Best Hoops League? Huggs Says it's the Big 12
October 19, 2015 05:25 PM | Men's Basketball
Bob Huggins doesn’t need to read those talking points he receives each year from the league office to understand how good the Big 12 is.
He’s already seen enough of it for himself.
Still, the statistics he’s able to rattle off at a moment’s notice are about as impressive as Bill Self’s string of conference championships, or the resumes of the nine other guys sitting across the scorer’s table from Huggins on a nightly basis.
“This is the hardest league that I’ve ever coached in,” West Virginia’s veteran coach said recently. “I think it’s the hardest league in America and I think the non-conference RPI bears that out - I think the conference RPI bears that out.”
Huggins has spent the last 34 years working in some pretty good basketball leagues, the five he coached in the Big East from 2008-12 perhaps being the most difficult.
But in many ways, what Huggins encountered in what people in the Northeast frequently used to tout as “the most difficult basketball conference ever created” pales in comparison to what the Big 12 offers on a nightly basis.
For one, 60 percent of the coaches in this league have been to the Final Four. That bears repeating: 60 percent of the coaches in the Big 12 have been to the Final Four.
“Think about that,” said Huggins. “It’s never happened before in the history of college basketball.”
I can’t confirm that statement, but I also can’t refute it either.
Nevertheless, what makes the Big 12 so difficult is not so much the top, where Kansas has been one of college basketball’s five best brands for the last 30-40 years or so, or Texas sitting on a gold mine of talent down in Austin, or Iowa State revolutionizing the game by actively pursuing fourth-year transfers with great success, or Baylor, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State regularly recruiting NBA-caliber talent.
No, what makes the league so good is what is on the bottom – if you can even call it a bottom.
Put another way, there are simply no automatic wins in this basketball conference.
When West Virginia was in the Big East, or other conferences through the years, there were several games you could always chalk up in the W column before the basketball even went into the air.
When the Mountaineers were in the Southern Conference back in the heydays of Hot Rod Hundley, Jerry West and Rod Thorn, Mountaineer fans could realistically count on about 15 automatic wins before the season started, meaning all West Virginia had to do was win half of its 50-50 games and another 20-win season was in the books.
When the Mountaineers played in the Atlantic 10, that number was pared down to about 10, but still a pretty good start toward 20 wins.
And even when West Virginia played in the Big East - especially after the second major expansion in the early 2000s - there were plenty of automatic victories out there for the taking.
Huggins readily admits it.
“The Big East was a great league and 10 teams could play with anybody in the country and probably six that couldn’t,” he said. “If you’re one of those guys that looks at the schedule and says, ‘well, we ought to win this one, this one and this one’ there were six of those (in the Big East). I can’t find them in this league.”
Want proof?
Well, I was able to get my hands on some of those talking points Huggs is going to rattle off Tuesday morning out in Kansas City during this year’s Big 12 media day.
- Five Big 12 teams are ranked in the preseason top 25, including three in the top 10 heading into this season. Since one of those five is West Virginia that means the Mountaineers only have to play eight conference games against ranked teams instead of 10.
Obviously, the other five are a little less fortunate.
- Every year since the conference went to 10 schools, the team picked to finish EIGHTH in the preseason poll has earned an NCAA tournament bid.
- Nine of 10 teams were either ranked or received top 25 votes at some point last season.
- Since 2000, the Big 12 has the second-most NBA lottery picks of any basketball conference in the country. Keep in mind that consists of 10 schools - not 14 like you’ve got in the Big Ten and SEC, or the 15 that are currently in the ACC. Talk about big-league talent!
But perhaps the most impressive statistic is this: EIGHT teams in the last four seasons that were selected to finish in the bottom half of the standings made it to the national tournament.
To me, that’s astonishing with a capital A. That is all the proof you need to realize there is no bottom to this basketball conference – just a top and a very, very good middle.
“You look down the line and everyone’s got good players and everybody’s got great coaches,” said Huggins. “I think there is a good reason why a lot of people say it’s the best league in the country and it’s the best league I’ve ever coached in, and I’ve been in some of the better leagues there has ever been.”
One other thing to consider about the Big 12 as West Virginia is about to begin Year 5 in the conference … the venues.
The Mountaineers are not playing in half-empty pro arenas any more.
“In all honesty, there were places in the Big East where we had more fans than they did at their home game,” said Huggins. “That certainly doesn’t happen here. There is more student involvement and when there is more student involvement there is certainly more enthusiasm –there’s more noise and there’s a lot more energy in the building then there is when there is a small student turnout.”
Consequently, you earn your wins in this league, as West Virginia has come to learn over the last four seasons; and, you can't count them before the season begins.
College Basketball Crown Recap
Thursday, April 16
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Ross Hodge, Treysen Eaglestaff & Brenen Lorient | Creighton Postgame
Saturday, April 04
Ross Hodge & Honor Huff | Stanford Postgame
Thursday, April 02
