With the conference season still beginning to shake itself out, there is still ample room for each team to run through its own peaks and valleys. Look no further than the No. 14 Kansas Jayhawks and Darryn Peterson.
The point is, every team is trying to get their resume neatly organized ahead of March, so stating that you know what the best of any team in the country looks like is a fallacy with so much of the season left to play.
The daunting Big 12
It doesn’t help when the league you are going up against on a weekly basis is comprised of six teams in the AP Top 25, like the Big 12 is.
To make matters worse, it is not just the AP that tells you that the Big 12 may really be the toughest league behind the NBA, but it is also the computers, too. ESPN’s BPI measurements have calculated that six teams from the Big 12 are inside of their top-25.
For those wondering what the BPI measures, here is a short excerpt from ESPN itself.
“(BPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward. BPI represents how many points above or below average a team is.”
When you hem down on the Big 12 specifically, ESPN also has its own projections for projected wins in both conference play and total record.
The Jayhawks are currently projected to finish with an 11.7-6.3 record inside the Big 12, and a 21.7-9.3 overall record, with a 1.6% of winning the conference, which ranks sixth-best in the conference.
Time to prove that wrong
Without looking too far into the dizzying Big 12 stretch, the Jayhawks are set to host No. 13 BYU in what will be one of college basketball’s most anticipated matchups, with Kansas hosting ESPN’s “College Gameday” ahead of tipoff on Saturday, as the nation will be anxious to see two potential top picks in AJ Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson square off.
Tip is set for 3:30 p.m. CT with streaming available on ESPN.
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