Gone are the good ol' days of the Pac-12. Onward to Kansas City

Still feeling like an outsider in Big 12 basketball? Carrying a won’t-go-away ache for the ol’ Pac-12? Do you miss the kickoff to March Madness at McKale North in Las Vegas?

How does one move on?

Here’s my advice: Punch up Pac-12.com on your laptop. When I did so the other day, the lead headline was: “Little Rock wins Pac-12 wrestling title for the first time in program history.’’

Little Rock?

Welcome to 2025. There’s no going back to Arizona’s dominating days in Las Vegas or its ownership of Pac-12 basketball across the last four decades.

Little Rock’s wrestling team has taken command of the ol’ Pac-12, may it rest in peace.

The Big 12 men’s basketball tournament is Big Boy Country. Do you know that last year, the Big 12 drew 118,300 fans at Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center? That crushes the Pac-12’s biggest draw, 87,910, at the 2017 Pac-12 Tournament at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.

Unlike Las Vegas, this week’s games in Kansas City will have an only-game-in-town shine to them. Big 12 basketball fans are into it.

For example, Arizona dominated the Pac-12 Tournament, going 42-16 with nine championships. But it’s not as good as Kansas’ 47-13 record with 10 Big 12 Tournament titles — and this year, the Jayhawks aren’t one of the league’s five or six best teams.

To its credit, those now operating the Pac-12 did not scrub the league’s history from its website. It still posts the record books for 21 sports, celebrating the unforgettable accomplishments of everyone from Jennie Finch to Terry Francona.

I sought perspective on how Big 12 basketball compares to Pac-12 basketball. I found that the two conferences share little historically.

Steve Kerr, for example, holds the Pac-12 record for 3-point shooting percentage (.583). It’s a record that will never be broken. I hope. The Big 12 almost comically lists its 3-point percentage record holder as Brian Conklin, at .617%. How can that be? I’ve never heard of Brian Conklin, and neither have you.

Here’s what happened: The Big 12’s standard is that a player must’ve averaged two made 3s per game to hold the league record. Conklin made 37 of 60 shots in 2004 for Nebraska. Maybe he got a sore arm from all that shooting (just kidding) and missed 14 games. Kerr made 113 of 199 3s in 1988, a record that was never challenged in the Pac-12.

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Some of Arizona’s most prominent records don’t hold up against the Big 12. Coming off the 1997 national championship, Arizona averaged 90.8 points in 1998. No one in the league thereafter touched 90 points per game. But Kansas (who else?) averaged 94.8 in 2004. Impressive.

Olson retired with 327 conference victories in the Pac-12, a number so grand that it exceeded John Wooden’s 298 at UCLA. I always wondered if Lute’s record would stand in a more basketball-centric league like the Big 12. It does. But KU’s Bill Self has 288 victories in Big 12 games, and is probably headed for something beyond Olson’s 327 in the next few years.

The Pac-12’s career scoring leader, UCLA’s Don MacLean, finished with 2,608 points, edging Arizona’s Sean Elliott, who had 2,555. The Big 12 record is 2,291, set by ex-Oklahoma Sooner Buddy Hield.

Given the transient nature of college basketball, it’s unlikely anyone will score even 2,000 points in a conference under current transfer rules. The Big 12 embraces the transfer portal as much or more than any conference.

Of the top eight schools in the Big 12 standings (through Friday), 34 of the top 50 non-freshmen players (based on minutes played) were transfers. Eight of them are double-transfers. In the ol’ Pac-12, it was easy to know the names and faces of every starter on every team through the years.

Adam Keefe, Brandon Roy, Isaac Fontaine, Charlie Sitton, Harold Miner, Luke Jackson. We miss you.

That’s not life in the Big 12. It's a league of strangers. Texas Tech’s best six players began their careers at New Mexico, GCU, Nevada, Howard, Drake and Pitt. Five of Iowa State’s six most productive players began at Buffalo, UNLV, Saint Mary’s, Washington State and NIU.

There’s not enough time to work up a healthy dislike for someone like UCLA villain Reggie Miller in the group.

One more thing: Don't get your hopes up that the Big 12 Tournament will soon move to Las Vegas to reestablish Arizona’s cushy home-court advantage.

The Big 12 signed a contract to keep the Big 12 tournament at KC’s T-Mobile Center through 2031. After a few experiments playing in Oklahoma City (2007, 2009) and Dallas (2003, 2006), the Big 12 Tournament has been played in Kansas City every year since 2010.

My advice is get used to it. It could be worse. You could be in a conference whose big news is the Little Rock wrestling team.