Big 12 Sports Blog by Big 12 Fans

Five Big 12 teams were selected to play for the 2008 National Championship in the NCAA Tournament as games tip-off on Thursday. Kansas received a #1 seed in the Midwest and will be joined by #11 seed and rival Kansas State. Texas earned a #2 seed in the South while Texas A&M received a #9 seed in the West. Meanwhile, Baylor was the last team to be announced in the Big Dance on selection Sunday as they received a #11 seed in the West.

College Sports Fans has released their 2008 NCAA Tournament team previews and we have added links to each Big 12 team preview below along with their opponents’ previews. Follow the results of all Big 12 teams in postseason tournaments online at Big 12 Fans. 

• Kansas Jayhawks 2008 NCAA Tournament preview
  • Portland State 2008 NCAA Tournament preview
• Texas Longhorns 2008 NCAA Tournament preview
  • Austin Peay 2008 NCAA Tournament preview
• Texas A&M 2008 NCAA Tournament preview
  • BYU Cougars 2008 NCAA Tournament preview
• Baylor 2008 NCAA Tournament preview
  • Purdue 2008 NCAA Tournament preview
• Kansas State 2008 NCAA Tournament preview
  • USC Trojans 2008 NCAA Tournament preview

SPORTS ADDICT: Sloan’s sad showboat slam epitome of Texas A&M Basketball

Commentary by Denton Ramsey, NCAA Sportswriter/Big 12 Fans Baylor Correspondent

There’s a reason why Texas A&M tends to be hated by their rivals.

A majority of that reason circles around the fact that the Aggies appear to support and applaud unsportsmanlike conduct.

The Aggies proved that on Wednesday night, March 5 at the Ferrell Center, with Donald Sloan showboating in the game’s final seconds by slamming home an uncontested dunk as the Bears’ home crowd erupted in anger and frustration.

It’s a sad commentary for college basketball when events such as this occur.

There’s no reason whatsoever for an off-the-backboard, pass-to-yourself slam dunk unless we’re talking about the NBA’s annual dunk contest.

There’s no place for that in college hoops.

And there’s no reasonable explanation as to why it happened other than the fact that the Aggies are a bunch of stuck-up jerks.

I guess I have now seen it twice this season, as well as twice in my life, when it comes to a pass off the backboard in college basketball.

First, there was the uncalled-for Oklahoma fast break pass of the backboard against Baylor; and now this…

This one, unfortunately, is hands-down worse than the assist in Norman.

This one was beyond unnecessary, and it’s something that straight up doesn’t belong in the game of college hoops.

If you want to showboat, go join the Harlem Globetrotters.

Don’t bring that junk into BU’s house and then complain about the crowd’s reaction… Texas A&M is hated by many for one and one reason only: they care only about themselves, focusing more on unsportsmanlike play than winning ball games.

Grow up, Aggies… even your coach made public comment disapproving of such actions, which at least makes things a bit better.

The question is, can the Texas A&M players actually heed the words of their coach and begin playing the game of basketball with character and sportsmanlike play?

My guess is they cannot because these guys are so full of themselves that they would rather do things their way than their coach’s way.

It’s no wonder the Aggies have had a see-saw season; I don’t know how anyone in their right mind can work with Texas A&M’s men’s hoops squad – a team loaded with me-first attitudes and jovial jerks.

Wake up, Texas A&M, before you lose another good coach due to a bunch of wannabes trying to make it in the Big 12 Conference…

Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at denton.ramsey@gmail.com

Baylor ends skid, knocks off Kansas State at rowdy Ferrell Center

By Denton Ramsey, NCAA Sportswriter/Big 12 Fans Baylor Correspondent

WACO, Texas – The Baylor Bears men’s basketball team is back on track.

And Head Coach Scott Drew couldn’t be happier about his young team’s terrific turnaround.

After dropping four straight conference contests, Baylor (18-8, 6-6) used a solid second half surge in a 92-86 come-from-behind victory over Kansas State (18-8, 8-4) on Saturday, Feb. 23 at the Ferrell Center.

“After the last two press conferences, this one’s a lot more enjoyable for our coaching staff and players,” Drew said. “I’m very proud of the team effort. We did a great job in the second half holding them to 37 percent [shooting], and then us only missing two free throws and shooting a high percentage at 58 percent, where we really moved the ball and took high-percentage shots. Much needed win; it feels great.”

Saturday’s win comes at a good time for the Big 12’s Bears, pulling BU into a four-way tie for fourth place after both Kansas and Texas A&M fell on a college hardwood day filled with upsets.

“I really felt that down the stretch, everybody made big plays,” Drew said. “I was also very pleased because I know how tough the last couple of games have been, not only on our players, but also on our fans, and it was great to see them be rewarded after a couple of sleepless nights as well.”

Curtis Jerrells led the way for Baylor, netting 24 points and dishing out seven assists in the Bears six-point win over the No. 24 Wildcats.

“I can assure you, I stepped up to the free throw line for the first time, and I saw OU players and OU fans, and I kind of couldn’t put it past me,” Jerrells said. “Kool [LaceDarius Dunn] here, he kind of got into me when I was shooting those last ones. I told him he kind of ticked me off, but he did what he had to do to make me mad and to make me not miss, so that was a good job.

“My teammates did a good job of picking me up, [along with] my family, my friends and coach. I really wanted to blame myself for it, but those guys picked me up and put me over the hump.”

Four of Jerrells’ teammates also hit double figures in scoring, with Kevin Rogers (18 points and 10 rebounds), LaceDarius Dunn (16 points, seven rebounds and two steals), Tweety Carter (12 points and three assists) and Aaron Bruce (11 points) all chipping in as Baylor ended a four-game Big 12 skid.

“We still have a couple of games left, so I don’t want to talk too soon and say something out of line,” Rogers said. “We just came out and played as a team today and did some things that we weren’t doing in those last two games, and fortunately we came out with a victory.”

Baylor fell behind early before a hot shooting streak briefly put the Bears on top, but shortly thereafter BU lost some momentum as the Kansas State Wildcats took a 44-38 lead into halftime.

“That’s the reason that we did what we did in the offseason; for the last five minutes of games, to try to close those things out because we lost so many close ones last year,” Rogers said. “In a game like this, that offseason work really paid off.”

The second half was all Baylor, as the Bears battled back from a short-lived deficit and regained control of a must-win game against a very talented Wildcats basketball team – as Kansas State’s Michael Beasley set a new conference record with 44 points to go along with 13 rebounds.

“I don’t know if there’s a better two-man performance that I’ve seen personally than what Beasley and [Bill] Walker put on, but the big thing that I look at is our bench,” Drew said. “Our bench had 32 points and their bench had five, so again it was a great team effort.

“The other thing is that I thought we did a very good job on the boards considering that they’re so good on the boards. Kevin [Rogers] had 10, LaceDarius [Dunn] had seven, and I think we did a very good job limiting them to not as many boards as they normally get.”

Kansas State’s Walker added 31 points for the Wildcats – as he and teammate Beasley contributed to a majority of the KSU scoring.

“All week coach’s been talking about playing as a team, and when we went into halftime, those two guys were beating us by themselves,” Jerrells said. “It takes a team, and you see that we had five guys in double figures, and we just outplayed them as a team tonight.”

The Bears next challenge comes on Wednesday, Feb. 27, as Baylor travels to Colorado to face the Buffalos in an effort to gain ground in the race for a postseason birth.

“Every game is big in the Big 12,” Drew said. “Every game matters, and we’re just going to focus one at a time.”

Baylor’s match-up with Colorado on Wednesday is slated to tip off at 8:30 p.m. and will be televised live (locally) on FSN Southwest.

Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at denton.ramsey@gmail.com

Bears tip off against Sooners tonight at OU, seek to end three-game slide

By Denton Ramsey, NCAA Basketball Sportswriter/Big 12 Fans Bears Correspondent

WACO, Texas – Tonight at 7 p.m. CT, the Baylor Bears (17-7 overall, 5-5 Big 12) shoot to end a three-game losing streak in conference play when they tip off against the Oklahoma Sooners (17-8, 5-5).

The Big 12 showdown will be broadcast live on ESPN Plus (The “CW” in Waco, Temple and Bryan), with Bob Carpenter and Paul Splittorff calling the action from the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla.

According to BU big man Kevin Rogers, despite the Bears recent three-game slide, the Baylor men’s basketball team’s confidence is still up.

“It [our confidence] is definitely still up,” Rogers said. “We can’t let a couple of games get us down because there’s still plenty of season left to go. We can only take things from [the Texas] game and learn from them and hope we get better before we play Oklahoma.”

Baylor dropped their last conference match-up, a home game at the Ferrell Center against the University of Texas, in a five-point heartbreaker after battling back in the game’s final seconds.

“From a coach’s standpoint, we did a great job coming back,” Baylor Head Coach Scott Drew said. “I was proud of the team’s effort to give ourselves a chance to get a win down the stretch. I credit Texas for making big plays.

“I told the guys in shoot-around that this program’s back to a point now where you have ESPN, you have the largest crowd in the school’s history, and you’ve got a chance to beat a top-10 program.”

Drew is exactly right.

Since Drew’s arrival in Waco nearly five years ago, the Baylor basketball program has gone from zero to hero – hanging with some of the best teams in the nation this season while finally beginning to get the recognition they deserve after taking a program from the ashes and creating an NCAA Tourney-bound team.

“This has been a tough week, and you’ve got to be above .500 in the league to normally get to the NCAA [Tournament],” Drew said. “We’re going to get five or six teams in, and our goal is to be in the top half so that we’re in that position.

“I don’t think we played well at Oklahoma State, but I think we played better [against Texas]. Over the last two years we’ve finished very strong, and I look for us to get on a roll pretty shortly here.”

Beginning tonight in Norman, the Bears’ hoops team will hopefully heed the words of their head coach as they face an OU team riding a two-game winning streak after defeating Texas Tech, 66-64, on Saturday (Feb. 16) in Lubbock.

A win tonight would push Baylor into a two-way tie for fourth place after Texas A&M was blown out last night (Feb. 18) in Austin, falling by 27 points to the Longhorns on ESPN Big Monday.

In just a few short hours, we’ll have a little better idea of who’s who in the Big 12 Conference… although a majority of our questions (postseason births, etc.) will still have to wait until March’s madness to be answered.

Check back tonight after the BU-OU match-up for post game quotes, notes, stats and more…

Game Notes

In addition to hopes and prayers of ending a three-game slide in the Big 12, the Bears also aim to end a 27-game losing streak against the Sooners – dating back to a 75-69 win at OU on Dec. 6, 1977.

On a happier note for Bears fans, Baylor’s 5-5 conference start matches its best ever in Big 12 play after opening the 1997-98 season (my freshman year at BU) with a 5-5 mark.

Also, Baylor’s 17 wins this year surpasses last season’s win total and is the most since Drew inherited the program (additionally, its the most wins since 2000-01, when the Bears won 19 games and received a postseason birth in the NIT tournament).

In conference play, Baylor leads the Big 12 in scoring (81.4 points per game), free throw shooting (78.1 percent) and three-pointers (8.0 threes per game).

With three more wins, Drew (53 victories with the Bears) will move into seventh place on Baylor’s career coaching victories list; also, if BU guard Curtis Jerrells (1,051 career points) can put up 11 or more points tonight on the road, he will move him into 15^th place on Baylor’s career scoring list.

Aaron Bruce could also join the Bears’ top-10 milestones list as well – with Bruce (309 assists) needing just five more assists to move into fourth place on Baylor’s career assists list and needing just 66 more points to move into sixth place on BU’s all-time scoring leaders (Bruce currently has 1,294 career points).

In addition, Bruce (129 threes) is just three three-pointers shy of moving into sixth place in the Big 12’s career three-pointers in conference games list, while freshman LaceDarius Dunn (56 threes) is just three three-pointer shy of moving into second place on Baylor’s freshman three-pointers list (Tweety Carter is currently third with 57 in 2007 and John Lucas III is second with 59 in 2002).

Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at denton.ramsey@gmail.com

The Texas Longhorns topped the Gaels of St. Mary’s on Saturday in a battle of Top 25 teams by a score of 81-62. Despite trailing by just 6 points at the half at 42-36, St. Mary’s could not stay in the game as Texas pulled away outscoring St. Mary’s 39-26 in the second half. The knock on the Gaels in the 2007-2008 St. Mary’s basketball preview was that they lacked a proven shooter, and the Texas defense held St. Mary’s to 35.4% shooting from the field. Longhorn freshman D.J. Augustin scored 30 points on 11-22 shooting to lead Texas to the victory and #12 Texas improves to 11-2 on the season.

Up next for the Longhorns is conference play as Texas plays @ Mizzou on Saturday, January 12th.

Find Texas Longhorns apparel & merchandise online from Big 12 Fans.

Kansas and Texas, both 9-0 thus far in the early going of the hoops season, are ranked in the top five in both the new AP poll and the new Coaches’ poll.

Bill Self’s Jayhawks picked up comfortable wins over Evansville and DePaul last week to remain perfect, and as a result, remain third in both major polls behind North Carolina and Memphis. On top of their continued excellence, Kansas also got a big boost on Saturday with the return of sophomore guard Sherron Collins, who had been out since the second game following surgery on a stress fracture in his foot.

Texas has gotten off to a great start, and after upsetting highly-ranked UCLA last weekend to move into the top five, the Longhorns convincingly beat North Texas and Rice to get out to their first 9-0 start in more than 25 years, and keep their position at #4 in the AP poll and #5 in the Coaches’ poll.

Texas A&M (8-1) is the only other Big 12 team in either top 25 poll. Mark Turgeon’s Aggies lost to Arizona last Sunday to halt their unbeaten start, but got back to winning ways with a 109-73 rout of Texas State on Saturday.

All of the conference’s members are over .500 with the exception of Iowa St., which is 4-4.

Kansas St.’s Michael Beasley’s monster start is still going, as he’s had double-doubles in all nine of the Wildcats’ games. However, Notre Dame found a way to shut him down in the second half of their game on Tuesday, with their unshakeable defense limiting him to two second-half points after the fabulous frosh poured in 17 in the opening stanza. Without Beasley’s production, Kansas St. fell 68-59 to the Fighting Irish. But, Beasley rebounded from Tuesday’s disappointment to have a strong game against Cal yesterday, shooting 7 for 13 from the field and finishing with 19 points and 11 rebounds. He’s fallen to fifth in the naiton in scoring, averaging exactly 25 points per game, but he’s still far and away the nation’s leading rebounder, with 14.3 boards per game for the 6-3 Wildcats.

If Kansas St. wants to challenge for an NCAA tournament berth and potentially be a darkhorse Big 12 title contender, they’ll need more than Beasley to produce consistently. The Wildcats have only three players averaging double figures right now, as opposed to Kansas and Texas both having five players averaging that amount. The Notre Dame game showed that they need to have multiple options in case Beasley gets shut down, or even worse, injured. Bill Walker did score 30 points against Cal, but he needed 22 shots (7 of 22) and 16 free throws (14 of 16) to do it, and excluding he and Beasley, the rest of the team scored only 33 points.

They’re certainly missing the presence of senior David Hoskins, who hasn’t played this season, and very well may not play at all this year, due to a knee injury. And, K-State’s only 7 of 39 from behind the line in the last two games, so they’re going to have to improve their outside shooting, because when the time comes for that big shot, you want to be able to count on your guys to make it.

Beasley the Beast

There’s a good chance that the Big 12 could have the country’s top freshman for the second year in a row, if K-State hotshot Michael Beasley keeps up his Kevin Durant-like pace.

In his debut last Friday against Sacramento St., Beasley scored 32 points, snagged 24 rebounds, and had four assists and four blocked shots in a 94-63 victory.

Then, two days later, Beasley had 31 points, 14 rebounds, and 3 assists before fouling out in a 76-66 win.

He’s doing more than just keeping up with O.J. Mayo (32 points in his USC debut vs. Mercer) and Eric Gordon (33 points, 7-11 from three-point range in his Indiana debut vs. UT-Chattanooga).

The one thing that all three have to work on is the fouls - Beasley has nine in two games, and Mayo and Gordon both had four in their debuts.

Good Starts All Around

It’s been a nearly perfect start for the Big 12 in the early going of the hoops season.

The only conference member to have a loss is Colorado, who lost 54-47 to New Mexico in Jeff Bzdelik’s debut as coach.

Collins Out for Six Weeks

Kansas got a big blow earlier this week when sophomore guard Sherron Collins had to have surgery on a stress fracture in his left foot.

Collins was averaging 16 points in the first two games for the #4 Jayhawks, but now, he’ll have to be laid up for the next six weeks.

But, if there’s good timing for an injury, it’s now. He’ll return just in time for the start of conference play.

But, with Brandon Rush still mending from ACL surgery, where’s the scoring going to come from in the meantime?

Mario Chalmers scored 23 points in Sunday’s win over Missouri-Kansas City, and with Collins out, Chalmers might get more opportunities to score. And, there’s also Darnell Jackson, Russell Robinson, and Darrell Arthur, so…Kansas should be a-okay.

And, Collins’ absence should also give freshman Tyrel Reed a chance to play more minutes. He’s a great shooter (as shown by his 3 of 4 from 3-point range in the season opener vs. Louisiana-Monroe), so he might be able to provide a big boost for the team and hone his skills at the same time.

While the football season is winding down towards the final few weeks of the regular season, the college hoops season is just tipping off this week.

There are four Big 12 teams ranked in the top 25 in the AP poll, led by #4 Kansas, who, as usual, is considered one of the main contenders for the national championship. Some Texas fans may be sad that Kevin Durant is now in Seattle, but Rick Barnes still has a pretty talented team in Austin, and the Longhorns are ranked 15th, with Texas A&M, in its first season with former Wichita St. coach Mark Turgeon, is 16th. Kansas St., despite losing coach Bob Huggins to West Virginia, brings in highly-touted recruit Michael Beasley, who will join forward Bill Walker in a frontcourt that should make the #25 Wildcats a contender for a spot in the Big Dance.

In the ESPN/USA Today poll, Kansas is 4th, with Texas A&M tied for 14th with Gonzaga, and Texas is 16th. Kansas St. is just outside the top 25, with their 94 votes putting them at 26th.

Oklahoma is the first conference team to get their season underway, as Jeff Capel’s Sooners take on San Francisco tonight. Six more teams tip off their seasons on Friday night, with everyone else tipping off on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

It should be an exciting season, and while many people’s attention will be on football until January, their focus will shift right in time for the start of conference play.