Thoughts on the week ahead after the jump.

Biggest Surprise from Last Week: Missouri’s 97-95 win at Oklahoma State. The game I pegged as the Game of the Week in last week’s post was just that. Missouri dominated the game and was up 15 points with just over four minutes left in Stillwater but was careless trying to close out the win. This road win combined with a home victory over Tech on Saturday makes the Tigers the biggest early season surprise at 4-1.

Team with Most Favorable Schedule: Kansas. This is when the differences between the North and the South start to materialize. I know there are not two separate divisions like in football but the teams do play unbalanced conference schedules based on their divisional affiliations. While OU travels to Oklahoma State and Texas heads to Waco, Kansas draws their second of four weeks without a South opponent. Missouri is improved but even an average KU team should easily get to 10 wins as they get to play Colorado, Iowa State, Nebraska, and Kansas State twice each.

Team with Least Favorable Schedule: Baylor. The Bears were embarrassed in Norman on Saturday afternoon and must rebound quickly. A surprisingly confident Texas teams shows up for the mid-week game, and the Bears then follow with a weekend trip to Columbia. I am a believer in the Bears this season but if things were to go south, it would start with a home loss to the Longhorns on Tuesday.

Game of the Week: Oklahoma @ Oklahoma State. The Sooners will be tested for the first time in conference season. Bedlam may have been better with the Sutton family vs. Kelvin Samson, but it will still be interesting with Travis Ford and Jeff Capel. The level of hate between these two teams is right up there with Texas and A&M. The Cowboys and the Sooners both have highly efficient offensive attacks, OU has the better defense, but OSU will have the home court advantage. Pomeroy calls it 83-82 for Oklahoma State.