News, stats, and notes from the halfway point of the Big 12 season:
Houston moved back into solo first in the Big 12 with Kansas’ OT loss last night in Manhattan.
The Cougars have taken care of the ball in Big 12 play: UH leads the league with just 72 turnovers in nine games (8.0 per game).
The other teams in the top five in turnovers and how they fared against UH:
Texas Tech (9.5 per game): 14 vs. UH
Iowa State (11.5 per game): 12 vs. UH
Kansas (11.6 per game): 18 vs. UH
Texas (12.3 per game): 10 vs. UH
Note that three of those four games were on the road.
Kansas State is 6-0 in overtime games this year. They’re 11-0 in OT under Jerome Tang.
You gotta laugh at Hunter Dickinson’s quote last night: “I ran him over. Umm, I really don’t understand how that can be a foul.”
Jamal Shead is 8th in scoring in Big 12 games. Houston has played each of the other top-12 scorers this season – only one has scored more than one point higher than his average vs. the Coogs (Abmas):
Isaacs (Texas Tech): 20.5 ppg – 12 vs. UH
Dickinson (Kansas): 19.3 ppg – 20 vs. UH
Abmas (Texas): 18.9 ppg – 20 vs. UH
McCullar (Kansas): 18.1 ppg – 17 vs. UH
Miller (TCU): 17.0 ppg – 13 vs. UH
Disu (Texas): 17.0 ppg – 14 vs. UH
Sellers (UCF): 15.3 ppg – 4 vs. UH
Perry (KState): 15.2 ppg – 3 vs. UH
Carter (KState): 15.2 ppg – 16 vs. UH
Tennyson (TCU): 14.1 ppg – 12 vs. UH
Gilbert (ISU): 13.9 ppg – 8 vs. UH
UH saw four of those guys at home: combined, they scored 31 points lower than their averages. The other seven were held to 14 combined points lower than their averages.
Five of the six teams in the league that have played five road games have a losing road record. The only one with a winning road record is Texas (3-2), but they’re 1-3 at home.
The longest current winning streak in the conference: two games (BYU and Baylor). The longest current losing streak: two games (Tech). That means 11 teams have split their last two games.
Kansas (5-0), Houston (4-0), and Iowa State (4-0) are the only three undefeated teams at home in conference games. All three are undefeated at home for the season, too.
In Big 12 games, Kansas has three of the top-five shooting nights: the UH game (69%), at Oklahoma State (62%), and home vs. Oklahoma State (58%).
Oklahoma State has three of the five worst FG% games on defense: the two against Kansas and vs. Texas Tech (59%).
Houston is 302 nationally in FT percentage. Technically, that’s not last in the league. Oklahoma State shoots the same percentage (67.6%) but has nine fewer makes. In conference play, UH is shooting 71.1%
In stats the NCAA tracks, the Cougars are 1st or 2nd in the league in 11 of them (out of 28 possible). They’re 10th or worse in 10 others.
Stringing together wins is hard: UH’s five-game winning streak is the best in the league this season by two: Baylor, Iowa State, TCU, and Tech all won three in a row at one point.
Before Kansas, UH allowed Big 12 opponents to shoot 37.0% this season. After Kansas, it’s 40.2%.
