We’re talking Oklahoma-Texas, Sam Bradford and game predictions.

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Earlier this week, I spent some time in Lawrence working on a story about Kansas football.

Kansas football?

Yep, Kansas football.

Isn’t Kansas a basketball school? I think so, but folks are definitely keeping an eye on football this year. The Jayhawks are undefeated, one of only three remaining undefeated teams in the country.

A friend of mine, who’s a big enough KU fan to have basketball and football season tickets, told me that her husband had to remind her about the first exhibition basketball game.

I guarantee that’s never happened before.

Usually by now, thoughts among the Jayhawk faithful have turned to the hardwood. Football, after all, is often a grueling struggle of not just losses but beat downs. Kansas football has been a laughing stock, even among Kansas fans.

The long-standing joke among students has been that football season isthe time you perfected the chants and the cheers for basketball.

Mind you, basketball at Kansas is hardly dead. Students camped out earlier this week for the basketball team’s game. Its exhibition game, that is.

Still, there’s a whole new vibe around football in Lawrence. It wasn’t so many years ago, that the athletic department lured fans to the football team’s home opener with basketball. Back in 2004, it invited fans to come to the football stadium a few hours early. The reason? To watch the basketball team’s exhibition at the University of British Columbia live on the jumbotron. The idea, of course, was for folks to stick around for the football game. Instead, some came for the basketball but left before the football.

Fans aren’t leaving early anymore.

It just underscores what an amazing turnaround Kansas has made. What Mark Mangino, his staff and his players have done is quite an accomplishment.

Now, if KU could just have a basketball team that its football team could be proud of.

The Big 12 needs a makeover.

Of its all-conference team, that is.

Less than a month remains on the conference slate. That means the announcement of the all-Big 12 teams is just around the corner.

Which brings me to the area that needs a facelift — the skill positions on offense.

Right now, the first team includes a quarterback, two running backs and two wide receivers.

I have no problem with naming one quarterback to the first-team. It makes for a tough selection, but hey, tough calls make being a first-teamer a special honor.

Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel is my pick right now, by the way.

But look at the running back position. Who are the two first-teamers?

I say Dantrell Savage is a lock. The Oklahoma State tailback is as good as they come. He is averaging 124 yards a game. He is quick. He is shifty. He is tough. He is, in other words, first-team material.

But who’s the other first-team running back?

Jammal Charles at Texas is fumble prone. Marlon Lucky at Nebraska is, well, at Nebraska. Brandon McAnderson at Kansas is averaging only 86 yards rushing a game. And Oklahoma, which might have the most talented backs, is platooning Allen Patrick, DeMarco Murray and Chris Brown.

None of those guys are slam-dunk, no-doubt first teamers.

Now, look at the receiver position. Texas Tech’s Michael Crabtree and Kansas State’s Jordy Nelson are the two leading receivers in the conference, each with more than 1,000 yards receiving. They’d be my first-team picks.

That leaves out Adarius Bowman at Oklahoma State, Malcolm Kelly at Oklahoma and Todd Blythe at Iowa State. All three of those guys are expected to play in the NFL in the next year or so.

And what about Danny Amendola at Texas Tech? Or Marcus Henry at Kansas? Or even tight end Martin Rucker at Missouri?

The Big 12 is stacked with great pass catchers and so-so running backs. Then again, the conference is going. More pass-oriented offenses. Fewer run-dominated ones.

Heck, that’s college football. Teams are opening up their offenses, and that puts more emphasis on receivers.

Why not have the all-conference team reflect that? Why not have three receivers and one tailback?

It wouldn’t have to be a permanent switch. Goodness knows, the way offenses ebb and flow, the wishbone could come back into vogue before the decades out. But for now, why not give the voters an option? They could be asked to pick one running back, one wide receiver, then be given an either/or option with the other two spots. Then, who ever comes out with the most votes gets it.

For the time being, having a first-team all-conference squad with three receivers would better reflect the offenses of today. You’re a lot more likely to see an offense with three or four receivers than with two tailbacks.

The all-conference team should be the same. It’s a much-needed makeover that would bring the Big 12 up to date. Heck, if the conference would do it, it would actually become the trend-setter.

Les Miles has become Bob Stoops.

Oh, OK. Not exactly Bob Stoops. Miles still wears the ball cap, not the visor. Then, there’s the difference of team colors, Miles being partial to LSU’s purple and gold instead of OU’s crimson and cream.

But other than that, Miles has become Stoops. He is now the daredevil that Stoops used to be.

Miles is now the riverboat gambler of college football coaches.

The former Oklahoma State coach must have steel innards. These past few weeks, he’s pushed every button and every extreme to keep his LSU squad in the national title hunt.

Three weeks ago against Florida, Miles decided that his squad would go for it on fourth down not one, not twice, not even three times. The Tigers went for it five times. FIVE TIMES.

Who knows what’s more remarkable — that Miles made five fourth-down calls or that the Tigers made it every time.

LSU beat Florida, by the way, with a late game-winning drive that included two of those fourth-down conversions.

Then after a triple-overtime loss to Kentucky, Miles and LSU had perhaps the biggest late-game gamble of them all Saturday against Auburn.

Trailing 24-23 in the game’s final seconds, LSU only needed to kick a field goal. That would’ve been the safe play. That would’ve been the preferred play. That could’ve won the game, too.

Miles decided to go another route. Even though the clock had ticked below 20 seconds, he allowed the offense one more shot at the end zone. He thought the Tigers still had time for a play AND a field goal attempt if they needed it.

He was right — barely.

When Demetrius Byrd hauled in a Matt Flynn pass in the corner of the end zone for the game-winning touchdown, one second remained on the clock.

Miles’ decision was either incredibly dumb or absolutely gutsy. Because it worked — gutsy it is.

It could’ve all gone horribly wrong, of course. If the quarterback would’ve needed to scramble or the ball would’ve been tipped around before falling incomplete, time would’ve expired. LSU would never have gotten that field goal attempt.

If the decision would’ve backfired, Miles would’ve been skewered.

Instead, he’s a gambler extraordinaire.

Used to be, Bob Stoops had that daredevil streak in him. He called trick plays and sneak attacks, several of which helped OU climb back into national prominence. It was grand fun.

Stoops and the Sooners aren’t so risky any more. That’s too bad, if you ask me.

The good news is, Miles is doing his darnedest to keep people guessing. Heck, he’s doing such a good impression of Stoops, folks in Norman could take a cue from the riverboat gambler in Baton Rouge.

That means the 2008 draft is only a year away.

I know, I know, this is jumping a gun a little seeing as how this year’s picks have yet to be made, this year’s millionaires have yet to be named. And yet, there are already folks out there thinking about what happens next year.

Ran across this mock draft on nbadraft.net. I don’t know who what’s more interesting — that they’ve projected the draft order or that they’ve predicted Oklahoma big man Longar Longar will be an early second-round pick.

That’s right. The lanky project player is being considered a kid with NBA potential. Wasn’t that long ago that Longar was the guy at the end of the bench that the student section chanted for in a blowout.

You know the drill. Home team gets big lead. Students let the visiting team know it by chanting the name of the kid buried deepest on the bench, begging the coach to put him in for some trash time.

Longar was that guy a year and a half ago. Now he’s could be drafted in the second round?

Go figure.

Yep, some folks up that way believe Portland might take Texas phenom Kevin Durant instead of Ohio State big man Greg Oden with the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft. That’d leave Seattle, of course, with the easy choice of taking Oden with the second pick.

Suppose that could happen.

Ain’t gonna, though.

Portland is taking Old Man Oden. Seattle is picking Kevin The Kid.

No doubt Durant wowed the Trail Blazers with his workout. They loved him. They raved about him. They talked like a bunch ready to draft him.

And in a world without Greg Oden, they just might.

But last we checked, Oden is still around. As good as Durant is — you’ll find no one who’s a bigger fan of his game than yours truly — NBA teams covet dominant centers. They will bend over backward for one. They will do anything to get one. Oden has yet to prove he’ll be dominant in the NBA, but the foreshadowing is there.

So, why the talk about Portland drafting Durant?

This draft has become highly predictable. Everyone knows Oden goes first, Durant second, even Al Horford’s spot as the third pick is almost sure. Perhaps the pot needed to be stirred a bit. Perhaps the predictability needed a shake up.

Portland might shock the world and select Durant.

Ain’t gonna happen, though.

Contrary to popular belief, though, this isn’t the worst idea ever.

Fantastic?

Tragic?

No on both counts.

Curry will be undrafted. Of that, there seems little doubt. He wasn’t invited to the draft camp, so why would teams that refused to invite him to camp suddenly be willing to invest money in him?

But he could still make it in pro basketball, maybe even in the NBA.

Such is the promise of the NBA’s developmental league. The NBA began the D-League in 2001. Then known as the National Basketball Development League, it aimed to give a chance to those fringe NBA players. Perhaps they found college wasn’t for them. Perhaps they needed income and basketball was their only means. Perhaps they were at risk of falling through the cracks.

Know what?

It has actually worked.

The D-League has its share of success stories. Rafer Alston. Matt Carroll. Smush Parker. Bobby Simmons. Even Hornet guard Devin Brown. All played in the D-League before making it to The League.

But if Curry is looking for a role model, he should look no further than Kelenna Azubuike. The kid was a high school star at Tulsa Victory Christian. Some even talked of him jumping from high school to the NBA. Instead, he went to Kentucky, struggled for two years then blossomed in his third.

He declared for the 2005 NBA Draft.

There was moaning and groaning, grumbling and gritching.

“If the draft were open only to players 6-feet-5 and under,” one internet columnist mused, “Azubuike might be drafted in the first round. Might be. Not sure.”

The kid went undrafted, then spent two years in the D-League with the Fort Worth Flyers. That’s a lot of long bus trips, a lot of lonely hours, a lot of anxious days.

But then in January earlier this year, Golden State found itself in a pinch. Injury-riddled, the Warriors signed Azubuike. A couple weeks after his arrival, he scored 28 points in 48 minutes against the Los Angeles Clippers.

He finished the season averaging 7.1 points a game and giving the Warriors every reason to re-sign him.

Curry could take the same path, but he has to be ready for the journey. It could be difficult. It could be long. But if Curry is willing to stick it out, to stay on course, the payoff could be big.

Is his decision the worst idea or the best idea?

Much of that has to do with Curry.

It has teamed with AT&T to do a series of online videos about the sport in the States. Three episodes are already linked up, and in the first one, you’ll notice a nice dose of Oklahoma flavor.

Olympic hopeful Jonathan Horton appears. The Oklahoma Sooner is one of the favorites to make the team and be on his way to Beijing next year.

By the way, the hopefuls who appear in the video are not identified, so you’ll have to make sure you know what Horton looks like before watching.

Also seen on the video, Shannon Miller.

Videos No. 2 and 3 focus on the women’s team. There are shots of Nadia Comanechi, now married to Bart Conner and living in Oklahoma, as well as Steve Nunno, who coached Miller.

The first video’s a little long — running time is around 5 minutes — but the other two are in the one- to two-minute range.

I hope the focus of the series turns eventually toward the men’s team. While Oklahoma’s deep gymnastic roots are strongly tied to Shannon Miller, the state has a more lengthy history in the men’s history. Plus, this might give some of you a first look at Horton, who is really amazing to watch.