Defending champion Kansas became a slight underdog when Marcus Smart (Value Add 1st Team All-American) stayed at Oklahoma State. Iowa State already beat Michigan and could well contend when Melvin Ejim comes back for conference play. Freshman phenom Andrew Wiggins of Kansas ranks as a Value Add 2nd Team All-American. The final three members of the All-Conference 1st team are Georges Niang (Iowa St.), Phil Forte (Oklahoma St.) and Cory Jefferson (Baylor).
Baylor played Syracuse tough in a 74-67 loss, and Oklahoma was upset on a neutral court by Memphis after destroying them earlier at home. Kansas handled Duke pretty easily at 94-83 and is most likely to battle Oklahoma State for the title despite the excellent squads in Baylor and Iowa State.
The PROJECTED Value Add projections below for Conference teams and players are meant to give a GENERAL idea of how good each could be. They are by no means an exact science like the ACTUAL www.valueaddbasketball.com figures: Rnk, Big 12, Value Add
3, Oklahoma St., 41.76
6, Kansas, 41.43
20, Baylor, 36.67
25, Iowa St., 27.72
60, West Virginia, 24.36
66, Texas, 19.51
73, Kansas St., 19.53
79, Oklahoma, 16.42
147, Texas Tech, 11.05
194, Texas Christian, 11.83
Preseason All-Conference/Projected Value Add Rank (based purely on average progression from stats prior to this season)
4, Smart, Marcus, Oklahoma St.-PG NBA
8, Wiggins, Andrew, Kansas-SF NBA
20, Niang, Georges, Iowa St.-
24, Forte, Phil, Oklahoma St.-
31, Jefferson, Cory, Baylor-PF NBA
65, Austin, Isaiah, Baylor-C NBA
74, Embiid, Joel, Kansas-C NBA
76, Brown, Markel, Oklahoma St.-
115, Ejim, Melvin, Iowa St.-will return
120, Ellis, Perry, Kansas-NBA Pros
146, Selden, Wayne, Kansas-SG/SF NBA
323, Murray, Aaric, West Virginia-PF NBA
512, Kabongo, Myck, Texas-PG NBA
582, Heslip, Brady, Baylor-SG NBA
919, M’Baye, Amath, Oklahoma-PF NBA
1024, Nash, Le’Bryan, Oklahoma St.-SF/PF NBA
1310, Black, Tarik, Kansas-PF/C NBA