1. Wednesday marked the first day of the early signing period, and as such, Eric Bossi of Rivals.com updated his 2013 recruiting rankings. Four Big 12 teams made the list of 30 teams, with Kansas coming in at No. 2. The Jayhawks snagged a commitment from center Joel Embiid this week, whom many recruiting experts believe will shoot up the next individual rankings, possibly into the top 20. Three four-star recruits highlight the class: guard Conner Frankamp (#31), guard Wayne Selden (#26) and guard Brannen Greene (#25). Bill Self also added three-star point guard Frank Mason (#134) to round out the group. Baylor’s three-man class is ranked 12th, led by four-star center Dominic Woodson. Big 12 newcomer West Virginia add four players including 2012 ineligible point guard Elijah Macon (56th in 2012) to put themselves at No. 24, followed immediately by Iowa State and sharp-shooting guard Matt Thomas (58th).
2. There are still a handful of top recruits unsigned and uncommitted, however — nine in Rivals.com’s top 30, to be exact. Wing Andrew Wiggins recently reclassified to this year’s class and instantly became the No. 1 recruit on every major recruiting list. Nearly every top program is getting in on his recruitment, and Bill Self is no different. Self is also still going after No. 3 recruit F Julius Randle, who has an offer from Oklahoma as well. Other uncommitted players with Kansas offers include: small forward Aaron Gordon (#6), center Dakari Johnson (#13), power forward Jermaine Lawrence (#21), and shooting guard Keith Frazier (#22). Additionally, the No. 16 recruit, shooting guard Isaac Hamilton, is being recruited by four Big 12 schools: Baylor, Oklahoma State, Texas, and TCU.
3. Rumors are swirling about a potential Big 12/SEC Challenge beginning next season, similar to the Big 10/ACC challenge we have every year. The SEC’s 10 best teams (roughly) would play all 10 Big 12 teams, and it could produce some headline-grabbing match-ups if done right. The one potential game fans won’t see, however, is the one that would garner the most ratings: Kansas and Missouri. “Both conferences know their schools well enough to know what their wishes are,” KU associate AD Jim Marchiony told the Kansas City Star‘s Rustin Dodd recently. Translation: KU told the Big 12 they would not agree to play Missouri, and the Big 12 agreed.
4. Just before signing with Kansas State, three-star small forward Alex Etherington out of Arcadia, Indiana, re-opened his commitment, as reported by Indiana Basketball Source. Etherington is unranked on Rivals.com and had committed to Kansas State in June. According to the recruiting site, he also has a scholarship offer from Xavier. Kansas State received signed letters of intent on Wednesday from a pair of three-star recruits, though — shooting guard Marcus Foster and small forward Wesley Iwundu.
5. Ken Davis of Scout.com updated his Power Rankings Wednesday, with only a pair of Big 12 teams making the cut. Kansas dropped from No. 5 to No. 10 after its 67-64 loss to Michigan State on Tuesday in Atlanta. Baylor jumped up a single spot to No. 20 after two easy wins over Lehigh and Jackson State. The Bears should continue to climb the next few weeks leading up to their December 1 showdown with Kentucky. They play Boston College tonight on ESPNU and Charleston next week.

1. Joe Rexrode of The Detroit Free Press seems to think Michigan State will have problems with Kansas‘ frontcourt tonight when the teams meet up in Atlanta in the Champions Classic. That could be, but I think Kansas will have just as many problems against Tom Izzo‘s defense. The Jayhawks struggled for a good portion of their 74-55 victory of Southeast Missouri State last Friday, going 2-21 from three-point range. With five freshmen in the rotation, the offense looked lost at times. Elijah Johnson is still getting used to running the point and Jeff Withey has never been the #1 scoring option down low in college. Until those issues get sorted out, it’s hard to predict a convincing win over a team like Michigan State even if they are overrated to this point. Both defenses were impressive last week and we should see a low scoring affair tonight in Atlanta. Don’t be surprised if neither team cracks 65.
2. Yesterday, ESPN’s Myron Medcalf had 24 questions for today’s 24-hour hoops marathon. Here’s what I think about his five questions regarding the Big 12: Will Michigan State Open With Two Losses Again? No. Will Gonzaga Beat The Big 12? (The Zags play Kansas State, Oklahoma State, and Baylor after beating West Virginia last night 84-50) I think they go 3-1 with that slate, the lone defeat coming against Baylor. Are Kansas State And West Virginia Underrated? Not at all. The Mountaineers don’t have enough experienced scoring and Bruce Weber is still Bruce Weber. Is Kansas ready for Michigan State? Similar to the first question, the Jayhawks could struggle against that Spartan defense. Who Will Win the Marathon’s Biggest Matchups? (Medcalf might have run out of questions by the end of this thing) Kentucky and Michigan State, but I wouldn’t bet on the Michigan State/Kansas game.
3. Yesterday, Doug Gottlieb posted an article about the four impressions he had during the first weekend of action. Oklahoma State grabbed his attention and not in a good way. The Cowboys beat UC-Davis 73-65 on Friday, an unimpressive debut for a team that’s been talked up for much of the off-season. Le’Bryan Nash and Marcus Smart were highly-touted recruits, but the freshman-sophomore duo have a long way to go to live up to expectations. Smart should be a solid distributor, but as Gottlieb noted there might not be enough scoring options for the Cowboys to win consistently this season. If that’s the case, head coach Travis Ford could be looking for a job next spring.
4. Yahoo!’s Pat Forde gave us his 25 best non-conference games in November and December, and four Big 12 teams made the list. Kansas’ meeting with Michigan State tonight is 13th, but it’s not the best Kansas game according to Forde. That goes to next month’s showdown with Ohio State in Columbus. The Jayhawks defeated the Buckeyes twice last season, once in Lawrence (78-67) and again at the Final Four (64-62). A potential Texas/North Carolina championship game in the Maui Invitational came in at #16, but those games might not be as good as the 22nd best game, Baylor at Gonzaga. After Gonzaga’s shellacking of West Virginia last night, the Kennel in Spokane will be nothing short of insane when the Bears come to town December 28.
5. After speculation that class of 2013 Center Joel Embiid would announce his college decision on Thursday, Embiid’s high school coach Justin Harden told TheShiver.com on Monday that Embiid’s announcement is coming today. He will apparently sign his Letter of Intent on Thursday, and he has narrowed his choices down to Kansas, Texas, and Florida. All three schools have visited Embiid at the Rock School in Gainesville recently in hopes of landing the four-star center, and his recruitment has been void of any big rumors up to this point. All three schools have been hot on the recruiting trail lately and all three have obvious upsides. Kansas has been putting big men in the NBA on a regular basis under Bill Self. Florida is the hometown team, and Texas is, well, in Austin. Check back later if/when Embiid makes the announcement.

This week, we’re bringing you the obligatory team preview here at the Big 12 microsite. Kansas State at the #4 position is next on our list. 

The Skinny

• 2011-12 record: 22-11, 10-8
• Key contributors lost: Jamar Samuels
• Head coach: Bruce Weber, 1st season
• Projected finish: 4th

Bruce Weber is an amazing example of a coach falling up. (AP)

Let’s remind ourselves how we got to this point.

March 8: Illinois loses its final game of the season, a 64-61 loss to Iowa in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. The Illini finished the year 17-15 after starting off 15-3. By this time, Bruce Weber’s postgame press conferences were depressing to watch and listen to. He put everything in his job and even his opponents knew that, but you could sense his time in Champaign was coming to a close. The next day, Weber was relieved of his duties as head basketball coach of the University of Illinois. Fast forward to the 17th, amidst the madness of March, Kansas State lost in the third round to one-seeded Syracuse 75-59. They were without Jamar Samuels that day because he accepted an inpermissible benefit. Because their season was over, they were down but since they had a lot coming back next season, it wasn’t that bad.

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Brian Otskey is a contributor for Rush the Court. Let him know what you think at @botskey on Twitter.

Part Three of the countdown includes conference rivalries and some intriguing non-conference matchups. Check out the previous editions of 68 Must-See Games here: #68-52, #51-35. (h/t to Zach Hayes for his assistance in building this list.)

34. February 23: Missouri at Kentucky (9:00 PM, ESPN) – Both teams have a roster full of newcomers but expect each to be on top of their games come late February when this game is played. Now a member of the SEC, Missouri will immediately be one of the favorites to win the regular season championship. Of course, it will have to get by Kentucky to do that. Winning at Rupp Arena has never been accomplished by any opponent in the John Calipari era. Missouri just might have to do that in order to bring the SEC crown to Columbia.

33. January 19: Kansas at Texas (2:00 PM, CBS) – The second of a tough three game Big 12 stretch for Kansas comes in Austin where the young Longhorns will try to knock off the old guard of the conference. Despite their personnel losses, the national runner-up will be ready to go again this year. That’s the Bill Self way. A tough early season road test is ideal for a team like Kansas to see how well the returning players have progressed and meshed with the talented newcomers.

They also meet: February 16 in Lawrence.

Jeff Withey & Myck Kabongo Will Do Battle for Big 12 Supremacy (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

32. December 29: UNLV at North Carolina (2:00 PM, ESPN2) – The Rebels knocked off top-ranked North Carolina very early last season in Vegas, setting the stage for a 26-win season and elevating the program’s status. To get back to the glory days of the Jerry Tarkanian era, however, UNLV has to advance deep into the NCAA Tournament, something it did not do last season. To be in a better position to do that, your seed has to be pretty good. If UNLV wants a top three seed in the Big Dance, it has to win games like these on the road against good teams.

31. January 26: North Carolina at NC State (7:00 PM, ESPN) – A big home game for NC State comes six games into the ACC season, a time when the title race will start to take shape. If NC State is to win the ACC for the first time since 1989 as the coaches have projected, it has to do well against Duke, Florida State and North Carolina, all of whom NC State plays twice. When one of those teams comes to your building, you have to take care of business.

They also meet: February 23 in Chapel Hill.

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1. With the election now in the rear-view mirror, Matt Norlander over at CBSSports.com wondered if the presidential race was decided by states with the best basketball programs. Norlander’s sample size is comprised of his site’s preseason top 26 because he felt it wouldn’t be as compelling if states like Alaska, Hawaii or Wyoming were put on a level playing field with say, Indiana and Kentucky. It was a close “race” between the number of red states and blue states but the electoral vote count will remind you of the results from Tuesday. It is also worth noting that each of the Big 12 teams in their top 26 are in red states. I’m just saying.
2. USA Today Sports‘ Eric Prisbell and Nicole Auerbach give us a list of coaches with the most to prove this season and two of them are Kansas State’s Bruce Weber and Oklahoma State’s Travis Ford. While these coaches do have some work to do this year to justify their positions, they’re at different levels on the totem pole. Weber is in his first year of a new job while Ford is a bad season away from losing his job. The article also lists UConn’s Kevin Ollie as another coach with a lot of pressure this year, so if you’re going to list guys who have limited head coaching experience with limited time with which to work, Chris Walker of Texas Tech would be as good a candidate as any.
3. We now know how long Oklahoma State forward Michael Cobbins will be sidelined. Travis Ford announced he’ll be out “about a month” after suffering an injury in Monday’s exhibition victory versus Ottawa University. Le’Bryan Nash threw an alley-oop pass to Cobbins but the pass went over his head and he fell on an Ottawa player. This, of course, is bad news for a coach already without two key pieces in his rotation — Phillip Jurick who is still recovering from an Achilles injury and J.P. Olukemi who is dealing with a knee injury. Guard Brian Williams, of course, is also out for the season. Get well, Cowboys.
4. Tuesday night West Virginia dominated its exhibition game like any good program, beating Glenville State, 95-53, and head coach Bob Huggins isn’t happy. As a team the Mountaineers shot 50% from the floor, Deniz Kilicli dropped 19 in an efficient 8-for-10 shooting night, Aaric Murray had 13 points, nine boards, and two blocked shots, while Juwan Staten had 16 points, six dimes and zero turnovers. So what does Huggins think? “We’re going to look at how we didn’t run any offense.” Riiiight, coach. I see what you did there.
5. Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale are two of ESPN’s most visible college basketball personalities and while they have had moments of disagreement over the years, they have finally agreed on one thing: Oklahoma and Lon Kruger are on the rise this season. I don’t like the fact that Kruger doesn’t stay at places very long but what Vitale says is true: He can flat-out coach. Take a good coach like Kruger, the returns of Steven Pledger and Romero Osby, the arrival of Amath M’Baye, an emerging point guard in Sam Grooms, and I believe they will hear Greg Gumbel call their name out on Selection Sunday.

1. Jeff Borzello and his CBSSports.com companions near the end of their Preseason Top 25 +1 Countdown with a look at the Kansas Jayhawks. KU is going to finish the regular season as Big 12 Champions. There’s no point in fighting it anymore. It’s as much of a sure thing as Steve Spurrier getting a daily round of 18 in or Skip Bayless uttering something nonsensical. The only reason Borzello has a “Why This Team Will Disappoint” section of the preview because he has to. I’m sure the Bible has a passage that reads, “Thou shalt doubt not Bill Self.” Check again, it’s in there.
2. Burnt Orange Nation released its full Big 12 preview yesterday. When making our own predictions here at the microsite, we came to the conclusion that predicting three through eight in the league was a total crapshoot. They have Texas ranked second in the league behind the Jayhawks, much like the mid-2000s. Their all-Conference team has the names you’d expect but a couple of their honorable mentions are from squads that will appear to finish at the bottom of the league. They aren’t as crazy as you’d think.
3. The Remember the Miners Scholars Program is announcing the release of the Huggins Horrible Hankie. What fans can do with the “Triple-Hs” is wave them around (a la the Terrible Towel; forget that I just used a Pittsburgh reference) at West Virginia sporting events. The program’s Honorary Chairman is West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, who provides financial aid to miners, dependents of miners, and students pursuing an education in the world of mining. We all know mining is a major part of the Mountain State’s identity, so if you would like to get yourself a hankie or if want to know more about Remember the Miners, do check out remembertheminers.org.
4. The Pistols Firing Blog has now hit number eight on its player-by-player countdown. Forward Kamari Murphy was the topic yesterday and he’s definitely going to get his share of attention as a freshman starter for the Cowboys. His high school coach at IMG in Florida was particularly high on him, and I am too, despite Travis Ford complaining about Murphy not doing enough with the ball when it’s in his hands. I hope Ford’s trying to keep Murphy under the radar now just so he can have a chance to surprise us all toward the end of the year.
5. The Collegian just ran a story on the best player in the Big 12 that nobody’s talking about. Rodney McGruder was the top scorer from last year’s Kansas State squad and he leads a team with the experience of playing a bunch of big games under their belt. I have the Wildcats finishing fourth in the Big 12 and that has a lot to do with no important losses from the program other than Frank Martin’s departure. In fact, I’ll even go as far to say that K-State could be a sleeper team to make the Sweet Sixteen this year.

1. West Virginia coach Bob Huggins received some great news on Sunday afternoon with 2013 big man Devin Williams‘ verbal commitment to the Mountaineers. Williams, a consensus 4-star forward according to Rivals, ESPN and Scout, chose WVU over offers from Ohio State and Memphis. The Cincinnati native joins a lethal recruiting class full of bigs: Elijah Macon (6’8″, 210 pounds), Nathan Adrian (6’7″, 200 pounds) and Brandon Watkins (6’9″, 225 pounds). If you thought West Virginia’s size this season with Deniz Kilicli and LaSalle transfer Aaric Murray was going to be trouble, then next year will be hell for the rest of the Big 12.
2. Exhibition season is wrapping up and my new favorite coach Chris Walker won Texas Tech’s preseason opener 88-63 over Texas-Permian Basin on Thursday night. If you read my Texas Tech preview I picked Dusty Hannahs to be a sleeper on this year’s team and the freshman hit two threes on his way to 12 points. Transfer Dejan Kravic led all Red Raider scorers with 16 points and six boards. An interesting note from Thursday’s game is that Walker has implemented a full-court press, which helped force three steals on UTPB before they attempted a shot. Anxious to see how Tech plays when the games start to count.
3. Kansas State closed out its preseason action with an 81-51 thumping of Emporia State Sunday. The Wildcats spread the wealth offensively with twelve players scoring, including four in double figures: freshman D.J Johnson (17 points), Thomas Gipson (12), Rodney McGruder (10), and Angel Rodriguez (10). Johnson also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds in just 18 minutes of play. I think it’s safe to keep an eye on the freshman forward, who wasn’t highly-regarded by national recruiting services. K-State and Bruce Weber tip off a new era this Friday against North Dakota.
4. The supposedly much-improved Oklahoma Sooners struggled a bit with Washburn, only beating them 83-66 in exhibition play on Friday. OU shot it well from the perimeter (11-for-22) but had difficulty shooting from the field overall. They shot only 43.9% compared to Washburn’s 41.1%. The Sooners also turned the ball over 21 times, two fewer TOs than Washburn and out-rebounded the Ichabods by just four (40-36). But they also had a bright spot as Big 12 preseason newcomer of the year Amath M’Baye played well (14 points and a team-leading six rebounds) as did freshman Buddy Hield (16 points, five rebounds and three steals in 24 minutes). It’s not time to panic just yet because they still have an exhibition Wednesday for a better showing before their season opener Sunday versus Louisiana-Monroe.
5. If there was one team who knew how to take care of an preseason opponent, it was Iowa State. The Cyclones were lights out all around in a 90-57 smashing of Minnesota State. Korie Lucious, this year’s newest transfer from Michigan State, hit 5-for-8 from outside to account for his 15 points and dished out five assists. In a starter’s role as opposed to last season, senior Tyrus McGee led the team with 16 points including four triples of his own. As a team, ISU shot 50.7% from the field and nailed 15 three-pointers out of 29 for 51.7%. They might not be who they were a year ago but at least they won’t be a boring team to watch.

1. Happy Halloween, college basketball fans! Want to hear a story you can use as your “trick” tonight as you’re gathering candy? How about this: According to an article in the Stillwater NewsPress, J.P. Olukemi had no idea he might be ineligible for the second semester until some kid at the student union told him about it earlier this year (you’ll need to scroll to the end of the article for this excerpt). If you’re not familiar with the situation, Olukemi has recovered from the ACL injury that stole his junior year and will suit up this month, but the NCAA has not yet ruled whether he can play an additional semester in 2013. After already losing Brian Williams to a season-ending injury, the  Cowboys cannot afford to also lose Olukemi after December. It’s too bad he had to find out the harsh news from some random dude on campus.
2. There may not be a more intriguing story in the Big 12 this year than Amath M’Baye. The Wyoming transfer could add a new element to Oklahoma this season, and he also has quite the life story. M’Baye originally hails from France, but he’s also played in California and, of course, the state of Wyoming during his early college days. His mother will fly in from France to watch Oklahoma’s exhibition game on Friday, and she’ll get to finally see the culmination of her son’s long road to Norman. If you need proof of M’Baye’s immediate impact, look no further than the fact his teammates already voted him a team captain.
3. Bruce Weber has to feel like a lucky man after inheriting such a solid and experienced Kansas State roster. After all, Illinois canned this guy, and he landed on his feet with arguably a better job. It’s interesting to observe how Wildcats’ players and fans are welcoming their new coach and reacting to his style. He’s always been considered a fiery personality, but he’s no Frank Martin, that’s for sure. As Will Spradling puts it: “Last year it was, if we made a mistake, we were on the line. We were running… This year it’s, ‘If you make a mistake, we’re going to do it right. We’re going to get it right. We’re going to do it as many times as we need to get it right.'” At least Weber won’t need to worry about toughening his guys up. Martin took care of all that — and then some.
4. Myck Kabongo‘s eligibility at Texas is the storyline of fall practice so far, but coach Rick Barnes isn’t saying much about the situation. Nobody’s saying anything at all, really, just that they hope the NCAA doesn’t punish him for improper benefits and deem him ineligible to play this season. It’s almost as though nobody wants to consider that scenario, because it’s pretty nightmarish. Actually, it’s quite Halloween-like. Just how bad would it be? Well, after already losing J’Covan Brown to the pros, freshman Javan Felix would have to start. Leading returning scorer Sheldon McClellan and Julien Lewis would still be around, and Barnes loves freshman DeMarcus Holland, but you’d be talking about some serious inexperience at the point guard position in a hurry.
5. Do you want to read another article about Marcus Smart‘s selflessness and maturity? Here you go. Our intention is not to dissuade you from believing Smart is the real deal. Quite the contrary, actually. We’re sure that Smart is a terrific basketball player and a terrific person, and we’re sure he has a heck of a future ahead of him. It can be funny to read article after article about his wise-beyond-his-years maturity, though. In this particular piece, Ford has more to say about Smart: “I have coached guys who have played extremely hard and have been as unselfish as Marcus is… But Marcus can go a whole practice without shooting and not care less. It’s easy to coach a guy like that.”

Chris Johnson is an RTC Columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.

Coaching changes are powerful developments. They can ignite struggling programs, send promising ones on a downward spiral, and have drastic implications (both good and bad) for the administrators who made them. Sometimes, a regime change preserves a middling trajectory established by the previous coach, in which case another switch is likely forthcoming. Otherwise, why hire a new coach in the first place? In any case, this offseason brought few radical coaching changes. That’s mostly because there weren’t many significant changes to be made – Illinois, Kansas State, LSU and South Carolina headlined the list. The average college basketball fan will find little intrigue in that selection. It doesn’t exactly project “excitement” or “allure.” Even so, the hires made are no doubt transformative endeavors for the programs that occasioned them. They wanted a change of direction, found a coach who shared that vision, matched vacancy with proscribed fit – and voila! Some of these new faces in new places will have a better chance of succeeding right away, and thus validating their new position. Missouri’s Frank Haith, one of the most widely criticized hires in years, personified the seamless transition. He made it work from the moment he arrived in Columbia. The next question is who has the best chance to do that this season. Trying to decipher which coaches can succeed right away requires keen insight, situational knowledge and a bit of guesswork. Because most changes are made to improve the previous coach’s way of running things, most new guys don’t inherit the best situations. Instead, they are hired to improve from the flaws of the previous regime. Anyway, in the interest of sparing you from a more drawn-out coaching hire lecture, here are three coaches poised to thrive in their new stomping grounds.

The Bobcats are set to continue their recent success under Christian, who has plenty of experience in the MAC (photo credit: US Presswire).

Over the past half decade and change, we’ve come to know Ohio as the sporadic NCAA Tournament outfit you absolutely dread seeing your favorite team matched up with in a first-round setting. In 2010, they took down three-seed Georgetown. Last season, the Bobcats raised their Giant Killer profile to a whole new level, beating four-seed Michigan and 12-seed South Florida before dropping an overtime decision in the Sweet Sixteen to one-seed North Carolina. That’s the kind of run that puts your program on the map,  and puts your coach squarely on the wish list of hiring programs across the country. It granted John Groce a move up the conference coaching ladder, into the rugged Big Ten, where he’ll attempt to use his up-tempo offense and Chicago recruiting ties to pump some life into a downward-trending Illinois. Losing Groce hurts, but his replacement is no less capable of continuing the Bobcats’ recent Tournament success. On its face, the hiring of Jim Christian is nothing to get excited about. A ho-hum four-year tenure at TCU preceded his newest position, where he compiled a 38-58 record and failed to generate the type of fundamental culture shift required to lift the Horned Frogs out of their current state. As credentials go, his tenure in Fort Worth hardly inspires confidence. But if you look beyond his recent history in the Mountain West, and delve into the breadth of his college hoops coaching career, the move to bring in Christian makes absolute sense.

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1. Jamari Traylor has Kevin Young’s broken bones in his hand to thank for his starting spot in Kansas’ first exhibition game, but he’ll use it as an opportunity to show his coach how valuable he may be during the 2012-13 season. Traylor often gets lost in the shuffle behind other KU freshmen like Ben McLemore and the veteran core of Jeff Withey, Elijah Johnson, Travis Releford, but he could play a major role on this team after a redshirt season a year ago. The early scouting report on Traylor is that he’s a monster inside and the kind of guy who will do anything and everything to tip a ball, grab a rebound, or make a hustle play. Young won’t be out long with his injury, but we’ve got a feeling Traylor will earn himself plenty of playing time this season regardless.
2. Kansas State has a lot of returning experience, but according to head coach Bruce Weber, that doesn’t necessarily equate to great leadership. Yet. He’s still searching for that bona fide leader, the kind of guy who can rally the troops and fight his way through adversity. Luckily, Weber has a couple of promising point guards in Angel Rodriguez and Will Spradling, as well as three seniors. Rodney McGruder is the best player on the team but he’s not the most vocal guy, whereas Jordan Henriquez — one of the league’s best defensive big men — could probably talk all day if you let him. It’s silly to worry too much from an outside perspective, though. Weber’s a good coach, this is a good team, and these guys will figure something out. By the end of the year, this won’t be a discussion anymore.
3. Oklahoma held its media day on Monday, and the players seem to be approaching this season with a completely different attitude. After tumbling in Big 12 play a year ago, the Sooners return a lot of individually talented parts but must find a way to bring everything together under Lon Kruger. It all starts with point guard Sam Grooms, the Big 12’s leading returning assists man. He says he’s already noticing how the added depth has helped the team, thanks to Wyoming transfer Amath M’Baye and a very good group of freshmen. Forward Romero Osby may have said it best: “It’s a new feel.”
4. A couple more news and notes from the Sooners’ media day: freshman C.J. Cole and junior college transfer D.J. Bennett will both redshirt this season, according to Lon Kruger — maybe that’s a testament to the depth Grooms talked about. Later in that article, there’s also an interesting tidbit involving a former Sooner named Blake Griffin. Perhaps you remember him. Apparently, Griffin’s first dunk after surgery back in September was over OU freshman Buddy Hield. “You can’t stop anybody like Blake Griffin,” he says.
5. We’ll have a Texas Tech preview coming your way later today, but we may as well direct you to CBS Sports‘ preview of the Red Raiders as well. There’s no harm in providing a variety of opinions, and this write-up gives a decent overview of what to expect from this program in shambles. No matter who’s writing the preview — CBS, RTC, or any other outlet — it’s hard to argue with the fact that head coach Chris Walker has quite a task ahead of him. This particular writer predicts Texas Tech to finish winless in the Big 12. That’s a bit much, but you get the point. It’ll be a long year.