1. We were beginning to wonder about Ben McLemore a bit during his explosion against Iowa State on Wednesday night and so was his coach. McLemore wasn’t aggressive enough or at least enough to Bill Self’s liking. “[McLemore] doesn’t get himself plugged in,” Self said. Well coach, I think his 33 points on just 12 shots is about as “plugged in” as it gets. He tripled his scoring average of his two games previous (11.0 PPG) and made all six of his threes against the Cyclones. You almost forget that this guy was ineligible to play on last year’s team that lost to Kentucky in the national title game. If he had been eligible, there easily could have been another championship banner hanging at The Phog this season. They could still end up hanging another one but they’ll just have to wait until next season’s home opener to do so.
2. If we learned anything from Wednesday night’s game, it’s that Iowa State has set up a template for beating the Jayhawks. As Rob Dauster notes, Cyclones’ bigs aren’t your prototypical bigs. Guys like Georges Niang and Melvin Ejim can shoot from the outside which means Jeff Withey’s superb shot-blocking ability can be neutralized a bit (although he still had three blocks) when he isn’t hanging around the painted area as much. I think if Big 12 teams were to study this, it could work to their advantage. I look at a team like Baylor with seven-footer Isaiah Austin, who also has the tendency to play around the perimeter. If Austin is on his game, KU could find itself in trouble again.
3. The Los Angeles Athletic Club announced the midseason 25 candidates for the John R. Wooden Award which is college basketball’s most prestigious individual honor. The Big 12 had four players crack the list: Pierre Jackson, Ben McLemore, Marcus Smart and Jeff Withey. First impressions: the LAAC got ’em all right. The representatives went like this among power conferences: the Big East had five, the Big Ten had four, the ACC had three, and the Pac-12, surprisingly, had none. The SEC had two players on the list but both of them (Laurence Bowers and Phil Pressey) play for Missouri, so technically, the Big 12 would have had six players make the cut if the Tigers hadn’t jumped ship after last season. Think about that.
   
4. It’s no secret that WVU-Texas on Wednesday night was everything wrong about college basketball but what Bob Huggins said after his Mountaineers prevailed in overtime raised some eyebrows, if not just my own. “We had opportunities to pack it in and we didn’t when we got down [13] points and we were having a hard time scoring. Hopefully this kind of gets us back to being my kind of team,” Huggins said. I wonder if he actually believes that last sentence. I guess somebody has to, right? The Mountaineers struggled to reach 57 points even with an extra five-minute cushion to boot. All I know is that if Huggins is able to turn this season around, it would be the biggest “sike” in Big 12 history.
5. For the first time since guys like Blake Griffin and James Anderson suited up, the Bedlam Series matters again. Despite their recent slide, I feel good enough to say Oklahoma State will be an NCAA Tournament team by season’s end, but the wildcard in this analysis is Oklahoma. The Sooners didn’t play all that tough of a non-conference schedule so their losses aren’t all that bad, but they have the talent and coaching to go .500 in conference play, maybe better. But, hey, this is a rivalry game — all the facts and figures are supposed to be thrown out the window anyway.

The NCAA released its RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) on Tuesday. The RPI isn’t the only factor used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee, and it certainly isn’t the best metric, but it is a consideration nonetheless. Simply put, the RPI is derived from three things: a team’s winning percentage, its opponents’ winning percentage, and its opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage. They also began factoring in home, away, and neutral site games in 2004, so road wins are better than home wins and home losses are worse than road losses. It has its limitations — if it determined a national champion like in college football, we would all be in trouble. But it’s not a terrible way to assist in determining the NCAA Tournament field and where teams should be seeded. Like any numbers-based ranking system, it doesn’t always jive with a human poll, and that’s OK. There should always be a human element with a mixture of strictly numbers, as both sides can veer too far in one direction at times. (Example: The RPI has Colorado ranked sixth, too high, and San Diego State 40th, too low).

The Good

• Kansas is #2 after surviving a (much needed) close game against Temple at home on Saturday. The Jayhawks have solid wins against teams like Colorado (#6), Belmont (#21), and the aforementioned Temple (#28). Last month’s road win against Ohio State (#41) made it four wins against top 50 teams in the non-conference season. Bill Self has mastered the art of scheduling non-conference games at KU. You don’t think he knows winnable home games against teams like Belmont and Temple will help his RPI come Selection Sunday? The good coaches know which teams to schedule and where to schedule them, and Bill Self is no different in that regard.
• Oklahoma at #19 surprised me as well. The Sooners have wins over Texas A&M (#65), UTEP (#85), two wins over West Virginia (#105), and Oral Roberts (#115). On paper, their loss to Stephen F. Austin looks bad, but the Lumberjacks are #53 in RPI. Their other two losses came to top 100 teams as well, at Arkansas (#94) and Gonzaga (#5) on a neutral floor. With Oklahoma already so high, it bodes well for the Big 12 getting five teams into the NCAA Tournament.

Oklahoma at #19? Just One Of The Eccentricities Of The RPI

The Bad

• Baylor‘s two-point loss to Colorado on Nov. 16 doesn’t look so bad now that the Buffaloes are #6th, and a win in Rupp Arena over Kentucky is never a bad thing. But the Bears are #35 in RPI right now. That’s what losses to Charleston and Northwestern will do to your resume. I almost put this in the “Good” category because head coach Scott Drew has done a masterful job of sinking his team’s expectations once again this season. But with one of the best point guards in the nation in Pierre Jackson and plenty of talent elsewhere, there is no reason the Bears should be as low as #35 right now. Read the rest of this entry »

When the Big 12 released its 2011-12 All-Conference teams last March, it included a who’s who of elite, nationally-recognized point guards. Tyshawn Taylor of the national runner-up Kansas Jayhawks made the first team. The dynamic Pierre Jackson of Baylor made the second team. Missouri’s Phil Pressey, the league’s leader in assists, made the third team, star Texas freshman Myck Kabongo earned an honorable mention, and the voters even named MU’s Michael Dixon the Sixth Man of the Year.

Why Has Grooms’ Time Decreased This Season?

Sam Grooms did not make that list. At all. Not even an honorable mention for the Oklahoma point guard. And when the 2012-13 preseason awards came out this fall, he didn’t make that list, either. Jackson and Kabongo did, but the Big 12’s returning leader in assists was nowhere to be found. Entering this season, it seemed perplexing how much people ignored Grooms and discarded him as a second-rate point guard in this league. Other than Pressey, who moved on to the SEC and was named that league’s preseason Player of the Year, no player in the Big 12 averaged more assists than Grooms a year ago when he dropped six dimes per game. His assist-to-turnover ratio was a stunning 3:1. When Big 12 play heated up, the junior college transfer emerged as a true floor general in spite of his team’s inability to win a basketball game. The statistics tell the entire story. In a five-game stretch last February against the likes of Kansas, Iowa State, Missouri, Texas Tech and Texas, he dished out 43 assists against 11 turnovers and even notched a career-high 17 points against the Tigers. Lon Kruger told a local newspaper Grooms was doing a “terrific job.” Even though Oklahoma’s season ended with a thud with a loss in the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament, it was clear Grooms had nothing to do with the Sooners’ slide. On the contrary: He was the bright spot on a 15-16 team. His command for the point guard position and feel for the game was all so promising as Kruger attempted to build for the future. Nobody knew much about Grooms, but we did. I even named him the eighth-best player in the entire conference as he entered his senior year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Seven Sweet Scoops  is the newest and hottest column by Chad Lykins, the RTC recruiting analyst. Every Friday he will discuss the seven top stories from the week in the wide world of recruiting, involving offers, which  prospect visited where, recent updates regarding school lists, and more chatter from the recruiting scene. You can also check out more of his work at RTC with his weekly column  “Who’s Got Next?”, as well as his work dedicated solely to Duke Basketball at  Duke Hoop Blog. You can also follow Chad at his Twitter account  @CLykinsBlog  for up-to-date breaking news from the high school and college hoops scene.

 Note:  ESPN Recruiting  used for all player rankings.

1. Roy Williams Sees Andrew Wiggins For Third Time

If you’re a fan of North Carolina, you have to be extremely impressed with the amount of attention head coach Roy Williams is showing the No. 1 player in the class of 2013, Andrew Wiggins, as of late. On Thursday, Williams was in Huntington, West Virginia, to watch Wiggins for the third time this season. The recruiting efforts have essentially paid off for the Tar Heels for now, as Wiggins is expected to take a trip to Chapel Hill at the conclusion of his senior season at Huntington Prep (West Virginia). Including North Carolina, who has signed three top-100 prospects from the class of 2013 in Isaiah Hicks, Kennedy Meeks, and Nate Britt, the 6’8” small forward is also considering Florida State, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio State, and Syracuse. He has also already taken his first official visit to Florida State and has plans to also visit Kansas and Kentucky at season’s end.

North Carolina will receive an official visit in the spring from Andrew Wiggins

2. Junior Leron Black Backs Out of Baylor Commitment

For a number of underclassmen, the recruiting process can prove to be exciting for those that feel desired by a number of specific programs, thus leading to a quick and abrupt decision without carefully examining each and every option. Such was the case for Leron Black, the No. 11 overall ranked prospect in the class of 2014, who gave a verbal pledge to Baylor back in September after taking an unofficial visit to the school. On Wednesday, Black announced his intention to re-open his recruitment, citing that he made a rushed decision. John Martin of the Memphis Commercial-Appeal was the first to break the news. Shortly after backing out of his Baylor commitment, the 6’7” small forward out of White Station High School (Tennessee) had already heard from Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Louisville, Memphis, Missouri, North Carolina State, Ohio State, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt. Baylor will still remain in the mix; however, the odds will not be in their favor to re-establish a commitment. This time around, Black will be much more patient and disciplined prior to making his final decision, as he will be one of the most highly sought-after juniors in the class due to his great athleticism and ability to finish around the rim. Read the rest of this entry »

1. They’ve been gearing up for New Year’s Eve in Stillwater for months, and not because they particularly care about the calendar flipping or watching the ball drop in Times Square. Instead, they’ve been gearing up for tonight’s showdown between Oklahoma State and Gonzaga. It’s not only a Top 25 battle — the local media and fans are also billing it as a Game of the Century of sorts, the kind of program-defining game Travis Ford must win to re-establish the Cowboys as a relevant Big 12 program. Good news is, Oklahoma State earned some respect already by demolishing North Carolina State and winning the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. Ford isn’t desperate for a marquee victory, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t help. The Zags, on the other hand, are no stranger to the Big 12. They’ve already knocked off four teams from this league this year alone: West Virginia, Baylor, Oklahoma and Kansas State, all by an average of 20 points.
2. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” The man who penned that quote — a Scottish author named Ian Maclaren — died in 1907. And yet the inspirational phrase applies to Ben McLemore more than a century later. As you’ve watched McLemore this season, you’ve seen him blossom as a scorer and leader for Kansas. You probably didn’t know he has an older brother in a maximum-security prison. You probably also didn’t know his older brother missed McLemore’s first college basketball game and might not ever get to see him play. The freshman wouldn’t expand on how his brother got to prison five years ago, and it’s also unclear how long he’ll be there, but the KU freshman was able to make a visit during the Christmas holiday. This has been McLemore’s life throughout most of his adolescence, and it’s something to think about the next time you see him step on the court at Allen Fieldhouse.
3. During each of Kansas State‘s televised games, announcers have repeatedly mentioned Bruce Weber‘s motion offense and how it will take time for his new team to adjust to his philosophy. Unlike most of what comes out of commentators’ mouths, they’re right on this one. Weber is famous for his fine-tuned motion offense, and it’s more strict than what Frank Martin required on the offensive end. Defensively, though, nothing has changed. This team still needs to defend to win. As Weber puts it, “We have to guard. We’re good at it. We showed last week, if we can play at the right level, we can be OK offensively enough to win.”
4. It’s been very difficult to see the downfall of Royce White after such a marvelous season with Iowa State in 2011-12. White’s issues with the Houston Rockets have been extensively publicized, and now there’s a new chapter: White has declined to play for the Rocket’s D-League team, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Nobody’s quite sure where he’ll go from here, but White claims the organization will not do enough to accommodate his mental health issues. He issued a statement as well, explaining his stance and calling information released by the Rockets’ “misleading” and, at times, “totally inaccurate.”
5. Upon hearing that former Oklahoma (among other schools, most famously Indiana) coach Kelvin Sampson could become a candidate for the Brooklyn Nets’ head coaching job, we have to ask the question: Do the Nets have an unlimited calling plan? Cheap shot. We know. Still, it’s wild to consider Sampson may get the full-time gig in Brooklyn after impermissible phone calls landed him in hot water with the NCAA in 2008. He’s actually under a “show-cause” penalty until 2013, which means he can’t get back into the college game until next year. So why not coach the pros? He already coached on an interim basis for 13 games this season during the absence of Kevin McHale, finishing a modest 7-6.

1. Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com is back with his first Bracketology of the year. He predicts his field as if the season ended today, not based on how he thinks teams will do the rest of the season. The Big 12 has six teams in Palm’s field: Kansas (#1 seed), Oklahoma State (#6), Kansas State (#8), Baylor (#11) Oklahoma (#12) and Iowa State, a #12 seed playing in one of the four play-in games. As Palm notes, the Jayhawks are the only #1 seed remaining from his preseason bracket. Duke is the overall No. 1 seed.
2. Bill Self turned 50 on Tuesday. Self is one of the best coaches in the country and is relatively young compared with what he has already accomplished. He will surpass 500 wins this season and is on pace to win his 900th game in about 15 years, according to Kansas City Star beat writer Rustin Dodd in this article yesterday. But Self shot down any talks of catching Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski someday. “I don’t think that I’ll want to coach near that long,” Self told Dodd. While it seems natural for a coach as successful as Self to stay on the sidelines for another two decades like Coach K, Jim Boeheim or Jim Calhoun, those instances of great coaches staying in the game well into their 60s and 70s are few and far between. If Kansas fans have Self patrolling the sideline for another decade, they should be ecstatic.
3. The idea of playing four games simultaneously next season in Cowboy Stadium looks to be dead, the Detroit Free Press and Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com have reported. It was the original plan of Michigan State Athletic Director Mark Hollis, the creator of the first aircraft carrier game last season. Being in Dallas, the Texas Longhorns seemed to be one of the eight teams who would participate, but there were just too many obstacles to overcome. It would have been a television nightmare (a television nightmare I would have watched, admittedly) and like college athletics have shown us recently, if it won’t work on TV, it probably won’t work at all.
4. Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated gave us his top five freshmen wings in a video segment last week, and Kansas guard Ben McLemore came in at No. 5. “Self has made clear,” Davis said. “That he (McLemore) is the one that needs to carry Kansas deep into March.” Davis is spot on. While Elijah Johnson, Jeff Withey, and Travis Releford provide senior leadership for the Jayhawks this season, it will be the play of McLemore that will determine if Kansas makes the Final Four. They might not make it deep into March with McLemore playing well, but they are certain to not advance if he plays poorly.
5. Many people might have forgotten about former Iowa State coach Larry Eustachy by now. He was fired in 2003 after a night partying in Columbia, Missouri, following a loss at Mizzou. He sat out a year, went to rehab, and landed at Southern Mississippi, where he took the Golden Eagles to the NCAA Tournament last season. Now at Colorado State, he has guided the Rams to a 10-2 start while coming up on a decade of sobriety. It is hard to imagine the coach in both of the stories linked are the same man.

1. If the annual conference realignment fiasco has taught us one thing, it’s that the NCAA doesn’t have as much power as it once did. Coaches and media members have hinted at the idea of the major conferences and schools eventually breaking away and doing things their way, without the dozens — hundreds in basketball’s case — of small schools taking a piece of the pie. When that time draws near, stories like the Myck Kabongo investigation will not help the NCAA’s case. The NCAA is more inconsistent than midwestern weather. One player accepts cash from a booster and gets a 10-game suspension. Another player catches a ride from someone and has to sit out three games. Kabongo took a flight and worked out with NBA personnel and is suspended for 23 games. Some coaches are punished for putting schools on probation. Other coaches bolt to different jobs and win championships at blue bloods without a scratch.
2. If you want to see what some of your favorite former college players are up to, go watch an NBA D-League game sometime. It’s a great place to pick up some “Where Are They Now” trivia questions. If you can’t stomach that (I wouldn’t blame you) take a look at the end of a college team’s bench and you might recognize a few young coaches who were recent players. Former Oklahoma State guard Keiton Page turned down the chance to play professionally overseas to begin his coaching career on the ground floor. He’s now the Cowboys’ assistant strength and conditioning coach, a title that wouldn’t surprise me if told it was created just for him. He seems to be using the opportunity as an internship for a coaching career, and this opportunity should provide him plenty of experience in the next few years.
3. Gary Parrish’s Poll Attacks is back this week, and he doesn’t like the fact that Bruce Weber’s Kansas State team is still unranked in the Coaches poll. It’s hard to argue with any of Parrish’s points on the Wildcats, either. I figured they would debut in both polls after beating a top 10 Florida team in Kansas City last Saturday night. They got the 25th spot in the AP Poll, but are still behind New Mexico and North Carolina in the “Others Receiving Votes” category of the Coaches poll. As Parrish points out, it is hard to find a reason to put North Carolina ahead of Kansas State right now. Luckily, we have this tournament at the end of the year to settle things.
4. Former top-rated recruit Josh Smith seems to have eaten his way out of UCLA. He struggled with his weight during most of his career with the Bruins and looked to be north of 300 pounds most of the time. He left the school not too long ago and is looking to end his career at one of three schools: Georgetown, Washington, and Kansas. Bill Self has been churning out NBA big men for years now and Kansas strength coach Andrea Hudy is one of the best in the country. Self and Hudy (and former assistant Danny Manning, too) turned Marcus and Markieff Morris from skinny reeds to solid NBA scorers. Cole Aldrich went from a clumsy tall guy to a lottery pick, and current center Jeff Withey is only the best defensive player in the country. If anyone can get Smith’s weight down and turn him into a legitimate player who can stay on the court, it is the duo of Self and Hudy.
5. Luke Meredith of the Washington Times finally noticed what we have been saying here at RTC for a while now: The Big 12 is anything but deep this season. Can Oklahoma State challenge Kansas for the regular season conference title? That is about the only compelling discussion around the league right now. West Virginia and Baylor have underperformed. Texas has, too, but at least the Longhorns have a good reason. Kansas State looks to be good for a few upsets this season but that might be it. None of the middle-of-the-road teams like Iowa State or Oklahoma have surprised anyone either, leaving us with the Jayhawks on track to win their ninth consecutive conference title and roll to another top seed in the NCAA Tournament. Someone feel free to make things interesting.

1. Yesterday I talked about the success Oklahoma had in Saturday’s win over Texas A&M when the Sooners went on a important 8-0 second half run using a four-guard lineup. Well, they probably could have used some of that last night. The Sooners fell to Stephen F. Austin by a score of 56-55, making this OU’s first non-conference loss in Norman since 2007 (coincidentally enough to these same Lumberjacks). OU led 30-26 at halftime but SFA came out on a 19-4 run to start the second half and led by as many as 11 points. The Sooners then countered with an 18-6 spurt to take a brief 52-51 lead, but OU’s Buddy Hield had a chance to possibly force overtime with four seconds left but obviously he didn’t. I don’t think we’ll see a whole lot of OU-SFA games again in the future.
2. The struggles of Rodney McGruder in Bruce Weber’s brand-new motion offense are well documented, which makes last night’s performance against Texas Southern all the more encouraging. K-State won the game but McGruder lit up the Tigers for 26 points on 12-of-17 shooting. If the Cats want to do anything in March, much less Big 12 play, the senior McGruder needs to be at the top of his game this season. One fun note from this game: Former Oklahoma State and current Texas Southern guard Ray Penn made the most of his return to a Big 12 arena, pouring in 24 points and dishing out five assists in the defeat.
3. If you’re a fan of Big 12 basketball as a whole, there hasn’t been much to stick your chest out about this year. But I found something to be proud of: all the über-talented freshmen. CBSSports.com ranked the top five freshmen in college basketball and two of them hail from the Big 12. Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart has arguably become the most versatile freshman point guard in the country, or maybe just point guard, period, in America by putting together averages of 13 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals per contest. The newbie on this week’s list at number three is Ben McLemore from Kansas. The St. Louis native has had an impressive three game stretch against Oregon State, Colorado and Belmont by averaging 20.7 points per game which includes 9-of-15 shooting from behind the arc. Freshmen — this is our silver lining.
4. “I don’t know about my teammates but I play at the level of the competition.” That quote is the last thing you want to hear if you’re a coach or fan but it comes from Oklahoma State’s LeBryan Nash. If I may play Devil’s Advocate, can you blame him? The Cowboys are 8-1, with quality wins, a Top 25 ranking, and talent everywhere. But if there’s a time to not slack off, it’s now. They have UT-Arlington and Tennessee Tech on the schedule before playing Gonzaga on New Year’s Eve prior to Big 12 play. Nash said that he wants to change his attitude of playing down to teams, though. The first step in dealing with a problem is acknowledging that there is one to begin with. Now prove it.
5. Here’s a weekly favorite of mine — and it should be yours too. Gary Parrish’s Poll Attacks spotlights the horrible mistakes writers and coaches make on their Top 25 ballots. This week, there’s some confusion as to why a certain Big 12 team received two votes from coaches that didn’t even deserve one. If there’s just one vote, it probably looks like a mistake. But a second vote makes you think otherwise.

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

Tonight’s Lede. ACC Contenders Make Statements. If you’re still questioning Duke’s status as the No. 1 team in the country, that stance is at least somewhat tenable. There are other teams – Michigan or Arizona, to name a couple – that have looked equally impressive in the context of easier schedules, but if “who-beats-who” isn’t your main barometer for gauging teams, and you feel Duke simply hasn’t looked as complete or well-rounded as the Wolverines or the Wildcats or Louisville or any other team, well, that’s your prerogative. But if you’re still questioning Duke’s position atop the ACC, there’s no logical explanation for your premise. You’re wrong (sorry!); it is just that simple. With that in mind, two teams (Miami and NC State) made strong claims to the No. 2 spot in the suddenly top-heavy league, and while a final verdict won’t be delivered for a few months, tonight’s events provided a nice early measuring stick for the league’s upper tier.

Your Watercooler Moment. Who’s Better: Miami or NC State?

With Durand Scott back from his suspension, Miami is poised to make a run at ACC glory (photo credit: US Presswire).

The preseason top-five buzz on NC State always felt like a huge stretch. A couple of talented freshmen don’t instantly elevate an 11-seed to national contender status. Using last season’s NCAA Tournament success as a baseline for predictive measures is always a risky endeavor. When the Wolfpack were run off the Puerto Rico Tip-off floor in a 20-point bludgeoning at the hands of Oklahoma State, my inclinations were confirmed. Miami didn’t carry nearly the same level of hype into this season, though an early season loss at Florida Gulf Coast cratered the Miami-as-ACC-contender bandwagon before it ever got rolling to begin with. Both teams have since recovered, and both proved their early season stumbling points are very much in the rear view Tuesday night. The Wolfpack’s 88-point output against a team as defensively sharp as Stanford – the Cardinal entered Tuesday ranked 15^th on a per-possession scale – is without doubt the best we’ve seen Mark Gottfried’s team look thus far. I’m ready to revise expectations for the once vastly overrated Wolfpack. Even so, I’m even more impressed by Miami’s thorough dismantling of UCF, who boasts a future NBA big man in Keith Clanton and – this counts double in my vague which-win-is-better grade book – was playing at home, riding a three-game winning streak. Both wins provide credible non-league resume heft, and while I’m eager to anoint an ACC No. 2, it’s simply too early to make subjective judgments when league play has yet to begin. Here’s what I know, though: Miami and NC State stumbled early, got back on their feet and appear to be rounding into form at just the right time. The ACC season will parse out the specifics. For now, the Wolfpack and Hurricanes belong in the league’s upper echelon, with Duke living a distinguished existence inside its own category.

Tonight’s Quick Hits…

• Big Ten Powers Struggle With Cupcakes. The scheduling powers-that-be set up Ohio State and Michigan State’s slate with putative guarantee games before big non-conference tests against Kansas and Texas, respectively (Texas isn’t the team most envisioned heading into the season, but the Longhorns are no pushover). The Buckeyes faced Winthrop, who hadn’t picked up its first win over a Division I opponent until it beat Ohio three days ago, while the Spartans had a slightly trickier road game at Bowling Green on their hands. These set up perfectly as two tune-up games for two Big Ten frontrunners. In the end, Ohio State and Michigan State got tougher tests than they probably expected, although both managed to come away with victories. Whether these struggles were a mere product of a common case of look-ahead syndrome or something more concerning that bears watching heading into the weekend remains to be seen. Read the rest of this entry »

1. The Big 12 announced the weekly winners for Big 12 player and rookie of the week. POTW honors went to Iowa State’s Melvin Ejim. Though he only played one game last week, Ejim filled up the stat sheet against Drake with 21 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and four steals in 31 minutes. It was Ejim’s 11th career double-double and he has already registered four of them on the young season. This week’s ROTW is now a repeat winner. Baylor freshman Isaiah Austin won the award with his dominant performance in the Bears’ 85-68 win over Lamar on December 12. All the seven-footer did was put up season highs in points (23) and rebounds (17) against a helpless Cardinals’ front line. I have a feeling Austin will win another ROTW honor before season’s end.
2. Back on March 2, Chris Lowery was fired as head coach at Southern Illinois, and just seven days later, his former boss Bruce Weber was fired at Illinois. So when Weber landed feet first in Manhattan, Kansas, during the offseason, Lowery was on the short list of possible assistants to call. Even though the season is young, I’ll go ahead and call this a home run hire. In his first three seasons at SIU, Weber had just one NIT appearance but once Lowery came on staff in 2001, the Salukis made the NCAA Tournament twice including a run to the Sweet Sixteen. He even joined Weber at Illinois for a year to help guide another Sweet Sixteen team. Now if only he and Weber could sign a lifetime deal at K-State…
3. Burnt Orange Nation gives us a recap of the first month of basketball for Big 12 teams. I can’t remember a season when the Big 12 has had so many teams show signs of incompetence. West Virginia was supposed to succeed the role of Missouri with a solid history and recent success, yet they find themselves at 4-5. Texas‘ crop of talented young guys can’t put the ball in the hoop; Baylor has been a vulnerable team at home; and then a collection of teams (Oklahoma, Iowa State and Kansas State) have solid records but haven’t been able to get wins against significant opponents yet. Hopefully, next month’s recap will be more flattering for the Big 12.
4. We know Oklahoma’s Lon Kruger is into trying new things, seeing how he changes jobs every five years (I kid) but Saturday’s win over Texas A&M saw Kruger add what The Norman Transcript calls a “new wrinkle” to another possible lineup. The Sooners went with a four-guard set with 6’6″ forward Cameron Clark at the center position for a large part of the second half. Clark went on to score 12 of his 17 points in that half and, while his team searches for an identity, Kruger left the door open for the Sooners to experiment with that lineup in the future.
5. To borrow a line from Houston Rockets radio voice Craig Ackerman, Baylor very nearly pooped their big boy pants again last night to USC Upstate but rebounded in the second half to beat the Spartans 73-57. Cory Jefferson ruled the paint going 6-of-8 from the field for 17 points to lead all scorers. Fresh off his second ROTW award, Isaiah Austin recorded his second consecutive double-double (12 points, 10 boards) while the best all-around game went to A.J. Walton who threw in 10 points, four rebounds, eight dimes and five steals. It’s another tally in the win column for Scott Drew, but the uneasy feeling about the Bears playing at the Ferrell Center isn’t going away just yet.