What happened to Big 12 basketball?

Big 12 basketball was finally putting things together last year. We sent six teams into the wolves of March Madness and the Kansas Jayhawks came out on top of the 65-team dogfight to be crowned National Champions.  A freshman from Kansas State by the name of Michael Beasley won nearly every national freshman of the year honor and was even voted by rivals.com as the nation’s top player.

Oh, how things have changed.

The Kansas Jayhawks are…average?

Keep in mind this is not Billy Donovan’s 2006 Florida Gator team that won the national championship, then returned all five starters and won it again in 2007.  No, the Jayhawks were lucky enough to head down a different path.  They lost five players to the NBA draft, including their top four leading scorers; Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers, Darnell Jackson and Darrell Arthur.  That’s more than 50-points per game that they need to replace.  There is no overnight cure for that, but they do have a freshman beginning to shine light on the program once more.

Tyshawn Taylor was sporadic during the beginning of the year, committing four turnovers in a road loss to Syracuse and netting only three points in a devastating home loss to Massachusetts that dropped Kansas out of the top 25 rankings.  However as Big 12 play is beginning he seems to be finding his own.  He went for 20-points against Kansas State and 14 against Colorado, helping Kansas open up league play at 3-0.  The question remains though, will Kansas lose another potential star to the NBA draft?  Some experts are already predicting Taylor could be a first round pick if he declares after the season.

Bright Spot: Blake Griffin

The one bright spot in the Big 12 this year has to be the play of the Oklahoma Sooners, who are led by the Griffin brothers, most notably younger brother Blake Griffin who is putting up ridiculous numbers this season. After a dominating freshman season that saw him averaging nearly a double double per game, Griffin has done the scary, but inevitable: improved.

Eighteen games into the season, he has 14 double doubles and is averaging 22 points per game, eight more than his freshman campaign. Not to mention he’s #1 in the nation in rebounding at 13.4 grabs per game. He’s led the Sooners to a #5 ranking and is a front-runner for the Naismith Award, which is given to the nation’s best player.

While Oklahoma is a lock for the dance in a barely mediocre Big 12 conference, it will be interesting to see how Griffin can handle the size and presence of the teams on the east coast. I don’t think I’m the only person who would love to see Griffin square off against North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough in March.

And the #1 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft is…

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