Texas continues to emasculate every conference team it plays on the defensive end of the court, while K-State provided the perfect tackling dummy for KU to release all of its pent-up aggression and sadness.
Meanwhile, it turns out that Iowa State is who we thought they were, after all.
The team picked 12th by the Big 12 coaches validated that selection with a perfectly awful week — twin losses at home in what should have been its easiest conference wins of the season.
Instead, the Cyclones helped to resuscitate the Red Raiders and Sooners.
K-State and Oklahoma State join the boys in Ames as this week's basement-dwellers, while the muddied middle grew even more so after an upset loss by Texas A&M (and/or best win of the season for Nebraska) and a crazy comeback by Baylor (and/or epic choke job by Colorado, which blew a 17-point lead to lose its fourth straight).
Just another wacky weekend in the Big 12...
| Seed* | Record* | Tourney* | RPI | Pomeroy | Sagarin | Streak | Best Win** | Worst Loss** | Coach | |
| Texas | 1 | 16-0 | NCAA | 11 | 4 | 5 | W-6 | Kansas | USC | Rick Barnes |
| Kansas | 2 | 15-1 | NCAA | 1 | 2 | 2 | W-2 | Arizona | Texas | Bill Self |
| Texas A&M | 3 | 10-6 | NCAA | 17 | 33 | 30 | L-1 | Washington | Nebraska | Mark Turgeon |
| Missouri | 4 | 9-7 | NCAA | 27 | 22 | 23 | L-1 | Vanderbilt | Colorado | Mike Anderson |
| Baylor | 5 | 8-8 | Bubble | 86 | 53 | 49 | W-1 | Oklahoma State | Iowa State | Scott Drew |
| Colorado | 6 | 8-8 | NIT | 94 | 58 | 58 | L-4 | Missouri | Oklahoma | Tad Boyle |
| Nebraska | 7 | 7-9 | Bubble | 79 | 40 | 44 | W-1 | Texas A&M | Davidson | Doc Sadler |
| Oklahoma State | 8 | 6-10 | NIT | 56 | 86 | 81 | L-3 | Missouri State | Texas Tech | Travis Ford |
| Kansas State | 9 | 6-10 | Bubble | 42 | 54 | 45 | L-1 | James Madison | Colorado | Frank Martin |
| Texas Tech | 10 | 4-12 | CBI | 149 | 138 | 145 | W-3 | Oklahoma State | TCU | Pat Knight |
| Iowa State | 11 | 4-12 | NIT | 127 | 72 | 63 | L-4 | Baylor | Texas Tech | Fred Hoiberg |
| Oklahoma | 12 | 3-13 | None | 120 | 132 | 131 | W-3 | Colorado | Chaminade | Jeff Capel |
Note: As any of these numbers change, I will bold and color-code them to indicate direction of change.
Team names that are colored indicate a change in seed.
(green = upward, red = downward)
*Predicted
**According to RealTimeRPI
Discussion
Nebraska and Texas Tech both posted unexpected wins of different varieties. Although BIG 12 OUTLOOK had the Huskers winning (and so did Vegas), none of the so-called "experts" saw it coming. Meanwhile, OUTLOOK barely whiffed on the Tech game, considering it was a one-point overtime victory that one of the three systems predicted.
The wins launched Nebraska to the No. 7 seed and Tech to the No. 10 spot, which was good enough for me to now project Nebraska as a potential bubble team (its RPI dropped by more than 30 points in one day) and Tech as at least a CBI candidate.
But for every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction.
That would be Colorado, losers of four straight; Iowa State, also falling for the fourth time in a row; K-State, which has dropped five of seven; and Oklahoma State, currently riding a three-game skid. All but Colorado suffered in the new seed projections, and the Buffs cemented their NIT status.
GAMER: Now has Texas winning at Texas A&M.
Pomeroy: Now has Baylor losing at Oklahoma State, Missouri losing at Nebraska and Nebraska winning at Iowa State.
Sagarin: Now has Baylor losing at Oklahoma State, Missouri losing at Nebraska and Texas A&M losing at Colorado.
Self-Evaluation
As mentioned above, OUTLOOK came very close the other day to predicting a Texas Tech victory, but couldn't quite pull the trigger. I wonder if I will be picking Oklahoma State very much going forward, though. The Cowboys are reeling.
The other miss was the Oklahoma game, but considering it went to overtime, the Sooners snapped a 17-game road losing streak and one would think that ISU would be most likely to win that home game above all others, I really don't consider that much of a miss at all.
OUTLOOK likes a whopping four road teams this week, which is a sure sign that I'm about to get blasted in the prediction percentage. Someone's going to be upset, but who will it be?
Texas at Texas A&M? Maybe, but if Nebraska can hold the Aggies to 48 points, surely the Longhorns can, too.
Kansas at Texas Tech? Sorry, Tech, but Alan Voskuil's out of eligibility.
Baylor at Oklahoma? Baylor's pretty bad, but surely its athleticism should be sufficient to overcome even a red-hot Sooners team on a three-game winning streak.
Missouri at Oklahoma State? Considering it's Road Mizzou in a tough place to win against a team that desperately needs a win, that would be my pick. An Upset Watch is in effect for Stillwater...
Cumulative pick record: 30-9 (.769)
Key
Results are plugged into this wonderful tool to generate the predicted records and seed order. Winners are predicted by a best-of-three system comprising three statistical prediction models:
- G — RealTimeRPI GAMER (advanced statistical prediction model claiming 76.8-percent accuracy)
- P — Ken Pomeroy's rankings (predicts a probability outcome for each game remaining)
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S — Sagarin predictor rankings (home-court advantage is taken into account)
Predicted Outcomes
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