, simply, remarkable.

THE ALL-BIG 12 FIRST TEAM

TRAE YOUNG, Oklahoma
JEVON CARTER, West Virginia: Carter was about a 30 percent 3-point shooter is first two years at Morgantown, but upped that to 38 last season and he now sits at 40.6 percent as a senior. That’s made him on of the Big 12’s best scorers – on top of being its best perimeter defender. He’s averaging a league-best 3.7 steals per game for Press Virginia.i
DEVONTE GRAHAM, Kansas: Many’s preseason Big 12 player of the year frontrunner, Graham hasn’t quite lived up to that hype or slid into Frank Mason’s shoes, but he’s been quite good. He’s been one of the Big 12’s most efficient offensive players while averaging 16.8 points and 7.6 assists.
UDOKA AZUBUIKE, Kansas: The 7-footer has been a terror on the offensive end with an effective field goal percentage of 77.9, tops in the country. He’s also among the Big 12’s best rebounder, averaging eight per game while ranking in the top five in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage. He’s also one of the conference’s top shot blockers.
MOHAMED BAMBA, Texas: One of the country’s top recruits hasn’t been a major offensive threat, averaging 10.9 points per game, but he’s been one of the country’s best rebounders and shot blockers. He’s turning away more than four shots of game for a block percentage of 16.6, a top-10 mark nationally. He’s also averaging 9.8 rebounds per game with a defensive rebounding percentage of 27.1

POSTSEASON PREDICTIONS

NCAA: Kansas, West Virginia, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas
NIT: Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State
OTHER/NO POSTSEASON: None

THREE THINGS WE’VE LEARNED

1. THE LEAGUE IS A MONSTER: The Big 12 has been KenPom’s top-ranked conference for four-straight seasons, and it’s seemingly a lock to finish again this season. The difference in ranking between the Big 12 and the second-place ACC is as bigger than the gap between the ACC and the fifth-place Big Ten. Nine of the league’s 10 teams rank in the top-50, and the 10th team, 76th-ranked Iowa State, has won nine-straight with three of those wins coming against top-100 opponents.

Kansas is probably the only team that’s viewed as an elite-tier team with a healthy shot at the Final Four, but the league’s strength comes from its middle and back ends. Texas is the only team with more than two losses, and its setbacks came to Duke, Gonzaga and Michigan. TCU, generally considered a second-tier contender, is undefeated with wins over SMU, St. Bonaventure and Nevada. The consensus bottom three of the conference, Kansas State, Iowa State and Oklahoma State, are a combined 29-6. With its round-robin schedule, the Big 12 will undoubtedly be appointment viewing nearly every time its teams take the court over the next three months.

2. KANSAS IS THE FAVORITE, BUT HAS THINGS THEY STILL NEED TO WORK OUT: For 13 years one of the biggest pastimes for Big 12 observers has been to pick apart Kansas and find the reason this will be the year the Jayhawks won’t be league champs. No reason has been big enough yet during this amazing title streak. That’s likely to be the case once again this season, but that doesn’t mean the Jayhawks aren’t without issues.

The most glaring issue is obviously the frontcourt. Udoka Azubuike has been really good in his return from last season’s injury, but beyond the 7-foot sophomore, the Jayhawks’ roster just isn’t quite built right inside. Svi Mykhailiuk has been good, but he’s out of position at the four. He’s not the problem, though. The 6-foot-8 sharpshooter makes for a strong stretch-four, but the issue is that Jayhawks don’t have any other legit options at that position right now, making them predictable and susceptible to a smart gameplan.

3. TCU IS ASCENDANT: Jamie Dixon’s departure from Pittsburgh made sense in a narrow way. The Panthers had plateaued some in Jamie Dixon’s last five years, and after 13 years with Pitt, fans were getting a wandering eye. In a broader way, though, Dixon’s departure from Pitt was crazy dumb for the Panthers. To give up a coach of his caliber for, no offense to Kevin Stallings, a coach that was petering out at Vanderbilt made no sense.

As silly as it seems for Pitt to push Dixon toward the exit, it made perfect sense for TCU to scoop him up. The Horned Frogs were wallowing in the Big 12 since its move to the conference on the strength of their football program, and Dixon, a TCU alum, provided the perfect mix of credibility, talent and fit. Now, after winning the NIT in his first season, Dixon has the Horned Frogs undefeated and looking like a potential threat to Kansas in Year 2. TCU made the decision to prioritize basketball, and Dixon is paying immediate dividends.

THREE STORYLINES TO FOLLOW

1. WHO’S THE STRONGEST CONTENDER?: We all now Kansas is the frontrunner. It doesn’t matter that the Jayhawks have roster issues or that they dropped back-to-back games in early December. They’ve got the talent, Bill Self and 13-straight Big 12 titles so it’s not really worth it right now to discuss anyone else as the favorite. But who’s got the best chance to threaten a streak matched only by John Wooden and UCLA?

Is it West Virginia? Bob Huggins has been knocking on the door since this Press Virginia transformation, and the Mountaineers have the ruggedness to win on the road in the Big 12. What about Oklahoma? Trae Young looks like a player capable of shifting the landscape of the league, and Lon Kruger is maybe the most underappreciated coach in the country. Can Shaka Smart and Texas breakthrough on the strength of Mo Bamba and an improved backcourt? What about Jamie Dixon’s undefeated TCU? Or 11-1 Texas Tech or the oft-underrated Baylor Bears? Kansas is No. 1, but there are six teams with a claim to top challenger.

2. ARE REINFORCEMENTS ON THE WAY FOR KANSAS?: We’ve laid out the issues, at length, about Kansas’ issues up front. But, as so often seems to be the case, Bill Self and Co. may have an Ace – or two – up their sleeves.

First is Silvio De Sousa, a top-30 forward from the 2018 class that is enrolling at Kansas at the semester break and could join the Jayhawks in a couple weeks if the NCAA rules him eligible, which Kansas has indicated it expects. The 6-foot-9 forward would immediately help bolster the interior. The other potential option is Billy Preston, who, after being suspended for KU’s opener, hasn’t played due to the questionable ownership of a car he was driving on campus. In Preston’s situation, too, Kansas has indicated they’re confident Preston will eventually suit up in Allen Fieldhouse. The five-star, top-20 recruit would provide instant help as well. If Kansas gets them both, they could be running at full strength come March.

3. IS EIGHT ENOUGH … OR POSSIBLE?: Could the Big 12 get 80 percent of its conference membership into the NCAA tournament? It seems unlikely, but it can’t be ruled out heading into Big 12 play. The league has been that strong in non-conference play, and given that computers love them now, that’ll likely not change as they continue to go after each other.

In 2015, the Big 12 got seven teams in the Big Dance, but an eighth, Kansas State, may have gotten that elusive bid had they avoided a disastrous 7-6 non-conference slate that came before an 8-10 Big 12 mark. If the standings fall like they did in 2015 with all 10 teams having solid non-con resumes, eight might be the number.

Jevon Carter (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

THREE PREDICTIONS

1. TRAE YOUNG WILL BE THE CONFERENCE’S TOP DRAFT PICK: Coming into the year, it would seem absurd to pick anyone in the Big 12 to go before Mo Bamba – and maybe it still is – but Trae Young has been so good for a long enough time that he could very well be the first player from the conference selected in June.

Bamba has the size and defensive prowess to be a difference-maker in the middle whether or not his offensive game catches up. He’s a safe pick. Young, though, looks to be something potentially special. He’s a huge scorer that distributes willingly and in volume. His teammates and coaches love him, and he’s a well-known workaholic. There may be some risk taking a guard making a quick rise his freshman season, but Young looks worth whatever pitfalls may lay ahead.

2. WEST VIRGINIA IS THE LAST TEAM STANDING IN MARCH: Press Virginia has been wildly successful – and interesting to watch – for Huggins’ program, but it hasn’t produced an NCAA tournament trip that’s extended past the Sweet 16. This is finally the year that changes.

Now, West Virginia’s style may not be suited for the rigors of March, but what it does to is ramp up the volatility of a game, which makes 40 minutes with the Mountaineers more about chance than a lot of other teams you’d encounter in the Big Dance. Behind Jevon Carter and a defense that is as relentless as any, West Virginia is going to at least the Elite Eight, while the rest of the league falls behind.

3. KANSAS ‘ STREAK FINALLY COMES TO AN END: lol jk no it won’t

Clark, Iowa end perfect South Carolina season in Final Four

Associated PressApr 1, 2023, 12:29 AM EDT

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

DALLAS – Caitlin Clark overwhelmed the reigning champions with another sensational game, scoring 41 points to help Iowa spoil South Carolina’s perfect season with a 77-73 victory on Friday night in the Final Four.

The spectacular junior guard set a record for the highest-scoring semifinal game and became the first women’s player to post back-to-back 40-point games in the NCAA Tournament. She now has the Hawkeyes in a spot they’ve never been in before – one victory away from a national championship.

They’ll have to beat another SEC team to do that as Iowa (31-6) will face LSU in the title game on Sunday afternoon. The Tigers beat Virginia Tech in the other national semifinal.

It’s the Tigers’ first appearance in the title game as Kim Mulkey became the second coach to take two different teams to the championship game.

Thanks to the spectacular play of Clark and the historic year by South Carolina, this was one of the most talked about and highly anticipated matchups in women’s Final Four history,

The game lived up to the hype surrounding it- the best player vs. the best team – much to the delight of the sellout crowd of over 19,000 fans.

Coach Dawn Staley and South Carolina (36-1) had won 42 in a row, including last year’s championship game.

This was Iowa’s first appearance in the Final Four in 30 years. The last time the Hawkeyes advanced this far was 1993 and C. Vivian Stringer was the coach of that team that lost to Ohio State in overtime.

Clark wowed the crowd that included Harper Stribe, a young fan of the team who has been battling cancer. She was featured in a surprise video that informed the Hawkeyes’ star that she was the AP Player of the Year.

Trailing 59-55 entering the fourth quarter, South Carolina scored the first five points to take the lead. Clark answered right back with two deep 3-pointers and an assist to Monika Czinano to give the Hawkeyes a 67-62 lead.

South Carolina got within 69-68 on Raven Johnson’s 3-pointer before Clark got a steal for a layup with 3:32 left. Neither team scored again until star Aliyah Boston was fouled with 1:37 left. She made the second of two free throws.

Clark then scored another layup on the other end out of a timeout to make it a four-point game. After a layup by Zia Cooke made it a two-point game with 58 seconds left, the Hawkeyes ran the clock down with McKenna Warnock grabbing a huge offensive rebound off a Clark miss with 18 seconds remaining.

Clark hit two free throws after South Carolina fouled her with 13.5 seconds left. They were her 38th and 39th point, moving her past Nneka Ogwumike for the most points scored in a Final Four semifinal game.

After a putback by Johnson with 9.9 seconds left got the Gamecocks within 75-73, Clark sealed the game with two more free throws.

As the final seconds went off the clock Clark threw the ball high in the air and galloped around the court.

The loss ended a spectacular season for the defending champion Gamecocks, who were trying to become the 10th team to go through a season unbeaten.

Cooke led the Gamecocks with 24 points. Slowed by foul trouble, Boston had just eight points and 10 rebounds as the Hawkeyes packed the paint, daring South Carolina to shoot from the outside.

The Gamecocks finished 4-for-20 from behind the 3-point line and couldn’t take advantage of their 49-25 advantage on the boards that included 26 offensive rebounds.

Mulkey, LSU women rally in Final Four, reach first title game

Associated PressMar 31, 2023, 11:51 PM EDT

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

DALLAS – Kim Mulkey is back in another national championship game, this time taking the flagship university from her home state there for the first time.

It took LSU only two seasons to get there with the feisty and flamboyantly dressed coach, and a big comeback in the national semifinal game that was quite an undercard Friday night.

Alexis Morris scored 27 points and had two of her misses in the fourth quarter turned into putback baskets by Angel Reese in a big run as LSU rallied to beat top-seeded Virginia Tech 79-72 in the first semifinal game.

“I’m never satisfied. I’m super-excited that we won, but I’m hungry,” said Morris, who jumped on a courtside table and fired up LSU fans after the game. “Like, I’m greedy. I want to win it all so I can complete the story.”

Reese finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds for LSU (33-2), which will play in the national title game Sunday against the winner of the highly anticipated matchup between Southeastern Conference foe South Carolina or Iowa in the other semifinal.

“It’s like a dream. It still hasn’t hit me that I’m at the Final Four,” said Reese, the transfer from Maryland who carries the nickname, ”Bayou Barbie.” “I’m just not even believing this right now. It’s crazy how much my life has changed in one year.”

Mulkey – in a carnation pink top this time – won three national titles in four Final Four appearances over her 21 seasons at Baylor. She is only the second coach to take two different teams to the national championship game. The other is C. Vivian Stringer, who did it with Cheyney in the inaugural 1982 women’s tournament and Rutgers in 2007.

“I came home for lots of reasons,” Mulkey said. “One, to some day hang a championship banner in the PMAC (Pete Maravich Assembly Center). Never, ever do you think you’re going to do something like this in two years.”

LSU made five national semifinal games in a row from 2004-08 – the only times the Tigers had made it this far. They lost each of those years.

The Tigers had to dig deep for this one, with neither team backing down.

Trailing 59-50 after three quarters, LSU went ahead with a 15-0 run over a five-minute span. The Tigers led for the first time since late in the first half when Falu’jae Johnson had a steal and drove for a layup to make it 64-62.

Reese had six points in that game-turning spurt, including a basket after Morris’ attempted 3-pointer clanked off the front rim. Reese had a second-effort follow of her own miss after rebounding another shot by Morris.

Elizabeth Kitley, the 6-foot-6 senior, had 18 points and 12 rebounds for Virginia Tech (31-5), the Atlantic Coast Conference champion that was in the Final Four for the first time. Georgia Amoore and Kayana Traylor each had 17 points, while Cayla King had 14.

Amoore set a record for the most 3-pointers in a single NCAA Tournament with 24, though she had a tough night shooting – 4 of 17 overall, including 4 of 15 from beyond the arc. She passed Kia Nurse’s record 22 set in the 2017 tourney for UConn, which lost in the national semifinals on the same court. Arizona’s Aari McDonald had 22 in six NCAA tourney games two years ago.

The big run for LSU came right after Amoore made her last 3-pointer with 7:52 left for a 62-57 lead. The Hokies didn’t make another basket until King’s 3 with 1:19 left.

“I think we had a few crucial turnovers as well as missed box-outs where they scored on second-chance opportunities,” Traylor said. “I think that’s just what it came down to really.”

Morris had opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer for LSU, then had a driving layup before Reese had a layup after a steal by Johnson. That quick 7-0 run prompted a timeout by Hokies coach Kenny Brooks.

“They hit a couple of shots, gave them a little bit of momentum. They hit a 3 right off the bat … kind of changed the momentum,” Brooks said. “They were aggressive in the passing lanes. But they also were a little bit more aggressive down low.”

Virginia Tech had ended the first half with its own 11-0 run to lead for the first time, at 34-32 on Traylor’s driving layup with 53 seconds left.

But it was the Tigers who led for 17:55 of the first half with the Hokies getting off to a slow start shooting – they missed eight of their first nine shots – that an LSU cheerleader had an assist even before they officially had a shot.

King was charged with a turnover on a ball that hit the rim and bounced over the top of the backboard and got stuck there. With encouragement from officials and others at that end, a male cheerleader lifted up a female cheerleader, who knocked the ball down.

Gradey Dick to leave Kansas for NBA draft after one season

Associated PressMar 31, 2023, 11:46 PM EDT

Amy Kontras-USA TODAY Sports

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas sharpshooter Gradey Dick is entering the NBA draft after one season with the Jayhawks.

The 6-foot-8 guard announced his decision in a social media post Friday.

Dick started all 36 games for the Jayhawks and averaged 14.1 points while shooting better than 40% from 3-point range. He made 83 3-pointers, a program record for a freshman.

Kansas lost to Arkansas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, with Dick scoring just seven points in his finale.

Marquette’s Shaka Smart voted men’s AP coach of the year

Associated PressMar 31, 2023, 4:06 PM EDT

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Shaka Smart has packed an entire career’s worth of experiences into 14 years as a college head coach. He led VCU to an improbable Final Four as a 30-something wunderkind in 2011, guided mighty Texas to a Big 12 Tournament title during six otherwise tepid years in Austin, and now has turned Marquette into a Big East beast.

It’s sometimes easy to forget he’s still just 45 years old.

Yet his work with the Golden Eagles this season might have been his best: Picked ninth in the 11-team league by its coaches, they won the regular-season title going away, then beat Xavier to win their first Big East Tournament championship.

That earned Smart the AP coach of the year award Friday. He garnered 24 of 58 votes from a national media panel to edge Kansas State’s Jerome Tang, who received 13 votes before guiding the Wildcats to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, and Houston’s Kelvin Sampson, who earned 10 before taking the Cougars to the Sweet 16.

Voting opened after the regular season and closed at the start of the NCAA Tournament, where the No. 2 seed Golden Eagles were knocked out in the second round by Michigan State and Smart’s longtime mentor, Tom Izzo.

“I’m very grateful to win this award,” said Smart, the second Marquette coach to take it home after Hall of Famer Al McGuire in 1971, “but obviously it always comes back to the guys you have on your team.

“Early on,” Smart said, “we had a real sense the guys had genuine care and concern for one another, and we had a very good foundation for relationships that we could continue to build on. And over the course of seasons, you go through so many different experiences as a team. And those experiences either bring you closer together or further apart. Our guys did a great job, even through adverse experiences, even through challenges, becoming closer together.”

It’s hardly surprising such cohesion is what Smart would choose to remember most from a most memorable season.

The native of Madison, Wisconsin, who holds a master’s degree in social science from California University of Pennsylvania, long ago earned a reputation for building close bonds with players and a tight-knit camaraderie within his teams.

No matter how high or low the Golden Eagles were this season, those traits carried them through.

“Everything that we go through, whether it be the retreat that we went on before the season, all the workouts in the summer, he’s preaching his culture,” said Tyler Kolek, a third-team All-American. “And he’s showing his leadership every single day, and just trying to impart that on us, and kind of put it in our DNA. Because it’s definitely in his DNA.”

That’s reflected in the way Smart, who accepted the Marquette job two years ago after an often bumpy tenure at Texas, has rebuilt the Golden Eagles program after it had begun to languish under Steve Wojciechowski.

Sure, Smart landed his share of transfers – Kolek among them – in an era in which the portal has become so prevalent. But he largely built a team that finished 29-7 this season around high school recruits, eschewing a quick fix in the hopes of long-term stability. Among those prospects were Kam Jones, their leading scorer, and do-everything forward David Joplin.

“He teaches us lots of things about the importance of each other,” Joplin said. “He lets us know, time and time again, that we can’t do anything without each other, but together we can do anything.”

That sounds like a decidedly old-school approach to building a college basketball program.

One embraced by a still-youthful head coach.

“I think being a head coach has never been more complicated, never been more nuanced, and never more all-encompassing,” Smart told the AP in a wide-ranging interview last week. “Does that mean it’s harder? You could say that.

“What makes your job less hard,” Smart said, “is having a captive audience in your players, and guys that truly understand and own what goes into winning, and that’s what we had this past year. But those things just don’t happen. There are a lot of steps that have to occur on the part of a lot of people, not just the coach, to get to where you have a winning environment.”

Purdue’s Zach Edey named AP men’s player of the year

Associated PressMar 31, 2023, 3:36 PM EDT

Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Zach Edey spent the days following Purdue’s historic NCAA Tournament loss lying low, his phone turned off, along with the rest of the outside world.

The disappointing finish did little to diminish the season the Boilermakers big man had.

Dominating at both ends of the floor during the regular season, Edey was a near-unanimous choice as The Associated Press men’s college basketball player of the year. Edey received all but one vote from a 58-person media panel, with Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis getting the other.

“The season ended in disappointment, which really sucks, but it’s always nice to win individual accolades,” Edey said. “It kind of validates your work a little bit. The last three years I’ve played here, I’ve seen my game grow every year. AP player of the year is a great feeling, it just kind of stinks the way the season ended.”

That ending came in the NCAA Tournament’s first round, when Purdue lost to Fairleigh Dickinson, joining Virginia in 2018 as the only No. 1 seeds to lose to a No. 16.

Before that, Edey dominated.

The 7-foot-4 Canadian was named a unanimous AP All-American and the Big Ten player of the year after finishing sixth nationally in scoring (22.3), second in rebounding (12.8) and first in double-doubles (26).

Edey also shot 62% from the floor and averaged 2.1 blocked shots per game while leading Purdue to its first outright Big Ten regular-season title since 2017. He is the first player since Navy’s David Robinson in 1985-86 to have at least 750 points, 450 rebounds and 50 blocked shots in a season.

“He’s kind of a one of a kind,” Purdue guard David Jenkins Jr. said. “I’ve never played with someone like him, probably never will again.”

And to think, Edey didn’t want to play basketball when he was younger.

A hockey and baseball player growing up in Toronto, Edey resisted basketball at first. He was 6-2 by the sixth grade and the natural inclination by the adults was to push him toward basketball, where his size would be a massive advantage.

“It was something I kind avoided all my life.,” Edey said. “I didn’t like people telling me what I should be doing with my life and it felt like that’s what people were doing with basketball. When I started playing competitively, that’s when I really fell in love with the sport.”

Edey developed his game quickly. He played at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, and proved himself against some of the nation’s best high school players, drawing attention from college coaches. He ended up at Purdue, where coach Matt Painter had a proven track record of developing big men.

Edey had a limited role as a freshman, then averaged 14.4 points and 7.7 rebounds last season on a team that had talented big man Trevion Williams and future NBA lottery pick Jaden Ivey.

Already a tireless worker, Edey put in even more time during the offseason, spending extra time after practice and taking better care of his body. His already solid footwork got better, he added quickness and developed more patience with the constant double teams he faced – not to mention the barrage of physical play teams tried to employ against him.

“There’s not really any kind of cool, sexy answer,” Edey said. “I came in every day, I worked hard, I stayed after practice – stayed a long time after practice. I took care of my body and was able to steadily improve. There was nothing revolutionary I did. I just worked hard.”

It certainly paid off, even if the season ended with a huge disappointment.