OU-Texas hoops in mid-February generally isn’t must-see TV. But tonight it was.

OU blew a 22-point lead with eight minutes left and fell to lowly Texas in Austin.

What ensued on Twitter was amazing.

First, there was this jewel:

So much Boomer. RT @coltonchelf: Check these OU fans out. twitter.com/coltonchelf/st…

— Pistols Firing (@pistolsguy) February 28, 2013

Then KD trolled Fran Fraschilla’s kid so, so hard. And it was awesome.

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Photo Attribution: USATSI

Vitals

Tip: 6:00 PM CST
Location: Ft. Worth, TX
TV: ESPNU
Online Stream: here
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network
Online radio: here
Announcers: Mitch Holthus and Matt Doherty
Line: Cowboys -14.5

Records

Cowboys – 20-6 (10-4)
Frogs – 10-17 (1-13)

Best win

Cowboys – Kansas (KenPom: #9)
Frogs – Kansas (KenPom: #9)

Worst loss

Cowboys – Virginia Tech (KenPom: #158)
Frogs – Texas Tech (KenPom: #247)

KenPom rank

Cowboys – #14
Fightin’ Holgys – #282

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Photo Attribution: USATSI

In Part 1, I answered the question “What seed does OSU deserve?”

In Part 2, I’ll tackle this question: What kind of teams advance in the NCAA tournament?

We know that OSU has is great defensively and average offensively. So what does that mean for us in the Dance? Does defense really win championships or does scoring really matter in March?

Let’s take a look at what kinds of teams have success in the NCAA tournament.

You saw this chart in Part 1:

We used it to look at NCAA tournament seedings. This time, we’ll use it to look at how teams advance in the Dance.

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Photo Attribution: USATSI

One of the most fun parts of this season so far to me has been trying to figure out comparisons for Marcus Smart.

I hate the whole “well, he’s the first Marcus Smart” thing that everybody does. That’s true (of course it is) but it’s a fun-sucking sports statement that I’ll let others deal with.

OKC Dave has looked at his Tyreke Evans, James Harden, Caron Butler comps and showed how historical his season has been but I think ESPN really nailed it last weekend during the West Virginia game.

ESPN finally nailed the best Marcus Smart comparison: Jason Kidd. That’s exactly who he is. #okstate

— Carson Cunningham (@CarsonC5) February 23, 2013

So let’s look at Smart’s 2013 year up against Kidd’s freshman year at Cal (1993)…

Kidd ’93: 13 PPG | 5 RPG | 8 APG | 4 SPG | 0 BPG | 46/29/66 (FG/3P/FT)
Smart ’13: 16 PPG | 6 RPG | 4 APG | 3 SPG | 1 BPG | 41/30/78 (FG/3P/FT)

Incredibly similar. Kidd had more assists but [fill in "if Forte wasn't one for his last 977" joke here]. Kidd also had a future NBA first rounder to dish to in Lamond Murray.

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This is the first offering in a three-part series that will examine how OSU’s current team compares to NCAA tournament teams from 2009 to 2012, a universe of 266 teams. I will attempt to answer three main questions (with a few detours along the way):

Part 1: What NCAA seed does OSU deserve?

Part 2: What kind of teams advance in the tournament?

Part 3:  How far will OSU advance in the tournament?

In all three parts, teams will be evaluated using Ken Pomeroy’s system (yes, I refer to him all the time — because he’s the best). I will evaluate these 266 teams based on three Pomeroy factors:

• Adjusted Offensive Efficiency (points scored per 100 possessions, adjusted for SOS)
• Adjusted Defensive Efficiency (points allowed per 100 possessions, adjusted for SOS)
• Pomeroy Rating (Pomeroy’s rating, which is based on a combination of the two factors listed above)

You want a high offensive number and a low defensive number.

Let’s get started with Part 1: What NCAA seed does OSU deserve?

Each of the grey dots represents an team that made the NCAA tournament from 2009 to 2012 (these are the 266 teams I mentioned). I’ll wait here while you count them.

I situated the axes so that you want to be at the top right of the chart – high offensive number (“north” on the chart), low defensive number (“east”). Let’s look at a couple examples:

See the dot closest to the top right corner? That belongs to the 1-seed 2010 Duke team that beat Butler for the title.

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This isn’t really within my jurisdiction I suppose but I was so incensed after last night’s Kansas-Iowa State game (and the fact that the outcome directly affected how OSU finishes in Big 12 play) that I had to write about it real quick..

1. I like Kansas hoops, really, I do. I have fond memories of those Paul Pierce-Jacque Vaughn teams and I was pumped when they won it all in ’08 (even though they should have lost to Davidson). But man, this team is really unlikable. McLemore is a monster and I respect the crap out of him — he can river dance to his heart’s content.

But everybody else on that team acts like they’re the ’96 Bulls when the reality is they’re barely going to win a not very good Big 12 this year. Elijah Johnson is (obviously) the worst — he shoots 27% from 3-point range in conference play then hits a few last night and acts like he’s Peja Stojackovic — but they’ve got a team full of them¹. Their second round exit in the Dance will be smiled upon in the Pistols home.

2. Why does Jeff Withey get protected like he’s a mid-90s combination of Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson? In fact, I’m going to start calling him Hakeem Withey just for fun. Hakeem Withey played his 94th collegiate game last night and fouled out for the third time — or the same number of games Cobbins has fouled out in in the last three months.

The phantom call on Kevin Young while Hakeem Withey wrapped up one of ISU’s guards for what should have been his fifth foul was incredible. We can go to the monitor to see if the clock ran .0000000000002 seconds too long but we can’t go to the monitor to see that Kevin Young literally did not touch the man with the ball. I audibly gasped when Hakeem Withey fouled out last night. I thought for sure Wayne Simien was going to get the foul.

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UPDATED: 11:10 CST — after the Kansas-Iowa State travesty on ESPN.

Four teams still have a chance of winning the Big 12 regular season crown this year and OSU is one of them.

Let’s take a look at the remaining schedule for each squad, what I think is going to happen, and where each team will end up heading into the Big tournament.

Iowa State (9-5)
Feb. 25 Kansas (11-3) – L
March 2 at Oklahoma (9-5) – L
March 6 Oklahoma State (10-4) – W
March 9 at West Virginia (6-8) – W
Combined opponent record: 36-20

Kansas (11-3)
Feb. 25 at Iowa State (9-5) – W
March 2 West Virginia (6-8) – W
March 4 Texas Tech (2-12) – W
March 9 at Baylor (7-7) – W
Combined opponent record: 24-32

Kansas State (11-3)
Feb. 25 Texas Tech (2-12) – W
March 2 at Baylor (7-7) – W
March 5 TCU (1-13) – W
March 9 at Oklahoma State (10-4) – L
Combined opponent record: 20-36

Oklahoma (9-5)
Feb. 27 at Texas (4-10) – W
March 2 Iowa State (9-5) – W
March 6 West Virginia (6-8) – W
March 9 at TCU (1-13) – W
Combined opponent record: 20-36

Oklahoma State (10-4)
Feb. 27 at TCU (1-13) – W
March 2 Texas (4-10) – W
March 6 at Iowa State (9-5) – L
March 9 Kansas State (11-3) – W
Combined opponent record: 25-31

So that would leave us with this…

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To piggyback on the CRFF piece on Markel, here are the 10 most statistically similar seasons in the Sutton/Ford era for Markel. The list is sorted by my similarity ranking. These are all per-game statistics.

He’s playing at an all-conference level right now.