2015–16 Big 12 Conference men's basketball season explained

2015–16 Big 12 Men's Basketball Season
Color:	ce1141
Color Text:	ffffff
League:	NCAA Division I
Sport:	Basketball
Pixels:	180px
No Of Teams:	10
Tv:	CBS, ESPN, FSN
Season:	Regular Season
Season Champs:	Kansas
Season Champ Name:	2016 Big 12 Champions
Mvp:	Buddy Hield
Mvp Link:	Big 12 Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year
Top Scorer:	Buddy Hield
Finals:	Tournament
Finals Link:	2016 Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament
Finals Champ:	Kansas
Finals Runner-Up:	West Virginia
Finals Mvp:	Devonte' Graham
Seasonslistnames:	Basketball
Prevseason Link:	14–15
Prevseason Year:	2014–15
Nextseason Link:	16–17
Nextseason Year:	2016–17

The 2015–16 Big 12 men's basketball season was the 20th season of basketball for the Big 12 Conference. Team practices began in October 2015, followed by the start of the regular season on November 13. Conference play began on January 2, 2016, and concluded on March 5. Kansas won their 12th straight Big 12 regular season championship by finishing 33–5 overall and 15–3 in conference play, two games ahead of second-place West Virginia. The 2016 Big 12 men's basketball tournament took place from March 9–12, 2016 at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. Kansas won the tournament for the 10th time in school history.

Buddy Hield of Oklahoma was named Big 12 Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, and became just the third player in conference history to be named the National college player of the year.

Seven schools were awarded a berth to the NCAA tournament. Kansas, Oklahoma, and Iowa State each reached the Sweet 16, with Oklahoma advancing all the way to the Final four before losing to the eventual champions Villanova.

Preseason

	Big 12 Coaches^[1]	Points
1.	Kansas (9)	81
2.	Oklahoma	70
3.	Iowa State (1)	68
4.	Texas	51
5.	Baylor	49
6.	West Virginia	47
7.	Oklahoma State	33
8.	Kansas State	18
	TCU
10.	Texas Tech	15

(#) first place votes

Pre-Season All-Big 12 Team

• Player of the Year: Buddy Hield, Oklahoma
• Newcomer of the Year: Deonte Burton, Iowa State
• Freshman of the Year: Cheick Diallo, Kansas

Rankings

Legend

		Increase in ranking
		Decrease in ranking
		Not ranked previous week

See main article: 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings.

	Pre	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Wk 17	Wk 18	Wk 19	Final
Baylor	AP	22	20	RV	25	16	16	23	23	RV	22	13	17	15	21	25	19	19	22	21
C	21	21	25	23	15	14	22	21	25	22	15	18	13	19	22	16	17	20	18	24
Iowa State	AP	7	7	4	5	4	5	11	11	13	17	19	14	13	14	13	17	21	21	22
C	7	7	5	4	2	2	9	9	14	18	21	16	14	15	15	17	20	19	19	15
Kansas	AP	4	4	5	4	2	2	2	2	1	1	3	4	7	6	2	2	1	1	1
C	5	5	7	6	7	5	3	3	2	1	3	3	6	6	2	2	1	1	1	3
Kansas State	AP
C					RV
Oklahoma	AP	8	8	7	6	7	3	3	3	2	2	1	1	1	3	3	3	6	6	7
C	8	8	6	8	8	3	2	2	1	2	1	2	2	3	3	4	6	6	7	4
Oklahoma State	AP	RV	RV
C
TCU	AP
C
Texas	AP	RV	RV				RV	RV	RV					RV	24	24	25	23	23	RV
C	RV					RV	RV	RV				RV	RV	25	25	25	22	22	22	RV
Texas Tech	AP								RV	RV	RV						RV	RV	RV
C								RV	RV	RV					RV	RV	RV	RV
West Virginia	AP	RV	RV	RV	20	14	20	19	19	17	11	6	9	14	10	10	14	10	9	8
C	23	22	22	15	14	16	18	17	15	10	7	9	12	10	11	12	9	8	8	14

Regular season

Conference matrix

	Baylor	Iowa State	Kansas	Kansas State	Oklahoma	Oklahoma State	TCU	Texas	Texas Tech	West Virginia
ISU	KU	KSU	OU	OSU	TCU	UT	TTU	WVU -->	vs. Baylor	—	0–2	2–0	0–2	2–0	0–2	0–2	1–1	1–1	2–0
vs. Iowa State	2–0	—	1–1	0–2	1–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	1–1	2–0
vs. Kansas	0–2	1–1	—	0–2	0–2	1–1	0–2	0–2	0–2	1–1
vs. Kansas State	2–0	2–0	2–0	—	1–1	1–1	0–2	2–0	1–1	2–0
vs. Oklahoma	0–2	1–1	2–0	1–1	—	0–2	0–2	1–1	1–1	0–2
vs. Oklahoma State	2–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	2–0	—	1–1	2–0	2–0	2–0
vs. TCU	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	1–1	—	1–1	2–0	2–0
vs. Texas	1–1	1–1	2–0	0–2	1–1	0–2	1–1	—	1–1	0–2
vs. Texas Tech	1–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	—	2–0
vs. West Virginia	0–2	0–2	1–1	0–2	2–0	0–2	0–2	2–0	0–2	—	ISU	KU	KSU	OU	OSU	TCU	UT	TTU	WVU -->
Total	10–8	10–8	15–3	5–13	12–6	3–15	2–16	11–7	9–9	13–5

Points scored

Team	For	Against	Difference
Baylor	1424	1323	101
Iowa State	1448	1392	56
Kansas	1401	1194	207
Kansas State	1251	1293	-42
Oklahoma	1393	1307	86
Oklahoma State	1123	1248	-125
TCU	1129	1370	-241
Texas	1238	1227	11
Texas Tech	1275	1314	-39
West Virginia	1365	1242	123

West Virginia

Honors and awards

All-Big 12 awards and teams

2016 Big 12 Men's Basketball Individual Awards^[3]
Award	Recipient(s)
Player of the Year	Buddy Hield, G, Oklahoma
Coach of the Year	Tubby Smith, Texas Tech
Defensive Player of the Year	Prince Ibeh, C, Texas
Sixth Man Award	Jaysean Paige†, G, West Virginia
Newcomer of the Year	Deonte Burton†, G, Iowa State
Freshman of the Year	Jawun Evans, G, Oklahoma State

2016 Big 12 Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams
First Team	Second Team	Third Team	Defensive Team
Isaiah Taylor, Jr., G, Texas Buddy Hield†, Sr., G, Oklahoma Georges Niang†, Sr., F, Iowa State Taurean Prince, Sr., F, Baylor Perry Ellis†, Sr., F, Kansas	Jaysean Paige, Sr., G, West Virginia Monte Morris, Jr., G, Iowa State Frank Mason III, Jr., G, Kansas Wayne Selden, Jr., Jr., G, Kansas Devin Williams, Jr., F, West Virginia	Isaiah Cousins, Sr., G, Oklahoma Wesley Iwundu, Jr., F, Kansas State Rico Gathers, Sr., F, Baylor Johnathan Motley, So., F, Baylor Ryan Spangler, Sr., F, Oklahoma	Devonte' Graham, So., G, Kansas Frank Mason III, Jr., G, Kansas Jevon Carter, So., G, West Virginia Wesley Iwundu, Jr., F, Kansas State Khadeem Lattin, So., F, Oklahoma Prince Ibeh†, Sr., C, Texas
† - denotes unanimous selection

Phillips 66 Player of the Week

Week	Player of the Week	School	Newcomer of the Week	School	Ref.
Nov. 9–15	Rico Gathers	Baylor	Vladimir Brodziansky	TCU	^[4]
	Wesley Iwundu	Kansas State
Nov. 16–22	Buddy Hield	Oklahoma	Chris Olivier	Oklahoma State	^[5]
Nov. 23–29	Monte Morris	Iowa State	Eric Davis Jr.	Texas	^[6]
	Wayne Selden Jr.	Kansas
Nov. 30 – Dec.6	Taurean Prince	Baylor	Dean Wade	Kansas State	^[7]
Dec. 7–13	Jameel McKay	Iowa State	Eric Davis Jr. (2)	Texas	^[8]
	Javan Felix	Texas
Dec. 14–20	Cameron Ridley	Texas	Jawun Evans	Oklahoma State	^[9]
Dec. 21–27	Buddy Hield (2)	Oklahoma	Deonte Burton	Iowa State	^[10]
Dec. 28 – Jan. 3	Jaysean Paige	West Virginia	Deonte Burton (2)	Iowa State	^[11]
Jan. 4–10	Buddy Hield (3)	Oklahoma	Barry Brown	Kansas State	^[12]
Jan. 11–17	Isaiah Taylor	Texas	Jawun Evans (2)	Oklahoma State	^[13]
Jan. 18–24	Monte Morris (2)	Iowa State	Jawun Evans (3)	Oklahoma State	^[14]
Jan. 25–31	Buddy Hield (4)	Oklahoma	Kerwin Roach Jr.	Texas	^[15]
Feb. 1–7	Jaysean Paige (2)	West Virginia	Dean Wade (2)	Kansas State	^[16]
Feb. 8–14	Devonte' Graham	Kansas	Deonte Burton (3)	Iowa State	^[17]
Feb. 15–21	Johnathan Motley	Baylor	Deonte Burton (4)	Iowa State	^[18]
Feb. 22–28	Jaysean Paige (3)	West Virginia	Malique Trent	TCU	^[19]
Feb. 29 – Mar. 6	Perry Ellis	Kansas	Kerwin Roach Jr. (2)	Texas	^[20]

Postseason

Big 12 tournament

See main article: 2016 Big 12 men's basketball tournament.

• March 9–12, 2016–Big 12 Conference Basketball Tournament, Sprint Center, Kansas City, MO.

2016 Big 12 men's basketball tournament seeds and results
Seed	School	Conf.	Over.	Tiebreaker	First Round March 9	Quarterfinals March 10	Semifinals March 11	Championship March 12
1.	‡† Kansas	15–3	30–4		Bye	8 Kansas State	5 Baylor	2 West Virginia
2.	† West Virginia	13–5	26–8		Bye	10 TCU	3 Oklahoma	1 Kansas
3.	† Oklahoma	12–6	25–7		Bye	6 Iowa State	2 West Virginia
4.	† Texas	11–7	20–12		Bye	5 Baylor
5.		10–8	22–11	2–0 vs ISU	Bye	4 Texas	1 Kansas
6.	† Iowa State	10–8	21–11	0–2 vs BU	Bye	3 Oklahoma
7.	Texas Tech	9–9	19–12		10 TCU
8.	Kansas State	5–13	17–16		9 Oklahoma State	1 Kansas
9.	Oklahoma State	3–15	12–20		8 Kansas State
10.	TCU	2–16	12–21		7 Texas Tech	2 West Virginia
‡ – Big 12 regular season champions, and tournament No. 1 seed. † – Received a single-bye in the conference tournament. Overall records include all games played in the Big 12 tournament.

Bracket

NCAA tournament

See main article: 2016 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.

Seed	Region	School	First Round	Second Round	Sweet 16	Elite Eight	Final Four
1	South	Kansas	16 Austin Peay - March 17, Des Moines - W, 105–79	9 Connecticut - March 19, Des Moines - W, 73–61	5 Maryland - March 24, Louisville - W, 79–63	2 Villanova - March 26, Louisville - L, 59–64
2	West	Oklahoma	15 Cal State Bakersfield - March 18, Oklahoma City - W, 82–68	10 VCU - March 20, Oklahoma City - W, 85–81	3 Texas A&M - March 24, Anaheim - W, 77–63	1 Oregon - March 26, Anaheim - W, 80–68	2 Villanova - April 2, Houston - L, 51–95
3	East	West Virginia	14 Stephen F. Austin - March 18, Brooklyn - L, 56–70
4	Midwest	Iowa State	13 Iona - March 17, Denver - W, 94–81	12 Little Rock - March 19, Denver - W, 78–61	1 Virginia - March 25, Chicago - L, 71–84
5	West	Baylor	12 Yale - March 17, Providence - L, 75–79
6	West	Texas	11 Northern Iowa - March 18, Oklahoma City - L, 72–75
8	Midwest	Texas Tech	9 Butler - March 17, Raleigh - L, 61–71
	7 Bids	W-L (%):	3–4	3–0	2–1	1–1	TOTAL: 9–7

See also

• 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
• Big 12 Conference
• Big 12/SEC Challenge

Notes and References

1. Web site: Kansas Again! Jayhawks Picked To Win 12th Straight Title. Big 12 Conference. October 15, 2015. December 21, 2015.
2. Web site: Four First Team Returnees Lead All-Big 12 Preseason Honors. Big 12 Conference . October 8, 2015. December 21, 2015.
3. Web site: Nation's Best Lead All-Big 12 Men's Basketball Awards . Big 12 Sports . March 6, 2016 . March 6, 2016.
4. Web site: Three Players Earn First Men’s Basketball Weekly Honors . Big 12 Sports . November 16, 2015 . December 21, 2015.
5. Web site: Hield, Olivier Capture Men’s Basketball Awards . Big 12 Sports . November 23, 2015 . December 21, 2015.
6. Web site: Top Tournament Performers Earn Basketball Honors . Big 12 Sports . November 30, 2015 . December 21, 2015.
7. Web site: Big Wins Help Prince, Wade Earn Weekly Honors . Big 12 Sports . December 7, 2015 . December 21, 2015.
8. Web site: Longhorns, Cyclones Win Weekly Awards . Big 12 Sports . December 14, 2015 . December 21, 2015.
9. Web site: Ridley, Evans Earn Holiday Week Honors . Big 12 Sports . December 21, 2015 . December 21, 2015.
10. Web site: Hield, Burton Capture Fin–al Weekly Honors of 2015 . Big 12 Sports . December 28, 2015 . December 28, 2015.
11. Web site: Paige, Burton Earn First Weekly Honors Of New Year . Big 12 Sports . January 4, 2016 . January 11, 2016.
12. Web site: Hield, Brown Capture Men's Basketball Accolades . Big 12 Sports . January 11, 2016 . January 11, 2016.
13. Web site: Taylor, Evans Named Men's Basketball Award Winners . Big 12 Sports . January 18, 2016 . January 18, 2016.
14. Web site: Morris, Evans Recognized in Men's Basketball . Big 12 Sports . January 25, 2016 . January 25, 2016.
15. Web site: Big Challenge Efforts Earn Hield, Roach Weekly Honors . Big 12 Sports . February 1, 2016 . February 1, 2016.
16. Web site: Big Wins Lead To Weekly Awards For Paige, Wade . Big 12 Sports . February 8, 2016 . February 8, 2016.
17. Web site: Wins Over Ranked Foes Help Graham, Burton To Weekly Honors . Big 12 Sports . February 15, 2016 . February 15, 2016.
18. Web site: New, Familiar Winners Tabbed For Men’s Basketball Weekly Awards . Big 12 Sports . February 22, 2016 . February 22, 2016.
19. Web site: Scoring Averages Help Paige, Trent Earn Men’s Basketball Honors . Big 12 Sports . February 29, 2016 . February 29, 2016.
20. Web site: Ellis, Roach Earn Final Weekly Honors Of 2015-16 . Big 12 Sports . March 6, 2016 . March 7, 2016.