Big 12 Sports Blog by Big 12 Fans

BIG 12 MEN’S BASKETBALL UPDATE (March 4, 2008): Latest news, notes and standings on the hoops hardwood…

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

WACO, Texas – Keep shuffling the Big 12 standings; this year’s conference champion likely won’t be crowned until Sunday’s season finale.

Kansas, the newest leader in Big 12 men’s basketball, picked up a lopsided lights-out 109-51 victory over Texas Tech in ESPN’s Big Monday, March 3 match-up – moving the Jayhawks into first place in conference standings, a mere half-game lead over the Texas Longhorns.

Both the Horns and Wildcats put their upper-echelon records on the line on Tuesday night, March 4 in Big 12 hoops action, with Texas hosting Nebraska and Kansas State hosting Colorado.

The Wildcats aim to end a four-game skid on Tuesday evening at home, a game slated to be televised on ESPN Plus at 8 p.m. CT, while the Longhorns aim to bounce back after a disappointing loss at Texas Tech.

On Wednesday, March 5 the Big 12 boasts a triple-header of conference showdowns, as the trio of games are scheduled to be televised on ESPN’s family of channels – with two games tipping off at 7 p.m. CT on ESPN Plus (Iowa State at Missouri and Oklahoma at Oklahoma State) followed by a much anticipated match-up featuring Texas A&M at Baylor beginning at 8 p.m. CT on ESPN2.

After Wednesday’s games, every Big 12 team will have only one regular season contest remaining on their calendars – with eight teams ending their 2008 conference campaign on Saturday and the final four waiting until Sunday’s final buzzer to figure out where they stand come season’s end.

Here’s a quick look at those final six showdowns, beginning with the four slated for Saturday, March 8 (including television schedule and tip off times): Baylor at Texas Tech, 12:30 p.m. CT on ESPN Plus; Missouri at Oklahoma, 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC; Kansas State at Iowa State, 3 p.m. CT on ESPN Plus; and Kansas at Texas A&M, 3 p.m. CT on CBS.

Sunday, March 9 will mark the final day of the regular season in Big 12 basketball – as the conference concludes with a hardwood double-header (including television schedule and tip off times): Colorado at Nebraska, 2 p.m. CT (no television coverage), followed by Oklahoma State at Texas, 3 p.m. CT on ESPN.

Check back on Friday, March 7 for the latest news, notes and standings from the Big 12 as conference hoops action heats up through the final week of the regular season…

Current Big 12 Men’s Basketball Standings (03.04.08)

                                    Big 12              Overall             Ranking (ESPN)

Kansas                         12-3                 27-3                 6

Texas                           11-3                 24-5                 9

Baylor                          8-6                   20-8                 –

Kansas State                8-6                   18-10               –

Texas A&M                 7-7                   21-8                 –

Oklahoma                    7-7                   19-10               –

Oklahoma State            7-7                   16-12               –

Texas Tech                   7-8                   16-13               –

Nebraska                     6-8                   17-10               –

Missouri                       5-9                   15-14               –

Iowa State                    4-10                 14-15               –

Colorado                      3-11                 11-17               –

Conference Standings Scenarios

As the season has worn on, it’s been proven time and time again that the Big 12 is a very competitive conference when it comes to men’s basketball.

And it appears as though the top teams in the standings will be a toss-up ‘til Sunday’s season finale.

There are all sorts of scenarios as far as who ends up where, but the truth is that no one will really have the final answer until Sunday’s final buzzer.

One thing is crystal clear in the conference: Kansas and Texas are the leaders, followed by a Baylor team that’s heating up, a Kansas State team that’s slumping and a trio of teams (Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State) at .500 in Big 12 play.

Big 12 Weekly Honors

Baylor’s Kevin Rogers and Kansas’ Brandon Rush were recently named the Big 12 players of the week (March 3).

Rogers, a junior forward on the BU basketball team, averaged 18 points and 12 rebounds in the Bears’ back-to-back conference victories this past week and has now garnered 12 double-doubles this season.

Rush, meanwhile, helped propel the Jayhawks into a tie for first in conference standings – averaging 18 points, four rebounds and three assists in a pair of Kansas wins.

Kansas State’s Michael Beasley once again took home rookie of the week honors in the Big 12, his sixth straight week to win the award – averaging 35 points and 13 boards in two conference contests, both losses for the Wildcats.

In addition, Beasley’s 10^th conference award (two player honors, eight rookie honors) ties a Big 12 record by matching former Texas star Kevin Durant’s 10 combined honors for the 2006-07 season (four player awards and six rookie awards).

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

BIG 12 MEN’S BASKETBALL UPDATE (Feb. 25, 2008): Horns, Wildcats tip off tonight at Kansas State

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

WACO, Texas – There’s been quite a shuffle in the Big 12 in just a week’s worth of men’s basketball games.

After facing a possible three-way tie for first place after Saturday’s showdowns in conference play, there are now three distinct positions for first through third place – while the Big 12 now boasts a four-way tie for fourth.

With big upsets in weekend contests – including a Kansas loss to Oklahoma State, a Texas A&M loss to Nebraska, and a must-win Baylor victory over Kansas State, the Wildcats second straight conference loss – two teams, Texas A&M and Kansas State, dropped out of top-25 polls.

The Texas Longhorns now sit alone as the Big 12 leader at 10-2 and Kansas, meanwhile, holds a secure spot in second at 9-3 while Kansas State rounds out the top three with an 8-4 conference record.

Tonight’s Big 12 match-up, scheduled to be televised on ESPN beginning at 8 p.m. CT as part of Big Monday, pits Texas on the road at Kansas State – as the Longhorns aim to increase their lead in conference standings.

On Tuesday, Feb. 26, Oklahoma State travels to Missouri for an 8 p.m. hardwood battle slated to be televised on ESPNU.

Eight teams shoot for higher positions in the conference when facing off against Big 12 opponents on Wednesday, Feb. 27, beginning with an ESPN-televised contest as Kansas travels to Iowa State for a 6 p.m. CT tip off.

At 7 p.m., two conference match-ups – Oklahoma at Nebraska (not televised) and Texas Tech at Texas A&M (ESPN+) – will give fans and coaches alike a better understanding of where teams sit in conference standings.

Baylor, sitting amongst a pack of teams in a four-way tie for fourth place, heads to Colorado for a game slated to be televised locally on FSN Southwest at 7:30 p.m. CT to close out a full-slate of Big 12 games on Wednesday.

After a three-day break from NCAA men’s basketball action, all 12 teams return to the hardwood on Saturday, March 1 – Nebraska at Oklahoma State (12:30 p.m., ESPN+), Texas A&M at Oklahoma (1 p.m., ESPN), Missouri at Baylor (3 p.m., ESPN+), Texas at Texas Tech (3 p.m., CBS), Iowa State at Colorado (4 p.m., ESPN Classic) and Kansas State at Kansas (8 p.m., ESPN).

Current Big 12 Men’s Basketball Standings (02.25.08)

                                    Big 12              Overall             National Ranking (ESPN)

Texas                           10-2                 23-4                 5

Kansas                         9-3                   24-3                 7

Kansas State                8-4                   18-8                 –

Texas A&M                 6-6                   20-7                 –

Baylor                          6-6                   18-8                 –

Oklahoma                    6-6                   18-9                 –

Texas Tech                   6-6                   15-11               –

Nebraska                     5-7                   16-9                 –

Missouri                       5-7                   15-12               –

Oklahoma State            5-7                   14-12               –

Iowa State                    4-8                   14-13               –

Colorado                      2-10                 10-16               –

Conference Standings Scenarios

Regardless of Monday’s outcome, the worst case scenario for the Horns would be a half-game lead over Kansas (if Texas falls to Kansas State) in Big 12 standings.

Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s conference contests, meanwhile, will have major impacts on area standings as the results from the college hardwood pour in late Wednesday evening – and based on Big 12 positioning alone the conference standings may not change much, although there will likely be a two-way tie for fourth place come Thursday morning.

Weekly Notes: Big 12 Hoops

Eleven of the 12 conference teams have an overall record of .500 or better, tied with the highly touted Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) for the highest percentage of teams of any conference.

In addition, the Big 12 has six teams with 18 wins or more – with only the Big East (seven teams) boasting a higher number of squads with 18-plus victories.

The conference also leads the nation in victories and winning percentage against 2008 nationally-ranked non-district opponents.

Seven teams also sit amongst the top-65 according to RPI ratings – a major factor in deciding NCAA tournament teams – including Texas (5), Kansas (8), Oklahoma (24), Kansas State (31), Baylor (39), Texas A&M (54) and Texas Tech (63).

Big 12 Weekly Awards

On Monday, Feb. 25, the Big 12 Conference announced the weekly award winners in NCAA men’s basketball action – with Texas and Kansas State both receiving the honors for individual achievements.

This week’s player of the week was awarded to Longhorns sophomore guard D.J. Augustin, who averaged 23.0 points and 6.0 assists in Texas’ two conference victories this past week.

Rookie of the week honors for the week of Feb. 25 once again went to Kansas State’s NBA-bound Michael Beasley – where despite his Wildcats two-game losing streak this past week, the freshman-phenom scored a league-record 44 points in a loss to Baylor (while shooting a picture perfect 15-of-15 from the charity stripe and pulling down 13 rebounds).

Beasley’s rookie of the week honor was also the fifth consecutive time for Kansas State’s young star to garner the award, and the ninth overall for the freshman forward this season – one shy of the Big 12 record for combined honors set by former Texas star Kevin Durant (four player honors and six rookie honors) one year ago.

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

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.