1. The Darrell Williams saga may not be over yet. A jury convicted the former Oklahoma State player of rape and sexual battery this summer, but he’ll have a hearing this Friday to determine whether he deserves a retrial. His defense team claims it has new evidence, and it filed a motion for a retrial back in August. Williams, who received testimony from head coach Travis Ford and was convicted in front of several of his teammates, maintained his innocence by claiming he may have been falsely identified by the victims at an OSU party. There’s no word on what the defense team’s new evidence is, but on Friday, we’ll find out if it’s enough for a new trial.
2. Yesterday, we told you about Iowa State‘s new-look offense after the losses of Royce White and Scott Christopherson. Head coach Fred Hoiberg said his team would still jack up threes with the best of them, but there’s also the possibility this team could be faster and more uptempo than a year ago. As the article points out, it’ll be easier to run with a true point guard in Korie Lucious now on the roster. Utah transfer Will Clyburn is also feeling the pressure of living up to White: “Royce was a great player; he did a lot of different things on the court, so it’s not just one player that’s going to replace him,” he told the Des Moines Register.
3. Missouri officially left the Big 12 more than three months ago, but the Tigers are still making news on the Big 12 front. Kansas coach Bill Self further expanded this week on why his team won’t schedule the Tigers, as if this subject hasn’t been beaten to death by media and writers (like ourselves, of course) already. Self said he might expect to see MU in the NCAA Tournament, since the “selection committee has a strange sense of humor.” That would presume, of course, that the Tigers make it past the first game of competition, but wouldn’t that be fun?
   
4. Self also found out this week he’ll receive an award this April. It’s called the Legends of Coaching award, and it’s intended to honor coaches who exemplify the characteristics and qualities of former UCLA great John Wooden. This isn’t the first or last award Self will win, but it’s got to feel nice to somehow be associated with the Wizard of Westwood. He’ll also find himself associated with an impressive list of past winners, including Coach K, Tom Izzo, Pat Summit, Jim Calhoun and Jim Boeheim.
5. Oklahoma has made history. The Sooners will become the only known team in Division I basketball to stream their practices live this fall. It may not be the most enthralling television to watch Lon Kruger instruct (or chew out) his team during a run-of-the-mill October practice, but it’s a heck of a lot better than not watching basketball at all. We went ahead and bookmarked that website, and we suggest you do the same, provided you’re a fan of Big 12 hoops or Oklahoma hoops specifically. It may be an interesting insight into how major college basketball programs run their practices.

dnspewak (343 Posts)

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 11th, 2012 at 7:01 am by dnspewak and is filed under big 12, microsites, morning 5. Tagged: bill self, darrell williams, kansas, lon kruger, oklahoma, oklahoma state. 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.