Lots of good stuff in this thread. I agree with MIR, none of this is a surprise right now, this is Frank's MO. But it is likely some year it won't work as well as it has in the past. So far the expectations have been lower in past seasons, so essentially every year Frank Franking around has "worked".
Also, I think a lot of people are freaking out based on the WSU and Loyola road games and how they ended. We've had lots of games against teams like that where they hung around most of the game, but in the past it always seemed (though didn't always happen) that we'd go on a little run at the 5 minute mark and put them away, winning comfortably in the last couple minutes. In both the WSU and Loyola games we looked to be on the verge of that, but then we let the opponent back into the game. ISU last year was like that as well except we didn't make the last minute plays to win. The concern then becomes that if we do this in Big 12 play against the ISUs or NUs or CUs we may find a way to lose those games instead of winning most like we did in the past. If you want to compete for a league title you really can't do that.
As far as expectations, record-wise we're where most expected, but level of play not so much. I really don't care about the leads of 20-30 then Franking around and winning only by 15 like we've had at home. I think the concern is mainly from what I mentioned above, plus not really having a chance to win in the last 5 minutes vs Duke. Then to some extent what Rusty mentioned, having to read phog stuff with KU sort of "passing us" this early in the year.