- Let the arguments begin. The Big 12 released its preseason coaches poll on Thursday, which means about as much as preseason football, exhibition games, and the college football bowl system (ouch, sorry about that one). Everybody in the league picked Bill Self and Kansas to win the Big 12 in 2012-13, except for, well, Bill Self. That’s because he couldn’t vote for his own team. Self voted for Baylor, which finished second in the poll. Somehow, due to a random assortment of events we’ll never quite understand, the coaches picked Oklahoma State to finish third. We’re guessing they like Marcus Smart — hey, we do too — but not that much. Iowa State’s eighth-place choice is perplexing, too, as is Kansas State’s slot at number five. There’s a reason they call it a preseason poll, though, and that’s because they’re usually wrong.
- The coaches picked West Virginia to finish sixth in the Big 12. Call it newcomer hazing if you want, but coach Bob Huggins wasn’t too pleased with the selection. “If we’re the sixth-best team in the league, it’s a hell of a league,” he told the press. He may be a little biased, but he has a point. The Mountaineers welcome two of the league’s top newcomers in Juwan Staten and Aaric Murray, and Huggins has more than proven himself as a college basketball coach, regardless of league. West Virginia hails from the Big East. The Big 12 shouldn’t be a problem, not with his improved personnel this year.
- In wake of the NCAA investigation into Myck Kabongo‘s relationship with an agent, his buddy and fellow countryman Tristan Thompson has come to his defense. Thompson, a former Texas Longhorn himself and a teammate of Kabongo’s in prep school, said on Thursday he actually paid for Kabongo’s trip to Cleveland. As Thompson explains, this tidbit is important because it would prove to the NCAA that Rich Paul, the agent in the middle of this whole debacle, did not reimburse Kabongo for the all-inclusive trip. This still wouldn’t exonerate Paul with regard to the allegations he made contact with NBA coaches on Kabongo’s behalf before the NBA Draft, but it’s helpful that Thompson would go public with this sort of information.
- Trent Johnson is on a roll. Less than a week after top-50 center Karviar Shepherd pledged to his TCU program, Johnson picked up a commitment from point guard Michael Williams. He won’t arrive on campus in 2013 with the same kind of fanfare as Shephard, but any publicity is good publicity for Johnson at this point. Williams, rated as a three-star prospect by Rivals.com, appears to have chosen TCU over Creighton, Nebraska, Tulsa, Colorado State and others. Not North Carolina and Kansas, but not exactly Division II, either. It’d be silly to judge him as a prospect at this point, though, so we’ll take a wait-and-see approach.
- Face it. Kansas’ bench has more talent on a yearly basis than your program could ever hope to amass in a century. That’s how Bill Self operates, and it’s how a player like Jeff Withey can transfer to Kansas as a deep reserve and finish his career as a star. Elijah Johnson was a big part of last year’s Final Four team — he wasn’t on the bench, that’s for sure — but he’s now ready to take over as the next stud Jayhawk. With such roster turnover and so many new faces, Johnson will have to be a stabilizing figure for Kansas. Often an unsung hero in 2011-12, it’s easy to forget how well he played during the Big 12 and NCAA Tournaments. He tallied a career-high 26 points in a quarterfinal win over Texas A&M and scored in double figures in every single postseason KU game. That’s the kind of thing Self needs from his senior in 2012-13.