How important was Iowa State’s 74-72 win at West Virginia on Saturday?
According to numbers guru Ken Pomery, when it comes to Iowa State’s chances to win a Big 12 title, the victory was significant.
According to this blog written by Jesse Newell at the Topeka Capital-Journal, Iowa State’s chances of winning the Big 12’s regular season title are 18.87 percent better than they were before league play began on Jan. 5.
That was the largest percentage jump of any team in the conference during that time frame. After a road win at Baylor, the KansasJayhawks saw a 15.97 percent jump.
After a 2-0 start in league play, Pomery’s projections (based off of over 10,000 simulations) give Iowa State the third best chance to win the league at this point in time.
Somewhat surprisingly, Oklahoma, who lost at home to Kansas State on Saturday, is given a 33.83 percent chance to win the league. Kansas is second with a 30.05 percent chance. The Cyclones sit in a firm third at 29.96 percent.
The next closest team to Iowa State is West Virginia at 18.91 with Oklahoma State rounding out the top five at 12.09.
Baylor (9.81), Texas (2.24), Kansas State (.25), TCU (.01) and Texas Tech (.00) round out the top 10.
