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. Jabari Parker Sets Decision Date

The nation’s No. 2 overall ranked senior, Jabari Parker, has finally set a date for his highly anticipated collegiate decision that has been delayed for the past few months. A product of Simeon Career Academy (Illinois), the 6’8” small forward will announce one of BYU, Duke, Florida, Michigan State or Stanford on Thursday, December 20. Where most see five schools listed, the forthcoming decision will likely come down to just two in the end. Throughout his entire recruitment it has been Duke and Michigan State jockeying for the lead position, a trend that will most likely continue up until Thursday afternoon according to his father Sonny Parker. “He hasn’t told me where,” Sonny Parker told USA Today. “I didn’t ask him. It’s kind of hard to say. He’s liked all the schools we’ve visited. He’s hard to read sometimes. He keeps things to himself, so I don’t put any pressure on him. I think it will probably be between Duke and Michigan State. That’s what I’m thinking.” While Parker enters the homestretch of the recruiting process, he is also recovering from a summer injury that has required a good amount of rehabilitation. Out since July, Parker made a surprise return to the court on December 1 in a season-opening victory for Simeon at the Chicago Elite Classic. In 11 limited minutes, Parker contributed six points, four rebounds and two assists while looking out of shape with an extra number of pounds added to his frame. Since then, Parker has shed at least 10 pounds and is slowly getting back to the player that has gained national recognition as one of the best high school basketball players in the country. On December 20, one school will be gaining a monumental piece to their basketball program. The question remains: Will it be Duke or Michigan State?

Jabari Parker will announce December 20 for Duke or Michigan State

2. Andrew Wiggins To Take Three Visits After Senior Season

Coming off a recent visit to Florida State last week, Andrew Wiggins has decided that he is going to take a break from the recruiting process until after his senior season. Once the season is finished in March, Wiggins plans to take three more official visits to Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina. Ohio State and Syracuse are in the mix for his fifth and final official visit that may or may not happen. Although Wiggins has shut down his recruitment as far as visits go, that has not stopped coaches from visiting him. Kentucky head coach John Calipari was on hand to watch Wiggins at the Marshall County Hoopfest in Benton, Kentucky, two weeks ago and will be in attendance at the Boyd County Roundball Classic in Ashland, Kentucky, this weekend. Ohio State head coach Thad Matta watched him this past weekend, while North Carolina head coach Roy Williams made the trip to Spring Valley, West Virginia, on Wednesday to watch the 6’7” sensation. Wiggins is currently averaging 21.5 points and 11.9 rebounds per game for No. 1 Huntington Prep (10-0) on the season.

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1. This. Is. Awesome. T. Boone Pickens, everybody’s favorite Oklahoma State alumnus, has purchased the 4,000 remaining tickets for a New Year’s Eve showdown with Gonzaga and will give them away for free. Considering the Cowboys’ surprising start and increased expectations, this might be one of OSU’s more important home games in some time. With as much greed and power in sports today, it’s nice to see a guy like T. Boone give some tickets away for us common people to enjoy.
2. We wrote a few days ago about the relative weakness of the Big 12 through the first month or so of the season. Here’s another look at the league’s early woes. This article digs deeper into the problem: Only Kansas and Baylor find themselves in the Top 100 of the RPI, and the conference as a whole has dropped to fifth. Stunningly, the Big 12 is also 0-5 against the Big Ten. The odd thing is that Oklahoma State is really the only team who has overachieved so far this season, but it’s early enough that Texas, West Virginia and several other teams could easily rebound.
3. Oklahoma seems to have a lot of interesting characters on this roster. Buddy Hield made an earlier appearance in the Morning Five for his fun-loving antics, and here’s a look now at fellow freshman Isaiah Cousins. He brings a New York City attitude to the Sooners, a style of play often found up East but not normally in leagues like the Big 12. As teammate Romero Osby puts it, “Guys from New York City are always edgy.” Fair enough.
4. The John Beilein days at West Virginia seem far removed. Hard to believe that less than a decade ago, Kevin Pittsnogle and the crew roamed Morgantown and created a semi-powerhouse in the Big East. His departure to Michigan wasn’t all that messy, and that’s why his match-up against the Mountaineers this weekend in Brooklyn shouldn’t be too awkward for him. Plus, West Virginia got another hometown man with Bob Huggins, and it seems to be sailing along just fine after a Final Four appearance in 2010. So don’t expect to hear the Boo Birds out in full force in Brooklyn on Saturday.
5. To end this edition of the Morning Five, we’ll point you to a story that doesn’t necessarily relate to the Big 12 but involves a current coach in the league. We all know Bruce Weber‘s reign at Illinois did not end very well. He found a good gig at Kansas State and never looked back. But his old team has taken off under new head coach John Groce. He’s not bringing up last year, though. At all. “I haven’t certainly talked to them about it at this juncture and maybe in large part of it is I wasn’t here last year and don’t have relevance to that,” he said. No matter Weber’s involvement with this Illinois team, he’s in a decent position in Manhattan and it was certainly time for him and the Illini to part ways. It’s interesting to see how his old guys have fared, however. Maybe he wishes he’d had just one more year in Champaign.

1. The first step to recovery is admitting there’s a problem. The Big 12 has a problem: It’s not playing very well right now. It’s bad enough that the league only has two ranked teams — the worst showing in the polls since 2008-09 — but the Kansas City Star breaks down some even more appalling numbers from November and early December. Right now, the league is 2-8 against the Top 25 and has dropped below the Atlantic 10 and Mountain West in terms of conference RPI ratings. Perhaps things will change if/when Myck Kabongo returns for Texas, if Kansas State can earn a headline win against either Gonzaga or Florida later this month, or if Baylor remembers how to play basketball. Frankly, only Oklahoma State has really overachieved and surprised anybody at this point. Everybody else, besides Kansas of course, has flopped for the most part so far.
2. Speaking of the Longhorns, it’s a disaster in Texas right now. For perhaps the first time in college basketball history, the UCLA/Texas game on Saturday actually made headlines for being a terrible, horrendously executed game on both ends. At this point, the Longhorns are lost, and even Sheldon McClellan admits there’s an issue. “Guys don’t think we can win,” he said after the 65-63 loss to the Bruins over the weekend. Understandably, a team without its star point guard and a roster consisting exclusively of freshmen and sophomores will have growing pains. It’s just that nobody thought they’d be this severe.
3. Kevin Young is the forgotten man for Kansas, so let’s go ahead and not forget that he scored 16 points, missed just one field goal and had eight rebounds in the Jayhawks’ romping of Colorado this weekend. That’s drawing some high praise from Bill Self, who called him the “best we have.” Now, Steve Fisher and San Diego State are really jealous he didn’t go there.
4. Congratulations to Rodney McGruder, your newest Big 12 Player of the Week. This won’t be the last time he wins this award, so get used to it. He went off for a double-double against George Washington, but the competition will stiffen when the Wildcats head to Seattle soon for a showdown with Gonzaga. Coach Bruce Weber’s old team, Illinois, just knocked off the Zags, and Kansas State could really use a big-time victory this weekend after falling short against Michigan in November.
5. Finally, a little tidbit out of Oklahoma: Lon Kruger’s nephew, Jarrod Kruger, has left the program to focus on his schoolwork. Interestingly, Oklahoma is actually the third Big 12 school the walk-on has played for. He started at Kansas State and then transferred to Kansas before landing at his uncle’s school. Although there are no signs that he plans on suiting up elsewhere, perhaps he should go for Oklahoma State or one of the Texas schools next, just to fill in some of the remaining blanks.

1. West Virginia students chanted “Not our rivals” near the end of the Mountaineers’ 69-59 win over Marshall Wednesday night. Bob Huggins agreed after the game, and forward Deniz Kilicli took it a step further. “This happens all the time,” He said. “(Marshall’s) talking all the time. I like it. I just laugh at them.” He added, “We are West Virginia, and we are the state’s team. We prove it over and over again. We are the ones playing big time schools; we have high recruits. We can’t get into all that pushing and shoving and talking trash.” I’m not sure what’s more amusing, that Kilicli didn’t consider that trash talk, that he felt the need to remind people West Virginia basketball is superior to Marshall, or he had the gall to make those statements after the season his team has had so far. In case he has forgotten, the Mountaineers were embarrassed by Gonzaga last month. They then lost back-to-back games against Davidson and Oklahoma. They beat Marshall by 10 points, a team that has lost to Hofstra and South Dakota State already this season. Kilicli is right, West Virginia does play big-time schools. But they sure aren’t playing like one.
2. Sometimes when a player his hot, there isn’t much a defense can do about it. On Tuesday against Oklahoma, Arkansas forward Marshawn Powell had 33 points, going 4-6 from three-point range in the Razorbacks’ 81-78 win. Sooners head coach Lon Kruger wasn’t happy at all with his team’s defensive performance after Arkansas shot 52.6% from the floor. Without watching the game, it’s hard to say how many of Arkansas’ nine three-pointers were contested or just the product of a hot night, but the Sooners also gave up 34 points in the paint. That’s not a good combination, regardless of whether it’s the product of a little luck or not.
3. Could Texas be playing in one of four simultaneous games in Cowboys Stadium next year? Michigan State Athletic Director Mark Hollis, the same guy who came up with the idea to play on aircraft carriers, has come up with another idea to have four games at once on the gigantic floor of Cowboys Stadium next season like an AAU Tournament of sorts. The idea is far from finalized and only Michigan State is confirmed to be playing if it goes through, but the Longhorns aren’t far from Dallas and have played multiple times in Cowboys Stadium. Whether you think this is a terrible idea or not (I’m somewhere in the middle right now), it’s guaranteed to have great ratings, meaning it’s probably going to happen.
4. Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber was pleased with the production he got out of senior guard Martavious Irving in the Wildcats’ 72-53 win over South Carolina Upstate on Sunday. “We settled down with a great run as we finished the half, led by (Irving),” Weber told the Topeka Capital-Journal. Injuries nagged much of the rotation Sunday and the bench, led by Irving, picked up the slack. Irving played 20 minutes, which is more than he’s accustomed to. He had four assists and zero turnovers in the win, and the Wildcats are 6-1 as they head to Washington, DC to play George Washington on Saturday afternoon.
5. Whether it’s been Thomas Robinson, Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant, or Michael Beasley, there is usually a Big 12 player in the discussion for National Player of the Year.  That doesn’t look to be the case this season, although ESPN’s Jason King at least listed Kansas center Jeff Withey as “on the cusp” of Player of the Year candidates, along with nine others. And while it looks to be Mason Plumlee or Cody Zeller’s award to lose right now, Withey’s defense has been better than any other player in the country. He’s leading the country in blocks and blocks per foul and is keeping the Jayhawks near the top 10 while they figure out their guard situation.

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. Julius Randle To Miss Three Months. Julius Randle, the No. 4 overall ranked prospect in the class of 2013, is expected to miss three months after fracturing a bone on the top of his right foot. From Prestonwood Christian Academy (Texas), Randle suffered the injury during the Thanksgiving Hoopfest on November 24. He underwent surgery on Tuesday and is targeting a return to the court either during the high school playoffs for Prestonwood, or the postseason all-star games for the senior class at the latest. Among the schools pursuing the 6’9” power forward include Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina State, Oklahoma and Texas. Randle has already made visits to Florida, Kentucky and Oklahoma and has finalized visits to Texas (December 15-16), Kansas (December 28-30) and NC State (January 25-27), with a spring decision most likely. One day prior to his injury, Randle had notched a double-double in his first and possibly only game for Prestonwood this season with 27 points and 13 rebounds in their season-opener.

Julius Randle is considering Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina State, Oklahoma and Texas

 2. Andrew Wiggins Scheduling Florida State Visit. The No. 1 overall ranked prospect in the class of 2013 and widely regarded as the best high school basketball player in the nation, Andrew Wiggins is planning his first official visit to Florida State. Although the date has yet to be confirmed, it is likely that the visit will come in the first weekend of December. Since his reclassification into the senior class, Wiggins has received new interest from the likes of Kansas, North Carolina and Ohio State. However, throughout his entire recruitment two schools have been viewed as the leaders for the 6’8” small forward, Florida State and Kentucky. When speaking of the Seminoles, the Wiggins name is synonymous with their program as both of Andrew’s parents — former NBA player Mitchell Wiggins and former Canadian Olympic track star Marita Payne-Wiggins — attended Florida State. A member of Huntington Prep (West Virginia), Wiggins most recently participated alongside teammate and Florida State commit Xavier Rathan-Mayes at the Charlotte Hoops Challenge in front of Seminoles’ head coach Leonard Hamilton and associate head coach Stan Jones. With a hectic playing schedule ahead of him, Wiggins is expected to plan more visits when he can in the future with a spring decision targeted.

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1. TCU basketball is doing an amazing job making us forget about this performance from a week ago. The Horned Frogs won their third game in a row last night, beating Southern Utah 61-52 in Fort Worth. Kyan Anderson had 21 points and six dimes while Arkansas transfer Devonta Abron scored 17 with 11 of them coming in the second half. So now they’re 6-2 but we all know this is a 6-2 that will be here today and gone come January. They don’t have a lot of weapons offensively and actually average more turnovers as a team than assists. I had the Horned Frogs finishing better than Red Raiders by season’s end and now I regret ever believing that. But it’s ok; this is a learning year. They will get there eventually.
2. Cowboys Ride For Free has released their totally unbiased predictions from now until New Year’s Eve. On the schedule, Oklahoma State has games at Virginia Tech and home contests vs. South Florida, Missouri State, Central Arkansas, Texas-Arlington, Tennessee Tech and Gonzaga. CRFF has the Pokes going 6-1 with their sole loss coming against the Zags. I also think they’ll go 6-1 during the stretch but I see them losing to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg rather than Gonzaga. There’s no doubt in my mind that the Hokies can score toe-to-toe with OSU, but hey, 11-1 going into conference play? Sounds prrrr-etty good to me.
3. Viva The Matadors dissects what’s trending for Texas Tech at the moment. According to the piece, Tech’s new style of “controlled chaos” is a big part of their recent turnaround. They’ve adopted a “40 Minutes of Hell” scheme with a 1-2-1-1 defense, forcing 13 steals a game, which is good for fourth in the nation. Those forced turnovers have led to more scoring opportunities, hence their 89 PPG scoring average. The Arizona game on Saturday means so much to the Red Raider program. They haven’t had a big-time opponent come to Lubbock since another top-10 team (Washington) lost to Tech in overtime back in 2009. Texas Tech fever: catch it!
4. Baylor’s SB Nation blog, Our Daily Bears, had a nice feature exposing the Bears’ poor play on defense so far this season. The article uses a couple of defensive scenarios from the Baylor-St. John’s game in Charleston last week. On one Red Storm fast break, the Bears had three guys checking just one man. When you have a team with their size, athleticism and speed, putting three players on one guy in transition is not just unacceptable but nonsense. Another scenario was Baylor’s ineffectiveness to run a proper screen-and-roll defense which allowed the Red Storm’s D’Angelo Harrison to hit 6-of-9 from three-point land. Guess how College of Charleston runs their offense? Pick. And. Roll. So if a team wants to exploit the Bears, P & R seems to be the way to go. Think John Calipari is looking at that DVD?
5. This FanPost I found on the Bring On The Cats has nothing to do with basketball. It’s a post that asks the question: What if each Big 12 team were different countries of the world? This will not make you a more savvy Big 12 fan than you already are, but what it will do is make you laugh while at the same time have you nodding your head in agreement at some of these answers. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Eli Linton is the RTC correspondent for the Summit League. He filed this report from Oklahoma’s visit to Oral Roberts last night in Tulsa.

While most of America was focused on the top-10 match-up in North Carolina, there was a battle going on in the heart of Oklahoma between the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles and the Oklahoma Sooners, a once-proud program that Lon Kruger is leading back into the national spotlight. The Sooners escaped in a 63-62 slugfest to improve to 5-1 on the season, but it might have been the way they won that spoke louder than their surprising record.

Facing ORU in Tulsa is no easy task. Before the contest, the Golden Eagles had won 24 straight regular season games in the Mabee Center. Scott Sutton has worked for years to give ORU a place at the table reserved for the mid-major contenders, and they nearly accomplished it with a 27-win season last year and at-large consideration. Despite the rise of ORU over the last decade, it still has not managed to climb Boomer Mountain. The Sooners had won 13 straight meetings between the two schools coming into last night’s game. Even in the leanest of years, OU found a way to top the Golden Eagles. But Wednesday night, for at least the first 33 minutes of the game, it looked like ORU was finally going to shake off that long-time losing streak. The Golden Eagles held a steady lead from early in the first half, and they pushed it to a 10-point advantage with less than seven minutes to go in the game. But this Oklahoma team is a little different than the one we are used to seeing the past few years.

Lon Kruger is working his magic again, this time in Norman (Las Vegas Review)

This is not the same Sooner team that finished with less than 15 wins in back-to-back seasons from 2010-12, and in case you are the skeptical type, it’s not even the same team that started hot last season before fading down the stretch. The comeback in Tulsa, while facing a hostile crowd in a building that has claimed bigger giants than the Sooners, was the proof that many OU fans needed to start believing that this Lon Kruger team may have turned the corner. Even in a game where they were outplayed, OU came away with a win. “We were fortunate to learn a lot from this ballgame and still have it be in the [win] column,” said Kruger.  “We have a lot of work to do.”

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1. Last night, Oklahoma traveled to play Oral Roberts for the first time since 1995. It wasn’t easy for the Sooners as they would have to overcome a 10-point deficit to win, 63-62. Freshman Buddy Hield scored all 11 of his points in the second half while Steven Pledger hit the game-winning bucket with 1:12 left. This game was chock full of noteworthy trivia. OU’s win ended Oral Roberts’ 24-game winning streak at the Mabee Center dating back to 2010 and head coach Lon Kruger won his 499th game as a collegiate coach. Man, how good is basketball in the state of Oklahoma right now?
2. West Virginia has had a real bad start to its season as currently the only Big 12 team with a losing record. They could really use a gimme game and coming to the Mountaineers’ rescue was Virginia Military Institute. WVU took down VMI 94-69 in its home opener and their transfers took center stage. Juwan Staten led all scorers with 18 and was one of seven guys to score in double figures for WVU despite playing a lighter rotation due to injuries. Matt Humphrey was held out of the game with what Bob Huggins calls a “tweaked shoulder.” Meanwhile, Kevin Noreen and Dominique Rutledge both suffered ankle injuries early and did not return. Nothing is known about their severity. The important thing, WVU fans, is that your ‘Eers aren’t deceiving you: West Virginia won a basketball game!
3. By now you know the Big 12’s flirtation with Louisville was just that — flirting — and the Cardinals are officially joining the ACC. The always-opinionated coach at Kansas, Bill Self, threw in his two cents on the changing landscape of conference affiliation and what it means for the Big 12 going forward. The fact of the matter is the Big 12 doesn’t need to expand. They have their $2.6 billion TV deal with ESPN and Fox signed for the next 13 years, and as far as deals go for 10-team leagues, this is the best they could have gotten. Schools would see expanding as cutting further into each school’s money pie. But I’d like to see them expand in order to stay competitive with bigger leagues like the B1G and the ACC. Whatever the Big 12 does, expand or keep the status quo, they can’t go wrong as long as nobody else jumps ship.
4. After learning about Rodney McGruder’s struggles in the new Kansas State offense after the NIT Tip-Off, he’s singing a different tune now. McGruder says he’s feeling a comfort level in Bruce Weber’s motion offense after sitting down with coaches and getting to the root of his problem. Teammate Will Spradling said after Wednesday’s practice that during their scrimmage, “he [McGruder] kind of took over as the scorer he was last year. I think he’s getting more comfortable and confident.” Once everyone, not just McGruder, gets a more firm grip on the offense, this Kansas State team will be a dangerous one.
5. The Texas Longhorns have gotten off to a less than ideal start to the season with Myck Kabongo sidelined, their struggles out in Maui, and their stale, turnover-prone offense. But one bright spot on the team has been the growth of Jonathan Holmes as a player from a year ago. He’s tied for the lead in the conference in rebounds per game (9.2 RPG) and Holmes had a nice stat line vs Sam Houston State: 11 points, eight boards, two blocks, two steals in a season-high 30 minutes of action. Rick Barnes went as far as saying, “You can count on him [Holmes] every night.” Hop on the Holmes bandwagon while there’s still room.

1. There was a lot that went wrong in the Big 12 last week. There was that one school that lost to a Division II school (Texas), another team that scored 31 points in a 40 minute basketball game (TCU), and two others that lost two times each (Iowa State and West Virginia). But what was the league office to do, not release their weekly awards? Well they did. Kansas senior guard Travis Releford was named Player of the Week after averaging 20 PPG while killing it from everywhere there was hardwood (65% FG and 60% 3FG). Meanwhile, Oklahoma high-flying transfer Amath M’Baye won Rookie of the Week honors and I’ve got a feeling it won’t be his last. Let’s hope for a better overall week from our Big 12 teams.
2. There are two teams currently undefeated in the Big 12: The first of course is Oklahoma State with its 6-0 mark and flashy Top 20 ranking. But can you name the other? Oh it’s… no, that can’t be right. Can it? That’s right, the Texas Tech Red Raiders are standing tall at 4-0. How can this be explained? This team averaged a paltry 59 points per game last season and now they’re putting up 90 on the regular. Yes they’ve dominated SWAC competition so far this year but if you told me a month ago they’d be one of two teams with a spotless record in the Big 12, I would have commended your positive attitude and kindly told you to get real. Indeed it is I who needs to get real. I’m rooting big time for Chris Walker to get a contract extension because to me, he earned one at Big 12 Media Day. He and his Red Raiders have a great litmus test coming up Saturday in Lubbock vs #9 Arizona.
3. The injury saga with Kansas freshman Zach Peters has come to an unfortunate end. After battling through four concussions in the last two years and a rotator cuff injury suffered early this offseason, Peters has decided to leave the KU basketball team effective at the end of the fall semester. But according to coach Bill Self, Peters will not be leaving the school; he just won’t be competing anywhere else “at least for a while,” which is even sadder news. Peters had his first two concussions while playing football during his senior season in Plano, Texas, and suffered the other two within the last four months at Kansas. All the best to you, Zach.
4. As we mentioned above, Iowa State had a rough couple days in Las Vegas. They face two ranked teams in Cincinnati and UNLV, and they had chances to win both games before faltering late, so Fred Hoiberg will have his team working hard at practice this week. One problem mentioned in this Des Moines Register article is the ineffective play of transfer Korie Lucious, whose 1:1 assist-to-turnover ratio isn’t exactly ideal from your starting point guard. Once the Cyclones can take better care of the basketball (they’re currently averaging 16 turnovers per game), only then will we see this team reach its full potential.
5. Some breaking news to pass along: Jeff Withey plays basketball and he plays it well. The senior had himself quite a night against San Jose State, tallying 16 points, 12 rebounds and 12 blocked shots in KU’s win against San Jose State. Last night’s triple-double is only the second recorded in the history of Kansas basketball; Cole Aldrich had the other one back in 2009. But it wasn’t all easy for the Jayhawks. They held a 60-36 lead halfway through the second half before the Spartans made a run to cut their lead to seven with 2:39 to play. Kansas then scored the game’s last six points, shutting the door for good. But seriously, how did KU in the 1950s not count how many blocked shots per game Wilt Chamberlain had? That is very much a ridiculous thing to not do.

1. It was the weekend’s best game involving a Big 12 team. Why? Because it actually involved TWO Big 12 teams! Oklahoma and West Virginia met for the first time as conference mates at the Old Spice Classic on Sunday afternoon. Now this doesn’t count as a conference game but it appears the Mountaineers have yet to fully recover from the shellacking they received from Gonzaga two weeks ago. Oklahoma on the other hand stands at 4-1 with Lon Kruger running 10 to 11 guys on the floor with success. There’s still plenty of time for WVU to get its act together before league play although they’ll face a couple of tough December tests with rival Marshall and ex-coach John Beilein’s Michigan Wolverines.
2. Speaking of the Old Spice Classic, the 2013 field was announced and it is definitely more balanced than the 2012 edition. Oklahoma State, who wiped the floor with this year’s Puerto Rico Tip-Off tournament, will be the Big 12 participant with a number of other programs on the rise like Butler, LSU and Saint Joseph’s, as well as Memphis, Purdue, Siena, and Washington State. Can’t wait for Feast Week ’13.
3. Interesting read from CBSSports.com’s Matt Norlander on the struggles of Rodney McGruder in Bruce Weber’s new offensive scheme at Kansas State. Sure the article was written in the wake of Michigan putting the beat down on K-State at the Preseason NIT on Friday night, but his numbers tell the story: shooting career lows from the field (39.7%), beyond the arc (16.7%) and a per-game scoring average currently lower than his sophomore campaign (11.0). McGruder cites him getting teammates involved and getting used to the “constant movement” in Weber’s offense as reasons for the slump, so hopefully, one of the conference’s best players on one of the conference’s best teams will again become the all-Big 12 player we know he can be.
4. What is up with Baylor? The Bears fell hard at home to the College of Charleston Saturday night and critics doubting Scott Drew’s coaching skills are getting loud again. The Bears played at home, and their opponent was a first-year head coach with zero tournament experience — not that it matters a whole lot in late November. But this is a game you’re supposed to win, Baylor. They will have to lick their wounds quickly as they meet up with John Calipari and his young bunch of Wildcats on Saturday of this week.
5. Some boring but important media news concerning the Oklahoma State athletic department. Fox Sports has locked up the Big 12 school for additional multimedia rights. This deal allows Fox to air one football game per year, plus men’s hoops coverage and other Olympic sports that aren’t included in the school’s TV deal with the conference. With the addition of Oklahoma State now secured, Fox has similar deals with fellow Big 12ers Baylor, Texas Tech, Texas Christian, and Kansas State while Oklahoma has launched its own package, similar to that of ESPN’s Longhorn Network.