While whiling away the dog days of August, many a Big 12 Conference football aficionado utilized the idle time by trying to guess which league games would be televised each Saturday during the season.
For example, in studying this Saturday’s conference slate last summer, the armchair pundits surely would have discarded Iowa State at Baylor and probably Colorado at Texas A&M, although any game involving a Texas school cannot easily be dismissed because the Lone Star State has more television sets than jackrabbits.
Two games appeared to be locks — Nebraska at Kansas State and Texas at Texas Tech, with NU at K-State likely for the more lucrative 2:30 p.m. ABC slot. The third TV assignment seemed most likely go to either Kansas at Oklahoma or Oklahoma State at Missouri.
Well, you know how it turned out. Who would have believed the Nebraska-Kansas State game would not be televised for the first time since 1992? And who would have guessed that Oklahoma State-Missouri would be chosen over Texas-Texas Tech for the prime ABC offering?
Then again, who could have known that not a single member of the north division would be ranked in the Top 25 midway through the season?
So unremarkable is the Big 12 North that every one of the six teams still has a legitimate shot at representing the division in the Big 12 championship game Dec. 4 at Arrowhead Stadium because a 5-3 record very well could be good enough.
Kansas State and Iowa State would have to win out to do it while Kansas and Colorado would have to capture four of their last five. Both scenarios are possible, but not probable. At the same time, both Nebraska and Missouri need three more wins to reach 5-3.
One thing is certain. Nobody in the Big 12 North has to fasten seat belts because nobody is in the driver’s seat.
Speaking of driving, how would you like to be tooling down the road in a spiffy “We Whacked Woodling” T-shirt? You can win one if you outguess me in the weekly “Wanna Whack Woodling?” contest at KUsports.com. Go to that Web site, follow the prompts and, in order to break ties, pick the score of the Kansas-Oklahoma game.
I’ve been whacked seven times already so there are five more whackees waiting in the woodwork. Remember, go to KUsports.com and don’t be surprised if George Steinbrenner is this week’s winner. The Yankees owner has to take it out on somebody.
Here are this week’s guesses:
Texas A&M 29, Colorado 11 — Big 12’s worst pass defense against league’s second-best passing offense means Buffaloes will continue to sink slowly into the Big 12 North sunset. Another impressive outing for Aggies’ QB Reggie McNeal.
Kansas State 16, Nebraska 9 — Cornhuskers always competitive at home, but Wildcats should feast on Team Turnover in Manhattan. ‘Cats will win by bigger margin if Dylan Meier is cleared to play quarterback after suffering concussion last week.
Baylor 22, Iowa State 19 — Buffoonish Bears traditionally win one conference game every year in Waco, Texas. This is it. Only 10 NCAA Division I-A schools have scored fewer points than offense-challenged Cyclones. ISU’s Stevie Hicks only starting running back in Big 12 who hasn’t scored a touchdown.
Missouri 20, Oklahoma State 18 — Cowboys smarting from first loss of season to A&M on Saturday, but Missouri leads league in fewest yards allowed and Tigers have more balanced attack than run-oriented ‘Pokes. Mizzou smelling trip to Arrowhead.
Texas Tech 66, Texas 43 — Yippie-aye-oh-ki-ya. This shootout will last longer than a Yankees-Red Sox game. Tech’s Sonny Cumbie, nation’s leading passer, outshines Cedric Benson, nation’s leading rusher.
Oklahoma 30, Kansas 12 — Jayhawks can’t match No. 2-ranked Sooners in personnel, but a week of rest should at least enable Kansas to beat the 27-point spread, regardless of whether Adam Barmann or Jason Swanson sees the most action at quarterback.
With the NBA draft coming up next month, you may be wondering how many former Big 12 Conference basketball players are projected as first-round selections.
The answer is none. Zero. Zip. Goose egg.
What about Colorado’s David Harrison? Nope. He’s a likely high second-round selection.
How about Missouri’s Arthur Johnson and Rickey Paulding? Again, second-rounders.
OK, then what about Oklahoma State’s Tony Allen and Texas Tech’s Andre Emmett? Sorry. Second-rounders at best.
That’s it. No other Big 12 products are probable picks. Even Mississippi State’s Lawrence Roberts, who played his first two seasons at Baylor, likely will have to wait until the second round to hear his name called.
All of those Big 12 products, while hardly lottery-pick types, possess enough strengths to appear capable of becoming NBA contributors. However, their weaknesses also have been exposed to countless pro scouts.
Meanwhile, high schoolers and foreign players have had less exposure, so that makes them more desirable. (This is known as Little Rabbit Foo Foo logic).
Eight high school players and approximately the same number of foreign players are projected to go in the first round, and that doesn’t leave many slots for collegians. The NBA will have 30 teams next season with Carolina joining as an expansion franchise, but only 29 bodies will be claimed in the initial round because Minnesota forfeited its pick.
All first-round NBA draft picks receive three-year guaranteed contracts while second-rounders are assured of nothing, so the Cardinal Rule for underclassmen is this: Stay in school if David Stern won’t be uttering your name from the podium.
Harrison and Kansas University’s Wayne Simien were the best big men in the Big 12 last season, and both were juniors. Simien averaged 17.8 points and 9.3 rebounds a game; Harrison 17.1 points and 8.8 boards. That’s a virtual wash.
Harrison was the league’s best shot blocker with nearly three a game; Simien averaged only one. However, Simien was as 81.1 percent free-throw shooter, and Harrison needed GPS to find the basket at the foul line (His percentage was 54 percent).
Harrison is listed as a seven-footer, but he probably isn’t that tall. Simien is charted at 6-foot-8, but he may be closer to 6-7. Finally, Harrison is a crybaby — at least when he plays against Kansas — while Simien always carries a lunch pail to the court. Based on overall performance, there isn’t really that much difference between Harrison and Simien. Yet Harrison decided to skip his senior year and turn pro and Simien didn’t.
To tell the truth, if Simien had
decided to turn pro he probably would have been projected as a high second-round pick, too. That’s primarily because of the unusual number of high school and foreign players in this year’s draft. Next year figures to be more college-friendly.
Like all college coaches, KU’s Bill Self checks with NBA sources to determine a player’s draftability. Of Simien, Self said: “He had a shot to be in the first round.” That’s not untrue. It’s possible Simien would have been a first-rounder. But it wasn’t probable.
Self is more optimistic about Simien’s chances in 2005.
“I can honestly say Wayne will be a first-round pick next year,” Self said. “How high will depend on the kind of year he has.”
Although Simien performed despite a nagging groin pull during most of 2003-2004, he shed once and for all the tag he was injury-prone. Simien missed the state tournament during his senior year at Leavenworth High because of a shoulder injury, sat out several games as a KU freshman because of a knee woe, and missed about half of his sophomore season because of a dislocated shoulder.
Perhaps the pre-draft pundits will be wrong. Maybe a Big 12 product — Harrison? — actually will be taken late in the first round. But don’t be surprised if Harrison goes to an NBA preseason camp without a guaranteed contract.
Five-to-one odds aren’t bad in a horse race, but a 5-to-1 ratio is a whole different ballgame.
The Big 12 Conference has received bids from three cities in Texas, two in Oklahoma and one in Missouri to play host to future Big 12 Conference men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, which makes you wonder why so few of the north division’s cities are interested.
Dallas, Houston and San Antonio each want to play host to future Big 12 basketball tournaments. So do Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Yes, even Tulsa. Kansas City, which hopes to have a new downtown arena within a few years (psst, don’t hold your breath), was the lone northern bidder.
In the bidding for the league football championship game, it’s a 3-to-1 ratio with Dallas, San Antonio and Houston going against Kansas City.
What about it, Denver? What’s the story, St. Louis? Kansas City shouldn’t be stuck out on a northern island.
Unfortunately, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa simply don’t boast a town with venues capable of bidding against the big Texas and Oklahoma burgs.
Wichita, the Sunflower State’s largest city, has no hope for the football game, and its spartan Kansas Coliseum looks like an outbuilding compared to the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Omaha, with the biggest metro area in Nebraska, and Des Moines, the most populous city in Iowa, basically are in the same boat as Wichita.
It boils down to Kansas City against the south, unless Denver or St. Louis enters the picture.
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No Big Surprise I: Lauren Ervin has asked for and received permission to be released from her Kansas University basketball scholarship.
Ervin, a McDonald’s High School All-American, was a disappointment in and off the court as a freshman. The 6-foot-4 center averaged 6.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game while displaying a disdain for defense and discipline.
Ervin, who once was kicked off a summer team for punching a teammate, attended three Los Angeles-area high schools, so her next school — if anyone wants her — will be her fifth in five years.
If, as has been speculated, former KU coach Marian Washington took that late-January leave of absence because of stress, then Ervin’s deportment very well could have been a factor.
Washington, incidentally, remains incommunicado. She hasn’t spoken to the media since she revealed Jan. 29 she would take leave for undisclosed health reasons. When Washington announced her retirement a month later, it was via a KU press release.
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No Big Surprise II: Former McDonald’s All-American Rashaad Carruth, who ran into trouble at both Kentucky and Oklahoma, has surfaced at Southern Mississippi.
Yep, that’s where former Iowa State coach Larry Eustachy — remember the damaging photos of him guzzling brews with Missouri coeds a couple of years ago? — has surfaced.
Who is Carruth? He’s a 6-foot-3 guard who signed with Kentucky out of high school but left the program after a season, complaining about his playing time. Carruth transferred to Oklahoma, but was booted after he said he flunked a drug test. He spent last season at Indian Hills CC in Ottumwa, Iowa.
Eustachy told the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger he took Carruth because OU coach Kelvin Sampson “…said he’s not a bad kid, and I believe him.”
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How About Hummer?: Mazda, sponsor of last December’s Tangerine Bowl, has bailed as the title sponsor. Maybe Mazda thought there wasn’t enough scoring. Heck, North Carolina State (56) and Kansas (26) combined for a mere 82 points.
Hopscotching the Big 12 Conference men’s basketball scene while wondering whether those retro uniforms Kansas State trotted out for last year’s Kansas University game in Manhattan are back in mothballs.
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Can anybody figure Texas? The Longhorns are kings of the road with overtime victories at Missouri and Texas Tech — not to mention an overtime triumph at Providence — but Rick Barnes’ team lost at home to Oklahoma State, 72-67, and barely beat Nebraska in Austin, 63-61.
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On paper, no Big 12 player is having a better all-around season than Iowa State freshman guard Curtis Stinson. The newcomer from Bronx, N.Y., ranks third in the league in assists, fifth in steals, eighth in scoring and 16th in rebounding. On the flip side, Stinson leads the league in turnovers and is only a 56 percent free-throw shooter. One more thing about Stinson: He spent two years in a prep school and will turn 21 next month.
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If Texas Tech coach Bob Knight can wear the logo of an auto parts outlet on his Red Raiders sweater this season, what’s to prevent him from looking like a Nextel Cup race car next season? An NCAA rule outlawing such commercialism, perhaps?
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Unbeaten at home, but with a 1-4 record on the road — including a loss to, my goodness, Baylor — Iowa State is the morning-line favorite to wrest the mythical Tarzan Home-Jane Road trophy away from Colorado.
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Carl Henry and Barbara Adkins are former Kansas University basketball players who married after their college days. Nebraska, however, has two basketball players on their current rosters who are married to each other — senior guards Nate Johnson and Keasha Cannon-Johnson. Nate is averaging 12.4 points a game to lead the NU men’s team, while his wife is the second-leading scorer (11.4) for the women.
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Speaking of Henry, it was his 15-foot baseline jumper moments before time ran out that gave Kansas a 63-61 victory over Kansas State Feb. 25, 1984, in Ahearn Fieldhouse. That was the beginning of the Jayhawks’ 20-year winning streak in Manhattan. The assist on Henry’s winning basket, incidentally, went to guard Mark Turgeon, now head coach at Wichita State.
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In all the years I’ve been watching college basketball, I must say that Texas A&M’s massive but immobile 7-foot, 270-pound Andy Slocum is the first statue I’ve ever seen who actually can rebound.
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Is three-point shooting really as important as people think? Consider that Kansas, the league’s only unbeaten team (4-0), ranks last in the Big 12 in three-point accuracy while lowly Nebraska (1-4) is the conference’s best three-point shooting team at nearly 41 percent.
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Those who would tend to stereotype tall basketball players as scorers and rebounders may be surprised to learn the Big 12’s most accurate three-point shooter is Nebraska’s 6-foot-11 Brian Conklin, while the league leader in steals is Baylor’s 6-foot-10 R.T. Guinn.
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While KU’s team free-throw shooting percentage has slipped lately, the Jayhawks still are making 73.2 percent of their charities. How good is that? The school record is 73.3 percent by the 1948-49 team. So, yes, 73.2 percent is very good.
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As you know, the Big 12 Tournament will be played in the sumptuous American Airlines Center in Dallas in a couple of months, then return to Kansas City’s semi-sumptuous Kemper Arena in 2005. After that, the door is open. Oklahoma City’s Ford Center has been mentioned as a future site, but where would the women play? Bricktown Ballpark? In Kansas City, the women use Municipal Auditorium; in Dallas the women’s venue is Reunion Arena.
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Ted Hillary may be the funniest of the full-time college basketball officials who work around the country, including the Big 12. The other night, when fellow official John Clougherty took an elbow to an eye, Hillary kissed the afflicted eye. Asked earlier this year by the Cincinnati Enquirer if he heard what fans said to him, Hillary quipped: “I always tell them I’m blind, not deaf.” A retired school teacher, Hillary lives in Grand Rapids, Mich.
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Obscure Note of the Week: Kansas and Missouri have played each other 248 times in basketball, but Monday’s meeting in Allen Fieldhouse will be the first-ever meeting on Groundhog Day.
Midweek miscellany while wondering if a mythical USC-LSU national football championship game would be sponsored by SBC and IBM and be dubbed the Acronym Bowl. …
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In the eight years the Big 12 Conference has fielded football teams, the league’s overall record in bowl games is a paltry 24-30. This year’s 2-6 record was the worst the league ever has had in the postseason. The lone Big 12 bowl winners were Nebraska and Texas Tech. Hard to believe Big 12 teams won two of their first three bowls, then dropped five in a row. Curiously, the conference had its best bowl year ever (5-3) after the 2002 season.
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Strange stat of the young basketball season: Kansas guard Jeff Hawkins drilled five of seven three-point attempts against TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, but in the Jayhawks’ other 10 games, Hawkins has made only three of 32 three-point tries.
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Carl Reese, the Texas defensive coordinator who resigned Tuesday, can claim a unique distinction. Reese, a former Missouri linebacker and fullback, is the only former Mizzou football player who ever has coached football at Kansas. Reese was on Bud Moore’s staff in 1975 and 1976.
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Good grief. How low can the roster go at Baylor? The Bears’ scandal-ridden men’s basketball program is down to five scholarship players after senior starters Terrance Thomas — the team’s leading scorer and rebounder — and R.T. Guinn were declared academically ineligible last week. How many players will first-year coach Scott Drew have left Feb. 18 when the Bears visit Kansas?
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Kevin Verdugo, the former Kansas and Colorado State quarterback, has left Fort Scott Community College after three seasons as head coach. Verdugo, who coached KU’s Bill Whittemore for one season at Fort Scott CC, has joined the staff at Akron University. Verdugo, 35, also has been an aide at Southeast Missouri State, Southern Illinois and Northern Michigan.
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Nebraska men’s basketball coach Barry Collier must be breathing easier these days. The Cornhuskers recorded their ninth victory last week and athletic director Steve Pederson didn’t fire him.
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Bill Bayno, a one-time graduate aide under Larry Brown at Kansas, resigned the other day as head coach of the CBA’s Yakima Sun Kings. Bayno cited burnout after the Sun Kings had dropped their 10th straight game. Trivia question: Who were the Sun Kings before they moved to Yakima? Answer: Anybody remember the Topeka Sizzlers?
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In the final NCAA football statistics — bowl games count now, you know — Heisman Trophy winner Jason White of Oklahoma finished seventh in pass efficiency ratings at 158.1. Two notches back at 154.7 was KU’s Whittemore.
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Speaking of NCAA stats, you’d think Kansas would have tumbled drastically in scoring defense after surrendering 56 points to North Carolina State in the Tangerine Bowl. Not really. In fact, five Big 12 teams — Colorado, Texas Tech, Iowa State, Baylor and Texas A&M — surrendered more points per game than KU did.
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Is Glen Mason really a viable candidate for the Nebraska football vacancy? Or is Mason’s agent simply trying to feather the former KU coach’s nest by suggesting the Cornhuskers should consider him? I suspect the latter. Still, Mason has been a head coach for 18 straight years at NCAA Div. I-A schools, and how many head coaches can you name who have lasted that long?
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What do Pete Rose, Rose Kennedy and Gypsy Rose Lee have in common? A Rose by any other name has a better chance of being voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame than they do.
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Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I wouldn’t be at all displeased if Royals’ GM Allard Baird traded newly-signed two-time AL MVP Juan Gonzalez for a proven starting pitcher, or even a proven starting pitcher to be named later.
Reflections on the Big 12 Conference football season while wondering if Colorado fans are bumming or beaming after the Buffaloes failed to qualify for the Fort Worth Bowl. …
Best One-Year Career — Texas Tech quarterback B.J. Symons languished in the shadow of Kliff Kingsbury for three years, then made a senior splash by throwing for 5,336 yards and 48 touchdowns to earn the prestigious Sammy Baugh Award, a prize almost everyone thought in the preseason would go to the pedigreed Eli Manning.
Best Third-String Running Back — With Oklahoma State starter Tatum Bell and back-up Seymore Shaw on the shelf, the curiously named Vernand Morency riddled Kansas for 269 yards, then ran roughshod for 227 more yards against Baylor a week later. That’s nearly 500 yards in just two games.
Best Quarterback Who Lost His Job — Texas junior Chance Mock threw for 1,288 yards and 15 touchdowns with just two interceptions, but coach Mack Brown awarded the key position to freshman Vince Young, a better runner, late in the season. Now Mock is talking about taking a walk.
Best Skier in a Football Uniform — Colorado downhiller Jeremy Bloom broke only one return for a touchdown, but was a threat to wax opponents’ skis every time he hauled back a kickoff or a punt.
Whatever Happened to Roy Williams? — No, not the North Carolina coach, the Texas wide receiver. Williams bypassed the NFL draft, returned for his senior year and did nothing to diminish his pro stock by catching 61 passes, including eight for TDs.
The Iron Leg Award — Baylor’s Daniel Sepulveda punted 87 times for an impressive 43.1-yard average. Iowa State’s Tony Yelk was a distant runner-up with 73 punts.
The Iron Schedule Award — Kansas State coach Bill Snyder always takes heat for playing powder puffs, but the Wildcats played 14 games during the regular season and that’s one more than the Chiefs have played so far.
Best Running Back Produced by a Kansas High School Since Barry Sanders — Kansas State’s Darren Sproles, an Olathe North product, currently ranks No. 2 nationally with 1,948 rushing yards. Like Sanders, a Wichita native, Sproles is small but amazingly durable.
Most Underrated Running Back — Kansas sophomore Clark Green isn’t fast, he isn’t shifty and he isn’t flashy. But Green doesn’t fumble and he’s as proficient a blocker as you’ll find among ball-carriers.
Worst Impersonations of Seneca Wallace — Iowa State quarterbacks Austin Flynn and Waye Terry. Calling all junior college quarterbacks: You can start next season in Ames.
The Smith-Roberson Clone — On paper, quarterbacks Ell Roberson of Kansas State and Brad Smith of Missouri were the same player. Both played in 12 games. Roberson averaged 266.2 yards per game of offense and Smith 261.0. That’s basically a wash. A closer look, though, shows Roberson accounted for 37 touchdowns, nine more than Smith.
Dubious Boot Distinction I — Colorado freshman Mason Crosby misfired on six of 37 extra-point attempts, a Big 12 high.
Dubious Boot Distinction II — Kansas junior Johnny Beck led the conference in failed field-goal attempts with seven.
Best Cornerback Playing Wide Receiver — Freshman Charles Gordon topped Kansas in receptions with 53, but the 5-foot-11, 165-pounder may be even better at cornerback, a position he also played during the last quarter of the season.
Most Amazing Stat of the Year — Nebraska compiled 45 takeaways (29 interceptions and 16 fumble recoveries) on the way to leading the nation in turnover margin. No other Big 12 school had more than 31 takeaways.
Second Most Amazing Stat of the Year — Missouri had only 10 turnovers (four lost fumbles and six interceptions). Oklahoma was runner-up with 15. The league average was 24, coincidentally also the number of Kansas giveways.
Good News, Bad News Award — Kansas led the Big 12 in fourth-down conversion success at 66.7 percent (10 of 15), but KU was last in opponents’ fourth-down conversions at 72.7 percent (8 of 11).
Most Meaningless Stat — Fourth-down conversions and opponents’ fourth-down conversions.
Scott McClurg/Journal-World PhotoSilver linings don’t really exist in clouds, you know. You just have to tough it out through overcast days.
So it is with the players on the defensive platoon of Kansas University’s football team, who were so gloomy following their subpar performance Saturday at Colorado.
Well, cheer up, guys. You’re not alone.
The Big 12 Conference is full of struggling defenses, and with good reason. The offenses are out of sight.
Big 12 defensive coordinators, unlike Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez, don’t have 72-year-old hotheads charging at them. Big 12 defenses are facing the cream of the nation’s offensive youth.
At mid-season, half of the teams ranked in the top 10 in NCAA scoring are from the Big 12. That’s right. Half. Astonishing. And four of those five are averaging more than 40 points a game. Oklahoma leads the nation at 47.7, Texas Tech is second at 46.8, Oklahoma State fifth at 40.5 and Texas sixth at 40.3. Meanwhile, upstart Kansas shares ninth at 38.5 ppg with USC.
Not too many years ago, college football teams would fatten up on nonconference foes, then when the league season began the scores would plummet as the competition improved. That’s not happening this year.
While sitting in the Denver airport Sunday morning waiting for the flight back to Kansas City, I started adding numbers on the back of my notebook. I wished I’d had a calculator.
Let’s see … the fewest points scored by a winning team Saturday was 38 by Oklahoma State. Can you believe that? I’m sure they don’t keep records on such things, but how many times do you suppose six league games were played in any conference — the Pac-10, the Big Ten, the SEC or even the Colonial Athletic Association — and the low-ball winner was 38?
Here are Saturday’s winning scores in descending order: 73, 65, 52, 50, 41, 38. Too bad you can’t play those numbers as hunch bets in the PowerBall. They’re too high. You can use the losing scores, though. They were: 47, 34, 24, 21, 13, 10.
Looking at it another way, the average score of last weekend’s half-dozen Big 12 football games was approximately 53-25.
Under normal circumstances, you might consider 53-25 an anomaly, a fluke that happens once every time Penn State and Florida State hire a new football coach, but there is no evidence to indicate those high numbers won’t be matched or surpassed this weekend.
Asked for his opinion about the Big 12 offensive explosion, Kansas coach Mark Mangino pointed to the wide-open attacks, saying: “I think there is starting to be that thought process in this conference — spread the field out and put a little pressure on the defense.”
| OklahomaQuarterback: Jason WhitePassing stats: 129-187-1,762 yards, 20 TDsPoints: 180.2National rank: 1Team total offense: 470.2 yards per gameNational rank: 11Team scoring: 47.7 points per gameNational rank: 1KansasQuarterback: Bill WhittemorePassing stats: 98-157-1,631 yards, 13 TDsPoints: 174.5National rank: 2Team total offense: 483.8 yards per gameNational rank: 5Team scoring: 38.5 points per gameNational rank: tied for 9Texas TechQuarterback: B.J. SymonsPassing stats: 222-300-2,954 yards, 27 TDsPoints: 165.8National rank: 5Team total offense: 621.8 yards per gameNational rank: 1Team scoring: 46.8 points per gameNational rank: 2 |
A little pressure? For the most part, it’s like forcing 90 pounds per square inch of air into a tire designed to hold 32 pounds. Eventually, the tire will explode.
Coincidentally, it is through the air where Big 12 offenses are hipping and hopping. The top three teams in NCAA pass efficiency this week are Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas Tech, in that order.
Five years ago, I never would have believed Arnold Schwarzenegger would be governor of California, Bob Knight would be head basketball coach at Texas Tech, and Oklahoma’s football team would rather pass than run.
Three Oklahoma running backs — Billy Vessels, Steve Owens and Billy Sims — have won the Heisman Trophy, but no OU quarterback ever has finished won that award, though Josh Heupel was runner-up in 2001.
Yet if the Sooners’ Jason White stays healthy and continues to have the highest passing rating in the country over the second half of the season, and if Oklahoma wins the national championship, White will win the Heisman, regardless of the stratospheric numbers Texas Tech QB B.J. Symons inflicts on the record books.
In Big 12 Conference football today, it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s whether you can outscore your basketball team.
Now that we have passed the point of no return in the Big 12 Conference men’s basketball race, let me congratulate the league coaches and area media for being so prescient.
I’m talking about the predictions they made early last fall about which players would earn coveted All-Big 12 honors during the 2002-03 season.
Right now, with every team having played eight of their 16 conference games, the leading candidates for first-team All-Big 12 are Andre Emmett of Texas Tech, Hollis Price of Oklahoma, T.J. Ford of Texas and Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich of Kansas University.
Yep, those are the same five players who made the preseason coaches and media teams.
What I find most curious is that four of those five rank 1-2-3-4 in league scoring stats. Emmett leads at 21.7, followed by Price at 19.1, Collison at 18.8 and Hinrich at 18.0.
In fifth place is Iowa State’s Jake Sullivan at 17.7, but Sullivan has as much chance of making the first team as Pippi Longstocking does. Sullivan will have to settle for the second team because Texas quicksilver sophomore T.J. Ford is just too talented.
It’s anybody’s guess who’ll join Sullivan, ISU’s only real offensive threat, on the second team. Colorado’s surprising Michel Morandais has to be there if he continues to average 17.3 points a game, and so do Missouri’s Arthur Johnson and Rickey Paulding. Right now, I would add Oklahoma State’s Victor Williams, the Kansas City Wyandotte grad who might be even quicker than Ford, to the second mythical all-league unit.
I must interject here that KU’s Aaron Miles might be a better pure point guard than either Ford or Williams. For example, Miles and Ford rank 1-2 in the league in assists while Williams and Miles rank 1-2 in steals. Miles, however, doesn’t measure up to the other two as a scorer.
Oklahoma’s Price was everybody’s choice as player of the year on those preseason ballots and, after a so-so preseason, the ebullient Sooner backcourt buzzsaw has jumped back into contention. If Oklahoma wins the league title, he’s a lock. If Texas wins, it’ll be Ford. If Kansas wins, it’ll be … oops, there might have to be co-winners. I don’t see how you can pick between Hinrich and Collison. The two Jayhawks should be, like a horse race, regarded as a single entry.
In the voting for freshman of the year, the soothsayers again hit the nail on the head. However, in the newcomer of the year ballot, they hammered their thumbs.
Texas A&M’s Antoine Wright, a 6-foot-7 freshman from San Bernardino, Calif., via a prep academy in the other Lawrence — the one in Massachusetts — leads all freshman scorers in the Big 12 with a 16.7 average. Wright looks like a unanimous choice for frosh honors at this stage.
At the same time, Nebraska’s Nate Johnson, the preseason choice for top newcomer, might not receive a single vote. Johnson does lead the woeful Cornhuskers in scoring, but he’s averaging just 13.3 points a game and, worse, is shooting 40 percent from the field, including a dismal 22.2 percent from three-point range. Last season, Johnson averaged 26.5 points a game at Penn Valley CC in Kansas City, Mo., and was named NJCAA Div. II player of the year.
So who has been the best newcomer, the best new face in the league who isn’t a freshman? It’s a two-horse race, in my opinion. The eventual designee will be either Ricky Clemons, the controversial Missouri point guard, or Tony Allen, a 6-4 Oklahoma State guard from Chicago who played at a couple of junior colleges, including Butler County in Kansas, before enrolling at OSU.
Clemons leads all newcomers in scoring at 16.7 points a game. Allen is second at 15.6. Iowa State’s Jackson Vroman, a skilled rebounder with limited offensive skills, is a longshot.
All in all, though, the first half of the league season means about as much as the first half of a game. It’s how you finish that counts.
Where have all the Big 12 Conference men’s basketball fans gone?
According to the latest league statistics, Kansas is the only school in the league that hasn’t experienced an attendance decline. The Jayhawks, as they have been for years, are filling Allen Fieldhouse to its 16,300 capacity — or very close to it.
In the meantime, all of the other conference schools’ average crowds are lower than last year — none more noticeable than at Texas Tech where the novelty of having Bob Knight as head coach appears to have worn off faster than a Yugo paint job.
Last season, Knight’s first in Lubbock, the Red Raiders averaged 13,743 fans a game, second only to Kansas. This year, despite bolting out of the chute and earning a national ranking, Tech’s average crowd in classy 15,098-seat United Spirit Arena has been only 7,801.
Surely, Texas Tech’s home attendance will climb during the Big 12 portion of the schedule, but not enough to wipe out a deficit of nearly 6,000 fans per game. Hmmm … maybe Texas Tech fans are weary of waiting for Knight, uncharacteristically docile since arriving in Lubbock following a stormy tenure at Indiana, to explode.
Another surprise has been Oklahoma. Here the Sooners are coming off an NCAA Final Four season with four returning starters and you would expect tickets would be harder to find than John Blake memorabilia. Instead, OU is averaging 10,124 fans in revamped 12,000-seat Noble Arena.
Maybe now that football season is over, the Sooners will be playing in front of SRO crowds again. I know one thing. They’ll need shoehorns at Noble Arena when Kansas plays there on Feb. 23.
Missouri is another team slipping at the gate. MU is down about 2,200 fans a game even though the Tigers are winning and Quin Snyder is still cute. Perhaps some of the Mizzou faithful are taking the season off, avoiding the dreary lame-duck Hearnes Building while its replacement is under construction.
Although Hilton Coliseum in Ames will be full to its 14,092-seat brim when Kansas plays Monday night at Iowa State, the Cyclones’ average home crowd is down to about 11,000 this season after a struggling ISU team lured 12,100 per opening last year. Look for crowds to improve, though, if 2002 was an anomaly and the Cyclones are legitimate title contenders again after capturing back-to-back Big 12 crowns in 2000 and 2001.
Texas, another league school with title aspirations, is down about 1,000 a game, but the Longhorns, as talented and as exciting as they are to watch, aren’t likely to draw any more than the 10,000 or so per game they attracted last year. UT’s Erwin Center is the second biggest barn in the league, holding only about 200 fewer bodies than Allen Fieldhouse, but the ‘Horns played in front of a full house just once (Texas Tech) last season.
You know what they say about Texas. UT has only two sports — football and spring football.
At the lower end of the attendance spectrum, Kansas State continues to struggle to fill 13,500-seat Bramlage Coliseum. The Wildcats’ average crowd last season was about 6,000. This season it’s been about 4,800, or about 35 percent of capacity.
The Big 12’s other attendance-challenged spots are Texas A&M and Colorado.
The Aggies are playing to about 34 percent capacity in Reed Arena, one of the league’s most fan-friendly places because of its ample parking and comfortable seating. But A&M is luring only about 4,300 a game in the 12,500-seat facility.
As usual, Coloradoans would rather stay home and wax their skis than go watch the Buffaloes play in the insipid Coors Events Center. The Buffs are luring only 3,334 fans a game this season. That’s down from a league low of 5,006 last year.
Yet if you think that’s bad, how small do you think Colorado crowds would be if the Coors Center wasn’t the only place in the league where you can buy a beer?
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