Big 12 Men’s Basketball Week 2 Preview, Schedule, TV Info

Posted on November 17, 2022

The second week of the 2022-23 Big 12 men’s basketball season is here. Our Week 2 primer gets you ready for the week ahead in Big 12 basketball.

Below you’ll find our game of the week, our mid-major danger game of the week, notes to watch, the week’s schedule with TV information and links to other useful college basketball information during the season.

Game of the Week

Gonzaga at Texas, Wednesday. Yes, I know, Kansas plays Duke. But Kansas coach Bill Self is sidelined due to a suspension and Duke has a new head coach in Jon Scheyer (which is weird to write). Sure, it’ll be a good game. But Texas is preparing for a measuring stick game for its entire program. Last year the Longhorns went to ‘The Kennel’ up in Spokane and got schooled, 86-74. That doesn’t sound like a ‘schooled’ score, does it? Well, Gonzaga was up by 20 at the break. Texas needs to show it has improved from last year and that it has an answer for Gonzaga forward Drew Timme (37 points, 7 rebounds). We’re going to find out a lot about the Longhorns on Wednesday.

Mid-Major Danger Game of the Week

UCF at Oklahoma State, Friday. I hate to pick on the Cowboys two weeks in a row, but if you’re looking at KenPom rankings, this is the best chance for a Big 12 team to lose to a mid-major program. The Cowboys lost by one to Southern Illinois last week, which was my MMDGW for Week 1. We’re cheating just a bit because UCF will be a Big 12 member next season. So it’s a preview of what’s to come. The Knights are in the Top 90 in Ken Pom. It should be a fair fight.

Five Players to Watch

G Jaren Holmes, Iowa State: He’s already shown why Cyclones coach T.J. Otzelberger called him five minutes after he hit the transfer portal.

G Nae’Quan Tomlin, Kansas State: This guy never played high school basketball? That seems unfathomable after watching his first two games (12.5 ppg).

F Moussa Cisse, Oklahoma State: He and Kalib Boone are co-existing swimmingly inside, even if Cisse has the higher ceiling.

G Mike Miles Jr., TCU: The antidote for nearly losing your season opener to a program with a horrible KenPom rating is to let Miles dump 26 points on Lamar.

C Joe Toussaint, West Virginia: Bringing Toussaint off the bench (13 points in 23 minutes per game) is looking like a chemistry master stroke by Bob Huggins.

Team to Watch

Baylor. The Bears start the week with another ‘Happy Meal’ game against Northwestern State. But, after that? Road trip to Vegas. The Bears start with Virginia and end the weekend with either Illinois or UCLA. We’re going to learn A LOT about the Bears this week.

What Else to Watch?

The early window for 2023 recruits to sign ends on Tuesday. Most committed players have signed (you can find all of our signing stories below), but there appear to be a few stragglers. Plus, someone could pull a late signing before the deadline. After that, it’s quiet until April.

Huggy Watch

West Virginia coach Bob Huggins is now in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. But, there’s another milestone to track. After two wins last week, he’s at 918 career wins. He’s now just two behind Jim Calhoun for third place on the NCAA Division I all-time list. Once he passes Calhoun, the only coaches in Division I with more wins will be Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim (999) and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (1,202), the latter of which retired last season.