Bring On The Cats

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Now that's more like it. The Big 12 has returned to some semblance of normalcy.

KU is back in its familiar position, far ahead of the pack. K-State is in the top four, where it always finishes the season under Frank Martin. Baylor and Missouri are humbled, neé undefeated.

Iowa State remains slightly ahead of the truly mediocre teams, with a chance to punctuate itself as so much more with an upset of KU tomorrow. Texas and Oklahoma State are clawing to remain relevant.

Oklahoma and Texas A&M are proving to be who we thought they were; the Sooners before the season started, the Aggies just before conference play began. And Texas Tech is wishing it had gone to the Pac-12 after all.

Note: As any of these numbers change, I will bold and color-code them to indicate direction of change.
Team names that are colored indicate a change in seed.
(green = upward, red = downward)

*Predicted
**According to RealTimeRPI

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Discussion

Once again, no changes in projected seed order. Just a one-game adjustment in win-loss record to account for the Oklahoma State-over-Missouri upset.

This is starting to feel like one of the most boring BIG 12 OUTLOOK seasons I can remember.

OUTLOOK decided pretty early on who was good, who was terrible and where the teams in between fell, and it has yet to deviate even moderately from that course. It either will be amazingly prescient or incredibly wrong.

A big game looms tomorrow between the second-hottest team in the league (us, at a whopping three wins in a row) and the team on the second-longest losing streak (OU, at just two straight losses). I'd Sooner we win.

GAMER: Now has Baylor winning at Iowa State and Texas losing at Oklahoma State.

Pomeroy: No changes.

Sagarin: No changes.

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Self-Evaluation

Uh, Missouri, what the hell was that? Way to ruin the perfect week I had going, you derp-faces.

That minor, unforeseen deviation aside, OUTLOOK nailed the other four games with a unanimous margin.

It feels as though some things are starting to settle down with the model, as long as teams don't let Le'Bryan Nash light them up from the perimeter. The man, he Haith me.

I would expect 4-1 efforts or better for most of the installments from here on out, with perhaps the rare 3-2 outing when most of the better teams are on the road. That should make for one of my best prediction seasons yet.

I feel pretty safe picking Baylor, K-State and Missouri this week. Texas A&M, a little less so, considering OSU is riding some momentum, but OSU has been bad on the road and the Aggies showed something at KU.

It goes without saying that if aTm is able to slow things down and muddy it up a bit, it will win, but if OSU is allowed to score more than 60, look for the Pokes to win in their last trip to College Station.

The Iowa State-Kansas game is anyone's guess. It's a popular upset pick and Hilton Magic seems about due to strike, but it's hard to bet against Bill Self in any road venue when he's only lost seven road games in five years.

Cumulative pick record: 27-8 (.771)

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Key

Results are plugged into this wonderful tool to generate the predicted records and seed order. Winners are predicted by a best-of-three system comprising three statistical prediction models:

• G — RealTimeRPI GAMER (an advanced statistical prediction model, claiming 76.8-percent accuracy)
• P — Ken Pomeroy's rankings (predicts a probability outcome for each game remaining)
• S — Sagarin pure points predictor rankings (home-court advantage is taken into account)

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Predicted Outcomes