1. Oklahoma didn’t get much preseason publicity, but it departs southern California this weekend with two wins under its belt in the 76 Classic. The Sooners, who lost by double-digits in the title game to Saint Louis, aren’t going to get any top 25 votes for their modest two victories, but Lon Kruger has to be happy with the way his team competed this week. The Sooners looked good in wins against Washington State and Santa Clara, and Kruger found out that guard Steven Pledger could be a go-to player this season. In the end, that’s what these tournaments are all about–getting a feel for your team and learning about your players.
2. Switching to the women’s side for a moment, we’d like to recognize Oklahoma State‘s women’s basketball program for picking up their first win since the fatal plane crash earlier this month. OSU, which lost two members of its coaching staff in that crash, beat Coppin State 59-35. It is gut-wrenching to read about the emotions of the game, and we cannot even imagine how hard it is to play basketball in this sort of a situation. No, this isn’t men’s basketball news, but OSU’s women’s team has surely picked up a lot of fans in recent weeks.
3. It appears the NBA may be back, and that’s perfectly fine with us. But the interesting thing about this new deal between the players and owners is the potential age limit for the NBA Draft, which would obviously have enormous consequences for college basketball. There’s a possibility the league will implement a rule to require players to be two years removed from high school before entering the NBA Draft. What would that do for Quincy Miller, LeBryan Nash and Myck Kabongo? Nothing has been decided yet, but this is a story to keep an eye on.
4. Kim English struggled for Missouri last season as a junior, but he has found a way to revitalize himself under new coach Frank Haith. English shredded Binghamton this weekend for 29 points, making six three-pointers during an unconscious first half. That’s a career-high for English, who made another three-pointer after halftime to finish with seven total. But more importantly, it is the kind of performance most never dreamed they would ever see out of English. He looked so lost at times last season, but it appears he has made the necessary adjustments.
5. We have beaten this Border War story to death. Yeah, yeah, we know Missouri and Kansas might not play each other anymore. Big deal–we’ve been talking about it for weeks. Here is an interesting perspective, however, regarding basketball: does Missouri need Kansas more in this sport? Obviously, the Jayhawks have a legendary and historic program, and their fans will show up no matter who they are playing. Missouri’s fan base is a little less basketball-crazy, and this particular writer says Missouri “needs Kansas” for basketball (and vice versa for football).

dnspewak (343 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, November 28th, 2011 at 7:00 am by dnspewak and is filed under big 12, microsites. Tagged: coppin state, kansas, kim english, lebryan nash, lon kruger, missouri, myck kabongo, oklahoma, oklahoma state, quincy miller, steven pledger. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.