Everything you wanted to know about Big 12 Conference basketball with the season opener (Kansas at Colorado) just three days away …
After dominating the Big 12 for two seasons — KU won 30 of its 32 league games over that span — the Jayhawks appear vulnerable. First-year coach Bill Self has basically had to replace NBA lottery picks Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich with a pair of freshmen — David Padgett and J.R. Giddens — and the dropoff has been palpable. Curiously, the Jayhawks lead the league in free-throw shooting at 77 percent, but are dead last in three-point shooting at around 26 percent.
It’s no secret the Jayhawks need to improve their outside shooting. They will struggle mightily on the road if they don’t because their transition game is average at best. If Michael Lee doesn’t provide some outside punch when he returns from that broken collarbone, you’ll see opponents playing sardine-can defenses under the basket.
Missouri was the choice in August, but the Tigers are in the tank following close losses to Memphis and Illinois and a stunning home defeat inflicted by Belmont. That’s a school in Nashville, not the race track in New York.
If the Ricky Clemons brouhaha isn’t a cause and effect of Mizzou’s current woes, then the problem must be related to sun spots, biorhythms or voodoo. Or all three.
Pick one. Kansas still has a stable full of steeds, but Texas has the league’s deepest bench plus a precocious freshman in forward P.J. Tucker, the current league leader in offensive rebounds. Notably, the Longhorns will play Kansas in Austin (Feb. 23). Also, it would be unwise to overlook the two Oklahoma schools. OU and Okie State still play defense like banshees. Don’t count out Colorado, either, if coach Ricardo Patton — did you know he’s a Belmont grad? — concocts a magic elixir for winning on the road and Michel Morandais remains eligible.
Possibly Iowa State. The Cyclones, under first-year coach Wayne Morgan, still have arguably the league’s best shooter in Jake Sullivan, a proven rebounder in Jackson Vroman, a solid shot blocker in Jared Homan and perhaps the league’s best all-around freshman in Curtis Stinson. A 6-foot-2 guard from the Bronx, N.Y., Stinson ranks among the league’s top 15 in scoring and rebounding while ranking second — to KU’s Aaron Miles — in assists and sixth in steals. What about ISU’s defense? Let’s just say, matadors come from far and wide to study it.
The Cornhuskers are off to a 9-1 start.
Nebraska is this year’s Iowa State. Cyclones won 10 of their first 11 against suspect competition last season, then lost four straight when league play started and finished 5-11 in the Big 12.
Andre Emmett will lead the league in scoring again, but one-man teams don’t win league championships. Also, if it weren’t for Kansas, the Red Raiders would be the Big 12’s worst three-point shooting team. Curiously, Raiders are antithesis of coach Bob Knight. He’s an intimidator, but no one has ever accused his players of emulating the Huns and Visigoths.
Forget that 41-point loss to UMKC the other night. Kansas State isn’t that bad. Then again, K-State basketball has been down so long — the ‘Cats haven’t had a winning league season since the Big 12 was formed — that you have to wonder if KSU will ever resurface as a contender. Coach Jim Wooldridge appears to have a quality frontcourt performer in juco transfer Jeremiah Massey, but the ‘Cats will have to be clicking by the time KU arrives on Jan. 28.
Nope. American Airlines Arena in Dallas will be the site for the second straight year. The tournament will return to Kemper Arena in 2005, however. Future sites are expected to be announced soon. Kemper Arena, incidentally, will be an NCAA first- and second-round site, meaning Kansas would be assigned to a pod there if the Jayhawks earn a high seed.
