MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The simplified strategy for making the NCAA tournament? Handle your winnable nonleague games and go .500 in the Big 12. Voila! You’re no worse than a No. 9 seed.
West Virginia currently is taking care of that first part, though winning even half the conference games is shaping up as a challenge—not just for the Mountaineers, but perhaps any team outside of Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa State.
That’s because the Big 12 looks pretty deep yet again. (Every coach in the league will tell you this, just as every coach in every power league will compliment their own environs. In this case, the results so far back up that claim. After being the top-RPI league last season, the Big 12 is No. 2 as of Tuesday, just a nick behind the Pac-12, and remember the Big 12 has more chances to regain the top spot thanks to the January SEC Challenge, by which point the other major conferences will have wrapped up their nonconference schedules.)
You figured the Jayhawks, Sooners and Cyclones were in play to become elite teams come March, and the “bottom” of the Big 12 is intriguing. Kansas State (7-2) suffered respectable losses to North Carolina and at Texas A&M and may have Bruce Weber—in my opinion, the most undervalued coach in the league—looking pretty smart again. Texas dropped North Carolina on a buzzer-beater by Javan Felix, who’s finally making shots! Baylor, which still has the outside shooting to pair with Rico Gathers inside, came from 13 down to upset Vanderbilt.
It’s early, so approach the RPIs with caution, but even Texas Tech (6-1) sits at No. 24. Texas Tech!
West Virginia figures to find itself bunched in that second-tier of quality teams, making spots 4 through 8 up for grabs, with still-dangerous TCU and Oklahoma State bringing up the caboose.
Given that depth, playing .500 basketball in the Big 12 round-robin will mean something.