Welcome to Tuesday Takes, where I give you four takes from the Big 12. It was a jam-packed week full of exciting news, but there were several things that caught my attention over the last few days.
Goodbye Jerome Tang
The best soap opera in college basketball has officially been cancelled after the news of Kansas State’s firing of Jerome Tang. Things got to the point where it was so bad that the postgame press conferences were more entertaining than the actual game itself.
Make no mistake about it, Jerome Tang deserved to be fired. While he took Kansas State to an elite eight three years ago, he has done next to nothing since then. In fact, Tang is 18-32 in Big 12 play over the past three seasons and has missed the tournament back-to-back years. And if you count this year, it will make three straight.
But what’s crazy is that Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor says that the school will attempt to fire him with cause in regards to his recent comments about the team. That battle will take place in court because Kansas State owes Jerome Tang around $18 million for his buyout. Maybe this will be the series finale to the soap opera in Manhattan, Kansas.
Richie Saunders
I was extremely high on BYU coming into the season and early on, they looked like a legitimate Big 12 title contender. AJ Dybantsa is a lottery pick and is the favorite to win Big 12 player of the year. When you throw in a guy like Dybantsa with a lineup that includes Richie Saunders and Robert Wright, there is a lot to like about the Cougars.
However, they have been on a bit of a recent skid prior to the last week or so. At one point they had lost four straight before beating Baylor and Colorado to get back on track. Both were tight games and it even took overtime to beat a bad Colorado team.
The flow of the offense was odd at times and was a bit too iso focused with Dybansta during that four-game skid. But even though they have won two straight, they have now lost Saudners for the rest of the season with a torn ACL. While BYU does still have star power, they don’t have the depth on the bench to replace a guy like Saunders which is very concerning for the future of this team.
TCU’s on Bubble Watch
Going into last weekend, Joe Lunardi had TCU as one of the first four teams out. Last Tuesday, the Horned Frogs knocked off a Top Ten Iowa State team at home and put themselves right back into the tournament conversation.
Now with their most recent win over Oklahoma State in Stillwater, TCU will likely be projected to get in when the newest rankings come out on Tuesday. The good news is that the Horned Frogs are in the top 45 NET rankings and have a fairly easy path to getting in.
Tuesday night TCU will face UCF on the road in Orlando and have a chance to notch another win against a tournament team. Outside of their game against Texas Tech in early March, there is a chance for the Horned Frogs to finish 5-1 in their next six games.
Epic Weekend at Hilton
There has been no shortage of great basketball at Hilton Coliseum over the years, but the recent three day stretch that the Iowa State men have had may never be topped. It all started on Saturday with an 18-point win over Kansas. After a slow start in that game, the Cyclones went on two incredible runs to end the first half and start the second.
Then on Big Monday, Iowa State hosted the first place Houston Cougars. That game was much closer than the one against Kansas as the Cyclones outlasted the Cougars in a 70-67 thriller.
That makes two top ten wins in a little over 48 hours. We saw two great home crowds and some great basketball along the way. They showed the country why they are a top ten team and have now put themselves not just back in the one seed conversation but the Big 12 title conversation as well.
