- Frank Haith compared Royce White to Magic Johnson earlier this week, a comment White himself called “outrageous.” Now, his own coach has compared him to Kevin Garnett, as if he didn’t have enough expectations placed on him already. After a triple-double against Texas A&M, White will be a nightmare matchup for Missouri, a team that travels to Ames tonight for another road contest. Defensively, White may end up guarding Kim English or another guard or wing, but the forward isn’t worried. “I’ve guarded wing players before,” White said.
- Tyshawn Taylor and social media just do not mix. The senior point guard, who’s been no stranger to online controversies during his career, called out his critics on Twitter in a harsh manner last week. Fans were attacking Taylor on the website for his turnovers, which have been well-documented this season. Taylor fired back: “If half that talk about ball could actually ball,” Taylor said, “but y’all can’t do (so you’re) stuck to being a fan.” As coach Bill Self said, Taylor probably just needs to step away from the computer and be the better man here. But Taylor’s actually got a point. A lot of these clowns mocking Taylor for his turnovers probably couldn’t run a mile without passing out, much less start at point guard for a Top 25 basketball team. As Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once famously said in Airplane, “Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes.” Same thing applies here, Twitter bozos.
- And since we’re on the topic of KU controversy, Self is fending off criticism from former guard Josh Selby these days. Selby has apparently told Memphis Grizzlies’ officials that the Kansas head coach held him back at Kansas. Of course, the always interesting Kim English of Missouri also set off this firestorm by revealing some of Selby’s comments about Self on a radio station in Kansas City. English, a good friend of Selby’s from Baltimore, told a radio host that Selby regretted his decision to go to Kansas. Self, though, isn’t about to let anybody bully his program. “You shouldn’t use certain words over the airwaves, but that’s absolute crap,” Self said.
- After losing to Missouri and Kansas to start Big 12 play, Oklahoma finally played some equal competition in Oklahoma State on Monday in the Bedlam series. Unfortunately, Lon Kruger’s rebuilding job took a step back in an ugly loss to a beatable opponent. The article even calls the game the low point of the season, a fair label considering Kruger’s team thrived against weak competition in November and December. The Sooners’ offense struggled, and leading scorer Steven Pledger did not help the matter by making just three of 13 shot attempts.
- Once considered a contender in the Big 12, Texas A&M has fallen apart lately. The Aggies, now 0-2 in the league, rank near the bottom of the conference in almost every offensive category. They have scored the fewest points, they are the worst three-point shooting team, and they are the worst at free throws. But hey, Billy Kennedy‘s team is ninth in field goal percentage! Kennedy says it’s a result of poor shot selection and a lack of an attacking mentality offensively. A&M better figure it out soon, or its NCAA Tournament hopes could vanish quickly.