Now that's more like it!
In addition to the huge, road signature wins, which helped to jump K-State's RPI by more than 20 points in eight days (not to mention increasing strength of schedule from the 80s to the 40s), we finally go help from opponents.
Those wins, by the way, moved K-State to 5-5 against the RPI top 50 (6-6 if Texas ever figures things out), which is two more than last season's team that had one more loss at this time and ended up a No. 5 seed.
Shorthanded Alabama posted an absolutely huge road win at Arkansas to move back over .500 in SEC play. The Tide are the only SEC bubble team with realistic NCAA at-large hopes, IMO, and this win was crucial.
Howard beat UMES to achieve a split and stay out of the MEAC basement in its coach's first year on the job.
Long Beach State continued rolling toward an at-large bid with a 13th straight conference win over UCSB.
North Florida's defeat of Mercer was significant in that Mercer is in second place in the conference. With any luck, the Ospreys can get something going in the A-Sun Tournament, which would be even more helpful to us.
But the biggest win of all belonged to UTEP. About a week removed from their huge road upset of conference-leading Memphis, the Miners logged a second stunner by knocking off second-place Southern Miss in overtime.
Don't look for any help from our other non-cons. They all lost. West Virginia, in particular, simply is falling apart.
Overall Record = 19-8
Big 12 Record = 8-7
Top 50 Record = 5-5
RPI = 41
SOS = 43
Signature Wins (RPI 1-30) = Missouri (x2), Baylor
Quality Wins (RPI 31-100) = Alabama, Long Beach State, Texas
Bad Losses (RPI 101 or greater) = Oklahoma (x2)
- Charleston Southern (17-11, 10-7 Big South) | RPI = 165: Loss at VMI (81-90)
- Loyola Chicago (7-20, 1-15 Horizon) | RPI = 303: Loss at Valparaiso (62-66 in overtime)
- UMES (6-20, 3-10 MEAC) | RPI = 312: Loss at Howard (51-53)
- George Washington (9-18, 4-9 A-10) | RPI = 186: Loss at Charlotte (62-72)
- Virginia Tech (15-13, 4-9 ACC) | RPI = 105: Loss to No. 25 Virginia (59-61)
- West Virginia (17-11, 7-8 Big East) | RPI = 44: Loss at No. 20 Notre Dame (44-71)
- North Florida (15-15, 9-8 A-Sun) | RPI = 179: Win over Mercer (75-66)
- Alabama (18-9, 7-6 SEC) | RPI = 38: Win at Arkansas (79-68)
- Southern Illinois (8-21, 5-12 MVC) | RPI = 246: Loss at Drake (63-78)
- UTEP (14-13, 7-6 C-USA) | RPI = 127: Win over Southern Miss (76-68 in double overtime)
- Long Beach State (20-7, 13-0 Big West) | RPI = 35: Win over UCSB (70-58)
- Howard (9-19, 6-9 MEAC) | RPI = 292: Win over UMES (53-51)
- No. 4 Kansas (23-5, 13-2 Big 12) | RPI = 6: Win at Texas A&M (66-58)
- No. 3 Missouri (25-3, 12-3 Big 12) | RPI = 13: Loss to Kansas State (68-78)
- No. 13 Baylor (23-5, 10-5 Big 12) | RPI = 9: Win at Texas (77-72)
- Oklahoma (14-13, 4-11 Big 12) | RPI = 115: Win over Oklahoma State (77-64)
- Texas (17-11, 7-8 Big 12) | RPI = 55: Loss to No. 13 Baylor (72-77)
- Oklahoma State (13-15, 6-9 Big 12) | RPI = 110: Loss at Oklahoma (64-77)
- Texas Tech (8-19, 1-14 Big 12) | RPI = 226: Loss at Iowa State (54-72)
- Iowa State (20-8, 10-5 Big 12) | RPI = 43: Win over Texas Tech (72-54)
- Texas A&M (13-14, 4-11 Big 12) | RPI = 159: Loss to No. 4 Kansas (58-66)