v. Northern State (Exhibition)
v. Coppin State
v. North Carolina Central
v. Texas Southern
Maui Invitational (Lahaina, HI):
1st Round - v. Kentucky
2nd Round - (my guess) v. Washington
3rd Round - (my guess) v. Michigan State
@ Arkansas
@ Arizona
v. Gardner-Webb
v. Oral Roberts
All-College Classic (Oklahoma City, OK):
v. Cincinnati
v. Sacramento State
v. Central Arkansas
v. Maryland Eastern Shore
v. Texas A&M
@ Baylor
@ Texas
v. Texas Tech
v. Colorado
@ Iowa State
v. Baylor
@ Oklahoma State
v. Texas
@ Missouri
v. Nebraska
@ Kansas State
@ Texas A&M
v. Kansas
@ Texas Tech
v. Oklahoma State
19-12, 7-9 in conference play
The disclaimer before you read the following wall of text is, of course, that I'm an optimist RE: this year's basketball team.
Why wait until January or February to put my credibility on the line when I can do a huge upset pick in late November? :dance005: Yeah, we're breaking in almost a whole new team, but so is Kentucky. Stranger things have happened, and I've had a gut feeling about that game since I saw the schedule.
Other than that, we have a fairly young team so I expect some pretty big struggles with true road games. I picked us to have a 2-8 record in true road games. Maybe we do a little better, but I'd personally be stunned and thrilled if we went even .500 in true road games this year.
At home, I'd be disappointed if we didn't win all of our cupcakes in non-conference play. Out of those 9 "gimme" games, I believe the 2 teams that will most likely give us trouble are Texas Southern and Oral Roberts. Still, I'd be pretty disappointed if we didn't win all of those. We may struggle at home in some of those non-con games but I would hope we'd end up with a W in all of them.
At home in conference, I see several opportunities to get moderate "upsets", and a chance to pull off a biggie late in the season. I'd hope we'd beat 3/4 of aTm, TTU, CU, and NU at home; if we can't beat other mediocre teams at home it will be a long season in the Big 12.
For Baylor, UT, and OSU at home, I think we have a real shot to win all of those. Even last year we beat UT and OSU at home (of course this was before the awful swoon late in the year. I'd expect that there would be a decent crowd at those games, and sometimes young teams can rally around the crowd for a W. As for Baylor, since they've suspended Dunn from classes, I have a feeling that he'll be academically ineligible no matter how his legal situation works out. So, I don't think they'll have Dunn this year, and I think that's going to be a huge blow for them. So...while it's probably too optimistic to hope for a W in all 3 of those games, I have a good feeling about all of them and picked all of them.
Finally, at home against Kansas. This is the game I've been looking forward to the most since I saw the schedule. Personally I feel like Kansas has enough returning to be a top 5 team when they come to the LNC. If they really are top 5, that will be a sweet game, but I feel like they'll probably win it.
So, there's my way too in-depth explanation... :woot