The March Toward March: The Big 12 is the NCAA’s first super conference

“The March Toward March” is a column by Curran Rastogi about college basketball teams and their journeys to March Madness.

What does “The Last of Us” have in common with the Big 12 Conference? Both are must-see television every week, capturing the eyes of fans everywhere. Over the last three years, the Big 12 has quietly become the best conference in college basketball with down-to-the-wire games and remarkable parity. This year, it has become almost impossible to predict what teams will win on a nightly basis, cementing itself as far-and-away the best college basketball conference in the nation.

The biggest sign of this parity is as of February 16, no team in the Big 12 had over 10 conference wins. Every other Power 6 conference leader has at least 12. While the Big 12 Conference has the lowest number of member schools, its leaders all have four losses, also the highest number of losses compared to every other Power 6 conference leader.

Parity alone doesn’t make the conference the best in the nation; the Big 12 is also the deepest conference by far. According to KenPom, a predictive rating of teams based on their offensive and defensive efficiency, the Big 12′s worst team, Texas Tech, is the No. 61 team in the country. By this metric, Texas Tech would finish around the middle of all other Power 6 conferences. This also translates to the NCAA tournament, where eight of the conference’s 10 teams are projected to make it, the highest percentage of any conference in the nation. Lastly, according to the NCAA’s NET Rankings, a ranking of every team based on how well they’ve played over the season, every team in the Big 12 is in the top 65.

While the numbers and standing certainly point to the eliteness of the conference, does this reflect the actual basketball played on the court? Yes. The Big 12 led all conferences with six players on the Midseason Watch List for the Wooden Award. Two teams stand out as capable of making a Final Four run this season: No. 5 Kansas and No. 9 Baylor.

It’s pretty clear why Kansas is an obvious contender for the national championship after winning it last year. The Jayhawks are an experienced squad led by redshirt junior forward Jalen Wilson, a 20-point-per-game three-level scorer likely to be an All-American at the end of the season. The Jayhawks also have freshman guard Gradey Dick, a 6-foot-8 guard who shoots 43% from behind the arc and is a matchup nightmare for any team. Kansas is productive on both the offensive and defensive end of the court and has the pedigree to repeat as national champions.

Head Coach Scott Drew has Baylor tied for first in the Big 12 with the best offense in the country according to KenPom. They lead their conference in points per game and are second in both free-throw and 3 point percentage. On offense, freshman guard Keyonte George leads the team in scoring with 16.5 points per game, as a strong finisher at the rim with the potential to explode on a nightly basis. Redshirt senior guard Adam Flagler and junior guard LJ Cryer complete the three-headed monster the Bears have on offense. One potential red flag for this Baylor team is the defense, which ranks 78th in defensive efficiency. However, the numbers don’t tell the full truth, as Baylor finally has its best defender and last year’s Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, redshirt senior forward Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua, back on the floor after he sustained a bad knee injury.

Fortunately for college basketball fans, Baylor plays at Kansas this Saturday in what is guaranteed to be an intense matchup. Baylor won the last matchup in Waco, but Kansas has only lost one game at home. Although Baylor will be underdogs on the road, they will beat the Jayhawks in what is sure to be a close game. Baylor is one of the hottest teams in college basketball and will only improve on the defensive end as Tchamwa Tchatchoua continues to impact the game. The Bears are the best team in the Big 12 and will three-peat as Big 12 regular season champions.

With all the uncertainty around the future of the Big 12, it looks like its basketball is here to stay. The conference will add Houston, Cincinnati and UCF and reportedly is aggressively pushing to add Gonzaga. If Gonzaga ends up joining the Big 12 like Houston, the conference will have two more incredible programs that will make for even more intense matchups. This new Big 12 era could be the best conference in the history of college basketball.

“The March Toward March” runs every Thursday.