Previous weeks:
#12 Missouri Tigers
#11 Colorado Buffaloes
#10 Texas Tech Red Raiders
#9 Iowa St. Cyclones
#8 Oklahoma Sooners
#7 Baylor Bears
I'm going to apologize for how much this one sucks, but it's Nebraska.
Yet again, I'd like to reiterate that I think all teams from 4-8 are about the same strength and it will just depend on who gets hot and what the schedule looks like for who finishes in what spots. That said your number 6 team in the conference is…
The Nebraska Cornhuskers
Who they lost: The big loss for Nebraska is coach Barry Collier. After six years at Nebraska he left to take over the role of Athletic Director at his Alma Mater, Butler. As far as players go the big departures are those of Jason Dourisseau and Wes Wilkinson. Nebraska will miss the 23 pts put up by these two every game. Sophomore Guard Marcus Walker has also left the team, he was second on the team in assists while only playing 18 minutes per game.
What happened last year: Nebraska had an unimpressive but successful non-conference campaign last season going 12-5. As the conference race started to heat up Nebraska found itself in the middle of a wide open race for fourth in the conference. With Colorado and Texas A&M Nebraska was battling it out over the closing weeks of conference play, but with an 11 pt loss at A&M their hopes for the NCAA tournament went out the window. They closed the season with losses to Kansas State and Missouri.
Who's coming to help: The Huskers welcome a group of big swingmen to campus and add 7'0 Croatian Toni Soda to the roster. The big change at Nebraska is new head coach Doc Sadler. He comes in after taking UTEP back to the NCAA tournament for a second consecutive appearance. Sadler comes from UTEP after being the head coach at Arkansas Fort-Smith (these schools should be familiar to us by now.) I don't know much about these recruits so I need some help from some Nebraska people on what type of games these guys play.
Who's coming back: Two words: Aleks Maric. This guy is going to be the anchor of this team. He comes back after averaging over ten points and eight rebounds per game last season. The 6'11 Junior should be one of the best big mean in the league. Also back is sophomore guard Jamel White who should be much improved over last season.
The Breakdown: So the question is, why would a team with hardly anyone coming back, and with good but not great recruits be the #6 team ahead of Baylor? Well as was the case with some teams lower down, with the Big 12 North being the weaker division some teams are going to fall into wins. So despite the fact that I think Nebraska is probably going to be a worse team than Baylor and possibly Oklahoma, they're going to fall into a few wins and thus end up somewhere in the 4 to 8 range of teams.
I did this one kind of in a hurry so I may be adding stuff to this one as the week goes along, and Nebraska message boards aren't exactly buzzing for basketball season, but you get the idea. I'm a huge fan of the new coach though and I think it's going to work out well for Nebraska in the long run.
#12 Missouri Tigers
#11 Colorado Buffaloes
#10 Texas Tech Red Raiders
#9 Iowa St. Cyclones
#8 Oklahoma Sooners
#7 Baylor Bears
I'm going to apologize for how much this one sucks, but it's Nebraska.
Yet again, I'd like to reiterate that I think all teams from 4-8 are about the same strength and it will just depend on who gets hot and what the schedule looks like for who finishes in what spots. That said your number 6 team in the conference is…
The Nebraska Cornhuskers
Who they lost: The big loss for Nebraska is coach Barry Collier. After six years at Nebraska he left to take over the role of Athletic Director at his Alma Mater, Butler. As far as players go the big departures are those of Jason Dourisseau and Wes Wilkinson. Nebraska will miss the 23 pts put up by these two every game. Sophomore Guard Marcus Walker has also left the team, he was second on the team in assists while only playing 18 minutes per game.
What happened last year: Nebraska had an unimpressive but successful non-conference campaign last season going 12-5. As the conference race started to heat up Nebraska found itself in the middle of a wide open race for fourth in the conference. With Colorado and Texas A&M Nebraska was battling it out over the closing weeks of conference play, but with an 11 pt loss at A&M their hopes for the NCAA tournament went out the window. They closed the season with losses to Kansas State and Missouri.
Who's coming to help: The Huskers welcome a group of big swingmen to campus and add 7'0 Croatian Toni Soda to the roster. The big change at Nebraska is new head coach Doc Sadler. He comes in after taking UTEP back to the NCAA tournament for a second consecutive appearance. Sadler comes from UTEP after being the head coach at Arkansas Fort-Smith (these schools should be familiar to us by now.) I don't know much about these recruits so I need some help from some Nebraska people on what type of games these guys play.
Who's coming back: Two words: Aleks Maric. This guy is going to be the anchor of this team. He comes back after averaging over ten points and eight rebounds per game last season. The 6'11 Junior should be one of the best big mean in the league. Also back is sophomore guard Jamel White who should be much improved over last season.
The Breakdown: So the question is, why would a team with hardly anyone coming back, and with good but not great recruits be the #6 team ahead of Baylor? Well as was the case with some teams lower down, with the Big 12 North being the weaker division some teams are going to fall into wins. So despite the fact that I think Nebraska is probably going to be a worse team than Baylor and possibly Oklahoma, they're going to fall into a few wins and thus end up somewhere in the 4 to 8 range of teams.
I did this one kind of in a hurry so I may be adding stuff to this one as the week goes along, and Nebraska message boards aren't exactly buzzing for basketball season, but you get the idea. I'm a huge fan of the new coach though and I think it's going to work out well for Nebraska in the long run.