Predicted Order of Finish:
1. Kansas
2. Texas
3. Texas A&M
4. Oklahoma State
5. Texas Tech
6. Kansas State
7. Baylor
8. Oklahoma
9. Nebraska
10. Missouri
11. Iowa State
12. Colorado


Notes:

Expect Iowa State to struggle mightily after losing most of last years team.

Texas is young but they will reload, not rebuild. The conference as a whole is down this year anyways so expect no worse than a 3rd place finish.

Watch Bob Huggins at Kansas State. Though he's probably my least favorite coach he sure can recruit (whether it's done legally or not is another arguement). He's got some talent coming in and I think Kansas State could be pretty decent this year. I'm not drinking the kool-aid that some are but I think they will be an NIT team this season with a small chance at the tourney.



Darkhorse: Texas A&M. They are quietly building a very nice program in College Station and they will make other teams take notice this year.



My All Conference Team:

G Jarius Jackson (sr.) - Texas Tech (yes I'm assuming he will be playing by the end of December)
G - Brandon Rush (so.) - Kansas
F - Julian Wright (so.) - Kansas
F - Kevin Durant (fr.) - Texas
C - Aleks Maric (jr.) - Nebraska


Player of the Year: F Julian Wright - Kansas

Newcomer of the year: F Kevin Durant - Texas

Newcomers to Watch:

F Kevin Durant from Texas is going to be all-world folks. He was the #2 rated player in High School behind Greg Oden and due to Oden's injury Durant may very well be National Freshman of the Year. He's 6'10, has outside touch, and is freakishly athletic. He's even gained 20 lbs over the summer so he's no longer anorexically thin.

G D.J. Augustin from Texas. Texas lost just about the entire team from last year due to graduation and early entry into the draft. Augustin will be expected to handle most of the PG duties and should fare quite well.

F Darrell Arthur and G Sherrod Collins from Kansas. With all of the youth the Jayhawks have, you would think it would be hard for them to have any impact freshmen. Well here's TWO of them for you. Arthur and Collins are absolute studs and should contribute heavily from the get-go. Expect a nightmare for opposing teams when Arthur and Julian Wright are down low at the same time. Arthur's PT just went way up with the dismissal of C CJ Giles.

G/F Bill Walker from Kansas State. Walker wasn't supposed to join the Wildcats until next year but there were some eligibility issues with him at North College Hill High School in Cincy where he teamed with all-everything PG O.J. Mayo. Walker graduated high school early and headed down to Manhattan where he is expected to be eligible to play in late December. Walker is probably the most gifted athlete in the entire freshman class this year and will provide Vince Carter-like dunks. Still needs to work on his offensive skillset however.

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I cant believe 2 teams in the the Top 5 almost got beat by mid-majors . North Carolina rallied to win and Kansas last to Oral Roberts . Quite shocking

Yeah, Kansas has trouble defending the perimeter and in fairness, Oral Roberts shot 11 for 19 from 3 pt range. That's not going to happen very often, it was just a hot night for them.


As for UNC, keep an eye on Winthrop, this is a team that could very well pull an upset in the tourney. They almost beat Tennessee as a 15 seed last season and they returned 4 starters from that squad.


UNC and Kansas are still ridiculously young so they are going to have a lot of games this year that make you scratch your head.

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