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.
Arizona Will Win the Big 12
It didn’t take long for the Arizona Wildcats to find themselves back on top of the Big 12 standings. After back-to-back losses a week ago to Kansas and Texas Tech, the Wildcats have now followed that up with wins over BYU and Houston.
Arizona was able to get the best road win in the conference after taking down the Cougars at home, which is nearly impossible to do. With the win, Arizona is now back in control of its own destiny and is a game up over Houston with the head-to-head win.
I know the Wildcats still have to play Kansas and Iowa State in the final two weeks of the season but it’s hard not to see them end up winning the Big 12 regular season title and cementing themselves as a one seed in the NCAA Tournament.
West Virginia Won’t Make It
A week ago, the Mountaineers were riding high after a nice road win against UCF. They were 7-5 in Big 12 play, and their NET ranking was in the lower 50’s. West Virginia had a legitimate chance to make a run and get into the big dance.
But after an ugly loss to Utah last week and falling to TCU on Saturday, their chances have greatly diminished. Now sitting at .500 in conference action and with a NET ranking in the 60’s, their hopes have dwindled.
West Virginia has four games left against Oklahoma State, BYU, Kansas State, and UCF. It feels like they would have to win out at this point to give themselves a shot, and I just don’t trust this team enough to do it.
BYU Will Be Fine
When the news of Richie Saunders broke, I was ready to sell all my BYU stock and then some. To be fair, even with Saunders, the Cougars had lost four straight games at one point, and things weren’t looking good.
But since then, BYU has gone 3-1 in its last four games, with its lone loss coming against Arizona, which is excusable. It worried me because Saunders was one of their top three scoring options along with AJ Dybansta and Robert Wright.
Of course, AJ is the leader of that team and is nearly impossible to stop at times when he’s on a roll. But it was nice to see others step up on Saturday against a top ten Iowa State team with guys like Kennard Davis and Mihailo Boskovic when Rober Wright didn’t have his best game.
Between AJ Dybansta, Robert Wright, and these other guys stepping up, the Cougars are still a very good team. There will be some struggles at times without Richie, but this team is still capable of playing with anyone in the country.
Houston, We Have a Problem
I never thought in a million years I would say this, but the Houston Cougars are in a bit of trouble. After losing to Kansas on Monday night, Houston has now lost three straight games for the first time in nearly a decade.
One of the biggest issues during this three-game skid has been the offense. The Cougars have failed to score more than 67 points in their last three games, which is unusual. Plus, outside of star freshman Kingston Flemings, Houston hasn’t had anyone else step up on the offensive end.
Houston relies on a ton of jump shots, and they haven’t been falling. In fact, in their last two losses, they have shot under 36% from the field, which isn’t going to win you many games unless your defense is elite.
With the loss, the Cougars are now 11-4 in Big 12 play and likely out of the Big 12 title picture at this point. But the good news is that they have a shot to bounce back with their final three games being against Colorado, Baylor, and Oklahoma State.
