A lot of head-scratching will be going on inside Big 12 Conference basketball arenas during the early part of the men’s league schedule, which gets underway Saturday.
Returning coaches don’t know quite what to expect from the six new ones.
Veteran players don’t know first-year players. And first-year players might not know anyone.
“With so many new coaches, it’s almost like we’re all in the league for the first time,” Texas coach Rick Barnes, in his ninth season at UT, said Thursday during the Big 12 coaches’ conference call with the media.
Everybody will learn the new coaches, their tendencies and their teams’ personalities. But Barnes conceded it could take awhile.
The problem is, once conference play begins there is rarely enough time to prepare for the next opponent. Especially to face a baseline-to-baseline blur like Missouri. How will Iowa State players react Saturday when they walk into Mizzou Arena and face a track meet?
“It’s a style that we play and not many people play it,” said Missouri coach Mike Anderson, a Nolan Richardson disciple who guided Alabama-Birmingham to trips to the past three NCAA Tournaments. “I hope it helps us have success in this league.”
Several new coaches have said it is better to enter a conference when there is a large coaching turnover because newcomers won’t feel alone at the party. This Big 12 season will be more like a mixer.
And the introductions could become awkward.
Iowa State’s Greg McDermott runs some offensive sets that will drive opponents batty. Nebraska players had better dive for loose balls and take charges or Doc Sadler promises he will yank them off the floor. Oklahoma State’s Sean Sutton has the Cowboys playing at a faster pace. Bob Huggins’ teams at Cincinnati were built on toughness, beginning with an in-your-face mind-set on defense and an eat-my-dust attitude on offense. Expect more of the same style at Kansas State.
So far, so good. The Big 12’s nonconference record stands at 121-39, a .756 success rate that ranks as the third-best in the league’s 11 years. There’s anticipated strength at the top, with Kansas having Final Four ability and Texas A&M ready to make more noise in the NCAA Tournament. But much of the credit for the league’s strong showing should go to the six new coaches. They have combined for a record of 61-19.
“Obviously you have players buying into what the coach says,” Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel said.
If there’s a bigger surprise than the early success of the new coaches, it is the collective performances of new players. Despite the arrival of 6-foot-9 super prospect Kevin Durant at Texas, this was supposed to be an overall down year for the Big 12’s rookie class. Newly hired coaches don’t have much time to find prospects in the spring. And it is slim pickings anyway.
But Iowa State plucked sharp-shooting guard Mike Taylor from Chipola (Fla.) Community College and forward Wesley Johnson, a rebounding machine, out of a North Carolina prep school. MU’s Anderson lassoed Stefhon Hannah, a teammate of Taylor at Chipola.
Capel found guard Bobby Maze, who had been an overshadowed teammate of Sooner freshman guard Tony Crocker in prep school.
Huggins made national headlines by landing 6-6 Bill Walker, a national top-10 recruit from near Huggins’ old stomping grounds in Cincinnati.
“You’re adding one of the physically most imposing athletes in the country,” Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie said of Walker.
On Saturday afternoon in Boulder, Colorado must deal with a pair of 2006 McDonald’s All-Americans playing for Texas. D.J. Augustin looks like the Big 12’s next great point guard. And Durant is projected to be the second pick in the 2007 NBA draft, behind only Ohio State freshman 7-footer Greg Oden.
“For his size, Durant can take guys off the dribble and he shoots 3s,” CU coach Ricardo Patton said.
Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
