Basketball is one of those games any team can have a bad night and lose.
1 Like
Auburn is the best team in the country right now. UH will be the best team in the country come early April. Print it.
1 Like
Meh - it’s early. Some teams will get better over the next month and some will get worse.
I wish the Big 12 was showing a little better but oh well.
2 Likes
Man, so many people are underselling Auburn. They are a REALLY good team this year. We should have beaten them, especially having a double digit lead in the second half. But losing to that team early in the year is not a huge negative. I think Auburn could easily and comfortably win the SEC this year.
4 Likes
To your points, Dayton arguably had it worse in the nightcap.
Iowa State blew an 18 point lead, and Dayton was up 21 in the 2nd half.
Craziness.
That’s not unfair. And you did give the hot take disclaimer, so it’s fine with me.
Lipsey is absolutely overrated in the sense that he is not even the best player on this team. Keshon Gilbert is.
But Lipsey does have the benefit of being the quarterback of the team, so to speak, as the point guard. And an elite PG can effect the game in a lot of ways that sometimes dont show up on the stat sheet.
I think he is an elite PG, but you’re right that he needs to play better. I said it myself, he played terrible. Keshon needs to stay on the floor.
Lipsey was passive in the way you want your QB to slide or protect his body but it takes some of his sizzle away. Tamin has been playing through pretty significant injury for both of his two years at ISU, so it’s a fine line between protecting his body and losing his effectiveness.
I anticipate you will see him in attack mode again tonight, for better or worse.
To add Bama lost 12 games last year, got hot at the end of the year and made the F4. This time of year doesn’t usually reflect what the year holds for a team.
How many times has Memphis looked liked a F4 contender in non conference and get into conference season and turn into the Memphis we all love lol.
7 Likes
Just checking in.
Does Iowa State still have the best class in the Big 12 in 2025?
Hahah. Just kidding. Awesome commitment. Congrats Coogs! And the Cyclones still have an amazing class coming in too lol.
14 Likes
The officials need to get in mid-season form themselves. Not just in the Big 12 (ask Dan Hurley 
).
What I see as great defense gets called for a foul way too often. Frequently by an official further from the play than another official. Several times a game I will still see no foul on replays.
I think bad calls occur more against the Coogs because of how aggressive and active their defense is.
Coogs constant double team on the ball is relentless. Coogs get called for several phantom calls every game.
Generalizing, as the season proceeds the officials will get better with officiating and their consistency will improve.
1 Like
I personally think Houston fouls on every play. And that’s not a knock. I think kelvin Sampson wants to set the tone that it hurts to play Houston. I think they get away with a lot of fouls not being called just bc refs know it would be a 4 hour game.
1 Like
Nobody cares.
1 Like
I’m a simple man, I see a Memphis diss post, I click the heart…
2 Likes
ASU is 7-1.
In part because of freshman Joson Sanon.
He decomitted late from Arizona. Im sure the Wildcats wish they had him
SEC basketball surging at the worst time in the big picture.
Hopefully the conference does better and dominates the post season.
Maybe we can pull an ACC and get a couple teams to have deep runs even on a down year
The Battle with the Big East starts tonight.
Big 12-BIG EAST Battle Schedule
December 3 Cincinnati at Villanova
BYU at Providence
December 4 Baylor at Connecticut
Kansas at Creighton
DePaul at Texas Tech
Marquette at Iowa State
December 6 Georgetown at West Virginia
Xavier at TCU
December 7 Kansas State at St. John’s
Butler at Houston
December 8 Oklahoma State at Seton Hall
In general, I don’t disagree. We are very physical so lots of foul calls come with the territory. But I agree with @houstonironman that we also get a lot of phantom calls based on that reputation. When Sharp fouled out against Alabama, the last 2 fouls he picked up were because an Alabama player tripped over their own feet. The 5th foul gave Wrightsell two free throws to send the game to OT. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect the refs to be better than what they’ve shown. All I’m really asking is just call what you see and stop guessing. Refs are ruining some pretty good games.
3 Likes
Sure. For sure both things can be true. Houston fouls a lot but also every time a guy trips over his own feet, it shouldn’t be called on Houston.
I think Kelvin Sampson could absolutely coach intense defense with out fouling. Mick Cronin was elite at it. But I think fouls equate effort & intensity to Sampson and he will live with those results.
Houston practices intense. Hell I got in early to watch their “shoot around” at fifth third arena and it was a damn slaughter house. My guess is that Houston practices are 5x more physical than the actual games are. That said I do think Sampson needs to trust his bench more because playing with such intensity especially back to back is going to get guys injured at worst or at best not playing up to their standard because of fatigue. It’s tough tho, because the thing that makes them great also hurts them sometimes.
On a side note… kelvin sampson should hire an offensive guru. If he had guys running plays like mark pope while also defending the life out of the ball, then they are unbeatable. But this specific Houston team reminds me of a lot of mick Cronin teams that were elite defensively but played iso and stall ball on offense but lacked a creator.
1 Like
Biggest surprise so far has to be WVU beating #3 Gonzaga.
This may be somewhat incompatible. I think the intensity with which we play defense necessitates slowing it down on offense just to avoid outright fatigue. I do hate ISO ball though, especially when we don’t have the stars to make that kind of offense succeed. We should be running Golden State Warriors multi-screens for LJ and Sharp to get off 3s. I can’t figure out why we don’t.