Welcome to the Big 12 Buzz! Things are going to look a little different during the offseason but that doesn’t mean I can’t share what’s on my mind this week in the Big 12.
And Then There Was One
With Iowa State’s loss to Kansas on Tuesday night, that means there is just one undefeated team left in the Big 12 with Arizona. The Wildcats are fresh off a nice win over in-state rival Arizona State on Wednesday and have moved to 17-0 overall and 4-0 in conference action.
They are just one of three undefeated teams in college basketball this season along with Nebraska (shout out Fred Hoiberg), and Miami (OH). Arizona already had wins over Florida, UCLA, UConn, Auburn, and Alabama before conference play even started. No other team in the country has a better non-conference resume than the Wildcats.
The trio of Koa Peat, Brayden Burries, and Jaden Bradley have been phenomenal for Arizona but the reason they were able to survive the scare from the Sun Devils was due to the play of forward Toba Awaka who had a career-high 25 points.
What makes them dangerous is the fact that they have depth and can beat you in multiple ways. They have the number one offense in the Big 12, they rebound well and can force teams into making mistakes on defense.
When I look at their upcoming schedule their upcoming game against UCF in Orlando is interesting but the only speed bump I see is on Monday January 26th where they will head to Provo to take on AJ Dybantsa and BYU. That is a game that everyone should have circled on their basketball calendar.
The Phog Allen Nightmare
Tuesday night in Lawrence Kansas went about as well as me trying to go a full week without having a beer or pour of bourbon. It was a total disaster and Phog Allen Fieldhouse has become less of a basketball venue and more like a house of horrors for Iowa State.
The Cyclones have now lost seven straight games in Phog Allen and haven’t won a game there since 2017 which is around the same time where I got my start in the media business. I was young and clueless back then which was the same way Iowa State looked on Tuesday.
It sucks that the undefeated season is over but that doesn’t mean the season is over. College basketball is a grind, and you can’t let one game define who you are. Every game is a new opportunity to make a statement. Iowa State got slapped around in Lawrence but guess what? A lot of teams do.
Kansas isn’t the same Kansas teams of the past, but Bill Self has a knack for taking down top five teams on his home court. In fact, he is 24-5 in home games when his team is ranked lower than its opponent.
Iowa State played about as poorly as one could and Kansas played their best basketball of the season the other night. While it’s not ideal, it’s just one game and everything is still on the table for the Cyclones.
Iowa State gets another shot at Kansas on Valentine’s Day at Hilton Coliseum. One thing is for certain and that’s that love will be the last thing on anyone’s mind there because they want revenge.
No SEC, No Problem
With Monday’s national championship game coming up, it marks the third straight year without an SEC team playing in it. I find that funny because what do we hear all year long? It’s that the SEC is the best thing since sliced bread.
Now that bread is moldy and stale which should be fed to those people telling us how much better the SEC is than everyone else. At one point the league won 13 out of 17 from 2006 to 2022 and they were on top of the college football world.
Since 2023, Michigan and Ohio State have won titles and now we have either Miami or Indiana up next. It’s been over 24 years since the SEC has had a three-year drought in the title game.
I remember last offseason when SEC commissioner Greg Sankey whined about leaving a three loss Alabama team out of the playoff in 2024. Well, all that whining must have paid off because the SEC got five teams in the 12-team playoff this season. Yet here we are and not a single one of them are left.
We’ve had eight SEC teams among the 24 to make the field through two seasons of the 12-team playoff and those teams have gone 5-8. Those five wins have come against Arizona State, Clemson, Tulane, Georgia, and Oklahoma which means almost half of their wins have come against themselves.
The playing field has been leveled with money, and the results are proving that. Maybe all those talking heads and the playoff committee should take into account that the SEC is no longer hands down the best conference in college football anymore.
