1. It’s a big night for Kansas, and it’s not necessarily because the Jayhawks host Texas Tech in their quest for yet another Big 12 regular season title. Perhaps more importantly, the program welcomes Andrew Wiggins to town for an official visit. Kansas has a lot of competition for Wiggins, the top-rated recruit in the Class of 2014. His parents both attended Florida State, and he’s also narrowed his list to Kentucky and North Carolina. The 6’7” wing has a brother with Kansas roots– Nick Wiggins plays for Wichita State. Right now, Andrew Wiggins plays at Huntington Prep in West Virginia, but he is originally a native of Canada.
2. You’ve heard a lot about Kansas’ streak of Big 12 titles, but Sam Mellinger does a nice job of providing some real perspective on just how dominant this team has been over the past decade. Sixty total players have participated in this string of league titles, and it’s that sort of culture that has allowed Kansas to rebound from a difficult mid-season swoon to take control of this conference. The players expect to win this league, and they take pride in making sure it happens, year in and year out. That’s a bit of a lost art in this day and age, where we often emphasize the NCAA Tournament over regular season accomplishments.
3. The league race isn’t over yet, though, thanks in part to Rodney McGruder. If you missed this ending to the Kansas State/Baylor game in Waco on Saturday, you missed one of the wild finishes in Big 12 play so far. McGruder hit a three-pointer at the buzzer after the Wildcats got possession of the ball under their own basket with exactly one second to play. The events leading up to that will surely keep Scott Drew up at night. Drew’s team had the basketball with one second to play, and he then inserted Jacob Neubert to inbound the ball with a baseball-like heave. Neubert hadn’t played all game, and he threw the ball high out of bounds at the other end of the court. That gave KSU the ball in prime position for the game-winner. It helped Kansas State keep pace with Kansas, and it punished the Bears’ NCAA Tournament chances.
4. Oklahoma had an interesting weekend. The Sooners shot 34 free throws in a statement win over Iowa State. That’s a good number in and of itself, just simply to attempt that many shots from the line. But guess what: Oklahoma also made 34 free throws. Thirty-four attempts; 100 percent from the line. The first question on everybody’s minds after a performance like that is whether that sort of thing has ever happened in a game before. Turns out, the Sooners tied a record set by UC Irvine in 1981 and Samford in 1990. As you probably guessed, it doesn’t happen very often.
5. West Virginia isn’t the worst team in the league, but it’s not having a terrific season by any stretch of the imagination. And even though just about everybody figured the Mountaineers would get waxed in Lawrence this weekend, that didn’t make the 91-65 loss any easier for Bob Huggins to handle. Huggins didn’t have any golden quotes after the game, but a few of his freshmen are already looking toward next season and vowing to make changes. We thought after last year’s debacle against Gonzaga in the NCAA Tournament that this team would be different, but that didn’t happen. Maybe 2013-14 will really be the year Huggins gets it right again and creates that tough, knock-you-out culture that has won him so many games during his career.

Danny Spewak (@dspewak) is an RTC Correspondent. He covered College Gameday and Missouri/Kentucky at Rupp Arena on Saturday.

Kentucky’s intro video is long. It’s not even the only intro video — there’s a hipper version that plays right before the public address announcer introduces the Wildcats’ starters. The first one isn’t as hip, though. It’s nostalgic. It’s a full two minutes (possibly an NCAA record for intro videos) of grainy, black-and-white video from the Dark Ages set to the tune of Bittersweet Symphony.

It is awesome. As the shots move at lightning speed from frame to frame to frame to frame, you see Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Pat Riley, Jamal Mashburn, Patrick Sparks, Tayshaun Prince, Frank Ramsey, Tony Delk, Sean Woods, Kenny Walker, Dan Issel and all the other Kentucky legends this state has embraced for almost a century. Tubby Smith makes a few appearances. Rick Pitino does not. For 120 seconds, Big Blue Nation stands and claps in unison to the beat of Bittersweet Symphony, and you realize whatever’s about to start in a few minutes isn’t just a basketball game. It’s some sort of religious experience, something that’s bonded the 24,000 people in the building together for decades.

Kentucky Enjoyed The College Gameday Festivities

I met a man on Saturday morning who told me he’d been driving 75 miles from Northern Kentucky to watch games at Rupp Arena since 1980. I met another woman from Bowling Green, Kentucky, who said she’d had season tickets since her teenage children were toddlers. These people exist at every level of college basketball and in every single arena across the country, but here, there are thousands of them. It’s just a little different in Kentucky, and you can feel that the second you walk into Rupp and see the eight hundred million banners in the rafters. There are so many retired jerseys, it’s a wonder they haven’t run out yet.

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Georges Niang drew a charge. Iowa State should have had possession of the basketball with a two-point lead late in regulation on Monday, and it should have had the chance to inbound the ball and ice the victory over sixth-ranked Kansas at the free throw line. The Cyclones should have all but sealed their NCAA Tournament at-large bid with the win, but then a funny thing happened. The officials made a human error. The Twitterverse blew up, ESPN commentator Fran Fraschilla directed his outrage at the NCAA on the air, and the college basketball community essentially came to a consensus that Iowa State got jobbed.

Tough Loss Aside, Iowa State Has a Lot To Play For (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

The Cyclones indeed had a victory stolen from them. Even Kansas fans would probably agree with that statement, but it doesn’t change the facts. The Jayhawks won because Elijah Johnson put on a display for the ages, draining threes from every corner of the state of Iowa. The officials weren’t guarding him. The Cyclones were — they were trying to, at least. Nobody could guard Johnson on this particular night, and blown call or not, Iowa State had a five-point lead with less than a minute remaining in regulation and could not hold on for a victory. Cry foul all you want and blame the zebras if it makes you feel better, but there’s nothing Fred Hoiberg and his crew can do about it now. They lost.

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Have you ever seen those black-and-white pictures hanging in the concourses of every college basketball arena in America? You know, the ones commemorating teams who won championships in 1921 in leagues that don’t exist anymore, consisting of skinny dudes who never touched a weight room in their lives, played decades before the invention of the protein shake, and very well may have played with a peach basket?  It’s quite possible those people traveled in time to Wednesday night and invaded Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Bill Self Showed Off His Dance Moves On ESPN

Kansas and Oklahoma State played a thriller on Wednesday. Double-overtime. A game-winner by Naadir Tharpe in the final seconds. A wild final sequence ending in a player throwing himself on the floor and the Jayhawks scooping the ball up for a dunk that counted only symbolically. It was everything you could ask for as a college basketball fan in terms of drama and late-game heroics, and yet it still might have been one of the most frustratingly and poorly played contests since the Great Depression. These are supposed to be two of the top three teams in the Big 12 Conference, but neither looked the part tonight.

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Danny Spewak is an RTC correspondent. You can follow him on Twitter @dspewak. He filed this report following Missouri’s victory over Florida at Mizzou Arena. 

Phil Pressey knows the haters exist. He knows what they say, too. You shoot too much. You turn the ball over too much. You make stupid decisions late in games. You’re a team cancer. You’ve regressed from a year ago. You hardly look like the SEC Player of the Year. You play too out of control. As Missouri has tumbled out of the national rankings — thanks in large part to a 1-6 road record — Pressey has taken the majority of the heat for his high turnover rate and questionable decision-making. Some of it is overkill and exaggeration; some of it is rooted in truth.

Phil Pressey Did The Job On Tuesday (US Presswire)

On Tuesday, Pressey made everybody shut up with a gritty performance on national television in a 63-60 victory over fifth-ranked Florida. “He was dialed in on both ends,” his coach Frank Haith said. The turnover bug hit Pressey early, which partly contributed to the Tigers’ 13-point deficit with about 11 minutes to play in regulation. Missouri couldn’t defend the perimeter, Pressey wasn’t creating, and it appeared as though Missouri would slide further toward the wrong side of the bubble with a home loss to the Gators.

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There’s a reason we use terms like “glue guy” and “hustle player” and “role player” and “hard worker.” These phrases describe players who are not terrific natural basketball talents but make up for their lack of god-given ability with heart, desire and a will to win. It’s a cute storyline for a Disney movie. Sometimes, these phrases accurately describe players, and in those instances, they should be considered compliments.

Don’t call Melvin Ejim a Glue Guy (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

Melvin Ejim is not a glue guy. Glue guys don’t lead the Big 12 in rebounding. Glue guys don’t average double figures in scoring, and glue guys certainly don’t start every game, grab more than three offensive rebounds per game, or record five double-doubles in 12 conference games. And yet for some reason, the Iowa State forward always gets that “glue guy” label. Judging by one of his recent re-tweets on Twitter, Ejim is not a fan of that particular description. You can’t blame him. Some people were born to be Rudy figures, the kind of kids who work tirelessly for years to have the chance at sacking one quarterback for Notre Dame. Those efforts are commendable, but they’re not for everyone.

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Danny Spewak is an RTC contributor. You can follow him on Twitter @dspewak. He filed this report after a weekend trip to Fayetteville for an SEC clash between Arkansas and Missouri.

The University of Arkansas campus sits in the northern tip of the state, just a short freeway cruise from the southern border of Missouri. It’s an easy, five-hour drive from Columbia to Fayetteville, and yet it took conference realignment for Missouri and Arkansas to finally play each other in basketball. The first meeting between the two teams since 2007 made up for lost time on Saturday afternoon. The atmosphere and game were terrific— a 73-71 Razorback victory complete with a late-game comeback, officiating controversies, and the birth of a star named B.J. Young. It didn’t feel like just another February conference game between two unranked SEC teams.

B.J. Young Was The Hero This Weekend(Photo credit: AP Photo).

It felt like a rivalry. Right, Earnest Ross? “Not really,” the Tiger guard said. “It was just a game on our schedule.” That’s the sting of defeat talking. The 19,000 rabid fans at Bud Walton Arena offered a completely different picture. You could feel the buzz in pregame warm-ups, when a few Arkansas students taunted MU’s Jabari Brown and dared him to laugh at their Norfolk State jokes. The intensity of the game heightened with every passing minute, starting with Missouri’s hot start and eventually culminating into a down-to-the-wire thriller. It was physical. Loud. And it really meant something, especially considering MU’s Phil Pressey and Laurence Bowers were playing against Mike Anderson, their former head coach and a man who left the Tigers in the dust in 2011.

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1. You’ve heard all about Kansas‘ point guard issues. You’ve heard that Elijah Johnson is struggling, and that Naadir Tharpe may be next in line for his starting position. Bottom line is, they’ll both need to play well to help the Jayhawks advance past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. SI‘s Andy Glockner raises the issue as to whether Johnson’s move to point guard has hurt his ability to be a primary scoring threat for this team. Ben McLemore has certainly taken care of that, but he can’t shoulder the load alone. Another interesting thing to point out: Glockner notes that Kansas’ defense actually was its failing during the three-game losing streak. Something tells us Jeff Withey and Bill Self will figure that problem out.
2. Coach of the Year awards are mostly a sham. It should be renamed the “Coach of the Most Surprising Team” award, but it’s a fun exercise nonetheless. At this point, two coaches in the state of Oklahoma may be vying for it: Lon Kruger and Travis Ford. If you ask us, the answer has to be Kruger. It’s no surprise that he’s rebuilt this program so quickly, considering his track record, but he’s mixed a good group of freshmen (and transfer Amath B’Mbaye) with a veteran nucleus to form a really solid squad this winter. It hasn’t been easy, but he benched former starters Andrew Fitzgerald and Sam Grooms and found a rotation that worked for him. From here, OU basketball should only continue to increase in relevance.
3. So much for West Virginia‘s three-game winning streak. Baylor roughed up the Mountaineers last night, which is evidence that Bob Huggins’ team did not in fact reinvent itself while beating the three worst teams in the league. For the Bears, it’s a sign that they’re perhaps back on track. Brady Heslip finished with six three-pointers, which also bodes well after he uncharacteristically struggled early in the season.
4. We’re a little late on this, but Texas Tech isn’t using its losing season as an excuse in recruiting. Interim head coach Chris Walker just hosted Keith Frazier on an official visit during the past two days. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill recruiting visit. Frazier, a five-star shooting guard out of Dallas, has offers from just about everybody. Arizona. Florida. UCLA. Oklahoma State. Missouri. And on and on. It’d be a real coup for Texas Tech to land this guy.
5. We’ll end the Morning Five on a sad note, even though it’s Valentine’s Day. Former Kansas basketball player Jack Eskridge died earlier this week at the ripe old age of 89. His career wasn’t all that illustrious — he averaged about seven points a game in the late ’40s — but Eskridge was also an assistant under KU great Phog Allen. And he’s a World War II veteran. Rest in peace, no matter who you root for.

1. Texas has been waiting for today all season long: Myck Kabongo will finally return from his NCAA suspension tonight against Iowa State. Problem is, he’s a little late. The Longhorns’ season died a long, long time ago, around the time Division II Chaminade smacked them around in Maui way back in mid-November. Nevertheless, Kabongo could help Rick Barnes’ team play spoiler during the final month of the regular season, and perhaps he offers a little hope for a late Big 12 Tournament run. A Longhorn fan can only hope. Barnes said Kabongo will indeed start against the Cyclones tonight, and he’ll need to make up for lost time right away.
2. Buddy Hield isn’t a household name at Oklahoma yet. He’s a fun personality and promising freshman, but you’d be hard-pressed to find many Big 12 fans who know much about him. You need to know that he fractured his foot on Monday, though. More importantly, you need to know that it’s a big loss for the Sooners. Hield is considered one of the top on-ball defenders on the team. He also played very well at both guard spots throughout the season, so he’ll add more pressure to veteran Sam Grooms and youngsters Isaiah Cousins and Je’lon Hornbeak.
3. Speaking of guards, Naadir Tharpe was brilliant against Kansas State on Big Monday. His final stat line: eight assists, seven points and one turnover. And he even split time with Elijah Johnson at the point. This performance begs the question– is it time for Tharpe to start? It’s hard to cut Johnson’s role on the team, but maybe it’s a necessity for Bill Self so that his team maximizes its potential. Johnson certainly hasn’t been playing well lately, but he’s proven during his career that he’s more than capable of rebounding from a slump. That’s why we’re betting on Bill Self to ride out the veteran here until he absolutely has to make a change.
4. Bill Self knows best. That’s why he has Kansas in a position to win the league again even though his team suffered through an atrocious three-game losing streak and looked more lost than any KU team in recent history. Rob Dauster tells us how that the losing streak is now a faded memory, and that it all stemmed from a lack of confidence. The Jayhawks already have a leg up on Kansas State now that they’ve swept the season series, so the big game to watch for is on February 20. That’s when Kansas travels to Stillwater to play Oklahoma State in their rematch game. Something tells us the Cowboys will need to come to play that night, because KU’s not going to just hand over the Big 12 regular season title on a silver platter.
5. West Virginia is still not a great basketball team, but it’s not among the worst teams in the league anymore either. That’s a minor victory for Bob Huggins, who has seemed perplexed at his team’s rather poor performance all season long. The Mountaineers have now won three straight games against the three Texas schools at the bottom of the conference (TCU, Texas and Texas Tech), which means they’re an even 5-5 in Big 12 play. They’ll now try to win their fourth straight against Baylor. The Bears have problems of their own, but that would be a solid win for Huggins during somewhat of a lost season. You’ve got to beef up that CBI resume somehow.

1. We saw this one coming from a mile away. After an unlikely three-game losing streak, Kansas slapped around Kansas State at the Phog on Big Monday. It was never close, as KU once again reasserted itself as the top dog in the Big 12. It’s been that way for years, and not even a horrific two-week stretch for the Jayhawks could stop that. Here’s a good breakdown of how it all happened in Lawrence last night. Jeff Withey had a historic night in becoming the Jayhawks’ all-time leading shot-blocker, and that’s surprising when you consider that he’s only logged serious minutes for two seasons.
2. Good news in Lawrence, terrible news in Norman. Sure, Oklahoma beat up on TCU Monday night as well, but it also lost freshman guard Buddy Hield to a fractured foot. This injury could keep him out for the remainder of the year, and would represent a true heartbreaker for Lon Kruger who has gotten great minutes out of his rookie. He’s allowed Hield a lot of freedom in his offense, and he even stripped minutes from veteran Sam Grooms to make room for him. The young guard hasn’t disappointed, but Grooms will need to pick up the slack as the need dictates. As we’ve outlined extensively on this microsite, Grooms should be playing more anyway.
3. It’s been hard to gauge Oklahoma State this season, but the Cowboys are right in the thick of the Big 12 title race. You can’t strip that win away from them in Lawrence — they’ll hold that over Kansas’ head for the remainder of the season. Travis Ford had some solid quotes in the linked article, including this one: ““There’s a looong way to go. A long way to go. As of today, we’ve got a shot. If we keep winning, we’ve got a shot.” So, coach, you’re telling us that there’s a chance?
4. After Kansas’ win, let’s go ahead and sort out the Big 12. Only Texas, Texas Tech and TCU (so much for basketball in the Lone Star State) have fallen completely out of contention. Surprisingly, West Virginia has evened its league record to 5-5 and may be on the verge of some kind of a breakthrough. But go ahead and guess all of the opponents during the Mountaineers’ latest three-game winning streak: the aforementioned Texas trio. Still, that’s placed them a notch above the cellar, and they’re now just three games out of first place.
5. Nobody’s too important to get booted from a high school basketball game, not even Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard. While watching his son play on one of the competing teams, he told the prep referee that he made a bad call which earned him an ejection from the building. The officials present at the game said that Pollard didn’t curse or say anything too inappropriate, but it sounds like the mere questioning of a particular call was enough to do him in.