Nulph column: Big 12 hoops in a word: ‘sick’

Oklahoma State men’s basketball coach Travis Ford said it best after Tuesday’s night nonconference win over Coppin State at Gallagher-Iba Arena: “Now the real stuff starts,” he said about Big 12 play beginning this weekend.

The real stuff indeed.

As the 24 Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball teams shuffled through their nonconference schedules over the past two months, there really wasn’t a lot of time to pay attention to what everybody was doing, especially the football season lasting up until this past Saturday.

So Wednesday I decided to take a long look at what’s happened over the first 14 or so games for each team. And it took only a short time to discover that on both sides of the coin, there’s only one word to describe the basketball being played in the Big 12: sick.

Sick as in unbelievably good. Sick as in, are you kidding me good. Sick as in what all the coaches must be feeling right now, about to embark on a two-month grind not seen within this conference in recent memory.

First some facts.

• The Big 12 men’s teams have a combined nonconference record of 137-28 (83.0 winning percentage). The Big 12 women have a combined record of 133-28 (82.6 winning percentage).

• Of the 24 combined teams, 15 are either ranked in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 or receiving votes.

• Of the 24 teams, only three — Colorado and Oklahoma for men and Kansas State for the women — don’t have at least 10 wins in nonconference play. It should be noted that CU and OU have nine and KSU women have eight.

• For the men, three Big 12 teams are ranked in the top 11, including Kansas No. 1 and Texas No. 2.

• For the women, seven teams are ranked in this week’s poll, the most of any conference.

• The Big 12 women hold the No. 1 overall RPI rating in the country, easily outdistancing No. 2 Big Ten. The Big 12 men are No. 2 in the national in RPI rankings.

• All major bracketolgy experts have eight Big 12 women’s teams in the NCAA field currently and have seven Big 12 men’s teams dancing.

As Ford said, this is the real stuff ... about as real as it gets.

With so many good teams, the obvious concern becomes if the teams start beating on each other so much over the next eight weeks that there might not be as many teams left standing when it comes time for the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Selection committees to do their thing.

But it sure does make for some great winter nights.

A scan of the upcoming schedules reveals there’s not a single Wednesday or Saturday in the next month that doesn’t include a premier matchup.

Some early highlights:

• Men: Kansas State at Missouri Jan. 9; Oklahoma State at Oklahoma Jan. 11; Texas at Kansas State Jan. 18.

It gets even better for the women:

• Texas A&M; at Texas Jan. 9; Nebraska at Iowa State Jan. 9; Oklahoma State at Kansas Jan. 12; Texas at Nebraska Jan. 12; Nebraska at Baylor Jan. 17; Texas A&M; at Oklahoma Jan. 17; Texas A&M; at Baylor Jan. 27.

It’s cliche-ish to say, but these next two months aren’t so much about winning and style points. They’re about surviving.

Both the OSU men’s and women’s teams have put themselves in solid position for a run at the NCAA tournament with 12-2 nonconference records.

Now comes the hard part, er, real stuff.

The Cowgirls weren’t dealt any favors by the Big 12, starting conference play with the two preseason favorites — Baylor on Saturday and Kansas on Tuesday.

There are no holes in the schedule for the Cowgirls, no “this looks like a sure win” games. Of OSU’s 16 conference games, 10 are against teams currently ranked.

It’s about the same for the Cowboys.

After a January that include road games at Oklahoma, Baylor, Kansas State and Missouri, February is downright brutal. The month includes two games against Texas, one against Kansas and home games against Baylor and Oklahoma.

It’s hard to imagine what’s going on in the minds of Big 12 players and coaches right now.

This is the real stuff alright.

And come March we’ll likely find out who’s real and who’s not in the Big 12.



Scott Nulph can be reached at 405-372-5000, ext. 220 or at snulph@stwnewspress.com

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