Big 12
Big 12's teams, coaches and style of play.
On a night when college hoops’ top two teams escaped upsets, what’d we learn?
That Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins are the key to Kansas’ season? Or that Kalin Lucas is Michigan State’s go-to guy? We knew all that going in.
Try this: Don’t forget recent history because Gonzaga and Memphis are actually good. Again.
The old cliché still applies, I guess. The more things change – both teams lost four starters from last season – the more they stay the same.
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The Big 12 thinks it’s the top conference this season.
With teams like Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma, it’s an easy argument to make. The league has two of the nation’s true title contenders, while the Sooners lead a solid second group that includes Kansas State, Texas A&M, Missouri and Oklahoma State.
But the true mark of a tough conference is at the bottom. And that’s where the Big 12 could step up this season.
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There are dedicated college basketball players, and then there’s Kim English.
Missouri’s sophomore guard is taking the “practice makes perfect” cliché to another level by spending all of his free time at the gym. In fact, he rarely makes it home to bed.
It's a habit that the rest of the team is starting to adapt, which may not bode well for opponents.
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Blake Griffin may be the best thing that’s ever happened to Oklahoma basketball.
And that’s saying something. It’s not like the Sooners were devoid of hoops history before Griffin arrived on campus in 2007. Waymon Tisdale was a three-time consensus first-team All-American. Billy Tubbs’ 1987-88 squad was one of the sport’s glorious up-tempo teams. Kelvin Sampson led the Sooners to the 2002 Final Four.
Sure, it’ll always be a football school. But coach Jeff Capel says Griffin’s breakout 2008-09 season has helped change all that. Heck, freshman Tiny Gallon said he’d never even heard of OU until Griffin.
And now? Capel has a permanent sales pitch.
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With Big East coaches pleading parity, there’s an opening for the mythical “toughest college basketball conference” in the country.
And it sounds like the Big 12 wants it.
"I believe this is our league’s year,” Kansas coach Bill Self said at Big 12 media day. "I don’t think we’ll be talking about maybe getting six in the tournament next March. That’ll be something that’s very disappointing to everybody involved if this league doesn’t have six, seven, eight teams at least.”
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Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich are pretty much on every conceivable all-american/award list for college hoops this season.
Makes sense. Collins is perhaps the nation’s top point guard, while Aldrich is probably the best center and a surefire NBA lottery pick. They’re among the preseason candidates for the Wooden Award and were just named the preseason co-Big 12 players of the year.
And they’re dynamite together on the court. They’re the best inside-outside combination since J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams (both first-team All-Americans in 2006) and are pretty much always mentioned in the same breath when talking about Kansas.
If you think that kind of attention makes them close friends, you’d be right. But that’s only half of it.
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Things are back to Defcon 5 in Lawrence. Well, maybe Defcon 4 or 3. Tempers may still be running a little hot from the Tuesday/Wednesday scuffles.
Both Bill Self and football coach Mark Mangino made the rounds for apologies, general statements and trying to paint a picture “one big family” on campus.
Self, who was out of town on Tuesday and Wednesday, was part annoyed, part pissed off. And hey, why wouldn’t he be?
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It’s funny. Planned to do a post this morning on Kansas guard Xavier Henry and how he’s already loving life in Lawrence. He’s bonding with his teammates, impressing in practice and raising the level of play.
Sounds like he’s not the typical freshman. You know, acting immaturely or getting into fights and stuff. Guess that falls to everyone else.
The Kansas basketball and football team reportedly scuffled Tuesday night, which resulted in sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor suffering a dislocated left thumb.
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Doc Sadler spent part of his summer in Larry the Cable Guy’s entourage. No surprise there.
A sense of humor is essential to being Nebraska’s basketball coach. (Cue laugh track.)
Seriously though, laughter would be a necessity with the Huskers. Most basketball coaches would lose their minds swimming upstream at a place like that.
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Who doesn’t love a good trick shot? One of my favorite ads as a kid was Michael Jordan and Larry Bird trying to top each other in a game of H-O-R-S-E, and to the victor went the Big Mac. Seems like everyone loved that ad.
Denis Clemente must too.
This video’s a little old and the footage is grainy, but I caught it for the first time today. Nice bit of trickery, but I like his jubilation at the end best. You can almost hear him talking to Jordan, “Off the video screen, one bounce, nothing but net.
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