The NCAA can be as unpredictable as midwestern weather when it comes to its investigations, so it’s hard to tell Texas fans to rest easy today. But if the most recent news coming out of the Myck Kabongo story is indeed true, it doesn’t seem likely that the Longhorns will be without the talented point guard this season.

Myck Kabongo might be in the clear with the NCAA.

Kabongo flew to Cleveland this summer for a private workout with childhood friend, former Texas teammate, and current Cleveland Cavalier Tristan Thompson. How Kabongo financed the trip is the reason behind the NCAA’s questioning. Yahoo! Sports originally reported that the trip was paid for by Thompson’s agent, Rich Paul, a clear violation of NCAA guidelines that could potentially have resulted in Kabongo ineligible to play this season. FoxSportsOhio is now reporting that Thompson paid for the trip rather than Paul. Because Thompson and Kabongo’s relationship goes back to their childhood, it appears unlikely that sanctions will come down on Kabongo or Texas.

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1. Bob Knight is in the headlines once again. The former Indiana and Texas Tech basketball coach is auctioning his national championship rings along with his 1984 Olympic gold medal.  On the heels of Arkansas football coach John L. Smith’s financial issues, was Knight the latest to resort to selling his goods for a quick buck? No, he’s doing this to pay for grandchildren’s college education. Up for bid are his three NCAA championship rings from 1976, 1981 and 1987, his gold medal as Team USA coach (given to him from the LA Olympic Committee) as well as a sports coat and warm-up jacket also given to him as part of the 1984 Olympic team. Good to know nothing’s wrong with Knight financially speaking. You almost had us there, coach.
2. The Baylor Bears have them a fan in CBS’ Matt Norlander. He likes the Bears as a preseason Top 20 team and it’s hard to think of them otherwise. Ricardo Gathers and Isaiah Austin are bound to make immediate impacts as freshmen with the departures of Perry Jones III and the Quincys, Miller and Acy. Throw in the Big 12 preseason POY in Pierre Jackson, three-point assassin Brady Heslip, highflyer Deuce Bello and you’re looking at a team that can blossom at the end of the year, just like the two Elite Eight teams of recent vintage (2010, 2012). Scott Drew certainly has a type.
3. Kansas State is still getting used to Bruce Weber just as Weber is to K-State. Kellis Robinett of The Wichita Eagle had an outstanding piece detailing how the two are meshing. The first time the Wildcats tried to run Weber’s motion offense was a comedy of errors. Players were unsure of where to go and featured, as the story notes, “teammates accidentally crashing into each other.” When Frank Martin was around, K-State ran half-court sets so it’s understandable a scheme change would take some time to master. One difference senior Will Spradling notices between his current and former coach is that one mistake would have caused Spradling to hear Martin’s loud voice in his ear while Weber is willing and able to rehearse the play as long as it takes to get right. In the grand scheme of things, this won’t make the Wildcats win more games because KSU would have been projected as pretty good whether Weber or Martin were calling the shots. Gonna miss Martin’s death stare, though.
4. Former Iowa State everyman Royce White has gotten off to a bit of a rocky start in his NBA career. He didn’t arrive at the Houston Rockets training camp on time due to anxiety issues over flying. To quell those fears, White and the Rockets came to an agreement on traveling arrangements during the preseason. Monday night White saw his first action as a Rocket and, in limited action, he looked every bit the player he was in Ames. He wasn’t put in a box, he was Royce. For Rockets fans like myself, that’s music to our ears.
5. I am a big fan of the College Basketball All-Name Teams provided by the fine folks at Ballin is a Habit every October. Now that this fall ritual has moved to NBC’s College Basketball Talk, this year’s list of names may be the deepest ever. Big 12 schools have their share of wacky namesakes but the real humor is in the name of each category. Read this while you enjoy your lunch later today. You may not have much of one when you’re done looking it over.

From the WAC to the Big 10 and now the Big 12, Bill Self has finished in the top two of his conference every year since the 1998-99 season. For a future Hall of Fame coach, it’s a great run but nothing that will necessarily grab headlines on SportsCenter. But what Self has been doing at Kansas since 2004 — winning the Big 12 regular season title every year — is reaching historic levels the likes which haven’t been seen at a major conference since UCLA won 13 straight conference titles from 1966-1979.

Can Self work his magic and lead KU to a 9th straight Big 12 title?

Conference dynasties aren’t totally foreign to college basketball. Penn captured seven Ivy League regular season titles from 1998-2007. Gonzaga emerged as a mid-major power in the late 90s, winning the West Coast Conference 10 times since 1998-99. But this isn’t the Ivy League or the West Coast Conference. Bill Self hasn’t had the luxury of facing Dartmouth or San Francisco on a regular basis. He’s beaten Hall of Fame coaches and future NBA stars. Kevin Durant, the all-NBA talent and No. 2 pick in the 2007 NBA draft, couldn’t win the Big 12 his one season in college. That title belonged to Self and Kansas. Fellow No. 2 pick Michael Beasley fell to the Jayhawks during his one-and-done season in 2007-08 as well. Talented players come and go, coaches (and teams) move through the conference, but penciling in Kansas to hoist the trophy in early March has been the safest bet for nearly a decade.

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Late Night in the Phog served its purpose once again. Just days after witnessing Midnight Madness at Allen Fieldhouse in person, coveted small forward Wayne Selden committed to Kansas on Monday, adding another centerpiece to Self’s impressive Class of 2013 recruiting class. Selden, a 6’5” wing originally from Boston, plays high school basketball at The Tilton School, which produced the likes of Nerlens Noel and several other major prospects. Self stole Selden from just about every dominant school in the East — Connecticut, Syracuse, and the rest of the crew — and beat out John Calipari, Billy Donovan and Ben Howland to his first top-20 recruit since Josh Selby to the fold for 2013.

Bill Self Has No Trouble Recruiting Nationally

Remember, Self has already earned early commitments from in-state point guard Connor Frankamp and Georgia forward Brannen Greene in 2011, and he added point guard Frank Mason from Virginia earlier this month. Selden’s arrival takes this recruiting class to another level, though, and it sets up a 2013 Jayhawks freshman class from all over the nation. By our count, that’s four prospects from four different states in three separate regions of the country, yet another sign Self is willing to go absolutely anywhere to find his basketball players. He found Mario Chalmers in Alaska, after all, so something tells us he probably wasn’t afraid to search for Selden up in the Northeast.

1. It’s October so it must be time for… bracketology? CBSSports.com’s Jerry Palm takes a swing at how the 68-team tournament will look on Selection Sunday 2013. Like in 2012, Palm has six Big 12 teams making the field. Take his opinion for what you will but this is the same guy who continued to keep Northwestern in his bracket even after it went out of style (and right on cue, the Wildcats are one of his “first four out”). As for the bracket itself, it looks pretty balanced among the power conferences and for non-AQ schools, the Atlantic 10 and Mountain West are projected to once again be the best basketball leagues for mid-majors. Something interesting of note is that the five teams from last year’s actual bracket that are the exact same seed in Palm’s 2013 projections (not counting #1 or #16 seeds): Missouri (#2), Notre Dame (#7), Kansas State (#8), Davidson (#13) and Ohio (#13). And there you have a useless fact. You’re welcome.
2. Here is the latest on the trial of former Oklahoma State player Darrell Williams. On Friday, district judge Phillip Corley denied Williams a retrial on his two counts of rape by instrumentation and was sentenced to a one-year suspended sentence. Since Williams had already been in custody since July 2011, he was able to walk away a free man, with a catch: Williams must register in the state of Oklahoma as a Level 1 sex offender, which the state considers to be someone who probably won’t commit such a crime again. The defense believed they had enough evidence in Williams’ favor for a possible retrial. Now he, his family and friends are left with a bitter taste in their mouths as Williams adjusts back to society.
3. Bob Huggins may not have been crazy about being ranked sixth in the preseason Big 12 coaches poll but methinks he’ll be feeling a lot better soon. West Virginia AD Oliver Luck revealed that the university was in the process of giving Huggy Bear a contract extension and raise. In 2008, WVU and Higgins signed an 11-year contract worth $27.5 million, with a $2.3 million salary slotted for 2012-13. Luck said the deal would be done by the end of the year. This makes all the sense in the world: He’s 59 years old, coaching at his alma mater, and winning. A lot. I’m glad the Mountaineers joined the league because now there’s room for a mini-rivalry to develop between the Mountaineers and the Kansas State Wildcats. It’s just good to have Huggins back in the league.
4. ESPN made a change to its Big Monday announcing team. Bob Knight, everyone’s favorite… something, is being replaced on Big 12 games by Fran Fraschilla paired with Brent Musburger. This move seems to be popular with everyone who cares about it, but I’ll miss Musburger-Knight for two reasons: 1) Any announcer who does a game with Knight other than Musburger seemed to be intimidated by his presence on broadcasts; and 2) Brent and Bob had kind of a Verne Lundquist-Bill Raftery thing going on. They’ve both seen tons of college hoops in their days and played well off of each other on the air. On the other hand, it’s good to have Fraschilla doing Big Monday games after being paired with Ron Franklin a few years ago.
5. It’s no secret: Kansas is deep. And some of that depth will miss some time with an injury. Zach Peters will be out for a month while he rests a rotator cuff injury. Surgery isn’t necessary in his case but he won’t be able to practice until the regular season gets underway. Again, this shouldn’t be that big of a deal considering the Jayhawks’ talent at the forward position but it’ll be crucial time missed for a freshman who may eventually become a big part of the team in the future.

Today is the official opening to the 2012-13 college basketball season as schools will be able to start officially practicing Friday night. Before then, though, we’re going to take a look at the various pre-conference tournaments that have become synonymous with the first month of college basketball. Nearly every Big 12 school is competing in one of those tournaments this season and we’ll take time each day this week to preview each bracket, from Hawaii to Puerto Rico to New York City. Monday, we took a look at Texas and Kansas. On Tuesday, Kansas State and the NIT Preseason Tip-Off were previewed.  On Wednesday, we analyzed how Iowa State and Oklahoma State will stack up in their preseason tournaments.  Today, Oklahoma and West Virginia take the stage as we break down the Old Spice Classic. 

Old Spice Classic 

Date: November 22, 23 and 25

Location: The ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida

Teams: Clemson, Davidson, Gonzaga, Marist, Oklahoma, UTEP, Vanderbilt and West Virginia

There’s a good field this year.

This may be my favorite preseason tournament this year. Sure, this isn’t the Champions Classic or the Battle 4 Atlantis but I love it because of all the symmetry among some of these schools. Thanks to conference realignment, Oklahoma and West Virginia find themselves in the same field but ESPN cleverly placed them on opposite sides of the bracket, so there’d be a small chance for a Big 12 game in November (I’d love to see that come to life). Also, the Mountaineers have a unrelated non-conference game with Gonzaga to kick off the college hoops marathon in November, which then will be a rematch of a second-round game in the 2012 NCAA Tournament, which then could also be a possible Old Spice championship game matchup. SYMMETRY!

Last year was an awful one for Clemson, considering they went from a Tournament team in 2010-11 to 16-15 overall. And they have to play Gonzaga? It’s not happening, Tigers. As for Gonzaga, they’re getting more pub this season than any other. They’ve had the pieces to make deep runs in the Tournament some years but haven’t been to the Elite Eight since the 1999 team that gave eventual champion UConn a scare.

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1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

There may not be a more valuable player to his team in the Big 12 than Myck Kabongo. He’s not Texas’ leading returning scorer — that’s Sheldon McClellan — nor did he play flawlessly a year ago as a freshman. Regardless, he played a major role in helping the Longhorns sneak into the NCAA Tournament with his improved point guard play and defense during the final month of last season, and the Longhorns will likely live and die with their stud NBA prospect in 2012-13.

That is, if he’s even on the team. A school spokesman told the Associated Press yesterday that the NCAA has questioned Kabongo about his relationship with agent Rich Paul, who represents LeBron James (as well as former Texas players Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph). The investigation centers around two aspects: 1) Paul’s communication with NBA teams before Kabongo decided not to enter the 2012 NBA Draft; and 2) his role in Kabongo’s all-inclusive trip to Cleveland a year ago. These are not the most serious allegations we’ve ever seen. There are no wire transfers involved, no big bags of money or sketchy suitcases transferred from an agent to a player, no criminal action. This isn’t a Reggie Bush situation, a Fab Five situation or any of the other blatant cheating scandals in the grand history of college sports.

Texas Cannot Afford to Lose Myck Kabongo

That hardly matters, though. If true, Kabongo’s relationship with this agent would compromise his amateur status, and he’d become ineligible to play for Texas. Kabongo would land on his feet and surely jump to the NBA at some point, but his loss would devastate Rick Barnes’ team and set the program back. After relying almost exclusively on J’Covan Brown for offense in 2011-12 and overcoming a lack of depth in the frontcourt, Barnes finally assembled a team with major forces in the paint and several scoring options. This team was built for Kabongo, who won’t need to be a primary scorer. He’s the facilitator of this offense, the guy who can break down defenses and open scoring opportunities for, say, McClellan, or super freshman Cameron Ridley. Without Kabongo, however, this team will have serious issues competing near the top of the Big 12. On a team consisting of almost all freshmen and sophomores, his mere presence keeps the Longhorns running. If he’s ineligible, Barnes might be looking at another difficult season on the NCAA Tournament bubble. That’d be a real shame for a coach who combined such terrific freshman and sophomore classes on this roster.

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.

We’re just two days away from the official opening to the 2012-13 college basketball season as schools will be able to start officially practicing Friday night. Before then, though, we’re going to take a look at the various pre-conference tournaments that have become synonymous with the first month of college basketball. Nearly every Big 12 school is competing in one of those tournaments this season and we’ll take time each day this week to preview each bracket, from Hawaii to Puerto Rico to New York City. On Tuesday, we took a look at Texas and Kansas. On Wednesday, Kansas State and the NIT Preseason Tip-Off were previewed.  Today, we’ll analyze how Iowa State and Oklahoma State will stack up in their preseason tournaments. 

Puerto Rico Tip-Off

Dates: November 15, 16 and 18

Location: Coliseo Ruben Rodriquez in Bayamon, PR

Teams: Akron, Massachusetts, UNC Asheville, NC State, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Providence and Tennessee

A sports photographer’s dream (Sarah Phipps/The Oklahoman)

If you look at these teams by name alone, you’d think this was a pillowy type of tournament. But look harder and you’ll see a preseason top 10 team, a #16 seed who nearly upset a #1 in last year’s NCAA Tournament, three teams that played in last year’s NIT, and a team with two five-star recruits (maybe) in the starting lineup. Not bad, eh?

The Akron Zips not only have an awesome nickname but return four of its five leading scorers from a team that barely lost to Sweet Sixteen-bound Ohio in the MAC Tournament championship. UMass head coach Derek Kellogg made it to NIT Semifinals in New York last year and his 5’9″ point guard Chaz Williams was voted to the all-conference first team. If that doesn’t say something about how good they are in a deeper A-10, I don’t know what will.

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