1. Tonight’s the night: how will the result in New Orleans affect the legacy of coach Bill Self? According to CBS’ Matt Norlander, it could change him from a great to a legend. Considering Self’s pedigree, it’s hard to argue with Norlander’s column. Self has reached the Elite Eight with three schools, and he’s experienced major success at four stops: Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Illinois, and Kansas. He’s the head coach of one of the top programs in college basketball history and he has won or shared eight straight Big 12 titles. With a second championship, what’s not to like about that?
2. Staying with Self… he also earned the Naismith Coach of the Year honor by beating out John Calipari, Frank Haith, and Jim Boeheim. Back when Self and Fred Hoiberg shared the Big 12 Coach of the Year title– and Haith subsequently won the AP Big 12 COY award– we had this debate. Does Self deserve it, despite the fact his roster includes Thomas Robinson, one of the nation’s top players and a sure-fire NBA Draft pick? Last time, you all had a lot to say about this. Let’s hear that feedback again.
3. Interestingly, Self will now coach against the man who replaced him at Illinois earlier in the decade. Bruce Weber will become the new head coach at Kansas State, taking over for the departed Frank Martin. It’s an interesting hire by the Wildcats. On one hand, Weber built a power at Southern Illinois and had his share of success in Champaign, but his Illinois program tumbled the past few years and hit rock bottom in 2011-12. Like we saw with Haith at Missouri, though, don’t judge this hire until we see the results on the court.
4. As much as we talk about Thomas Robinson, Tyshawn Taylor and even Bill Self and Jeff Withey at Kansas, there’s a forgotten man: Elijah Johnson. As Jeff Borzello mentions, he has now scored in double-figures seven straight times and could be the difference in Monday’s title game. “Lately, Elijah has been the guy,” Self said. Though his teammates have played inconsistently on the offensive end during the NCAA Tournament, don’t expect this likeable junior with the big smile to falter in New Orleans.
5. Welcome to the Big 12, West Virginia. The Sporting News has ranked the school sixth in terms of football/basketball combinations, which will certainly help the league as it transitions in 2012-13 after the departure of Missouri and Texas A&M. On the basketball front, the Mountaineers actually have a fairly underrated program, and they should slide in nicely to replace Missouri.

dnspewak (343 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2012 at 7:30 am by dnspewak and is filed under big 12, microsites. Tagged: bill self, bruce weber, elijah johnson, frank martin, kansas, kansas state, thomas robinson, west virginia. 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.