It seems that a lot of games are tight and with sizable scoring droughts. Some of that can be attributed to poor shooting but there have been plenty of good defensive plays too. I say this while watching the Sunflower Showdown. There was a stretch in which neither team scored for a few minutes. And it seems that generally there are several low scoring games.

I think that's true

The teams that also have good to great offense have great potential. I'd love to see the conference with 10 teams in the Dance.

historian said:

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It seems that a lot of games are tight and with sizable scoring droughts. Some of that can be attributed to poor shooting but there have been plenty of good defensive plays too. I say this while watching the Sunflower Showdown. There was a stretch in which neither team scored for a few minutes. And it seems that generally there are several low scoring games.

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It's kind of a team-by-team deal.

We're obviously much better offensively than we are defensively. The same is true of TCU and Texas. And BYU is better on offense as well.

But a lot of the mid-tier teams are really good defensively. That's certainly true of teams like Tech, Iowa State, UCF, K-State, and Cincinnati, and it allows the latter three of those teams to be in a lot of games they shouldn't be, especially at home.

Quinton said:

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It's having a bunch of physical tough good not great teams. The top end is a little overrated honestly. But it's hard to get up every night.

Ku is thin and plays to the level of competition. Houston plays 100% always but lacks some top end offensive talent. Bu is the most talented but lacks cohesive, sustained focus/intensity and struggles with defensive coaching.

It's strength is everyone can play hard and rise up at home.

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It's not overrated compared to any other league this year. Other than the possible exception of UConn, which is starting to play really well again, there are no great teams anywhere. Purdue is doing what they always do in the regular season before checking out early in March, Arizona has some really questionable losses and Alabama, Tennesee and Auburn all have .500 or below records in QUAD 1 games.

I'd put the Big 12's top tier against anyone else's this season.

I dunno....I think our coaching of defense has improved exponentially and made adjustments since the beginning of the season. Implementing some zone has been a very nice wrinkle to keep offenses off-balance. We are still primarily a man defense but that zone gives teams something else to think about. Our zone had ISU befuddled for a long stretch in the first half, which directrly attributed to our win. If it wasn't for the 2nd half referee shenanigans we would have won handily, in large part to our defensive improvements.

Sample size is wayyyyy to small to say the D has improved. We literally just got torched for a hundo burger by TCU in our own house just over a week ago. And UCF lit us up in the 1st half. Credit to the Bears for locking them down in the 2nd half. But UCF is near the bottom of the league offensively.
Now the ISU game, that was a positive step for the D. But in order to say the defense is improved im gonna need to see it against the better offenses in the league. The 2 games this week will be good barometers on whether the D has actually improved.

I agree. But I was responding to the part about coaching. Our coaches clearly are working to improve things and that has resulted in 2 straight wins. We simply don't have the personnel to be a great defense or even a good defense, but if we can at least be adequate we will be in a position to win games.

You literally just named the top end and then said other than them. Not a knock buts it getting slightly overhyped. The middle is crazy though, I agree there.

Quinton said:

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You literally just named the top end and then said other than them. Not a knock buts it getting slightly overhyped. The middle is crazy though, I agree there.

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No, I didn't. I said UConn is the only team in that top group that might be better than the Big 12's upper echelon. Every other team I listed, which are who we'd be comparing our league's best teams to, are every bit as flawed. If our best teams are overrated, every good team this year is. Because there's not a single great team in college basketball this season.