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Other than the compelling, neck-and-neck, two-horse race at the top of the standings, the conference has settled nicely into a step-by-step pecking order.
And other than the need to swap Iowa State and Texas A&M, it's remarkably similar to the preseason predictions.
Guess those dumb ol' Big 12 coaches actually know something collectively after all, huh?
I don't have too much to add, other than that today is the first of likely two cracks we'll have at Baylor, either of which essentially is a "play-in" game to the NCAA Tournament.
Barring that, I still think getting to 9-9 will help to make this a six-bid league, but you have to wonder about this team's emotional and mental state after dropping four in a row if they don't get this one today.
There simply is no margin for error left on the Cats' schedule. There's already been way too much error this year.
| Seed* | Record* | Tourney* | RPI | Pomeroy | Sagarin | Streak | Best Win** | Worst Loss** | Coach | |
| Kansas | 1 | 16-2 | NCAA | 5 | 4 | 3 | W-3 | Baylor (2) | Davidson | Bill Self |
| Missouri | 2 | 15-3 | NCAA | 9 | 8 | 8 | W-6 | Kansas | Oklahoma State | Frank Haith |
| Baylor | 3 | 12-6 | NCAA | 7 | 15 | 15 | W-1 | San Diego State | Missouri (2) | Scott Drew |
| Iowa State | 4 | 11-7 | NCAA | 38 | 36 | 37 | L-1 | Kansas | Drake | Fred Hoiberg |
| Texas | 5 | 11-7 | NCAA | 39 | 19 | 18 | W-4 | Temple | Oregon State | Rick Barnes |
| Kansas State | 6 | 9-9 | Bubble | 63 | 27 | 24 | L-2 | Missouri | Oklahoma (2) | Frank Martin |
| Oklahoma State | 7 | 6-12 | None | 109 | 99 | 100 | L-2 | Missouri | Texas A&M | Travis Ford |
| Oklahoma | 8 | 5-13 | None | 112 | 110 | 94 | L-5 | Oral Roberts | Texas Tech | Lon Kruger |
| Texas A&M | 9 | 4-14 | None | 149 | 112 | 111 | W-1 | Oklahoma State | Rice | Billy Kennedy |
| Texas Tech | 10 | 1-17 | None | 236 | 238 | 215 | L-1 | Oklahoma | DePaul | Billy Gillispie |
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
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Discussion
Missouri, Texas and Kansas continue to be the hottest teams in the league, while Oklahoma has taken the mantle of "most pathetic team" away from Texas Tech for the time being.
The latter played the role of slumpbuster for the Aggies, who were riding a four-game losing streak, so guess what that means?
Yes, yours truly is tied with Oklahoma State for the second-longest losing steak in the Big 12. Wonderful.
Other than that, there isn't much to report. Another ho-hum update brought to you courtesy of a 5-0 set of picks.
GAMER: Now has Kansas State losing at Texas A&M and Texas winning at Oklahoma State.
Pomeroy: No changes.
Sagarin: No changes.
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Self-Evaluation
As mentioned previously, this was my third perfect pick week of the season.
Unfortunately, it came at the expense of a possible upset that would have sealed the Cats' dance card.
This week's performance returns me to a .800 record for the year, which is pretty solid.
Today, OUTLOOK likes the two hottest teams in the league, Missouri and Texas, to continue riding that momentum on the road against cellar-dwellers. The other three home teams are favored. All picks are unanimous.
I can't disagree with any of those selections, although I wonder if Missouri could find itself in trouble in College Station if the Tigers miss some shots and the Aggies' size asserts itself.
And, as Iowa State and Mizzou can attest, no lead ever is safe in Stillwater.
But if I had to call an upset pick that would drop OUTLOOK to 4-1 today, it'd be K-State over Baylor.
No particular reason, at least not one based on logic. It just seems that Frank Martin teams play their best when their backs are against the wall, and Scott Drew teams never play well in the face of such physical desperation.
Cumulative pick record: 52-13 (.800)
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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 (an advanced statistical prediction model, claiming 76.8-percent accuracy)
- P — Ken Pomeroy's rankings (predicts a probability outcome for each game remaining)
- S — Sagarin pure points predictor rankings (home-court advantage is taken into account)
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Predicted Outcomes
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