How Good is the Big 12 in 2018?

It has become a question that every Big 12 coach faces after every game: Just how tough is this league? Coaches are running out of ways to say: It’s so freaking hard so I’ll help them out.

For that, we turn to KenPom.com to look ad Adjusted Efficiency (AdjEM). I’ll let Kenny explain:

AdjEM is the difference between a team’s offensive and defensive efficiency. It’s simple subtraction. Even your dog can do it. It represents the number of points the team would be expected to outscore the average D-I team over 100 possessions and it has the advantage of being a linear measure. The difference between +31 and +28 is the same as the difference between +4 and +1. It’s three points per 100 possessions which is much easier to interpret. This measure also makes the SOS and average conference strength numbers less mysterious. [KenPom]

Here’s how the leagues rank as of Wednesday, January 24. The way KenPom measures this is by the Adjusted Efficiency of a team that’s expected to go .500 in league play.

That’s a bloodbath, and it marks the fifth straight year the Big 12 has found itself as the best conference. But it doesn’t (yet) represent the biggest gap the league has seen between itself and the next closest.

Here’s a look at the last 10 years of best leagues on KenPom and the margin between the best and next best.

Last year’s Big 12 and the 2013 Big Ten actually set the gold standard when it comes to these numbers. But this year’s Big 12 is in fourth by a pretty wide margin, just behind those two as well as the 2015 Big 12.

It’s not just KenPom, either. Five of the 10 teams have been, at one point, ranked in the top 10 in the country. And Baylor makes it six that have been ranked in the top 20.

First-year coach Mike Boynton knows first-hand how brutal the 18-game run is.

“I don’t know (how good this league is),” said Mike Boynton after Bedlam. “It’s the best college basketball that you’ll see anywhere. I think there are 10 NCAA Tournament teams in this league. I think anybody in our league can get into the Tournament and win a game. I think there are that many quality players and coaches.”

Unfortunately, the NCAA Tournament committee will not see it that way, and OSU will have to figure out how to somehow get to eight (or more?) conference wins (they’re currently at three) to go dancing in March.