Road to Big 12 title is a grind for Coogs
The University of Houston enters Saturday’s game at Cincinnati alone in first place in the Big 12 men’s basketball standings.
That alone should come with a warning label.
Being at the top is hardly bullet-proof, especially in what is regarded as the toughest top-to-bottom league in the country.
“When you say one of the top programs in the Big 12, that means you might finish 10th or second,” UH coach Kelvin Sampson said. “There’s not a whole lot of difference between second and 10th in this league. We’re all about the same. The team that is in first place today, two weeks from now may be in 10th. Or the team that is in 10th or ninth, 10 days from now may be in first or second.”
With a month left in the regular season, every Big 12 team has at least three league losses. The top 11 teams in the standings are separated by just 2 games. It’s even tighter at the top, with No. 13 Baylor and No. 14 Iowa State just a half-game back of the fifth-ranked Cougars, and Kansas — the No. 4 team in the country — in fourth. If the NCAA Tournament began today, 10 of the Big 12’s 14 teams would receive bids, according to ESPN’s bracket projections.
Where teams, especially those with aspirations of deep postseason runs, need to be cautious, Sampson said, is to avoid the physical toll that comes from the almost nightly heavyweight bouts.
“You’re going to get beat multiple times,” Sampson said. “What you hope is you don’t get wore down going into the middle of March because you are going to be certainly prepared to play other teams once you get into the tournament. You’ve got to be prepared to get some notches on your belt both ways in conference play.”
For instance, the Cougars (20-3, 7-3 Big 12) reeled off five consecutive wins — including a gutsy overtime win at Texas — and then were faced with the daunting task of playing Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse, one of the toughest environments in college basketball. The Cougars lost by 13.
A few hours later, Iowa State lost 70-68 in the closing seconds at Baylor.
Two days later, Kansas visited rival Kansas State and lost 75-70 in overtime.
“It’s the toughest road conference I’ve ever been in,” said Sampson, who is in his 35th year as a head coach and second tour in the Big 12.
All three of UH’s losses have come on the road — and in conference play — to Iowa State, TCU and Kansas. Only one of the league’s teams (TCU at 4-2) has a winning record on the road this season.
“Never top to bottom,” Sampson said when asked if he’s ever been part of such a tough conference.
While at Oklahoma from 1994-2006, Sampson said the top part of the league “was as good or better than it is now.” That included three straight seasons that the Big 12 sent teams to the Final Four — Kansas and Oklahoma in 2002, Texas in 2003 and Oklahoma State in 2004. The difference is the middleand bottom-tiered programs.
“There were always six or seven pit bulls, German Shepherds and Rottweilers,” said Sampson, repeating a line from the preseason when he compared the Big 12 to a “tough dog park.”
“Back then you had a couple of Chihuahuas and shih tzus you could play. There ain’t none of them dudes in this league now.”
A case can be made the Big 12 has gotten even tougher. After a national runner-up finish in 2019 (Texas Tech) and titles in 2021 (Baylor) and 2022 (Kansas), the league added Houston (2021 Final Four), BYU, Cincinnati and Central Florida. Ten Big 12 teams are in the top 40 of the NET rankings, which includes newcomers UH (No. 1), BYU (No. 8) and Cincinnati (No. 32).
“If you lose to each other,” Sampson said, “you are losing to a tournament team. The number in front of your name doesn’t mean a whole lot.”
Sampson is convinced the eventual Big 12 champion will finish with five or six losses in conference play.
That means more bumps and bruises are on the way, even for the league’s top teams.
“I don’t know if this league has a great team,” Sampson said. “There’s not one great team in this league. But everybody is good, and we’re all bunched in there together.”