Conference record predictions

[Chitowncy]

I'll guess we go 10-8. We protect the home court except for this first game against Houston. I think we'll miss having the students to make it a more intimidating environment and Houston is the lucky top team this year (it's been KU and BU in recent years) to play in Hilton without the students. Then I'll say we win two games on the road. The UCF game seems obvious then we sneak one out somewhere else like at Cincy, at TCU or at BYU.

I'm not sure how good this team is either. It's perplexing. I was convinced early watching them, and again during the Christmas break, that they have the potential to be really good. Something like 12-6 if things fall right and looking at a 2 or 3 seed as a possibility for the NCAA Tourney. The offense strikes me as being improved from last year and the defense, rebounding and fundamentals are still top-notch. BUT, then you watch them play in their only really decent games at a neutral or away site (and there were no away games!) during that Thanksgiving tourney and they just couldn't score. It was not what I expected. If that returns, yikes... it's possible they could go 7 and 11 or something and many games could be a slog. I just think its more likely though we'll see the solid team that has looked confident offensively and will keep it going. Hope we can get to 12-6, but will stick with 10-8 to be slightly optimistic in America's toughest conference.

 

[Gunnerclone]

The margin between 8-10 and 10-8 is always razor thin in this league. So I’ll go 9-9.

 

[Bestaluckcy]

Freshman usually hit a wall in the middle of the season. I think it will cost us a game or two. For that reason I will go with 9-9. Expect to see a team that is going to be fun to watch with some close final scores. T. King for the win.

 

[heitclone]

It's tough to know how good this team is, rebounding is a big concern. BRE will be fine but a lot falls on Tre King. He beats up on mid majors and smaller guys but was awful against the 3 teams we've played with size and athleticism, last year he was a niche guy who only played well against smaller 4's, he needs to prove he's a big 12 player. If he can't hold his own against bigger, physical players, we'll need a lot of help from the guards on the glass. Your back court carrying you on the glass in the big 12 is a bit scary. To me, Tre's development will be the biggest thing to watch. If he hits his stride, we'll be fine, if not, we'll struggle.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

We haven't been tested in awhile, so it's hard to know how well we'll do offensively against Big XII defenses. There are going to be times where we struggle to score and I hope that doesn't translate to our defensive intensity, because we're susceptible to giving up big runs.

I'm curious to see how we play against Oklahoma. They shot up the rankings with wins over Iowa (who was putting up big offensive numbers at the time) and USC (who was #23 at the time). Since then, they had a good win against Arkansas and a loss against UNC (not a bad loss) but otherwise beat who they should beat. I'm not sold on their ranking yet.

Breaking the conference schedule and breaking it into 6 games chunks, I could see us going:
3-3 (possibly 4-2)
3-3
4-2 (possibly 3-3)

I'm guessing we'll be around 10-8 or 9-9, with some unforeseen upsets destroying my initial predictions.

 

[exCYtable]

12-6 and Big 12 Tournament Champs.

 

[Dale]

Bart Torvik has us as the #13 team in the country...and still only going 10-8 in conference. Massey has us #18 in power ratings (what he uses to project games)...and has us going 9-9 in conference, both as mean of scenarios and the most common scenario. So while 11-7 and 12-6 aren't outside the realm of possibility, I'd find it hard to project higher than around 9 or 10 wins. The Big 12 is wicked this year, even by Big 12 standards.

 

[aeroclone]

I'll say 8-10.

I'm still spooked by what we saw against better competition in Orlando. Sure we smacked Iowa after that, but home teams running away with that game has been a regular occurrence of late.

I know we are supposed to buy the narrative that we really dialed some things in after Orlando, but I don't see a lot of proof of that. We have just continued to destroy bad teams at home, same as before. The schedule just hasn't provided any proof points to this. The first couple league games should be very telling.

 

[cydnote]

I'll say 8-10.

I'm still spooked by what we saw against better competition in Orlando. Sure we smacked Iowa after that, but home teams running away with that game has been a regular occurrence of late.

I know we are supposed to buy the narrative that we really dialed some things in after Orlando, but I don't see a lot of proof of that. We have just continued to destroy bad teams at home, same as before. The schedule just hasn't provided any proof points to this. The first couple league games should be very telling.

Just like the non con, the first two games might not be indicative of much either

 

[brokenloginagain]

Schedule looks tougher early vs late. I could see us winning the last five. 7 wins two years ago, 9 last year, I'm going to go with 10-8 this year.

KU, HOU battle it out for first. We're in the mix with Bay, BYU, OU for 3-5th. UT, Ttech, KSU, TCU, Cinci who knows, and then UCF, OSU, WVU fight for last.

 

[Erik4Cy]

9-9

 

[ClonesTwenty1]

9-9 and we get a 7 seed in ncaa Tourney

 

[LarryISU]

Only in the Big 12: Saturday starts conference play with a BANG!!!

Seven games on Saturday and six of them include a team ranked in the top 20.

Big 12 basketball is unbelievable, head and shoulders above any other slate of conference games you'll see all season long!!!! And what a way to start!

 

[HFCS]

8-10, I dont think this team is as good as everyone thinks right now.

Right now the schedule has 9 games against ranked teams. 8-10 could be pretty good.

Looking at some random teams Kentucky, Ohio State and UConn all play just 4 conference games against current ranked opposition.

Arizona played murderer's row in non conf but has ZERO ranked conference opponents right now. They basically scheduled the toughest non-conf possible against all blue bloods and are still going to have a worse SOS than most Big 12 teams.

There is nothing remotely like the Big 12 out there.

 

[enisthemenace]

If Curtis Jones shoots like he has 3 of the last 4, we’ll be fine.

 

[riceville98]

I have us 9-9 and maybe 10-8.

 

[Malty Flannel]

I think we drop 1 at home but pick up 2 or 3 on the road. 10-8

 

[CRcyclone6]

8-10

 

[CoachHines3]

In this conference I'll take 9-9 without a doubt. anything better is gravy.

i'd even take 8-10

 

[CYEATHAWK]

Two years ago I predicted a 20 win season and a dance bid. Had many laughs and dumbs painted on my posts. Back then they were winning at Creighton and beating the Xavier's and Memphis of the world. Sort of easy to see what was coming regardless of it being TJ's first year. The only teams they have played of that caliber this year were at the Thanksgiving tourney. They went 1-2.

Have no clue how they are going to do because of outside those three games it's all been can's of corn at Hilton. Iowa I guess you could exclude from that list but they aren't even any good. And it was at Hilton.

The game at OU also will be there first true road game this season. Now I don't think OU is a top 15 or maybe not even top 25. But they aren't bad, and it will be the first real test for this group since late November....being a conference game to boot.

I can see them going 0-2 right off the bat. If that happens won't mean the season is lost, but having zero quality wins at that point will make talking tourney on this site a little more interesting.

They wake up on Jan. 10th 2-0......................now everyone can start talking seeding.