Yahoo: Calling all conferences (basketball)

[andyokstate]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=jn-conf121009&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Big 12 blurb here:

1. Kansas (8-0) – The Jayhawks didn’t look all that crisp in Sunday’s win at UCLA. (1)

2. Texas (7-0) – Freshman point guard J’Covan Brown continues to make strides. (2)

3. Texas A&M (8-1) – Donald Sloan is averaging a career-high 16.1 points. (3)

4. Kansas State (8-1) – It’s time to put the Wildcats in the Top 25. (4)

5. Texas Tech (9-0) – The Red Raiders are off to their best start in 80 years. (7)

6. Baylor (7-1) – The Bears are three points away from being undefeated. (5)

7. Missouri (5-3) – How do you go from scoring 52 points against Richmond to 106 against Oregon and then 59 in a loss to Oral Roberts? (7)

8. Oklahoma (6-3) – The Sooners appear to be back on track – for now. (11)

9. Oklahoma State (7-1) – The Cowboys struggled to beat Texas-San Antonio at home. (8)

10. Colorado (6-3) – Jeff Bzdelik’s squad blew a golden opportunity in a five-point loss at Oregon State. (9)

11. Iowa State (6-3) – The Cyclones have been one of the Big 12’s most disappointing teams thus far. (10)

12. Nebraska (5-2) – Sunday’s loss at Creighton snapped a four-game winning streak. (12)

RISING

Texas Tech – The fact that the Red Raiders are 9-0 is a surprise to everyone except the players. Pat Knight knew his team would be greatly improved after he added talented junior college transfers such as Brad Reese and David Tairu to a returning cast that includes Mike Singletary and John Roberson. Texas Tech is far from being a great team, but last week’s overtime win against Washington was a huge step for the program.

FALLING

Oklahoma State – Despite the loss of Byron Eaton and Terrel Harris, optimism was high in Stillwater entering the 2009-10 season. Lately, though, there’s cause for concern. The Cowboys barely escaped with a 61-55 win over Texas-San Antonio on Saturday. Three days earlier they were slaughtered by Tulsa 86-65. Luckily the Cowboys have a rather easy schedule until Big 12 play begins Jan. 9, so there’s plenty of time to figure things out.

[OSUFan]

Let's see how the Cowboys do in the next six games leading up to the Big 12. Not a major hurdle to get by those teams. I think the writer is a little harsh on the team.

[CaliforniaCowboy]

I think the writer is calling it like it is RIGHT NOW.

The team may get better, but right now, they're not a very good "team". Getting "slaughtered" by anybody is not the sign of a good team.

[OSU-DNA]

We will need to do some adjusting. Based on how we are playing it will again be difficult to keep a big man on the floor because Moses and Pilgrim both continue to foul. One easy coaching adjustment would be to limit the hedging that Pilgrim is doing. I think he has picked up at least one of his fouls 30 feet from the rim with these incredible hedging moves. Why the staff thinks a 6'9" guy can keep up with a guard that far out is strange.

As other staffs obtain film of our freshmen they will know their tendencies and game plan for them which might cut the amount of penetration they have achieved and place them in a more difficult passing situation from the point.

On the other hand, our shooting this year has been very poor versus our historical percentages from our returners, that is bound to improve.

[FloridaPoke]

In the Texas San Antonio game, we got caught short handed in the paint multiple times due to attempted back court traps that, when the trap was broken, our forwards were out of position. I like pressure defense, but sometimes you can't continue trying stuff that burns you. On the other hand, I didn't realize until the post game show of that game just how good offensively TSA was before playing us and how much our defense actually did. Brooks Thompson has done an amazing job there and they aren't bottom feeders.

[PasoPoke]

The team looked to be playing well when they won the LV tournament but they looked to regress against Tulsa and SA.

Hopefully a week of practice has righted the ship.

It would be nice to send Tech back to reality after sweeping the remaining NC.

[JonforOSU]

I wouldn't read into the UTSA win too much of a struggle. Yeah, we didn't have the best outing, but UTSA always is pumped to play at GIA, poor crowds or not. Coach Thompson always stresses this game as a big one and circles it.

With that said here are my concerns going into the winter

Ray Penn- Alot faster than I thought, ALOT smaller than I thought too. I watched film on him in high school and he seemed to be a bit thicker. Like his defense and ability to create for others.

Fred Gulley-Not as skinny as he was coming out of HS. LOVE his defense, Eddie would be proud. Needs to find a bit of offense with the type of ball Ford likes to run.

Obi- He's playing gritty ball and has had some decent games. The two games I watched(Tulsa, UTSA) he seemed almost non existent on offense aside from a few threes. I hope he becomes more a part of the offense.

Pilgrim-What happened to him? When I watched Tulsa he played sparingly, same against UTSA. From the first two exhibition games you would think he was the second coming of Joey Graham. He's too small to play a legit post.

Marshall- Liking what I'm seeing. Still pouts a bit if he's not scoring, but he's become a prescence down low and draws double teams. Hope one of the bigs could come in and play to let Moses play at his natural position of 4.

The Bigs-Torin Walker & Jerrod Shaw- Why is it that OSU coaches want to bring along bigs so slowly. You don't see the big boy down south sitting on the bench do ya(Tiny)? Maybe they havn't progressed as well.

Keiton- Looks good. Needs to be ready to play point guard minutes. Love his pull up jumper, that was a much needed phase.

Anderson-Ride his coat tales. First rounder.

Franklin-More minutes..coming along nicely. Good defense..he'll find his offense soon.

Sidorakis-Play him in slowly. He could help defensively and provide a spark and another long range threat.

Did I miss anything?
:cool-smiley-027:

[JonforOSU]

Just a post edit. The guy that wrote that article is a big douche. We can all agree of who the top 3 or 4 contenders are. But why act like you know somthing about the other teams in the conference?!?

I see this as my conference rankings by THE END of the season

1. Texas-With James and Co. anything can happen. Already strong wins against Pitt and USC.
2. Kansas- An eeker against Memphis and a decent win over UCLA make the Jayhawks a team to be highly respected.......again.
3. Texas A&M-Clemson win was OK, but a loss to WV? Defense Aggies, defense.
4. Tech-I guess, they are undefeated but have played the equivalent of my 6th grade optimist league. 1. They have a guy named Mike Singletary on the team and. 2. Their biggest guy is 6-8. We'll see how long the dirt thieves stay in the race.
5. OSU-OK, so I put us down here. The bigs concern me. If we can develop them, then maybe , just maybe, a second trip to the big dance is possible
6. OU-I almost put them at 4. I don't know, for some reason I see luck shot pulling this team together and starting to mold them into a force. I think we split with the Goons. They'll also be a horrible road team.
7. Kansas State-Wins against Xavier and Dayton help their cause but only two senior starters coupled with all underclassmen could hurt it.
8. Iowa State-Brackins is a one man show
9. Baylor-Bless their hearts. They've got big ones though.
10. Nebraska-What the hell. It seems like they care about basketball too.USC and Creighton on the road were missed opportunities to substantiate themselves.
11. Missouri-What happened? Missouri might not be out, but their down
12. Colorado- Maybe they'll be good in golf or softball or something.