Top Five Takeaways From Saturday’s Big 12 Basketball Games
Here are five thoughts on the Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball games on Saturday, as the men played their first league games of the season.
While there were no Top 25 matchups on the men’s side, the women’s side featured Texas going to West Virginia in the only ranked matchup on the women’s side.
Here are five thoughts on the day.
Do I Really Have To Write About Officiating?
Yet, I must. And, believe me there’s about 50 other things I’d rather write about than this.
But, if you watched Big 12 basketball on Saturday you know why we’re here. Roll the tape.
Flagrant or no? You be the judge. pic.twitter.com/me8fFul9RO
— Heartland College Sports (@Heartland_CS) January 6, 2024
I’ve watched about three different angles of this, some clearer than others. I don’t think that’s a flagrant foul. But it’s important to know the definition of a flagrant one, which is what TCU’s Ernest Udeh Jr. was called for with a minute left and TCU up two points.
Here’s the definition, per the NCAA: “A flagrant 1 foul is two shots and the ball and that means excessive in nature or unnecessary or avoidable, uncalled for or not required by the circumstances of the play.”
Now watch it again and apply the definition. Was that excessive or unnecessary? I don’t think so (we can quibble about unnecessary, but this is basketball and contact is going to happen). Was it avoidable? Frankly, no. Was it uncalled for not required? Well, I would contend that any contact to anyone’s face is uncalled for and not required.
That was a basketball play, pure and simple. I’ve played basketball since I was a kid and, frankly, arms get thrown and contact gets made. When I was 17, I was elbowed in the mouth and lost a tooth in a pick-up game. I saw a girl get poked in the eye in the game I went to on Saturday — accidentally — and she had to stumble to her bench. No flagrant was called. Heck, no foul was called.
I was at my game while Kansas and TCU were playing and, predictably, my phone blew up. Social media blew up, and we documented much of it. Fran Fraschilla — about as knowledgeable as anyone about the rule and how to apply it — disagreed with it being called a flagrant. So did Gene Steratore, who does rules analysis for CBS and, oh by the way, reffed college games for a long time.
After the game, TCU coach Jamie Dixon didn’t address it, telling media he wanted to focus on his team’s fight in the two-point loss. Kansas forward Hunter Dickinson — who was the recipient of what was called the flagrant foul — said he wasn’t sure it was a flagrant at first. He said it just hurt and that he was fortunate to get the call.
Kansas coach Bill Self said he thought it was an easy call, but he also said it wasn’t intentional and that Dickinson “sold it well.” (hat tips to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Steven Johnson and the Kansas City Star’s Shreyas Laddha).
It’s time for officials to revisit what a flagrant is and isn’t. I think the only reason that call was made was because contact was made with the face. If that’s what we want to referee, then OK. I get the player safety issues involved in that. But the definition of a flagrant one doesn’t say anything about contact to the head. To me, that was a play-on.
Kansas won for 10 different reasons and TCU lost for 10 different reasons on Saturday. No one thing leads to a win or loss. But we’ve also got to start letting players decide games down the stretch. As I’ve been watching games across the country this season I’m seeing more inconsistency than ever before. That’s worrisome.
Texas Women Prove It
Saturday was validation in not dropping the No. 10 Texas Longhorns out of the top tier of my women’s Big 12 power rankings after their loss to Baylor last Saturday.
Texas went to Lubbock on Wednesday and dispatched of Texas Tech with relative ease, 74-47. Lubbock can be a house of horrors for the Longhorns but they simply took care of business.
Saturday was the women’s game I was most interested in. Texas was in Morgantown to face West Virginia, which has been ranked for two weeks and has one of the best pressure defenses in the country. Texas got forward Taylor Jones back from injury. I expected a close game.
Texas was having none of that.
The Longhorns won, 70-49, as their own high-pressure defense held WVU to 26.7 percent shooting. That more than offset the 24 turnovers WVU forced out of Texas.
Jones returned and scored eight points off the bench. Coach Vic Schaefer stuck with his recent starting five and got 15 points from Shaylee Gonzales while Aaliyah Moore scored 12 off the bench.
It only reinforced that there is a ‘Big Three’ in the Big 12 right now and it’s Baylor, Kansas State and Texas. We’ll learn a lot more about Kansas State next week when the Wildcats — who to this point have only played new Big 12 teams — will host Oklahoma and Texas.
Texas Tech Men Takes It To Texas
It took nearly the entire day, but a ranked team fell in Big 12 action, as No. 20 Texas lost to Texas Tech, 78-67, at home. I hesitate to call it an upset because, well, this is the Big 12 and everyone is tough.
Plus, it’s Tech and Texas and that’s always something to behold.
Anyway, Texas is now 2-3 against high-major teams. That includes losses to UConn, Marquette and now Texas Tech. So the Red Raiders are the first unranked high major team the Longhorns have lost to.
Tech went into the Moody Center and shot 53% from the floor and 47% from the 3-point line. That’s a strong clip on the road, led by the 21 points from Pop Isaacs, along with 15 points each from Joe Toussaint and Warren Washington. With Devan Cambridge out for the season, this is a great start to the Grant McCasland Big 12 era.
As for Texas, no one panic. No need for that. But Texas wasn’t sharp. The Longhorns’ 14 turnovers led to 23 Texas points. Max Abmas drained six 3-pointers, but they were his only field goals of the game. Tyrese Hunter had 20 points. Dillon Mitchell had 16 points and 11 rebounds. Texas outrebounded Tech, 38-27.
There are going to be games like this in the Big 12, where you play well enough to win but still don’t win. That goes for everyone. It was just Texas’ night on Saturday.
TCU Women’s Tumble
The rise of TCU’s women’s program under first-year coach Matt Campbell is one of the better stories of the season so far. But their 13-0 start in non-conference came with an asterisk. The Horned Frogs had played just one high-major program before Big 12 play and that was Nebraska. Given where the Huskers are right now, that’s a quality win.
Even TCU’s Big 12-opening win over BYU came with a bit of skepticism. The Cougars are one of the four new teams to the league and they’re off to an 0-3 start.
So, as TCU started this week, I was really interested to see how things went. Things did not go well.
First, the Horned Frogs went to Baylor and lost, 71-50. I watched that game. TCU was impressive the first half on both ends. But, in the second half, the gap was clear. Baylor was deeper, had a wider array of shooters and figured out TCU’s defensive scheme. Plus, Baylor was the first team to make guard Madison Conner, one of the top 3-point shooters in the country, look human.
TCU returned home to face Oklahoma State on Saturday. Would they bounce back? No, the Horned Frogs lost, 67-59.
While Conner had 20 points, TCU was down 14 points at the half. The Horned Frogs rallied, with guard Jaden Owens adding a career-high 19 points.
If that’s not bad enough, center, Sedona Prince — who has been one of the most productive players in the conference this season — is out with a hand injury. TCU’s release noted that she would miss “weeks.” That’s 21.2 points and 10.6 rebounds now on the bench.
TCU will fall out of the Top 25 on Monday, but that’s not the end of the season. Nor is Prince’s injury. TCU has an impressive head start in getting to the NCAA Tournament.
But the Horned Frogs’ margin of error just narrowed considerably as they enter next week’s action.
Just A Reminder
The Big 12 men had one heckuva non-conference run, didn’t they?
The Big 12 leads the nation with a .812 (147-34) non-conference win percentage and stands alone as the only league with a non-conference record above .800. pic.twitter.com/9JjI76rcZm
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) January 4, 2024
If you read my projections piece on Saturday, then you know what that means to each team’s postseason hopes.
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