Big 12 Basketball Standings Prediction - May 2019

[Eielson]

And anyone who focuses only on tourney performance while ignoring the regular season is kidding themselves.

Agreed. If anybody makes this argument I'll be sure to let them know we disagree with their stance.

A conference could put three teams in the Final Four, but if the other seven or 11 or 13 teams in that conference were middling to bad, it would hardly be the best conference, though some here would argue it was.

I'm going to have to disagree with you there. Very strongly.

 

[sperry]

And anyone who focuses only on tourney performance while ignoring the regular season is kidding themselves.

A conference could put three teams in the Final Four, but if the other seven or 11 or 13 teams in that conference were middling to bad, it would hardly be the best conference, though some here would argue it was.

The league wasn’t even strong too to bottom. Osu and WVU were flat out bad and Texas and tcu were middling.

It was beyond question a down year for the league. Next year will be similar, because for the second straight year Kansas will not be the Kansas we are used to, and programs like isu, ou, Texas and osu are way down from their peaks.

 

[mict085]

Ku will win the league.

OU will be somewhere in the middle.

 

[WTSooner]

Some conferences are top heavy. They may have two or three teams show well during the tourney, but that doesn't make them the toughest conferences.

Toughest or best? OU fans (not saying you) keep changing the terminology to fit whatever narrative they want to convey.

Was the Big 12 the "toughest" conference last year? Maybe. That is a really hard think to truly measure, IMO.

Was the Big 12 conference the "best" conference last year? Not a chance. Probably not even top 2.

 

[BoulderSooner]

The league wasn’t even strong too to bottom. Osu and WVU were flat out bad and Texas and tcu were middling.

It was beyond question a down year for the league. Next year will be similar, because for the second straight year Kansas will not be the Kansas we are used to, and programs like isu, ou, Texas and osu are way down from their peaks.

Toughest or best? OU fans (not saying you) keep changing the terminology to fit whatever narrative they want to convey.

Was the Big 12 the "toughest" conference last year? Maybe. That is a really hard think to truly measure, IMO.

Was the Big 12 conference the "best" conference last year? Not a chance. Probably not even top 2.

it was the highest rated conf in the country

 

[thebigabd]

That can't be true... the ACC was clearly the best league. Duke, UNC, Virginia Tech, Virginia, etc.

 

[WichitaSooner]

That can't be true... the ACC was clearly the best league. Duke, UNC, Virginia Tech, Virginia, etc.

The "etc." is where the ACC falls apart. About five teams at the bottom were absolute garbage. Again, those of us arguing the Big 12's strength aren't just stating a personal opinion. The conference rating systems are objective, analytic driven numbers. Of course people can disagree on whether the formula is accurate, but to act like there is no case to be made for the Big 12 is silly.

 

[SuperHoops]

The league wasn’t even strong too to bottom. Osu and WVU were flat out bad and Texas and tcu were middling.

It was beyond question a down year for the league. Next year will be similar, because for the second straight year Kansas will not be the Kansas we are used to, and programs like isu, ou, Texas and osu are way down from their peaks.

That flat out bad OSU team handily beat the SEC champs.

 

[sperry]

That flat out bad OSU team handily beat the SEC champs.

Are you seriously trying to argue that a team that finished 12-20 was not bad because they pulled an upset?

 

[skyvue]

Are you seriously trying to argue that a team that finished 12-20 was not bad because they pulled an upset?

They pulled more than one upset. And one reason they were 12-20 was -- wait for it -- because they played in the nation's toughest conference.

 

[thebigabd]

Are you seriously trying to argue that a team that finished 12-20 was not bad because they pulled an upset?

I kinda chuckled...

 

[sperry]

They pulled more than one upset. And one reason they were 12-20 was -- wait for it -- because they played in the nation's toughest conference.

They went 7-7 outside of conference play. They were a bad team. This isn't controversial, you are going to bat for a 20 loss team.

 

[thebigabd]

They went 7-7 outside of conference play. They were a bad team. This isn't controversial, you are going to bat for a 20 loss team.

Sperry is horribly crass, but he has the better logical position here.

 

[WTSooner]

The worst team in the ACC (ND) gave OU everything they wanted before losing a close game on a neutral court, during the part of the season where OU was actually playing good ball.

That same ND team beat Purdue by 8 on a neutral court. The same Purdue team that lost a heart-breaker in the Elite 8 to eventual champ UVA.

OU also needed OT to beat the worst team in the Big 10. Again, during the part of the season where OU was playing their best ball.

 

[SuperHoops]

Are you seriously trying to argue that a team that finished 12-20 was not bad because they pulled an upset?

I'm not trying to say they were a good team because they weren't. They wound up playing with 7 scholarship players(and 1 of them was a spare) so they pretty much battled hard every game but usually ran out of gas in the 2nd half and turned wins into losses. They did get run out of the gym 3 or 4 times though.

 

[skyvue]

The worst team in the ACC (ND) gave OU everything they wanted before losing a close game on a neutral court, during the part of the season where OU was actually playing good ball.

That same ND team beat Purdue by 8 on a neutral court. The same Purdue team that lost a heart-breaker in the Elite 8 to eventual champ UVA.

OU also needed OT to beat the worst team in the Big 10. Again, during the part of the season where OU was playing their best ball.

Yes, because comparative scores are always reliable, as we've all learned over the years.

Vanderbilt, the worst team in the SEC, took Tennessee to OT and lost by just 5 points, but OU beat the Commodores by 31.

Isn't this a fun game, randomly cherry-picking scores and pretending they accurately reflect the quality of particular conferences?

 

[skyvue]

you are going to bat for a 20 loss team.

I'm not going to bat for them as a good team. I'm saying they were a better team than many of the lesser teams in the other power conferences, and the various ranking systems -- RPI, NET, etc. -- agree with me.

 

[WichitaSooner]

Yes, because comparative scores are always reliable, as we've all learned over the years.

Vanderbilt, the worst team in the SEC, took Tennessee to OT and lost by just 5 points, but OU beat them the Commodores by 31.

Isn't this a fun game, randomly cherry-picking scores and pretending they accurately reflect the quality of particular conferences?

Spot on. Also, ND wasn't even close to the worst team in the ACC, especially not on Dec. 4 when we played them. They lost a key player a week or so later to an ACL tear.

It does make me wonder -- do ACC fans work as hard as some of our posters to argue that their conference isn't good, or is that unique to fans of Big 12 teams. Lord knows SEC fans talk up their conference at every opportunity.

 

[WTSooner]

Yes, because comparative scores are always reliable, as we've all learned over the years.

Vanderbilt, the worst team in the SEC, took Tennessee to OT and lost by just 5 points, but OU beat the Commodores by 31.

Isn't this a fun game, randomly cherry-picking scores and pretending they accurately reflect the quality of particular conferences?

lmao

So when OU fans try to point out how back some teams are in other conferences, yet I can point out that they either gave OU everything they wanted, or beat OU, as a way of showing the bottom teams in other conferences really aren't any worse than the bottom teams in the Big 12, I'm cherry picking? Get out of here with that crap.

 

[skyvue]

lmao

So when OU fans try to point out how back some teams are in other conferences, yet I can point out that they either gave OU everything they wanted, or beat OU, as a way of showing the bottom teams in other conferences really aren't any worse than the bottom teams in the Big 12, I'm cherry picking? Get out of here with that crap.

You bet it's cherry-picking and you know it. Also? You didn't name a lower-echelon team from another conference that beat OU. Why? There wasn't one, but it's typical and unsurprising that you tried to imply there was. OU suffered only one loss during non-conference play, and it was to Wisconsin, which finished fourth in the Big 10.

What's more, citing games in which OU didn't win by a wide enough margin to satisfy you is just pitiful. A win's a win, especially since both the games you were cited were played on not-quite-neutral sites (ND will always have many more fans at a game played in NYC than OU will, and the Northwestern game was played in Chicago).