Rock Chalk Jayhawk. Hook ‘em Horns. Gig ‘em Aggies!The Big 12 is all about the chants and cheers, the bigger the better. It is not a deep conference, but has some of the best teams in the country at the top. The top of the conference consists of the #1 Kansas Jayhawks, the #2 Texas Longhorns, the overlooked #22 Texas A&M Aggies, and everyone else.
What makes #1 Kansas and #2 Texas such strong teams this season is their balance of young and old. Each team starts senior guards that are able to control the pace of the game and feed the ball into tight spaces. For the #1 Jayhawks, they start two talented guards Xavier Henry and Sherron Collins who are averaging 16.8 and 13.6 points per game respectively. Freshman G Xavier Henry has the natural talent and is learning how to play basketball at the next level by playing with the senior Sherron Collins. The difficulty for this #1 Kansas team will be their ranking. Say what? The most difficult place to be in college basketball is at the top, because each and every night you have a huge target on your back. Everyone wants to take down a #1 and will bring their A-game if given the opportunity. Come tournament time, that experience of being played tough day in and day out could be extremely beneficial.
#2 Texas Longhorns have a bunch of athletic combo guards/forwards who are around 6-7, 215lbs (sound familiar Memphis?). They provide match-up problems for smaller guards and currently have 7 players averaging at least .6 blocks per game. They are led by their senior G-F Damian James who is averaging a double-double with 15.4 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. Inside the paint, the Longhorns get the ball to senior C Dexter Pittman who has averaged 15.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game thus far. The Longhorns will have to continue to improve their offense to contend for the national title in March and will face a true test in the middle of December when they face top 15 UNC and MSU three days apart.
The overlooked team in the Big 12 are the Texas A&M Aggies. They are currently 5-1, with their only loss coming to #7 West Virginia, but struggled against a tough Minnesota team, eeking out a victory 66-65 last week. #22 A&M is led by their two senior guards Donald Sloan and Derrick Roland who are averaging a combined 29 points per game. Their lack of size and depth inside will create a problem against bigger teams, but they do have a freshman center, James Blascvyk, who is 7 feet tall. As of now, he has only played a few minutes, but with the lack of anyone else above 6′ 9″ on the roster, he may be forced into extended minutes against taller opponents. There are several question marks for this Aggie squad, but they have the potential to put together a strong run through the conference.
Besides the three teams mentioned above, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and Baylor are solid teams, but as of now are no threat to compete against the top teams in the country. For all you Big 12 fans, circle February 8th on your calendars because the #1 Kansas Jayhawks will be rolling into Austin to face the #2 Texas Longhorns. As with any early season prediction, there is still a ton of basketball to be played, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see two #1 seeds in the tournament from the Big 12 come March.
If you would like to read more from B-Dogg, visit his blog at www.sportsaholicbrian.blogspot.com.
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