Blair Kerkhoff’s Big 12 basketball three-pointers
By BLAIR KERKHOFF
The Kansas City Star
March Madness always contains an undercurrent of NBA draft speculation, and the Big 12 has many players who, after the postseason, must make a business decision.
They’ll determine their value, their possible range in June’s draft, and those who decide to test the waters will have until a week before the draft to pull out if they don’t sign with an agent.
A Big 12 coach who knows something about NBA worth, Colorado’s Jeff Bzdelik, said when it comes to a stay-or-go choice, Bzdelik leans toward leaving.
The specifics were freshman forwards Bill Walker of Kansas State and Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin. Both have had knee injuries, and that should play into their options.
“If you’re talented enough to play, why not?” said Bzdelik, the Denver Nuggets’ head coach for 2 1/2 years. “Why wait? If you’re able to get a paycheck, you’ll have money to go back and get your degree.
“At the same time, what if you stay and really hurt your knee? (The money) might not be there. I’m just talking about how I view it as an outsider.”
Bzdelik, whose 12th-seeded Buffaloes take on fifth-seeded Baylor in the first round of the Big 12 tournament on Thursday at Sprint Center, believes both can play at the next level. And he’s especially high on Texas guard D.J. Augustin.
“We actually use him as an example to our young players when it comes to using his body to drive and read screens,” Bzdelik said. “A lot of players in college don’t understand pace, but he does. He knows when to explode and when to calm down. He’s going to be in the league for a long time.”
1 The first game in Sprint Center — eighth-seeded Texas Tech against ninth-seeded Oklahoma State — matches the teams who played the last Big 12 tournament game in Kemper Arena. In 2005, the Cowboys defeated the Red Raiders for the championship. The coaches were Eddie Sutton and Bob Knight. Now the teams are coached by their sons, Sean Sutton and Pat Knight.
2 Oklahoma and Baylor, a potential quarterfinal matchup, have never met in the Big 12 tournament. With this season’s sweep, the Sooners are 24-0 against the Bears as conference members.
3 The Southeastern Conference keeps its division split for basketball and arranges cross-division encounters for its first-round games. Here’s how first-round Big 12 pairings would look using the SEC model:
•Baylor (No. 3 South) vs. Colorado (No. 6 North)
•Texas A&M (No. 4 S) vs. Iowa State (No. 5 N)
•Missouri (No. 4 N) vs. Texas Tech (No. 5 S)
•Nebraska (No. 3 N) vs. Oklahoma State (No. 6 S)
The quarterfinals would match up like this:
•Texas (No. 1 S) vs. Missouri-Tech winner
•Kansas (No. 1 N) vs. A&M-Iowa State winner
•Kansas State (No. 2 N) vs. Baylor-Colorado winner
•Oklahoma (No. 2 S) vs. Nebraska-Oklahoma State winner
“I don’t know that it matters,” said Nebraska coach Doc Sadler, whose Cornhuskers will meet Missouri for the third time this season in Thursday’s opening round. “There won’t be any secrets.”
Three quotes•“If I did say that, I forgot the crew was with us. It’s a bigger story than it really is.”
| Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel, whose description of Oklahoma State’s Gallagher-Iba Arena as a “hell hole” last week was caught on ESPN’s all-access feature.
•“I have a feeling that if the tournament was (selected) today, we’re in.”
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