KU tapped No. 1 in Big 12 by coaches

By Gary Bedore     Oct 24, 2002

In what has become an annual rite of autumn, Kansas University’s men’s basketball team has been tapped No. 1 in the Big 12 Conference in a preseason vote of league coaches.

The coaches, who could not vote for their own teams, awarded defending regular-season league champion KU seven first-place votes to three for Oklahoma and two for Texas.

Overall, KU tallied 116 points, followed by fellow 2002 Final Four participant Oklahoma (113), then Texas (103), Missouri (86), Texas Tech (77), Oklahoma State (76), Iowa State (54), Baylor (47), Colorado (43), Nebraska (36), Kansas State (22) and Texas A&M (19).

It marked the fourth straight year the coaches picked KU first and fifth time in the six-year history of the preseason poll. No poll was conducted in 1996-97.

“Even though I’m a little surprised by the selection, I guess I’m also in some ways pleased, because that means at least we’re going to be pretty good,” KU coach Roy Williams said. “I am surprised because I think that in college basketball you need depth, and we have no depth compared to Oklahoma and Texas particularly, and those are two outstanding teams that I really think are going to have outstanding years.

“Nevertheless, we’ve been picked No. 1, and I’ll challenge our team and tell them that we need to work as hard as we possibly can and at the end of the year hope that all of these people were right.”

KU’s Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich were named first-team all-league players with Texas Tech’s Andre Emmett, Texas’ T.J. Ford and Oklahoma’s Hollis Price. Price was named preseason player of the year.

Collison, a 6-9 senior forward from Iowa Falls, Iowa, is coming off a season in which he was named honorable mention All-America and second-team all-Big 12 after averaging career-highs of 15.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.

Hinrich is a 6-3 guard from Sioux City, Iowa, who was tapped first-team All-Big 12 and honorable mention All-America last year after scoring a career-high 14.8 points per game to go with 4.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists per contest. Collison and Hinrich are both preseason candidates for the Wooden Award and the Naismith Award.

“I’m very happy that preseason honors are going to Nick and Kirk because of how hard they’ve worked,” Williams said. “I think that the recognition they are getting is very well deserved. They had outstanding years last year, and I expect and definitely hope that they have even more outstanding years this year. The fact that they came back to play college basketball instead of going on to the NBA is something that I hope everyone appreciates.”

The coaches named Nebraska guard Nate Johnson preseason newcomer of the year and Texas A&M guard/forward Antoine Wright freshman of the year.

Williams didn’t disclose the teams he voted for in the poll, but recently gushed about both OU and Texas.

“Texas can be fantastic. They have five starters back, (Sydmill) Harris and (Brian) Boddicker off the bench. With (Deginald) Erskin, (James) Thomas, (T.J.) Ford, (Royal) Ivey, they have eight of their nine back and added Brad Buckman who we desperately wanted maybe more than any big man in the country.”

Buckman, 6-8 freshman from Austin, Texas, chose Texas over KU, North Carolina and others.

“Oklahoma has four starters back from a Final Four team and seven of their top nine coming back. They added three to four prospects, a couple we wanted badly as well (DeAngelo Alexander, Kevin Bookout),” Williams said.

“We did probably lose more than anybody in the league. We lost Jeff Boschee only the best three-point shooter in Big 12 history but also the guy taken fourth in the NBA draft (Drew Gooden). We’ll stack those losses with anybody. It’s not a category I like to stack up in,” he added, noting Missouri also lost a lot in Clarence Gilbert and Kareem Rush. “Last year I think was the best the Big 12 ever had and I think it’ll be better this year.”

KU tapped No. 1 in Big 12 by coaches

By Jim Baker     Oct 24, 2002

In what has become an annual rite of autumn, Kansas University’s men’s basketball team has been tapped No. 1 in the Big 12 Conference in a preseason vote of league coaches.

The coaches, who could not vote for their own teams, awarded defending regular-season league champion KU seven first-place votes to three for Oklahoma and two for Texas.

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Overall, KU tallied 116 points, followed by fellow 2002 Final Four participant Oklahoma (113), then Texas (103), Missouri (86), Texas Tech (77), Oklahoma State (76), Iowa State (54), Baylor (47), Colorado (43), Nebraska (36), Kansas State (22) and Texas A&M (19).

It marked the fourth straight year the coaches picked KU first and fifth time in the six-year history of the preseason poll. No poll was conducted in 1996-97.

“Even though I’m a little surprised by the selection, I guess I’m also in some ways pleased, because that means at least we’re going to be pretty good,” KU coach Roy Williams said. “I am surprised because I think that in college basketball you need depth, and we have no depth compared to Oklahoma and Texas particularly, and those are two outstanding teams that I really think are going to have outstanding years.

“Nevertheless, we’ve been picked No. 1, and I’ll challenge our team and tell them that we need to work as hard as we possibly can and at the end of the year hope that all of these people were right.”

KU’s Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich were named first-team all-league players with Texas Tech’s Andre Emmett, Texas’ T.J. Ford and Oklahoma’s Hollis Price. Price was named preseason player of the year.

Collison, a 6-9 senior forward from Iowa Falls, Iowa, is coming off a season in which he was named honorable mention All-America and second-team all-Big 12 after averaging career-highs of 15.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.

Hinrich is a 6-3 guard from Sioux City, Iowa, who was tapped first-team All-Big 12 and honorable mention All-America last year after scoring a career-high 14.8 points per game to go with 4.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists per contest. Collison and Hinrich are both preseason candidates for the Wooden Award and the Naismith Award.

“I’m very happy that preseason honors are going to Nick and Kirk because of how hard they’ve worked,” Williams said. “I think that the recognition they are getting is very well deserved. They had outstanding years last year, and I expect and definitely hope that they have even more outstanding years this year. The fact that they came back to play college basketball instead of going on to the NBA is something that I hope everyone appreciates.”

The coaches named Nebraska guard Nate Johnson preseason newcomer of the year and Texas A&M guard/forward Antoine Wright freshman of the year.

Williams didn’t disclose the teams he voted for in the poll, but recently gushed about both OU and Texas.

“Texas can be fantastic. They have five starters back, (Sydmill) Harris and (Brian) Boddicker off the bench. With (Deginald) Erskin, (James) Thomas, (T.J.) Ford, (Royal) Ivey, they have eight of their nine back and added Brad Buckman who we desperately wanted maybe more than any big man in the country.”

Buckman, 6-8 freshman from Austin, Texas, chose Texas over KU, North Carolina and others.

“Oklahoma has four starters back from a Final Four team and seven of their top nine coming back. They added three to four prospects, a couple we wanted badly as well (DeAngelo Alexander, Kevin Bookout),” Williams said.

“We did probably lose more than anybody in the league. We lost Jeff Boschee only the best three-point shooter in Big 12 history but also the guy taken fourth in the NBA draft (Drew Gooden). We’ll stack those losses with anybody. It’s not a category I like to stack up in,” he added, noting Missouri also lost a lot in Clarence Gilbert and Kareem Rush. “Last year I think was the best the Big 12 ever had and I think it’ll be better this year.”

KU tapped No. 1 in Big 12 by coaches

By Jim Baker     Oct 24, 2002

In what has become an annual rite of autumn, Kansas University’s men’s basketball team has been tapped No. 1 in the Big 12 Conference in a preseason vote of league coaches.

The coaches, who could not vote for their own teams, awarded defending regular-season league champion KU seven first-place votes to three for Oklahoma and two for Texas.

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Overall, KU tallied 116 points, followed by fellow 2002 Final Four participant Oklahoma (113), then Texas (103), Missouri (86), Texas Tech (77), Oklahoma State (76), Iowa State (54), Baylor (47), Colorado (43), Nebraska (36), Kansas State (22) and Texas A&M (19).

It marked the fourth straight year the coaches picked KU first and fifth time in the six-year history of the preseason poll. No poll was conducted in 1996-97.

“Even though I’m a little surprised by the selection, I guess I’m also in some ways pleased, because that means at least we’re going to be pretty good,” KU coach Roy Williams said. “I am surprised because I think that in college basketball you need depth, and we have no depth compared to Oklahoma and Texas particularly, and those are two outstanding teams that I really think are going to have outstanding years.

“Nevertheless, we’ve been picked No. 1, and I’ll challenge our team and tell them that we need to work as hard as we possibly can and at the end of the year hope that all of these people were right.”

KU’s Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich were named first-team all-league players with Texas Tech’s Andre Emmett, Texas’ T.J. Ford and Oklahoma’s Hollis Price. Price was named preseason player of the year.

Collison, a 6-9 senior forward from Iowa Falls, Iowa, is coming off a season in which he was named honorable mention All-America and second-team all-Big 12 after averaging career-highs of 15.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.

Hinrich is a 6-3 guard from Sioux City, Iowa, who was tapped first-team All-Big 12 and honorable mention All-America last year after scoring a career-high 14.8 points per game to go with 4.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists per contest. Collison and Hinrich are both preseason candidates for the Wooden Award and the Naismith Award.

“I’m very happy that preseason honors are going to Nick and Kirk because of how hard they’ve worked,” Williams said. “I think that the recognition they are getting is very well deserved. They had outstanding years last year, and I expect and definitely hope that they have even more outstanding years this year. The fact that they came back to play college basketball instead of going on to the NBA is something that I hope everyone appreciates.”

The coaches named Nebraska guard Nate Johnson preseason newcomer of the year and Texas A&M guard/forward Antoine Wright freshman of the year.

Williams didn’t disclose the teams he voted for in the poll, but recently gushed about both OU and Texas.

“Texas can be fantastic. They have five starters back, (Sydmill) Harris and (Brian) Boddicker off the bench. With (Deginald) Erskin, (James) Thomas, (T.J.) Ford, (Royal) Ivey, they have eight of their nine back and added Brad Buckman who we desperately wanted maybe more than any big man in the country.”

Buckman, 6-8 freshman from Austin, Texas, chose Texas over KU, North Carolina and others.

“Oklahoma has four starters back from a Final Four team and seven of their top nine coming back. They added three to four prospects, a couple we wanted badly as well (DeAngelo Alexander, Kevin Bookout),” Williams said.

“We did probably lose more than anybody in the league. We lost Jeff Boschee only the best three-point shooter in Big 12 history but also the guy taken fourth in the NBA draft (Drew Gooden). We’ll stack those losses with anybody. It’s not a category I like to stack up in,” he added, noting Missouri also lost a lot in Clarence Gilbert and Kareem Rush. “Last year I think was the best the Big 12 ever had and I think it’ll be better this year.”

KU tapped No. 1 in Big 12 by coaches

By Jim Baker     Oct 24, 2002

In what has become an annual rite of autumn, Kansas University’s men’s basketball team has been tapped No. 1 in the Big 12 Conference in a preseason vote of league coaches.

The coaches, who could not vote for their own teams, awarded defending regular-season league champion KU seven first-place votes to three for Oklahoma and two for Texas.

advertisement

Overall, KU tallied 116 points, followed by fellow 2002 Final Four participant Oklahoma (113), then Texas (103), Missouri (86), Texas Tech (77), Oklahoma State (76), Iowa State (54), Baylor (47), Colorado (43), Nebraska (36), Kansas State (22) and Texas A&M (19).

It marked the fourth straight year the coaches picked KU first and fifth time in the six-year history of the preseason poll. No poll was conducted in 1996-97.

“Even though I’m a little surprised by the selection, I guess I’m also in some ways pleased, because that means at least we’re going to be pretty good,” KU coach Roy Williams said. “I am surprised because I think that in college basketball you need depth, and we have no depth compared to Oklahoma and Texas particularly, and those are two outstanding teams that I really think are going to have outstanding years.

“Nevertheless, we’ve been picked No. 1, and I’ll challenge our team and tell them that we need to work as hard as we possibly can and at the end of the year hope that all of these people were right.”

KU’s Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich were named first-team all-league players with Texas Tech’s Andre Emmett, Texas’ T.J. Ford and Oklahoma’s Hollis Price. Price was named preseason player of the year.

Collison, a 6-9 senior forward from Iowa Falls, Iowa, is coming off a season in which he was named honorable mention All-America and second-team all-Big 12 after averaging career-highs of 15.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.

Hinrich is a 6-3 guard from Sioux City, Iowa, who was tapped first-team All-Big 12 and honorable mention All-America last year after scoring a career-high 14.8 points per game to go with 4.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists per contest. Collison and Hinrich are both preseason candidates for the Wooden Award and the Naismith Award.

“I’m very happy that preseason honors are going to Nick and Kirk because of how hard they’ve worked,” Williams said. “I think that the recognition they are getting is very well deserved. They had outstanding years last year, and I expect and definitely hope that they have even more outstanding years this year. The fact that they came back to play college basketball instead of going on to the NBA is something that I hope everyone appreciates.”

The coaches named Nebraska guard Nate Johnson preseason newcomer of the year and Texas A&M guard/forward Antoine Wright freshman of the year.

Williams didn’t disclose the teams he voted for in the poll, but recently gushed about both OU and Texas.

“Texas can be fantastic. They have five starters back, (Sydmill) Harris and (Brian) Boddicker off the bench. With (Deginald) Erskin, (James) Thomas, (T.J.) Ford, (Royal) Ivey, they have eight of their nine back and added Brad Buckman who we desperately wanted maybe more than any big man in the country.”

Buckman, 6-8 freshman from Austin, Texas, chose Texas over KU, North Carolina and others.

“Oklahoma has four starters back from a Final Four team and seven of their top nine coming back. They added three to four prospects, a couple we wanted badly as well (DeAngelo Alexander, Kevin Bookout),” Williams said.

“We did probably lose more than anybody in the league. We lost Jeff Boschee only the best three-point shooter in Big 12 history but also the guy taken fourth in the NBA draft (Drew Gooden). We’ll stack those losses with anybody. It’s not a category I like to stack up in,” he added, noting Missouri also lost a lot in Clarence Gilbert and Kareem Rush. “Last year I think was the best the Big 12 ever had and I think it’ll be better this year.”

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