Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Although most of America is still stuck in an NFL-induced haze, college basketball is alive and well. November hoops action isn’t meaningless — it’s full of Top 25 matchups, early-season tournaments and upsets. And despite pro football’s long shadow darkening the sports landscape, we have plenty to watch and learn from the first few weeks of our state’s favorite sport. Here are a few observations:
Missouri is good — Mizzou (4-1) is one of only two Big 12 Conference schools with a loss so far this season, but its lone loss came against a rugged Xavier squad. Among the Tigers’ early-season victims: then-No. 19 Southern California and defending Southern Conference champion Chattanooga. Missouri might have added via subtraction this offseason, losing a pair of poor shooters in guards Keon Lawrence and Stefhon Hannah. The Tigers boast one of the best frontcourts in the Big 12: Forwards Leo Lyons and Demarre Carroll provide plenty of scoring and rebounding.
Colorado is bad — The Buffaloes (2-1) have a winning record, but no respectable Big 12 team should suffer a home loss at the hands of the Montana State Bobcats. Colorado has been the Big 12’s worst team by a wide margin for two years running, and now that super-scorer Richard Roby has moved on, things look even worse. Considering how painfully boring (and apparently ineffective) coach Jeff Bzdelik’s Princeton-style offense is, there’s nary a thing to be excited about in Boulder this season.
Blake Griffin is the new Mike Beasley — Say hello the next scourge of the Big 12. Two seasons ago, it was Texas forward Kevin Durant. Last year, it was Kansas State forward Michael Beasley. This season the conference’s unquestioned best is Oklahoma forward Blake Griffin. Take a gander at Griffin’s stats through four games: 26 points per game on 74.5 percent shooting, 19.8 rebounds per game and 2.8 steals per game. Unfortunately, Oklahoma doesn’t visit Kansas this season, so Jayhawk fans will have to travel to Norman to witness what promises to be an epic matchup between Griffin and Kansas block-meister Cole Aldrich.
Much ado about nothing
Saturday’s Border Showdown football game sure seems like a big deal. It’s at a fancy NFL stadium in Kansas City, Mo. It has its own cute little logo. And the involved athletic departments have already concocted a plan to control unwieldy traffic.
All this for a game that means... um... nothing?
Kansas is what it is: a middling team in the middle of the Big 12 North standings, headed for a middle-tier bowl against a mediocre Big Ten team.
Missouri is what it is: a flawed squad with enough firepower to beat up on the patsies of the North division but not enough to compete with strong Big 12 South competition.
No matter what happens Saturday, the Tigers will compete for the conference title, and Kansas will head back to campus a football team at a basketball school.
Tuesday morning joke
Kansas State rehired Bill Snyder as its football coach.
Wait a minute... that actually happened?
— — Edited by Lauren Keith
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