
By Ken Cross
When the week began, six teams in the deep Big 12 Conference were within one game of first place as four – Oklahoma, Kansas, West Virginia and Baylor – sat atop the league at 5-2, while Texas and Iowa State checked in with 4-3 marks. What establishes the league’s depth is that 12 of those teams’ 23 combined losses overall are inside the Big 12, showing that perhaps this league edges out the others as the deepest conference with the most likely Final Four participants.
“In this league, it is such a fine line between winning and losing,” said Baylor coach Scott Drew. “You can be playing good basketball and not get wins.”
Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger, who has seen his sharp-shooting Sooners lead the nation in field goal percentage, sees all of the proverbial intangibles that has made the Big 12 as much fun to watch and follow as any in the country.
“We’ve played all our games right down to the wire,” said Kruger. “It’s amazing how equal the teams are and the depth of the league. It’s a high quality a terrific league which is a challenge every night and every game is tough.”
Kruger has a three-guard rotation in Buddy Hield, Jordan Woodard and Isaiah Cousins, who are extremely difficult with whom to match up on the floor. First is their speed in transition; second is the three-point ability in transition. The third factor is that even though these are the finest of marksmen, they look for each other. Cousins and Hield are numbers one and two in the nation in three-point shooting, as the duo shoots 54.1 percent and 51 percent from the floor, respectively.
“Coach Kruger is one of the top coaches in the country,” said Iowa State coach Steve Prohm. “Hield, Cousins, Woodard. The biggest thing is you can’t give them offensive rebounds and even if you are a running team, you have to be able to play in the half court some to slow them down.”
Much of that philosophy has to do with Oklahoma being such a veteran squad. Four seniors including Hield, Cousins, and big-man Ryan Spangler, as well as three juniors make the chemistry a tough matchup. Cousins is still under-appreciated in the scheme as he is so good off the dribble-drive that he sets up the other shooters as well as himself.
“We haven’t approached anything on the season with any difference of focus and preparation,” said Kruger. “This is an older and experienced group.”
Experience is also major asset for Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks. They, more or less, look to go inside to senior Perry Ellis, first. He shoots 49.1 percent from the floor and has taken nearly one-fifth of the team’s shots. Juniors Wayne Selden and Frank Mason, and sophomore Devonte Graham are enough of a threat around the arc and off the dribble that they can create for Ellis, as well.
Selden has shot nearly 50 percent from the arc on the year, while Mason has nearly a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Mason’s playmaking on the point may be the biggest key for the Jayhawks as a unit.
“I don’t know if there is a team with better inside-outside play in the country,” commented Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford as his Cowboys blasted Kansas, 86-67, at Gallagher-Iba Arena last week. “Their young guys in (Cheick) Diallo and (Carlton) Bragg seem to be coming on and they have some veteran guys leading them and these younger guys are coming on.”
In addition to Cousins, Mason, Iowa State’s Monte Morris, Texas’s Isaiah Taylor and West Virginia’s bevy of guards is Baylor’s Lester Medford who has made a seamless transition from shooting guard to point guard. Medford is the nation’s only player ranked in the NCAA’s Top 20 in assists per game (5th, 7.3), steals per game (15th, 2.3) and assist-to-turnover ratio (12th, 3.7).
He leads the Big 12 in steals and assists and ranks third in assist-to-turnover ratio. Since an early loss at Oregon 16 games ago, Medford has 122 assists against only 26 turnovers. This, in itself, has once again placed the Bears atop of the league.
“He has been outstanding,” acknowledged Drew. “He has 57 assists to 21 turnovers and is shooting a good percentage from three (38.6 percent) and allows us to get easy baskets. He makes it tough for other teams to transition the ball.”
The transition game is a staple among the teams in this league. West Virginia and Texas exemplify this as it was highly ironic that the Longhorns upset the Mountaineers in Morgantown last week by such a low score, 56-49. The Mountaineers have been turning over opponents at amazing rates as they force 19.8 per game.
This has been a stalwart in their running game as coach Bob Huggins is back to playing the game the way he did at Cincinnati, pressing the full 94 feet and getting easy baskets. The backcourt of Jaysean Paige, Tarik Philip, Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles is a hard-nosed quadruplicate that makes it tough advancing the ball. Huggins says that the Mountaineers have no plans to change the lineup and add Paige as a starter, even though he leads WVU in scoring.
“I think we’re going to leave it the way it is,” said Huggins. “We thought Jaysean could come off the bench and score the ball. The way we play, it really doesn’t matter. It’s not really who starts; it’s who finishes the game.”
Shaka Smart has the same general philosophy as Huggins, although nuances in the Texas attack are different.
“We are trying to implement a mentality,” commented Smart. “It’s more that than an Xs and Os thing. I was fortunate that guys had a background in pressing. We used to laugh when we were at VCU when people said they would put seven or eight guys on the floor to try to get ready for us. The beauty of the way West Virginia plays is they put five guys out there and they look like 7-8 guys. It’s a mentality of how you play against them.”
It’s no wonder, with all the pressing and fast-breaking, that Self thinks his team has already lacked energy.
“We looked fatigued and we talked about it with our team,” said Self. “We try to keep their minds and bodies fresh. It is something everyone deals with. Hopefully, we will get ours out of the way and have more energy down the stretch.”
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