Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Big 12 Preview - A New Era After Initial 2023 Realignment
145 Plays2 years ago
Welcome to Ep 2 of the No Conference for Old Men Podcast. Paying homage to the elite program Coach Kelvin Sampson has built at Houston, the monstrous Big 12 conference that is #1 & growing even stronger through realignment, as well as the great sport of college basketball.
Ep 2 is focused on providing a preview of the 2023 Big 12 Conference season as 4 new teams enter (Houston, Cincinnati, UCF, & BYU). We take a deep dive from a coach's strategy / style of play perspective, as well as an advanced analytics view to break down the teams & predict standings for the upcoming season.
- No Conference for Old Men is available for free via Apple Podcasts & Spotify. Please Follow/Subscribe/Download.
- You can follow us on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/NoConfForOldMen
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome, folks, to the second episode of No Conference for Old Men, the podcast where a couple of guys are talking college basketball focused on the Houston Cougars and the Big 12 with a bit of national big game coverage sprinkled in along the way. What I didn't mention last week is that our intention is to keep these episodes to what we call bite sized chunks of 30 to 45 minutes.
00:00:29
Speaker
allowing folks to more easily digest our podcasts during their commutes to and from work or if they choose to go out and exercise.
Big 12 Conference Preview
00:00:37
Speaker
So we'll see how well we stay true to that principle today as we try to pack 14 team previews into this episode. Episode one was dedicated to a detailed view into the 23, 24 Houston and Cougars team. So for those interested, please do go back to listen and get some details surrounding the great Houston and Cougars program.
Host Profiles
00:00:57
Speaker
Today we move on to the Big 12 Conference Preview, where we'll be walking through each of the current 14 team member programs. I'm Steve Chang, your co-host for the podcast, Houston grad of 82, and the big data analytics geek of the show that will be breaking down the teams and games based on advanced analytics. And Tom, you want to do a short intro?
00:01:19
Speaker
Sure, my name is Tom Lydiek. I'm a fellow U of H alum. I went to school during the Five Slamage Amadeus. I'm a college basketball junkie. I really love Houston Cougar Hoops, and I'm entering my 30th year of basketball coaching. Okay, so let's get right into it.
00:01:36
Speaker
We both have our notes and spreadsheets ready and today we're going to dive into our Big 12 conference preview with perspective on how we see Houston's new conference as a whole and what to expect as our Cougars join their new conference mates in what we believe to be the toughest basketball conference in the land. Tom, from a coach's perspective, what's your view of the Big 12 and what should the Cougars expect heading into unchartered territories in this beast of a hoops conference?
Top Coaches in the Big 12
00:02:05
Speaker
Well, Steve, when you look at the 14 teams of the Big 12, there are three coaches' programs that stand out above the rest. In college basketball, since you have so much Russell turnover and all this, usually the head coaches are the star. And there's three really good ones, I believe, in the Big 12. You have to start with Bill Self. Bill Self is already in the Hall of Fame. So he's a Hall of Fame coach. You have to go with Kelvin Sampson.
00:02:36
Speaker
future Hall of Famer, in my opinion, and then you have Scott Drew. So you have the Houston program, Kansas program, Baylor program. Getting back to Coach Self, what makes him so special? Well, first of all, he's at Kansas, so he gets some of the best players in the country.
00:02:55
Speaker
But it's more than just getting the best players. Self, his greatness comes from getting these great players, getting them to play together. They play hard, getting them to play hard defense, getting them to be unselfish with the basketball. He's adaptable. He's not going to try to put a square peg in a round hole or vice versa. So Self, there's adaptability.
00:03:20
Speaker
His teams are always fun to watch offensively. They always have good movement, fun team to watch. So, you know, Self is, like I said, he's a Hall of Famer. Always say good coaches, you know, they can identify problems, great coaches, they can identify the problem and then fix it.
00:03:40
Speaker
Bill Self has never lost more than three games in a row in his career, which I think is. That's incredible. It's amazing. It goes back to his Oral Roberts days. He started there. He went on to Tulsa, Illinois for a year. And now he's at, now he's at Kansas. So you're looking at 787 wins to national championships. He's 60 years old. He did have the health scare last year with whatever was going on. So
00:04:10
Speaker
That could be a concern for Kansas. You know, we'll just, we'll just have to see everybody's different. You just don't know how, you know, different people will respond to the stress of the type of job that the college basketball coaches have. You know, it's, it's affected some coaches in the past. You had Don Haskins at, uh, at UTEP, you know, he had a heart problem and probably a little less intense. Um, you had.
00:04:34
Speaker
It's escaping me right now, but, uh, Oh, Bob Huggins, Bob Huggins, you know, had the, he had the heart scare too. So we'll see, you know, hopefully, hopefully in Bill self's case, it doesn't affect his, uh, you know, his coaching ability, but, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's gotta be a concern.
00:04:52
Speaker
Moving on to Kelvin Sampson, I've put him ahead of a Scott Drew, even though Scott Drew has a national championship. The only thing that's missing from Coach Sampson's pedigree right now is a national championship. And Steve and I being Houston Cougar fans, hopefully that comes in our lifetime. Kelvin is, he just turned 68 the other day.
00:05:15
Speaker
So hopefully he has a few years left in him. 731 wins and you have to remember he was out of college basketball coaching for six years while he was in the NBA.
00:05:27
Speaker
Definitely Kelvin Sampson Hall of Fame coach, you know, what makes him a Hall of Fame coach? We talked about it last week Kelvin Sampson hasn't changed from his Montana Tech days His teams are you know, it's consistency from year to year. He's not gonna waver on on the culture his belief system gonna play defense gonna rebound gonna share the show the basketball on offense accountability, you know, there's no
00:05:50
Speaker
Every college coach has X's and O knowledge. The difference is going to be the accountability and that's where execution comes in. You know, there's no uniqueness. It's the accountability that the head coach has his players adhere to. And then we go to Scott Drew, Baylor coach, 52 years old. So Scott Drew probably has quite a few years left in his coaching career, 441 wins, won national championship.
00:06:17
Speaker
spent every year I believe at Baylor except for one at Valparaiso. Scott Drew is another coach. He's a man to man coach now, but there was a time where Baylor actually was played a lot of zone that was their primary defense. A lot of people thought it was a 131, but it was actually a 113 and the wings were just brought up high. But I think the Baylor program took a step up when
00:06:42
Speaker
when Drew went from his zone, his 1-1-3, the man-to-man. Once again, Scott Drew's teams, they're going to be tough, tough defensively for the most part. You know, they're going to take good shots, take care of the ball.
00:06:56
Speaker
So yeah, those, those would be my top three coaches and not coincidentally, those will be the top three teams in the conference.
Big 12 Analytics and Defensive Strength
00:07:06
Speaker
And then we get to the, the, the next tier of coaches. I only had one coach Steve in the next tier, which is Jamie Dixon. Okay. Um, at, uh, at TCU, but you know, there's some caveats there. His best record so far at TCU in the big 12 is nine and nine. Yep.
00:07:25
Speaker
He did make a couple of sweet 16s in a lead eight, but that's been about 15 years ago. And that was that, that was that pit pit. Yeah. Yeah. He's got like 467 wins. So I would put, uh, Jamie Dixon in, in, in the next tier. And then we basically have all the rest. Yeah. Some coaches that just get started like Josh Eiler, he's interim coach of West Virginia. He hasn't coached a game yet. Uh, just don't know how that's going to go. Jerome Tang.
00:07:55
Speaker
He's like 57 years old, first year as a coach, but he did win 26 games. Yeah, you have some other Porter Moser at OU, basically a 500 coach in the big 12 OU. I would say pretty much he's on the hot seat. He's going into like his third year. You have, we'll see about Rodney Terry at Texas.
00:08:22
Speaker
Rodney Terry's been a head coach at several different places. He was at UTEP. And I'm forgetting where the other school he was at. I think it was Fresno State. Came in as an interim after Chris Beard got dismissed. Texas had a good season, but we'll see how Texas does with Rodney Terry being the head coach from the get go. And then you have Mike Boynton, Oklahoma State. He might be on the hot seat too.
00:08:53
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. And, uh, but pretty much, you have a pretty much a cheer system, I believe in, in, in the coaches, uh, with, with self drew Kelvin Sampson, uh, Jamie Dixon and the next tier. And then, um, and then all the rest, uh, we'll say TJ also burger at Iowa state, you know, he's fairly young coach.
00:09:13
Speaker
No, that's awesome insight from a coach's perspective. Thanks for that, Tom. And really the analytics are also really telling in terms of the foundation by which the Big 12 has been built. Again, just a level set, folks. Ken Palm, overall adjusted efficiency margin will always be my go-to reference point when I look at the analytics.
00:09:34
Speaker
Then I dig in deeper into specifically both adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency margins that make up that overall efficiency score that ranks or assesses each team. And just another reminder from folks, my threshold when looking at these stats is that if you're top 40 or better in a particular area or statistic, it's a major strength.
00:09:56
Speaker
And if you're 175 or below, you've got problems that really need addressing. And anything in between, you're basically at varying levels of good or okay, all with a view towards trying to make the attorney and having a chance to advance. So as we look into the Big 12 conference as a whole, you and I have both claimed that it's the undisputed number one coops conference in the land, and hence why we name the No Conference for Old Men podcast.
00:10:25
Speaker
So we made the comment in episode one that the Big 12 stature in hoops dwarfs even the SECs in football. So I wanted to put that to the test based on analytics. And so to do so, I downloaded all of the final 22, 23 season stats and rankings from Ken Palm into a spreadsheet and began doing some scenario analysis. Taking a look at the top hoops conferences holistically, one,
00:10:52
Speaker
as they stood at the end of last season. Two, after round one of realignment with Houston, Cincinnati, BYU, and UCF joining the Big 12. And then three, a final round after the massive realignment with Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah joining the Big 12. UT and OU joining the SEC.
00:11:15
Speaker
USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington joining the Big Ten, and Stanford, Berkeley, and SMU joining the ACC in 2024. The results are very interesting to say the least, Tom.
00:11:30
Speaker
If you look at maybe what we call the power six conferences in basketball based on last season's Ken Palm overall adjusted efficiency margin, we had as no surprise the big 12 at an eye popping average ranking of 29 across all 10 teams. The big 10 was at an average ranking of 53 across their teams.
00:11:56
Speaker
Big East came in third at an average ranking of 67. The SEC came in fourth with an average ranking of 74. The PAC came in fifth with an average ranking of 87.
00:12:11
Speaker
And then sixth out of the power six conference, so to speak, was the ACC at a lowly 105, which is a bit eye-opening. With this season's conference makeup, the rankings are basically the same. So as we add those four teams, the big 12's ranking goes down a little bit to 34 from the original 29. And then when you look at 24 and 25 with all the different changes in schools moving around,
00:12:39
Speaker
Even with that massive shake-up, the overall rankings remain the same one through five if you take the pack out for power conferences. Now, the Big 12 at that point, the average ranking goes down to 39. Still exceptional when you're talking about 16 teams and your average ChemPOM ranking is 39. The Big 10 really just improves a little bit, less than one ranking point to 52.
00:13:07
Speaker
The SEC probably makes the biggest jump up to 68.5 from 74, but even that's just a few ranking points. But the shocker is the ACC that goes all the way down to 117. That's 117 is their average Ken Palm ranking. By comparison, if you add the Mountain West Conference and you try to do a comparison there,
00:13:33
Speaker
they're actually even better than the ACC at an average ranking of 98. Now, the ACC will always be relevant with elite programs like North Carolina, Duke, and Virginia, but can they truly be considered a power conference in hoops at that point? I'm really not that sure.
00:13:52
Speaker
Now, if we zero in further and focus on what differentiates the Big 12 and what makes them so elite and above all of their peer conferences, it's clearly on the defensive side, as you had mentioned earlier, as you highlighted some of the top teams, where every single team was top 60 in adjusted defensive efficiency margin, except for Baylor at 107 last year.
00:14:17
Speaker
And I believe that last season was hopefully an aberration for Baylor on that side of the ball. And we're going to see that defensive ranking really pick back up this season. So basically you can count on every single night being a grind in the big 12 with no nights off, crazy good, and only getting tougher with the additions of Houston this season in Arizona next season. Now.
Team Rankings and Predictions
00:14:41
Speaker
As we focus on the Big 12 Conference and start getting into projecting how things will go this coming season, Tom and I individually came up with our respective independent one through 14 projections list.
00:14:55
Speaker
Tom, I'll tell you, it was shocking how similar our two lists were without any previous discussion whatsoever. In fact, our top seven teams, if you can believe it, were identical. And if you go through the entire 14 team ranking between you and myself,
00:15:12
Speaker
There was only one team, uh, that was Oklahoma state. That was two places or more difference between our two rankings, either, you know, we've got it down pat or we're both completely off. Right. And so it'll be interesting to see how we do in our projections this season. So.
00:15:31
Speaker
If I quickly go down the list of our, I'll call it our consensus list. We had Kansas, number one, no surprise. University of Houston, number two. Baylor, number three, as you had kind of hinted at earlier in your conference overview. We had Texas, fourth. Kansas state, fifth. TCU, sixth.
00:15:59
Speaker
Iowa State, seventh. And that was, again, as a reminder for folks, we had identically predicted these top seven. Now, once we get down to eight, we have a tie between Texas Tech and West Virginia. Then Cincinnati came in at 10th.
00:16:16
Speaker
that we had another tie in OU and OSU. And then bringing up the rear is BYU at 13th and UCF at 14th. So yeah, that's kind of where we stand in terms of the overall rankings. Now let's get into a more detailed team assessment. So Tom, you want to kick things off and provide your coach's perspective on Kansas going into next season?
00:16:42
Speaker
Sure, Steve, going into the season, I think the Big 12 runs through Lawrence, Kansas. You look at Kansas basketball, they've won 19 of the last 22 regular season championships in the Big 12. So Kansas, until somebody knocks them off, I'm going to have them at number one.
00:17:04
Speaker
Bill Self, Hall of Fame coach, great support at Kansas, Fog Allen. If it's not the top venue in college basketball, it's gotta be in the top three. I mean, the guy who invented basketball was a head coach there. So a lot of history there, but let's get to Kansas season.
00:17:27
Speaker
They did lose a five-star transfer from Texas. Arterius Morris was dismissed from the team. Like I said, former five-star guard, he was gonna probably start at the two spot, but he's been dismissed a couple of incidences when he was at Texas. Another one after he committed to KU. The big off-season portal edition for Kansas, though, is Hunter Dickinson.
00:17:55
Speaker
from Michigan and whether it's Hunter Dickinson or Zack Edie from Purdue, they're the top big men. And another thing I'll say from a coach's perspective about big men and Bill Self is Bill Self is really, really good at incorporating big men into his offense. Matter of fact, goes all the way back to his Oral Roberts days around Christmas time when
00:18:20
Speaker
Things weren't just yelling with his team and he came up with something called the high-low offense that he used for many years. Took it to Tulsa, took it to Illinois and even used it at Kansas. First got there, doesn't use the high-low anymore because the ball screen offense took over. But he does run sets and you'll see a little bit of the high-low offense in Kansas and Bill Self's offense. So Hunter Dickinson, they're gonna use them.
00:18:49
Speaker
And you have, uh, yeah, you have the one Harris coming back, possibly the best point guard in the country. You have Kevin McCuller, formerly a Texas tech, uh, Nate Smith, defensive player of the year, semi-finalist, uh, two times. You might want to say he is kind of like, uh, what they call a glue guy, kind of like a Swiss army knife. He does a little bit of everything. He does a little bit of scoring, a little bit of rebounding, uh, and assist.
00:19:16
Speaker
Big man, another portal transfer was Nick Timberlake, shot 41% from three. He's a 6'4 guard from Towson, the same school that gave us Justin Gorham. That's right. And then you have KJ Adams, who I believe had 36 starts last season. So got a solid starting five. You got a Hall of Fame coach.
00:19:45
Speaker
You have the Kansas basketball tradition coming off the bench. They added Christian Brown's brother, Santa Clara, transfer Parker Brown, 610. He's gonna play a little four and five. So, and then you have a couple of freshmen, highly talented freshmen coming in, five star, El Marco Jackson. I'm sure they'll come off the bench, but Kansas is looking solid from a coaching standpoint, also from a personnel standpoint.
00:20:14
Speaker
Okay. No, that that's awesome insight. As you had stated from an analytics perspective, as well, Kansas, they're the elite standard bear in the big 12, almost always top 25 in both offensive and defensive adjusted efficiency margin. Good pace. Usually in the sixties and second seventies, always shoot the ball. Well, it defends every shot effective field goal percentage defense was ranked number 32 last season.
00:20:42
Speaker
And an interesting stat from Haslam metrics. Last year, Kansas was 29th in points off steals. And I think as you had highlighted earlier on in outlining KU, the genius of Bill Self is that he adjusts each year. It isn't always a cookie cutter approach with him, which is amazing.
00:21:04
Speaker
Because if you look at KU, their D is always very strong. But how he gets there, he adjusts it each and every year. And so if they've got shop lockers or big men, you'll see the stats of their creep up for the year. If they're small, like they were last year, then it's all around steals and getting points off steals. So it's really, really elite stuff from a coach that is able to adjust along the way.
00:21:31
Speaker
Now, if you look at from a personnel perspective, I think as you had highlighted, they had lost Jalen Wilson, Grady Dick, and then late, late in the off season, Arturia Morris for the rape charge. They've got seven new players coming in. And I think as you highlighted as well, the two big gets were Nick Timberlake from Towson and then Hunter Dickinson from Michigan.
00:21:55
Speaker
If I look at Bart Torvig and try to project, there are three key players coming into the season. It would likely be Hunter Dickinson with a plus minus of 9.3, which is really elite numbers there. Kevin McCuller at plus 6-0. Dewan Harris at also plus 6.
00:22:17
Speaker
And then if you want to start talking about an X factor, so to speak, for the program, if they're really going to reach their ceiling, I think a key is going to be JK Adams moving to the forward slot, being able to pair effectively with Dickinson. KJ Adams was great last year, but he was really primarily playing the five. He's going to have to prove to be just as effective, meshing with Dickinson, playing a little bit further out on the perimeter.
00:22:46
Speaker
Now, if we go back to Houston, I know we gave a detailed view last
Houston Cougars Analysis
00:22:49
Speaker
week. Maybe we give a quick update for folks that didn't get a chance to listen to last week's episode in your take on Houston. Yes, Steve, I'd like to tweak my prediction for the starting five from last week. All right. I'm allowed to do that, right? Absolutely. You know, last week I had shed crier and sharp in the back court, you know, sharps. He's the one in the two. So
00:23:16
Speaker
I don't think we're all see shed crier and sharp on the floor at the same time, but my prediction would be shed Crier at the one and two and It's gonna be a toss-up between done and arsenal and right now. I'm gonna give just because of experience I'll give it to done and I have Terrence Terrence probably coming off the off the bench Shark coming off the bench
00:23:57
Speaker
and Roberts in the front court, but it wouldn't surprise me as the season goes on if we see Joseph Tuggler start with Roberts as the season goes on. So that's the way I see it as far as the starting five and the bench players can overlook Ramon Walker.
00:24:09
Speaker
it is it is
00:24:18
Speaker
You know a couple years ago. He led us to the elite eight due to some injuries He had to play a lot and he was banged up to he had that wrist wrist problem his freshman year
00:24:29
Speaker
But he made some great culture plays for the Cougs, heading down the stretch in conference play and then in the tournament. So I hope we get to see a little bit of Ramon. I'm not sure where he would play, whether he would come in and play a little bit at the four. He'd be an undersized four. The back court, it's crowded. It'd be very, very tough to get any kind of significant playing time there.
00:24:56
Speaker
One guy I might have overlooked last week is, I don't know, we might see a little bit of Jacob McFarland, 16 kid from California. We'll just have to see, like I said last week, we're not at practice, you know, so we don't get to see, you know, how quickly they're picking up on stuff, usually on defense or rebounding. You know, they all pretty much are offensively skilled. The big thing is picking up
00:25:25
Speaker
picking up division one basketball defense and rebound, just the intensity also from the high school game to the college game. Awesome. Now, from a stats perspective, as we covered last week as well, Houston is elite on both offensive and defensive adjusted efficiency margin, ranking in the top 11 all of the last three years in both categories.
00:25:52
Speaker
We play super slow, really will be the slowest paced team in the big 12 at a ranking of 339. We don't shoot great, but we offense free band like heck ranking fourth last year. So we get more shots than most of our opponents. We defend every shot with effective field goal percentage defense ranks second last season based on Ken Palm and added a focus on.
00:26:18
Speaker
turnovers are causing turnovers on D ranking 39th last year. And so really, really elite stuff. And similar to self, right? Coach Sampson is able to adjust the defense as well to maximize the talent that he has on hand.
00:26:34
Speaker
We start looking at personnel makeup. We lose Marcus Asser, Jaris Walker, and Tremont Mark, really critical players from last year's team. We've got six new players, and for the main players that we're adding, LJ Cryer from Baylor, Damian Dunn from Temple, and then we've got that four-star freshman forward, Joseph Tuggler, that we're both so high on.
00:26:57
Speaker
And if you look at the key players that we expect to really drive success this coming year for Houston, it's going to be Jelon Roberts at a plus 8.5. Jamal Shad, our second best player, at a plus 5.7. And then L.J. Cryer, who was a plus 5.0 at Baylor last season.
00:27:19
Speaker
Now, from an X Factor perspective or really a key difference maker in order to reach our peak this coming year, I know everyone's kind of highlighting Terrence Arsenault. We even talked quite a bit about Terrence Arsenault coming into this year, and he does need to have a big year. But I'm gonna throw a surprise name, Malik Wilson. And I know we just got news this week that he's injured, so that's gonna slow him down. But I think he is going to be an X Factor.
00:27:49
Speaker
He was sat out last season for us. He played one year. It was injury filled at Texas Tech the year before. But before that, he was at Louisiana Lafayette, I believe. And he had a great, I think, two seasons there, a really, really fast player, extremely athletic.
00:28:11
Speaker
kind of a miniature-sized Taji Moore. And so no one's talking about him, but I actually think if he gets healthy quick, he's actually going to make a huge difference, especially on the defensive side for us. So how about Baylor? Baylor, we had number three. What are your thoughts on Baylor, Tom?
00:28:27
Speaker
Well, Steve with Baylor, uh, we start to get the teams that have a lot of, a lot of question marks just because of the, uh, roster turnover Baylor loses LJ prior to us, the loss, the freshmen, Keontae George and Adam Flagler to the NBA. They do have a couple of five star freshmen. It looks like that they're going to be relying on. Uh, there is a Jacobi Walter, one of those five stars, and then, uh, they're going to be starting a.
00:28:54
Speaker
They're five men. I believe his name is pronounced Yves Missy, six foot 11. Okay, five star freshmen. So those are question marks. You know, you're, you know how it is, Steve, when, you know, five star freshmen, they get into college, you never know what's going to happen. So it might take Baylor a while to get their sea legs, if you want to say that, going, they might be pretty ugly at the beginning of the year. They do have one full-time star to return in Jalen Bridges.
00:29:24
Speaker
They do have an addition, I believe his name is KJ Dennis. He was the Mac player of the year at Toledo. Another player they got from the portal, Jaden Nunn and a couple of Jucos. Overall bottom line, eight new players and five returning. That's quite a bit of turnover there. So yeah, it might take Baylor some time.
00:29:53
Speaker
but they're not the only ones, so pretty much the rest of the conference is gonna be looking at this same situation. But the difference here is Baylor's got some talent. Yeah, yeah, completely agree. Okay, from a statistics perspective, and this is starting to sound like a broken record, but this is the case at the top of the conference, but Baylor as well, elite in both offensive and defensive adjusted efficiency margin, until last year on D, where they were
00:30:23
Speaker
probably the worst in the last four years at a ranking of 107.
Baylor's Roster and Strategy
00:30:28
Speaker
They play at a slow pace ranked 215th in the country, adjust their offense each year. And here's a case where Drew has also become an elite coach. And I'll be honest early in his career, I did not consider him an elite coach. And he's just really gotten better. And
00:30:48
Speaker
If you look at how they perform each year, they're always ranked very high on offensive efficiency margin. But if you look at the details, he's one that will actually adjust on the offensive side each year, but kind of maintain that high consistency of being elite. I think the one Achilles heel last season was their turnover rate was very high on offense at a ranking of 236 in the country.
00:31:17
Speaker
They're great at offensive rebounding, ranking second, very similar to ourselves. And historically, they've been strong on D and high on steals as well until last season when they were at 239. So I think one question that folks will ask as part of the Baylor program is the exceptional D up to last season.
00:31:40
Speaker
really based on Jerome Tang? Or is Scott Drew going to be able to pull them back up and become elite on defense again? So it'll be interesting to see. If you look from a team makeup perspective, they lose Adam Flagler, Chianti George, and LJ Cryer to Houston.
00:31:58
Speaker
They've got seven new players, adding Ray J. Dennis from Toledo, Jacoby Walker, the freshman five-star player as you had highlighted, and Jayden Dunn from VCU, who was a 40% three-point shooter.
00:32:13
Speaker
If you look at the key players from a Bart Torevic player plus minus perspective, I expect Ray J. Dennis, who was a plus five last year, to pick up where Flagler left off from a point guard perspective. Jalen Bridges, a returning player, was a plus 7.4 at Baylor. And then Jonathan Chamwa Chachua, hopefully I pronounced that correctly,
00:32:41
Speaker
was a plus 4.3. So those are the individuals I expect to lead the charge. The X factor for me, in order for them to reach their peak, so to speak, in terms of potential, is Jaden Dunn from VCU. He's going to be key from a 3ND perspective to loosen things up inside for Baylor. So it'll be interesting to see how things go there.
00:33:05
Speaker
So if we go down the list to number four, we both had Baylor, not Baylor, Texas, Ashley.
Texas Longhorns Overview
00:33:11
Speaker
So what do you think of Texas coming into the season? Uh, Texas, uh, a lot of new players too. Uh, the big off season portal edition was max Adamus from oral Roberts two time summit league at player of the year, 22 points, uh, four rebounds, four assists. Key thing here is, uh, can he duplicate it?
00:33:35
Speaker
Going against Big 12 competition. Yeah, you know, he won't be playing in the Summit League UEP. We teams like that, South Dakota State, no offense to them, but it's going to be a step up in in competition. And Texas is going to be counting on Max Admus, not to just be a role player, but to be one of the one of their top players. Two man, they bring back Tyreese Hunter. Three man, they got a transfer from UCF, Ithiel Horton.
00:34:05
Speaker
four-man former five-star Dylan Mitchell and then the five-man is Dylan DeSue who was actually the big 12 tournament MVP 6 9 2 20 so if you look at Texas They have a talented starting five on the bench. They bring in some other transfers You got Caden Shedrick from Virginia transfer at 6 11 2 20 and
00:34:32
Speaker
You have a UT Arlington transfer. He was the WAC Rookie of the Year, Chindall Weaver. He's a guard. You got Chris Johnson, another guard. He was a high four star former Kansas commit. And then you have a good old Brock Cunningham coming back for another year to provide whatever Texas needs, you know, on a particular night. So Texas, you know, they got some pieces coming back. They're adding some pieces.
00:35:00
Speaker
All right. Again, from a statistics perspective, Texas as well, elite on offensive and defensive adjusted efficiency margin top 15 in both last year, paces actually pretty good by big 12 standards ranking 98 in the country. But it's really tough for me to actually decipher this team with Rodney Terry being a new coach. So we've only got one year to go off of.
00:35:28
Speaker
They were a good shooting team, elite from two point percentage ranking number 36 in the country. If you look at their D, even though it was considered elite overall, really no one stat stands out other than forcing turnovers and scoring quickly based on those turnovers. And I think in that case, based on Hausland metrics, they were ranked 15th in the country.
00:35:54
Speaker
Now, if I look at their roster makeup, they lost Marcus Carr, Sir Jabari Rice, Tim Allen, and Christian Bishop. That's a lot of losses. Seven new team players here. And as you would highlight, Max Abmus from Oral Roberts, Kaden Shedrick from Virginia, and Chris Johnson, the four-star freshmen are probably the key new players, so to speak.
00:36:17
Speaker
And who we expect to actually contribute a lot to their success this year is clearly Max Admus from a point guard perspective. He was a plus 5.2 last year playing for Oral Roberts. Dylan Disu was a really eye-popping plus 8.0 for Texas last year. Then Tyrese Hunter.
00:36:39
Speaker
as important of a player as he was. He was only a plus 1.9 last year, so he needs to pick that up. Now, when we start talking about an X factor for the team to hit their potential, I'd say sophomore Dylan Mitchell is going to be key. I think everyone felt he was going to be a one and done superstar last year. We saw glimpses of his athletic ability, but
00:37:01
Speaker
Really, he's a kid that I think deserves the minutes, and we're going to see what he's able to do with those minutes this coming season.
Kansas State Rebuilding
00:37:10
Speaker
So with that, why don't we go to number five, Kansas State. Okay, Steve, Kansas State, led by Jerome Tang.
00:37:18
Speaker
Finally got an opportunity of a head coach, I believe at 56 or 57 years old. He was a Baylor assistant for a lot of different years. Had a 26 win season. So kudos to Coach Tain for that for that great season at K-State. They lose the really good guard Noel. They lose another Chianti Johnson, another
00:37:40
Speaker
really, really good player. So they've lost their, probably their best two players. I think this year maybe take a step back. A lot of concerns, a lot of question marks because
00:37:52
Speaker
So many so many new players coming in They're gonna have to have some of their role players step up and be more than more than just role players or they're gonna they're gonna struggle a couple of additions the Columa kid from Creighton Really really good addition and then you got Tyler Perry from from North Texas. He's another really good good addition so, you know bottom line is
00:38:19
Speaker
They could be top five, they could be six or seventh. We got them at what, Steve, we got them at number five. Yeah, five. So like a bunch of other teams in a big 12, you know, they could, they could be five or they could be 10. Yeah, completely agree. It's awesome. Just depends on how the pieces, pieces come together. Awesome. From a statistics perspective, you know, if you look at Ken Palm offensive and defensive adjusted efficiency margin,
00:38:48
Speaker
Kansas state was really strong, not elite, but very, very strong with both in the top 40 last season. If you look at pace, they're the fastest in the big 12 with the ranking of 42 last season. And so it'll be interesting to see if Jerome Tang keeps that up or if it was really the result of the team makeup last year. Uh, so we'll be keeping an eye on that.
00:39:12
Speaker
Offensively, they're good, but elite at scoring off of steals, really manufacturing points. And so they were ranked 30th from a Haselmetrics perspective. And on the defensive side, they focus on turning opponents over and defending the three point shot coming in at ranking number 24th in Kenpah for a defensive three point percentage.
00:39:37
Speaker
Now, if I look at their actual team makeup as you highlighted as well, they lost Kiante Johnson, Marquis Noel, Ishmael Massoud. From a new player perspective, they added players like Tyler Perry from North Texas State University, Art Columa from Creighton. And I don't know how you pronounce this, Kess Glover from Samford. So we'll see how that goes.
00:40:02
Speaker
who they're actually counting on to make huge contributions this year. I'd say Tyler Perry needs to pick up where they left off from a point guard perspective. And he was a plus 5.5 at North Texas State. You've got from a returning player perspective, Naquan Tomlin, who was a plus 5.1 for Kansas State last year.
00:40:24
Speaker
And I definitely expect Art Columa to play a much bigger role than he did at Creighton. And he was a plus 2.5 there, but really loved his game and what he could potentially bring to the table. He was actually one of those kids that I was eyeing in the transfer portal as a potential ad for Houston last season. So disappointed we weren't able to pick him up. I don't even know if you were interested.
00:40:50
Speaker
at that point, but he's definitely what I would consider to be a coach Samson type player. Now from an X Factor perspective, I actually expect Case Glover from Sanford to be able to play D as a six foot shooting guard as the X Factor. They're going to need scoring. And so we'll be interested to see how he performs after the transfer.
00:41:17
Speaker
Right. Yeah, Steve, a quick comment here, like Max Adamus and Tyler Perry from North Texas. You don't know how they're going to perform in the Big 12. It's a separate competition. I think both teams that they're on are asking them to be big parts as far as scoring goes. We have a player similar to them, Malik Wilson, and he can't even crack maybe the top five yards on our squad. So I just wanted to make that point.
00:41:44
Speaker
You know, we'll just have to see. Yeah, lots of fun. No, but that's what makes the season fun and greatly anticipated. And this one's going all over the country, too. It's not just a Big 12 thing. It's just about every basketball program in the country that's dealing with this. Exactly. So why don't we jump to TCU at number six?
TCU's Potential with Transfers
00:42:08
Speaker
TCU already talked about Jamie Dixon a couple of additions there you have Avery Anderson from Oklahoma State Jamir and Nielsen junior I'm old enough to remember when his father played. Yeah, no kidding the OG Jamir Nelson But we have Jamir Nelson jr. From from Delaware and just like everybody else Steve Jimmy Dixon's gonna have he lost some players and now he's gonna have to mix in a bunch of bunch of new players and
00:42:36
Speaker
But I give TCU the nod at number six just based on Dixon's track record. Yeah, completely agree. No, that's awesome. From a statistics perspective, they were good on offense last year, surprisingly, at number 53. Great on D, number 23 in Ken Palm, adjusted efficiency margin. They were second fastest in pace at number 48.
00:43:03
Speaker
But you know, the reality is every year before that, they were super slow at plus 250. So it's a, it's an interesting sign that Dixon could continue to evolve as a coach where he'll adjust even on offense to the makeup of the roster that he has. They have never shot well. And even last year, they didn't shoot well, given their efficiency margin on offense and they were ranked 209th.
00:43:30
Speaker
but they were able to manufacture points off of steals, ranking number 24 in Haslam metrics on points on steals. In offensive rebounding, they were also extremely strong at number 31. Now, if we look at roster makeup,
00:43:46
Speaker
They also experienced quite a bit of loss, losing Mike Miles, Damian Baugh, and Eddie Lampkin. They've got seven new players, and as you had mentioned, Jamir Nelson from Delaware, Avery Anderson from Oklahoma State, and Ernest Uday from KU, and a couple of other smaller
00:44:03
Speaker
smaller names, I guess, not as prominent trivia and Tennyson from Corpus Christi, A&M and Avery Anderson, another Oklahoma state. Oh, I think I mentioned him already as well. But if you look at key players for success next year, Jacoby Cole's a returning player was a plus eight. Jamir Nelson was a plus five point three before transferring here. And then Emmanuel Miller was a plus four point two.
00:44:31
Speaker
Now, if I look at X factor and for them to really reach their peak potential, I'm going to say Ernest Uday and how he feels the center spot is going to be key for them because they're losing a lot, a lot of size with Eddie Lampkin leaving the program. So moving forward, if we want to take a look at Iowa State at number seven.
Iowa State's Defensive Strategy
00:44:54
Speaker
Sure, Steve. If any Iowa State fans are out there listening, hopefully I don't offend you, but they're led by T.J. Otzenberger, good coach. He's still fairly young, so he doesn't have a
00:45:10
Speaker
much of a track record yet, but solid coach. Bottom line on the cyclos this year is they're going to be mixing in some new players with a couple of role players. So the guys they have coming back are, you know, they're just role players. You have Taemin, Lipsi, Gard, averaged about seven, seven points a game. You have Trey King, four, he was about six points a game. New players. You're mixing in Keyshawn Gilbert from UNLV.
00:45:39
Speaker
He was like an 11-point score. Curtis Jones from Buffalo. Here you go. Another player that's going to make the jump in competition. Jones averaged 15 points a game at Buffalo. You have Jackson Pavalecki from Wofford averaged 15 points a game. And then you do have a pretty much a much Ballyhued freshman Omaha.
00:46:01
Speaker
by Lou, I believe he's, uh, he's an Iowa kids six, eight to 15. So Iowa state fans are looking, uh, you know, they're looking forward to big things from, uh, from Omaha. Yep. Now that's great. And if you look at, from a statistics perspective, Iowa state mediocre on offense elite on defensive adjusted efficiency margin on Ken Palm coming in at number eight last season, they don't shoot the ball. Well, effective field goal percentage at
00:46:30
Speaker
ranking 211. They turned over the ball, unfortunately, at a pretty high rate, ranking 273rd in the country. And offense is really focused on offensive rebounding. Again, coming in at ranking 28th, not great at defending shots. Their focus on defense is really forcing turnovers. And the defensive turnover rate was ranked second in the country.
00:46:58
Speaker
Now, if I look at the team makeup, they lost Jaren Holmes, Gabe Kalsher, and Caleb Grill, who actually really, really appreciated Caleb Grill's game. They've got eight new players, and as you'd highlighted, Keeshawn Gilbert from UNLV, Curtis Jones from Buffalo.
00:47:15
Speaker
Jackson Pavalecki from Wofford, and you've got that great freshman five-star coming in. For the kids that you expect the biggest contributions this year, I would expect Keyshawn Gilbert, who was at a plus 2.2, Tammin Lipsay, that was a plus 6.0, and then Rob Jones from a returning
00:47:38
Speaker
Player perspective but I gotta tell you this is where it gets dicey because his player plus minus was a negative point six Last year for Iowa State and so we'll see some of these new kids are really gonna have to come through from an x-factor perspective I gotta say it's Omaha build you right the five-star freshman. This is I believe the
00:48:03
Speaker
the first five-star freshmen that they've had in, I don't know if it's ever, but it's certainly been a really long time. So this kid's really got to come through for them to hit their potential, right? So why don't we go to the next team? And we had a tie at eighth between Texas Tech and West
Texas Tech Under Grant McCaslin
00:48:22
Speaker
Virginia. Why don't we take Texas Tech first?
00:48:25
Speaker
Yes, Steve, when we were talking about coaches earlier in the program, I forgot to mention Grant McCaslin. Yeah, I'm a big fan, actually. Yeah, you look at his coaching career. It's interesting. When Houston, when U of H plays Texas Tech, it's going to be a rock fight. Yeah, I don't know. First one to 30, first one to 40 is going to win that game.
00:48:53
Speaker
They're going to be a mirror image of U of H and Kelvin Sandson's program. It might take him a couple of years. Let's see if Texas Tech people are going to have the patience while he tries to build a roster and build his culture there, because he does have a bunch of new guys come in, a lot of new players and not much returning. But if you look at Coach McCaslin's background,
00:49:20
Speaker
He was a JUCO coach. When you're a JUCO coach, you have a different roster just basically every year. So this is not going to be anything unusual for him. He went to the next level of basketball D2, Midwestern State. He went to Arkansas State, went to North Texas. So very good records there. Personnel-wise, they're really not going to get into that. He returns Pop Isaacs at about 11 points per game, and then a whole slew
00:49:50
Speaker
of transfers. So they're my dark horse as far as a team that might be a surprise. Be Texas Tech just based on McCastlin.
00:49:59
Speaker
Yeah, I'm completely with you on that. My ranking is strictly based on the fact that they hired by Caslin. I'm a huge, huge fan of him as a coach. And I thought this was an exceptional get for Texas Tech, right as replacement after I'd say two mixed years, right the last two years. If you look at how they performed last year, Texas Tech was
00:50:25
Speaker
solidly good on both offensive and defensive adjusted efficiency margin.
00:50:30
Speaker
ranking in the top 70 in both. But quite honestly, these stats are meaningless, given that they've gotten the castle in. So Ashley pulled in some of North Texas State University's statistics to give us a better flavor for how potentially Texas Tech will play. And so North Texas, they played at a very slow pace, ranking 363rd in the country. So that's almost University of Houston pace in terms of offense.
00:50:59
Speaker
They also did not shoot the ball well, and North Texas state offensive rebound was crazy good as well, especially given their size, right? So they were ranked 36th in the country. They also manufacture points off of offensive rebounds with field goal attempt rate of number 29 in the country based on Haslam metrics.
00:51:22
Speaker
Now, if I look at the team makeup, as you'd highlighted earlier, they've lost a ton. Kevin Obenor, Davion Harmon, Fardoz, Amac, and Jaylen Tyson. They've got eight new players. Joe Toussaint from West Virginia, Darian Williams from Nevada, Warren Washington from Arizona State, Cambridge from Auburn, and Chance McMillan from the Grand Canyon University.
00:51:50
Speaker
It's so it's huge roster turnover. It's tough to guess who's going to be the biggest contributors. I had guessed that Joe Toussaint from West Virginia at a plus three point five from Bart Torbix player plus minus being a key player. Pop Isaac's you'd highlighted a returning player that was a plus two point zero.
00:52:13
Speaker
And then Warren Washington was the next player that basically picked him because he had the best plus minus of all the remaining players at 4.8. Now from an X factor perspective, this is a bit of a guess as well. And this is Chance McMillan from Grand Canyon University. And what I'm going to be curious to see is whether his 44% three point shooting is actually going to translate into the big 12. So.
00:52:43
Speaker
So we'll have to see, but why don't we jump over to West Virginia? Also tied, we had tied at eighth with Texas tech.
West Virginia's Uncertain Future
00:52:51
Speaker
Yeah. West Virginia. Uh, big news there was the Huggins, uh, thing. And then, uh, the interim coach, Josh Isler coming on. He's never coached a game before as a head coach. So that'll be interesting. A lot of new players. I got, I believe eight coming in.
00:53:06
Speaker
Big addition was Kirk Risa coming over from Arizona. Two of the transfers might not even be eligible. So we'll see about West Virginia. They did get a Syracuse big man. Jesse Edwards averaged 14 points a game. Another Manhattan transfer, Jose Perez. So bottom line, a lot of question marks.
00:53:26
Speaker
This was just so hard for me to predict, just assuming that they're gonna continue since it's an assistant taking over that the stats will still hold true. They're great on offensive adjusted efficiency ranking 14th. They're really good on defense with an adjusted defensive efficiency margin rating of 58th in the country.
00:53:52
Speaker
Their pace was upper middle, I guess, at number 120. They shot okay, ranking 120th, but they also offensive rebound like heck, right? Another recurring theme within the Big 12 ranking number 26th in the country. Defense was high good at forcing turnovers, ranking 48th in the country.
00:54:14
Speaker
And of course, the big news is losing Bob Huggins. And if you look at the rest of the roster, they also lost Eric Stevenson, Trey Mitchell, Kedrian Johnson, I guess, and Emmett Matthews. They've got a staggering nine new players, adding Jesse Edwards from Syracuse, Rayquan Battle from Montana State, Kirk Risa from Arizona, which is good and bad. We'll see what version they get.
00:54:40
Speaker
a cook, a cook from Georgetown and Jose Perez from Manhattan. I'm not going to go through any of the, the plus minus players cause they're all transferring in as it's always hard to actually project coming into the big 12. And I'd say the X factor is coach Isler and seeing if he's legit and he's able to actually coach at the big 12 level. So with that, when we go to the next team, we had Cincinnati at 10th,
Cincinnati's Big 12 Challenge
00:55:10
Speaker
Tom.
00:55:10
Speaker
A bunch of these teams, Steve, it's going to be, it's going to be the same synopsis. Yeah. Losing a lot, bringing basically, you know, a whole new squad in. I can't remember who we're talking about again. What team are we at now? We're at Cincinnati. Cincinnati. Yeah. Yeah. You got Wes Miller, their coach. I mean, I like Wes Miller.
00:55:34
Speaker
But I just don't, I just don't know if, you know, if Cincinnati improved their roster much. So I'll leave it to you with the analytics on this one. Yeah. I mean, if I, if I look at them, they're, they're high good, I guess on offensive and defensive adjusted efficiency, both with the ranking in the top sixties paces upper middle at ranking of 134.
00:55:57
Speaker
Best thing on offense that they do is take care of the ball. Their turnover percentage is 21st in the country. Really, if it translates into the Big 12, they'd be best in the conference. On D, they hang their hat on defending the three-point shot, ranking 38th in the country.
00:56:15
Speaker
And if I look at their roster, also heavy roster turnover, losing Landers-Nolley, David De Julius, Jeremiah Davenport, Micah Adams-Woods, nine new players as they try to upgrade their roster for Big 12 play. I don't know if it's going to be successful because some of the key players are going to be looking at it as they brought in, like in Day Day Thomas from Kilgore Junior College.
00:56:41
Speaker
CMOS, uh, Lucocious from Butler, Jamil Reynolds from Temple. And then there's this freshman that everyone keeps talking about, Jizzle James, who's Edgar and James's son as a new recruit. And I'm actually going to highlight that freshman though it's risky. He would be the X factor because they need to speed up their backcourt to be able to compete in the big 12 and really in order for them to do that, the freshmen is going to have to play.
00:57:11
Speaker
Right? So why don't we go to number 11th?
Oklahoma State's Young Roster
00:57:15
Speaker
Let's do Oklahoma State first. Okay. Oklahoma State, once again, sound like a broken record. They lose quite a bit. They returned two senior guards. Bottom line, they returned a decent backcourt, but must incorporate 10 new players, Steve, six of them freshmen. Let's see how that goes in the Big 12.
00:57:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's a tough, tough ask. And if you look at last year from a statistics perspective, they were the worst offensive adjusted efficiency margin at a ranking of 146. Now, they were elite on defensive adjusted efficiency at number 12. Their pace is slow at 167. They really don't do much well on offense other than
00:58:04
Speaker
Yeah, quite honestly, they don't do anything well. On D, they carry the day with challenging every shot with effective field goal percentage ranking at number 12. And they especially focus on two point shots where they ranked number 11. And then from a block shots percentage, they were also I think tops in the league.
00:58:24
Speaker
ranking number 11th. Now, if you look at the makeup of the team, yeah, they've lost a ton, right? Lost Grant. Lost Avery Anderson, Caleb Boone, Caleb Asbury and Musa Sisay. They've got seven new players that they need to incorporate in. Jevon Small, the point guard from ECU is probably the best that they've got.
00:58:47
Speaker
And the X factor that I'd highlight is Isaiah Miranda, Richard freshman center from North Carolina state. He really needs to get back to that level of play. He's had a lot of injuries, but I believe he was honorable mention all ACC and then just injuries hit. So we'll see whether he's past that and you know, what kind of a player that, that they're going to have coming back. So why don't we hit the other team that was tied for 11th Oklahoma.
Oklahoma's Roster Overhaul
00:59:16
Speaker
Oklahoma, same thing led by Porter Moser, had success at Loyola Chicago once again, loses a bunch and he's not to incorporate a bunch of different guys into his system. Okay, looking at the stats, again, Oklahoma, they're good on offense, high good on defense with an adjusted defensive efficiency ranking of 48th. Pretty rapid pace for big 12 standards ranking 77th.
00:59:45
Speaker
They shot. Okay. But Tom, they turn the ball over a ton ranking 300th in the country. And guess what? They also don't offensive rebound ranking 323rd. Terrible, terrible combo quite honestly. They hang their hat on defending the three point shot ranking 41st.
01:00:08
Speaker
But they don't force turnovers ranking 326. If you look at the makeup of the team, they lost Grant Schurfield, Tanner Groves, Jaylen Hill, Jacob Groves, nine new players with Jayvin McCollum from Siena, Rivaldo Suarez from Oregon, John Hughley from Pitt.
01:00:30
Speaker
And really from an X factor perspective, I think the kid from Pitt is going to have to be the X factor. And actually I got it wrong. He was the, the center that was ACC honorable mention his redshirt freshman year at Pitt. And so let's see what he can do as he joins the fray in the big 12. So why don't we go to number 13 and we've got BYU.
BYU's Big 12 Entry Challenges
01:00:55
Speaker
BYU, let's see what they do. They return about 10 players. That's the good news. The bad news is they return those 10 players. Yeah, exactly. They're all row players. And then they have two transfers from Charlotte, one from UC Irvine, the guy from UC Irvine averaged about 15 points per game. So they do have a good home court advantage. So BYU's hope is they win some games at home.
01:01:24
Speaker
Yeah, I completely agree with you. They're okay on offense. High good on defensive adjusted efficiency margin on Ken Palm ranking at number 52. Their tempo is reasonably fast by big 12 standards ranking 65th.
01:01:40
Speaker
They shot only okay and they're terrible with turnovers with a conference worse ranking 308th in the country. On defense, they focus on defensive rebounding ranking number 22nd in the country and they don't foul.
01:01:56
Speaker
But here's the bottom line. They're not ready for big 12 competition, right? And so if you look at the makeup of the roster, they only lost Rudy Williams, Gideon George, only have three new players, transfer Ali Khalifa from Charlotte, Dawson Baker from UC Irvine. It really, the X factor is Pope is a coach, right? Is he good enough? Is he a big 12 caliber coach? And that's going to be key.
01:02:25
Speaker
And now finally we go to UCF, who we both had ranked 14th in the conference.
UCF's Major Roster Turnover
01:02:31
Speaker
Yeah. Bottom line with a UCF, they lost, uh, three of the four best players. Taylor Hendrix is the freshmen and really good player, uh, ninth overall pick in the NBA draft. CJ Kelly, whoever's 13, if you'll Horton transferred to Texas, he averaged 12 points per game. They're adding 10 new players, Steve, four, four of them, four of them freshmen.
01:02:54
Speaker
And they do return Darius Johnson, who average 10 points a game, three rebounds a game. He's a, he's a solid player, but once again, you have another coach that's going to have to assimilate all these new players coming from here, come from there and trying to, trying to.
01:03:13
Speaker
put them into a cohesive unit. It's a, it's going to be tough. Yeah, definitely. Definitely tough going. And if you look at last year's stats, they were okay on offense. Great on defense, actually adjusted efficiency margin ranking 36 in the country. Temple was slow ranking at three Oh nine.
01:03:34
Speaker
They don't shoot well with effective field goal percentages on Ken Palm at ranking 192. They have a high turnover rate ranking 278th, but they were great at offensive rebounding last year at 31st in the country.
01:03:50
Speaker
On defense, they focus on turnovers with turnover percentage at a really, really elite level number 23 in the country. And points on steals based on Haslam metrics, they were ranked 10th. So the question becomes, well,
01:04:06
Speaker
Wow, actually, the stats don't look so bad. Why are why are they so low in the standings? Well, they lost everyone, right? They truly lost everyone. You know, Taylor Hendrix, C.J. Kelly, Ethel Horton, they also lost their top recruits. Joey Hart to Kentucky. Jaquan Walton to Memphis. I think they went nine or 10 new players with Shamari Allen from Kansas City and Jalen Sellers from Ball State as the primary ones.
01:04:37
Speaker
Holy cow, if you're entering the big 12 conference, the top conference in the country, and those are your best players, I think you're in for a lot of trouble. And so from an X factor perspective, I don't even have an X factor for them. I think they will bottom out and they're going to have to replace Dawkins at the end of the season. So it'll be a tough transition year for them.
Closing Remarks and Feedback Request
01:05:02
Speaker
So anyways, I think that's it for our big 12 preview in episode two of the no conference for old men podcast. I think we we broke our one of our primary tenants have tried to keep it within 45 minutes. We're over an hour at this point. So we apologize for the folks that are listening, but hopefully you
01:05:21
Speaker
You all enjoyed it. And again, would really appreciate it if you listened in and follow or subscribed to our podcast. Again, this is a labor of love for both Tom and myself and is not intended to be a money making effort, but would really love your support to reinforce our view that there is an interest in the type of info we intend to provide.
01:05:42
Speaker
And please provide a rating and feedback either here or on our Twitter account, no conference for old men. Thank you all again for listening. In episode number three, we'll come out next week with our national top 25 review. So please be on the lookout to listen and download next week. Thanks again, everyone. Take care.