Jayhawks favored to be best in Big 12
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Sometimes Bill Self wonders if he's done something to anger his fellow Big 12 coaches. Year after year, they fill out the preseason ballot and hang that special burden of great expectations around the necks of his Kansas Jayhawks.
Of course, year after year the coaches are right. This 2007-08 season should be no exception. The Jayhawks return all but one player from the team that won 33 games a year ago and lost to UCLA in the regional final of the NCAA tournament. They seem to deserve the favorite's label given them by 10 Big 12 coaches.
"Obviously, I have no friends in the league if they did that," Self deadpanned.
Actually, being a favorite is a role the Jayhawks have grown comfortable with, one they would be loath to give up as they go gunning for their fourth straight regular-season title.
"I know I get tired of it to an extent, but I don't know if (players) do because expectations create an interest," Self said. "I think our guys get tougher and harder because of it."
The one big question mark hovering over the Jayhawks also dogs several other programs as the Big 12 heads into its 12th season: Can all the best players get healthy?
The Jayhawks can't be sure if junior guard Brandon Rush, their leading scorer each of the past two seasons, will be fully recovered from the ACL surgery that knocked him out of the NBA draft last June. Brandon Rush won't be cleared for contact until at least Dec. 1.
Texas, facing life without Kevin Durant, its national player of the year last season after a brilliant freshman campaign, is hoping for big things from top recruit Gary Johnson, even though the 6-foot-7 forward was diagnosed with an unspecified heart condition in May. He was cleared to play in the first exhibition game, but his status for the Nov. 12 season opener against Texas-San Antonio remains uncertain.
"He's a difference-maker, there's no doubt," said Texas coach Rick Barnes.
Mark Turgeon, one of three new head coaches in the league, is also having to replace a top player in point guard Acie Law IV at Texas A&M. One player who could take up the slack is 6-9 senior Joseph Jones, who averaged almost 14 points and seven rebounds last year as the Aggies won a school-record 27 games. But Jones has been nursing a sprained foot and a couple of sore knees.
Kansas State also has a new coach in Frank Martin, the assistant who was rushed into the job in April following the abrupt, and embarrassing for the Wildcats, resignation of Bob Huggins.
Martin has Michael Beasley, the 6-9 freshman who may be the most heralded recruit, other than Kevin Durant, to come into the Big 12. He also has 6-6 Bill Walker, a brilliant athlete who played just six games last year before tearing his ACL and undergoing surgery.
Walker, rated as high as No. 6 among prospects in his class, has regained his freshman status and, he says, his full health.
"I want to prove to myself that I can still battle back and be the player I've always been," said Walker, who says he has never been in better shape. "I'm ready to tear it up this year."
In his one and only season of college basketball, Kevin Durant was almost unbelievable on some nights, scoring 30 points or more a Big 12-record 30 times before becoming the second man taken in the NBA draft.
Nobody is claiming the Longhorns will have another one like him. But according to the preseason poll, they will again have the league's player of the year in sophomore point guard D.J. Augustin. The 6-0 Louisiana native and Hurricane Katrina victim spent time with former Longhorn All-American T.J. Ford in the offseason learning the finer points of leadership and point guard play.
"D.J. had a phenomenal year, in terms of what he did, and what made it more special, if you go back further, his family lost everything during the hurricane in New Orleans," said Barnes. "He was really disrupted his senior year."
Besides a new and enthusiastic fan base, Billy Gillispie left something else at Texas A&M before moving on to Kentucky. Turgeon's Aggies this year have an outstanding freshman class, headed by 7-foot, 240-pound DeAndre Jordan, who averaged 26 points, 15 rebounds and eight blocked shots as a high school senior.
"He has the most talent I've seen, but it's really raw talent," Turgeon said.
The league's other new coach is Jeff Bzdelik, who represents a classic case of "If you can't beat 'em, hire 'em." Last year amid a miserable 7-20 season, Colorado lost to Bzdelik's Air Force team by 38 points. So the Buffs hired him to replace Ricardo Patton.
As Bzdelik heads out onto the all-important recruiting trails, he carries an advantage no other Big 12 coach can claim. He was once a head coach in the NBA for the Denver Nuggets, something that's certain to get the attention of teenage NBA hopefuls.
Nebraska has the league's top returning scorer and rebounder in 6-11 Aleks Maric, who averaged almost 19 points and nine rebounds a game.
"When you get a chance to coach someone like this, you better enjoy it because you won't get that opportunity very many times in your career," said Nebraska coach Doc Sadler. "He's not just a great basketball player, but as hard a worker as we've got in our program."
Texas was picked in the preseason poll second behind Kansas. But Barnes has no more regard for such exercises as Self.
"I guess it's a compliment to our program," Barnes said. "I don't pay a whole lot of attention to it. I don't think our players do."
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