- The Big 12 offices released their weekly awards and this week’s honorees are Baylor’s Cory Jefferson for Player of the Week and Kansas’ Joel Embiid for Newcomer of the Week. Jefferson averaged 14 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game as he helped the Bears make somewhat of a surprise appearance in the EA Sports Maui Invitational championship game. Jefferson currently leads his team in scoring (13.5) and rebounding (8.8) for the season. Embiid put up 9.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.3 blocks in three games at the Battle 4 Atlantis. Bill Self told the media following their win over UTEP that Embiid has “got to play more minutes…without fouling.” If this is how he’s playing after picking up basketball two years ago, I’m sure he’ll correct that issue soon enough.
- Hello, Texas fan. Caught up in the ups and downs of another football season and know nothing about the hoops squad? Burnt Orange Nation has your back with a breakdown of each player’s performance going into last night’s game vs Vanderbilt. The young Horns have three point guards and improved big men such as shooter Connor Lammert and center Cameron Ridley, who doesn’t look totally spooked when he gets the ball down on the block anymore. Their 7-1 record will be put to the test with Temple, North Carolina, and Michigan State popping up on their schedule in three of the next four games.
- Normally, a trip to the Bahamas is a good thing, but not if you ask Bill Self. “I’m not depressed,” Self said. “I would say frustrated, but not just me. I think the players are frustrated, too, knowing we didn’t play like we are capable of playing while we were down here. Sure, the Jayhawks dropped one to Ryan Arcidiacono and Villanova but that was followed by a nervous win to a UTEP team going into Saturday at 4-3. On Sunday morning, he decided to give his players the opportunity to ride the rsort’s water slide. Did Self tag along? “I did not,” Self told the Lawrence Journal-World. Hard to believe Self and this guy are the same person.
- The return of Thomas Gipson is a welcome one for a Kansas State team struggling to find its offensive identity. He suffered a concussion in the early stages of the season and missed the first two games. Since playing starter’s minutes again, Gipson is averaging 17.6 points and 7.3 rebounds helping the Wildcats win two of their last three. Boy, do they need him. He now joins freshman Marcus Foster as the only two players averaging double-digit scoring. To be seven games into a soft non-conference schedule and rank 302nd out of nearly 350 Division I teams is discouraging for a team coming off a shared Big 12 title last year. It is going to be a long season in the Little Apple.
- What’s this: West Virginia is…scoring? They defeated Loyola (MD) 96-47 last night that saw five Mountaineers in double-figures: Remi Dibo (19), Terry Henderson (16), Eron Harris (14), Kevin Noreen (13), and Nathan Adrian (11). Through eight games this year, West Virginia is averaging 85.1 points per game compared to 69.3 through eight games last season. Now the month of December brings the meat of their non-conference schedule with a road date at Missouri followed by a home tilt against Gonzaga next Tuesday. Are they at-large worthy? That could be determined in the next seven days.