Big 12 Basketball Update & Power Rankings

January 28th Big 12 Basketball update

All season the attention being paid to Oklahoma has been because of National Player of the Year candidate Blake Griffin.

What’s not to like? Griffin is averaging 22.3 points and 14.0 rebounds per game. The Sooners are clearly the best team in the Big 12.

But the compliment has been in the form of sure-to-be conference freshman of the year in Willie Warren. The prodigy point guard has made the transition from playing high school ball to the college ranks pretty routine. Warren, who is from Fort Worth, Texas, is second on the team in scoring at 14.9 points per game. In his first 21 collegiate games, he has scored in double figures in 16 of them. He’s also shooting better than 50 percent from the field.

Warren is also doing a very respectable job of taking care of the basketball. He has a 1.4 assists/turnover ratio.

He led North Crowley high school to a Class 4A state championship in 2007-08 because of his athleticism. When you watch him, he doesn’t play the game with any timidity.

Warren knows when to drive to the basket, when to distribute and when to run the offense with patience.

However, most freshman encounter a flat spot somewhere in their season. Just watch Warren when the calendar flips to February. The fatigue from the grind of the season plays a role because of the travel, the physicality of the game and the academic schedule.

Should Warren withstand those elements, he should be one of the most fun players to watch in the country.

23 and counting

Texas coach Rick Barnes doesn’t put any stock into it. But Baylor sure does. The above number reflects Texas’ consecutive games winning streak against the Bears.

Baylor has not defeated Texas since February of 1998. Texas extended the streak Jan. 27 with a 78-72 win in Waco. Damion James collected 14 points and 12 rebounds, his seventh double-double of the year.

This was an absolute winnable game. But the Bears were absolutely cold all night. They shot 37.5% from the field while guard Tweety Carter missed all five of his free throws.

Texas appears to know that it is playing with house money with this streak because it knows it can keep this going forever. But Baylor is sure feeling the pressure of breaking the streak.

At the end of the game, Baylor coach Scott Drew was seen taking his water bottle and firing it down while he was sitting on the bench. Drew knows that if the Bears are really going to become conference title contenders, they have to beat the Sooners and the Longhorns.

The schedule really gets difficult for Baylor because the next four games are at Missouri, home to Kansas, at Texas Tech and home to Oklahoma.

> Check out the great Big 12 sports gear includingOklahoma Sooners hats & gear, Texas Longhorns apparel and more online through Big 12 Fans!

Notable

Texas guard A.J. Abrams appears to be breaking out of his slump. After shooting 29% through most of the month, Abrams went 7-of-13 including 3-of-6 from 3-point range Jan. 27 at Baylor. Abrams’ 3 3-pointers tied Kansas’ Jeff Boschee’s conference record for most 3s in history with 338…Baylor’s Curtis Jerrells became the third player in program history to start 100 games...Quietly, unranked Kansas is making a bid for its sixth consecutive conference champion. The defending national champions are 5-0.

Power Rankings

Oklahoma
Texas
Kansas
Missouri
Baylor
Oklahoma St.
Nebraska
Texas A&M
Kansas St.
Texas Tech
Iowa St.
Colorado

By Kevin Lonnquist
Big 12 Fans Correspondant