re: Big 12 or the field?

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what concerns me about teams who hang their hat on defense, like Houston and Iowa State, is when other teams raise their defensive intensity in the ncaat, the teams playing hard defense in the reg season lose a bit of their edge. That brand of ball seems better suited for the regular season.

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you truly have to be great at both to win the title. every title team ends up top 25 kenpom defensively and offensively. a lot of that is obviously due to the tourney run, but you cant be that far off.

concerning contenders for that metric right now:
- iowa state, as you mentioned (65th offensive efficiency)
- bama (100th defensively)
- illinois (103rd defensively)
- baylor (73rd defensively)
- kentucky (97th defensively)

i think any other contender would end up in the top 20 for both if they won it all. the only national champion since 2002 when kenpom began that did not finish in the top 25 for both metrics is 2014 uconn, which obviously makes perfect sense as they are by far the worst champion since '85 nova