Tillery’s Trends: Big 12 Basketball, Charismatic Coaches and More
Everyone loves a good trend, and while I may not speak for everyone in the wide world of college sports, I do have the opportunity on Heartland College Sports to discuss some interesting trends revolving around the Big 12 Conference and what’s coming up in the near future.
With this being the third iteration of Tillery’s Trends, I plan to discuss players, coaches, teams, betting lines, top stories, and anything else that stands out about the world of college sports.
On the menu for today, we take a look at the Preseason Big 12 Basketball Poll, Big 12 coaching swagger, and some wacky games in the 2023 college football season. Enjoy!
PORTAL POWER
The transfer portal is nuts.
The Big 12 Conference officially released their picks for the Preseason All-Big 12 Team on Thursday and while multiple teams were represented, the transfer portal had the most representatives of any team.
Three of the five selections for the Preseason All-Big 12 Team are making their debut in 2023-24 as new members of the Big 12 Conference including Kansas’ Hunter Dickinson, Houston’s LJ Cryer, and Texas’ Max Abmas.
Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year honors were awards to Kansas center Hunter Dickinson who joined the Jayhawks in the portal after some solid play at Michigan. Dickinson is one of the highest-profile transfers in the history of college basketball as he averaged 18.5 points, and nine rebounds per game last season at Michigan.
Four more transfers were represented on the list as honorable mentions with Baylor’s RayJ Dennis, Kansas State duo Arthur Kaluma and Tylor Perry, and West Virginia’s Jesse Edwards. The age of the portal continues to level up.
BIG 12 SWAGGER
A video popped up on my feed on Friday morning that I absolutely had to talk about. Colorado head coach Deion Sanders and his staff linked up with Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang and provided the Wildcats with some new gear for the upcoming season.
While Sanders providing his custom shades to each member of the Wildcats coaching staff is a pretty cool gift, the thing that caught my attention was the sheer amount of charisma in the future of the Big 12 Conference.
Deion Sanders took over the world of college football as the head coach of Colorado, while Jerome Tang did a similar thing in his first year being awarded the Naismith Coach of the Year Award. The future of the Big 12 is bright with charismatic leaders like Jerome Tang, Deion Sanders, and many more answering the call.
SOME GAMES NEED BEER
Even though it’s been well-documented at this point that football and beer is an incredible pairing, Thursday night’s game between Houston and West Virginia confirmed that fact.
West Virginia took the lead late in the game on a 50-yard touchdown on fourth down, before Houston flipped the script on a last second Hail Mary to secure the win 41-39.
Plain and simple, Dana Holgorsen speaks for all fans watching the game. When 14 points are scored in the final minute of any football game. I think it’s a safe time to crack open a beer.
