The Big 12 has once again established itself as far and away the best conference in college basketball with six teams in the top 13 of the Top 25 And 1 (and only two outside of the top 45 of the NET). After Iowa State beat Kansas State 80-76 late Tuesday, and Texas handled Oklahoma State 89-75, what we have is a three-way tie for first in the league standings between UT, ISU and KSU.
Kansas, TCU and Baylor are one game back.
Any of those six schools seem capable of winning at least a share of the Big 12 championship, though it’s worth noting that KenPom.com currently projects Texas And Iowa State to share the league title with 12-6 conference records. Those schools are No. 3 and No. 5, respectively, in Wednesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings followed by No. 6 Kansas State, No. 10 Kansas, No. 12 TCU and No. 13 Baylor. Iowa State’s jump from No. 11 to No. 5 caused Houston, Tennessee, Arizona, Kansas and Virginia to all be pushed down one spot each, no fault of their own.
One interesting fact connected to Texas, Iowa State and Kansas State being my three highest-ranked Big 12 schools is that all three have new or relatively new coaches. Rodney Terry only became the Longhorns’ interim coach in December after second-year coach Chris Beard was suspended — and eventually fired — following a felony charge tied to an incident with his fiancee. T.J. Otzelberger is only in his second season with the Cyclones, while Jerome Tang is in his first with the Wildcats.
All three men, and their staffs, are proving, to varying degrees, that it no longer has to take time to move a program to a better place. The combination of an always-full transfer portal, the one-transfer waiver and name, image and likeness opportunities have created a world where rebuilds now often take months, not years. To be clear, it doesn’t mean every new coach will flip a bad thing into good as quickly as it’s been done at Iowa State and Kansas State. It just means it’s undeniably possible — and that some of the first-year and second-year coaches begging fans for patience and time aren’t being as immediately impactful as they could’ve been or, at least, as some of their colleagues are currently being.
Top 25 And 1 rankings
Biggest Movers
6
Iowa State
3
Kansas State
