Upon further review …
A month ago, this space praised the work of first-year Iowa State men’s basketball coach Greg McDermott, citing his early accomplishments with an almost entirely new roster.
Considering the circumstances, the job turned in by McDermott appeared to trump those of five other coaches in their inaugural Big 12 season. At the time, the Cyclones stood 2-0 in league play and rode a four- game winning streak.
Oops. Iowa State has gone 1-7 since.
Top rookie coach honors now go to Kansas State’s Bob Huggins, with Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel a close runner-up.
Huggins has his Wildcats on the prowl for an NCAA Tournament berth despite losing their most explosive player, 6-foot-6 freshman Bill Walker, for the season to a wrecked knee in the league opener. Kansas State (18-7, 7-3) will try to reach eight Big 12 wins for the first time in the league’s 11-year history tonight at Nebraska.
The Wildcats are off to their best start after 25 games since the 1987-88 season.
“They’re a typical Bob Huggins-coached team, like he had at Cincinnati all those years – hard-nosed and tough-minded,” Colorado assistant coach Paul Graham said Monday on the Big 12 coaches teleconference. “If you don’t play hard for Hugs, you’ll sit on the bench.”
In a preseason poll, Oklahoma was picked to finish ninth by the coaches. In trying to fill Kelvin Sampson’s shoes, Capel had to replace departed stalwarts Taj Gray, Terrell Everett and Kevin Bookout.
Making matters worse, the top players in Sampson’s last recruiting class – forward Damion James (Texas), guard Scottie Reynolds (Villanova) and center Jeremy Mayfield (Alabama- Birmingham) – chose to enroll elsewhere as freshmen after Sampson left for Indiana.
Don’t look now, but Oklahoma (15-8, 6-4) stood fifth in the Big 12 standings entering this week.
“Jeff has done a fantastic job,” Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie said. “Coaches always have to adapt, and he has made the most of it in what was probably a very difficult situation.”
Proper perspective
Kansas players felt a bit sorry for themselves after their Feb. 3 home loss to Texas A&M, Jayhawks coach Bill Self said. Their outlook changed a day later when the team participated in a Special Olympics clinic.
“That was a great way to put a positive perspective on things,” Self said.
Kansas, which plays Wednesday night at Colorado, comes off wins over Kansas State and at Missouri by a combined 45 points. Saturday, KU posted its largest margin of victory (92-74) in Columbia since 1966.
Footnotes
Texas Tech coach Bob Knight has lost five consecutive games for the first time since the 1971-72 season – when he went 17-8 in his first year at Indiana….First-year Nebraska coach Doc Sadler suspended starting sophomore guard Jamel White for the season Sunday for breaking undisclosed team rules. Don’t be surprised if White bolts. He almost transferred during the summer but was persuaded to stay by a Sad-
ler visit to his home in Brooklyn, N.Y. … Iowa State forward Wesley Johnson already has 11 double-doubles, the most by a Cyclones freshman. “You talk about a guy with a great future, that guy has it,” Texas coach Rick Barnes said.
Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
