It’s important to remember before reading on that some of the best ideas begin at the local tavern.
The spirits of the Fraunces Tavern helped spark the gunpowder of American revolutionaries in the late 18th century. That all worked out for the best.
Herb Kelleher, that clever visionary, found inspiration in something better than a mere Coca-Cola, too. He sketched out a business model for Southwest Airlines on a bar nap.
That’s resourcefulness.
Granted, the quality of examples probably dwindle significantly after those, but my local tavern, too, is a center of community, so to speak, where many of the grand ideas of the day are exchanged and scrutinized.
A topic in particular has been a hot one of late for this think tank, which gathers on a semi-too-regular basis.
Big 12 basketball.
One, or actually a few, are of the belief that no more than six Big 12 Conference schools are worthy of NCAA Tournament inclusion.
The argument goes something like this: The Big 12 is not the usual Big 12 — one of the nation’s top basketball conferences in the recent past — but something more akin to Oklahoma beer.
Exhibit No. 1 is No. 17 Kansas.
No. 15 Kansas State and No. 7 Texas Tech weren’t co-champions because they toppled a vintage Jayhawks team. Both are good basketball teams, but neither had to deal with Danny Manning and the like. Kansas was young, without key pieces and dealing with distractions all season.
Exhibit No. 2 is West Virginia.
The Mountaineers had their worst season since joining the Big 12 in 2012. In the last four seasons, West Virginia has finished in the top half of the conference with no fewer than 25 victories in each of those years.
West Virginia was a mess this season, bringing up the back end of the Big 12. The Mountaineers are 13-19, but still playing after upsetting Oklahoma, one of those presumed to have clinched a spot in the NCAA Tournament before Wednesday’s games.
Without those two at their best, the competition of the conference was not as good or as deep, and, in fact, no one, except for perhaps a more mature Kansas State, which returned everybody from last year’s Elite Eight run, was better than a year ago.
Texas Tech has developed into a very good team, with the league’s player of the year and two guys, Matt Mooney and Davide Moretti, shooting as confidently as any of the next guys, and as a unit probably playing better than anybody right now in the Big 12, but the Red Raiders aren’t as good as the team that went to the Elite Eight a year ago.
(Full disclosure: I’m a Texas Tech guy. I love the way they play and how they’re coached. It’s masterful. I generally vote Republican, too, but objectivity and intellectual honesty requires that I acknowledge a Teapot Dome scandal is a Teapot Dome scandal.)
It’s hard to recall only three Big 12 teams being ranked at this point in the season. Seems as often as a sighting of Halley’s Comet.
The predominant voice from the line of barstools on this thing about the Big 12 only deserving six teams is a former college basketball assistant at, of all places, TCU.
He is of the belief – adamant is a better word — that only Kansas State, Tech, Kansas, Baylor, Iowa State and Oklahoma – well, before stepping in it on Wednesday — should be among those 68 teams.
On the outside would be TCU and Texas, unless the Longhorns can find a way to beat Kansas on Thursday.
The Frogs need another victory, he believed.
The bracketologists don’t agree with him.
TCU (20-12) staggered home at the finish of the regular season, losing six of eight. However, those victories were to Iowa State and Texas. The Frogs beat them each twice.
Noted bracketologist Jerry Palm, the oracle of the NCAA Tournament, said that after TCU’s victory over Oklahoma State, the Frogs have leaped off the bubble and into the field of 68.
The Sooners would still likely join them even after a bad loss to West Virginia on Wednesday. OU swept TCU.
Eight teams from the conference are among the top 47 in NET rankings, an important, albeit complicated, metric. Texas is ranked 39th. Yet, the Longhorns, who played a mountain of a non-conference schedule, are trying to stay out of .500 purgatory. Selection committees have traditionally not liked at-large .500 teams.
In the end, the Big 12 might get as many as last year’s seven teams — perhaps one more — into the tournament. That would seem to be an injustice to last season’s Big 12, except that all that’s relevant from year to year is what has happened in the current season.
Most of them also might not be around after the first weekend.
The Big 12 can probably thank the Pac-12, which has only three teams in the top 68 of the NET.
Those guys on the west coast will need the counsel and know-how of Lori Loughlin or Felicity Huffman to get more than one in. If they get three, someone tip off the authorities.
In the meantime, waiting to see how all this develops will require refreshments.
Thursday’s Big 12 Tourney games
Game 3: No. 4 Baylor vs. No. 5 Iowa State | 11:30 a.m. | ESPN/ESPN2
Game 4: No. 1 Kansas State vs. No. 8 TCU | 1:30 p.m. | ESPN/ESPN2
Game 5: No. 2 Texas Tech vs. No. 10 West Virginia | 6 p.m. | ESPN/ESPN2
Game 6: No. 3 Kansas vs. No. 6 Texas | 8 p.m. | ESPN/ESPN2