PRESEASON TOP 25
1. Kansas: Jayhawks are experienced, talented and deep.
2. Texas: Overflowing in athleticism; a title contender.
3. Michigan State: Kalin Lucas leads 2009’s sentimental pick.
4. Villanova: Shotmaker Scottie Reynolds is (finally) a senior.
5. Purdue: Robbie Hummel, JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore.
6. North Carolina: Defending champs reload with Davis and Henson.
7. Duke: Will be led by multi-talented forward Kyle Singler.
8. West Virginia: The Da’Sean Butler and Kevin Ebanks combo.
9. Butler: Big-time front court in Matt Howard, Gordon Hayward.
10. Kentucky: Potent, but new players and a new coach must mix.
11. UConn: Thabeet, Price and Adrien gone, but talent remains.
12. California: Explosive and obvious choice for Pac-10 crown.
13. Tennessee: Last year’s entire roster returns, led by Tyler Smith.
14. Georgia Tech: Freshman center Derrick Favors is big-time good.
15. Oklahoma: Blake Griffin is gone; this is Willie Warren’s team now.
16. Syracuse: Frontcourt formidable; Flynn and Devendorf missing.
17. Ohio State: Evan Turner bypassed NBA to rejoin talented team.
18. Mississippi State: Five starters return, led by C Jarvis Varnado.
19. Vanderbilt: Experience, plus heralded freshman John Jenkins.
20. Washington: Slew of role players give Huskies the right stuff.
21. Maryland: Four returning starters, plus some big-time recruits.
22. Siena: Talented and led by Edwin Ubiles and Ronald Moore.
23. Michigan: Wolverines continue slow march back to prime time.
24. Minnesota: Tubby Smith returns top nine scorers from last year.
25. Dayton: Ten of top 11 players from secon-round team return.

Whenever possible, I prefer a conventional starting five when selecting All-American teams. This year fits that mold. AP simply wanted one All-American team (no matter what position). Here’s my first team, and also my and third second and third teams.

ALL-AMERICAN TEAMS
First team
G – Sherron Collins (Kansas)
G – Scottie Reynolds (Villanova)
C – Cole Aldrich (Kansas)
F – Kyle Singler (Duke)
F – Evan Turner (Ohio State)

Second team
G – Kalin Lucas (Michigan State)
G – Willie Warren (Oklahoma)
C – Luke Harangody (Notre Dame)
F – Patrick Patterson (Kentucky)
F – Greg Monroe (Georgetown)

Third team
G – Nic Wise (Arizona)
G – Isaiah Thomas (Washington)
C – Craig Brackins (Iowa State)
F – Robbie Hummel (Purdue)
F – Tyler Smith (Tennessee)

At Big 12 Media Day on Thursday morning, KU coach Bill Self said the brothers were quick to blend in once they arrived in Lawrence in August.

Asked what their biggest adjustment was to spending the summer away from their new team, Self said, “I think the biggest thing was just being a teammate. Hey, our guys bought into them the first day they walked on campus. These are real quality kids. They’ve done a real good job fitting in.”

Xavier is a swingman and one of the nation’s most heralded incoming freshmen this season. C.J. is a former pro baseball player and will be a redshirt freshman walk-on guard with the Jayhawks. His college education is being paid for by the New York Yankees, who signed him out of high school in the first round of the 2005 amateur draft.

Self acknowledged several KU players wondered why the Henry brothers didn’t arrive on campus in June.

“No doubt they said, ‘Hey, why aren’t X and C.J. here?’ ” Self said, “but they didn’t hold it against them. I will tell you this, they (KU players) were all looking forward to them getting back here. They were all, ‘Hey, I can’t wait to see these guys in pickup games’ or whatever, which is good. That’s the way it should be from a competition standpoint.

“I told Xavier and C.J., ‘Just so you know, there’s going to some guys lined up to try and guard you when you get here.’ And I think they held their own.”

Self said C.J. has been slowed by various injuries.

“He just gets nicked up,” Self said, “whether it be a knee, an ankle, a hyper-extended elbow, but it’s nothing serious.”

Tournament sites were revealed Monday and Tulsa will host first- and second-round games, marking the first time since 1985 the NCAA men’s tournament has been staged in the city. The Mabee Center at ORU is the only Tulsa facility to previously host the men’s tournament (1974, 1975, 1978, 1982, 1985).

First- and second-round men’s tournament games will be held this upcoming season at the Ford Center, which unfortunately will be only halfway though its $100 million renovation project.

The Ford Center is bidding as a site for the 2011 NCAA women’s tournament, which would simultaneously put two NCAA tournaments inside state lines for the second straight year.

This March, the Ford Center will host the men’s tournament on March 18 and 20, while women’s first- and second-round games will be held at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman on March 21 and 23.

No need for Tulsa and Oklahoma City to argue over who’s hosting what event or how often. This is great news for everybody.

A football state continues to enhance its stature in basketball with repeated NCAA tournaments, plus the addition of the NBA Thunder.

Seven measly months later, the school is so enraptured with Ford, he now has a 10-year contract.

Ten years?

(Say and think what you will about former Cowboys coach Eddie Sutton, but the man returned OSU basketball to greatness, deserved twice as much pay as he ever got and never got close to being offered a 10-year deal.)

Before Ford arrived at Stillwater, he made $400,000 his final season at UMass. Starting this season, he’ll make $1.8 million with a guaranteed bump of at least $100,000 annually through the 2018-19 season. All this after going 23-12 and winning one NCAA Tournament game in his first season with the Cowboys.

Look, I’m all for giving a man his due, but is the 39-year-old Ford due this much this soon?

What if the Cowboys had knocked off Pittsburgh in the second round last season and advanced to the Sweet 16? Would Ford have broken the $2 million barrier and been given a lifetime contract?

Last season was the Cowboys’ first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2005, and for that Ford deserves credit. But so do his players, particuarly senior point guard Byron Eaton, who excelled at key moments down the stretch as OSU won nine of its final 12 games.

Ford’s new contract was an overreaction to what started in the football offices.

Basketball has a higher ceiling than football at OSU. Ford has a better chance at winning more conference or national championships than football does. There is really no debating this and Cowboys football coach Mike Gundy just signed a seven-year, $15.7 million deal. 

If OSU is going to fork over big bucks for football coaches, yet the school has a greater chance for success in basketball, it had better offer at least as much to keep Ford on board. That’s precisely what happened, which is why Gundy and Ford will both make $1.8 million this season. 

Ford now trails only Bill Self of Kansas ($3 million) and Rick Barnes of Texas ($2 million) in Big 12 coaching salaries. Meanwhile, Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel, who lost the South Regional final to eventual champion North Carolina last season, received a new deal in June, but will now make $300,000 less than Ford.

Ford was born, raised and played hoops in Kentucky and someday figures to be a candidate for the UK job, which he no doubt has used as leverage since the day he arrived in Stillwater.

To cover its asset, OSU bumped Ford’s buyout clause up from $1 million to $3 million. Doesn’t matter. If Kentucky wants Ford, it will get Ford.

Interestingly enough, the day Ford was hired at OSU (April 18, 2007), athletic director Mike Holder said he hoped Kentucky would someday want to hire Ford. “That’s a high-class problem to have,” Holder said that day.

Some prominent OSU boosters think Ford could win a national title coaching the Cowboys, and that might be true. But shouldn’t you offer that coach a 10-year contract after he wins the national title, not before?

But this was the first time I spoke with Drew since the Big 12 Tournament in Oklahoma City last March, when I wrote Baylor was “widely considered the worst-coached team in the league.”

Drew sent an e-mail with his phone number around noon on Thursday. I immediately called back.

We started out with small talk. Drew asked about the Thunder, the NBA draft, how long I had covered the Big 12, et al. I asked him if he was still in the running for undeclared high school recruit John Wall.

We meandered our way to the reason Drew wanted to talk, which was my March 14 column, the gist of which was to welcome Baylor basketball to the 2008-09 season with “Where the heck you been?”

A preseason pick to finish tied for third in the Big 12, the Bears had finished ninth with a 5-11 record (one game ahead of Iowa State). They came alive in the conference tournament, advanced to the Big 12 title game against Missouri and went on to finish as the NIT runner-up.

Other than three middle paragraphs criticizing Drew, the 23-paragraph column was extremely positive about Baylor and its players. As is always the case, however, folks remember only the negative.

I explained my side. Drew gave his side. No raised voices. No threats. No cheap shots. A completely civil 10-minute exchange.

I reaffirmed my belief that Baylor had underachieved during the regular season and 2008-09 was an opportunity lost. I also admitted to Drew I was heavyhanded with my words and could have articulated my opinion much differently. He said he appreciated those thoughts and asked if I had any particular questions about his team.

In my column, I wrote Baylor started playing better toward the end of the season probably because Drew started doing less coaching. Drew said the opposite was true. The Bears were far more structured and ran multiple offensive sets toward the end of the season. Why not take that approach earlier in the season? “Because we were 15-3 and things seemed to be working pretty good,” Drew explained.

I asked why guard Curtis Jerrells, who I thought was headed for the NBA, might not even be drafted. Drew said the 6-foot-1 Jerrells has long been considered a tweener. Is he a point guard or shooting guard? I vote shooting guard.

I asked what was in store for power forward Kevin Rogers, who had flashes of brilliance. Drew said Rogers needed to improve on his toughness and envisioned him playing overseas.

Drew did not ask for an apology or a retraction, nor did he ask for my boss’ phone number. He simply said he was glad we had the chance to chat.

Drew mentioned that Baylor fans and his family were surprised a writer in a tournament’s host city would write something so negative. I told Drew the same thing I tell everyone when they are angered with my viewpoint — take it out on me, don’t take it out on the state. Don’t let something I wrote make you think less of Oklahoma.

With that, we said our good-byes and Drew wished me a good summer.

Opening day on Thursday brought two measly upsets, and each was of mild significance — No. 9 Texas A&M beat No. 8 BYU; and No. 6 USC lost to a No. 11 Kansas State team that was playing less than 200 miles from home.

But the second day delivered the goods. It brought a collection of upsets like never before and Friday the 21st became Friday the 13th for lofty seeds as a pair of No. 13 seeds advanced.

Rarely have the No. 12 and No. 13 seeds advanced to the second round in the same tournament. On Friday, it happened an unprecedented four times in the same building.

When the tournament bracket was revealed last Sunday night, the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa was labeled as a bottom-feeder site with no No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 seed. Ditto for Denver.

But the bottom-feeders trolled in Tampa.

No. 12 Western Kentucky outlasted No. 5 Drake in overtime; No. 13 San Diego edged No. 4 UConn; No. 13 Siena dominated No. 4 Vanderbilt; and No. 12 Villanova capped off an upside-down day by beating No. 5 Clemson.

With all this transpiring, the stars seem to be aligning for No. 1 seeds UCLA and Kansas, who are guaranteed to play either a No. 12 or No. 13 seed should they advance to the Sweet 16 with victories later today.

In tournament play, not only do you advance by winning, you also can advance by watching.

What a beautiful thing. 

“I’m happy for him. And you know what? I think he’s happy,” Barnes said of Sutton after beating Oklahoma 64-54 in Norman on Wednesday.

Though San Francisco is just 2-8 since Sutton’s arrival, the Dons have improved immensely. Barnes is good friends with Gonzaga’s Mark Few, who also coaches in the West Coast Conference.

“When you go to San Francisco, I’m not sure you even think you can win a game,” Barnes said. “But talking to Mark, he’s amazed in a two-week period how Eddie Sutton changed that program. He’s amazed. He said they’re a totally different team.”

Sutton returned to coaching to collect career win No. 800. Barnes had a front-row seat for career win No. 700. It came in 2002 when the Cowboys beat Texas in Austin and OSU players carried Sutton off the court inside the Erwin Center. “That seems like forever ago,” Barnes admitted.

Barnes said he thinks there was more to Sutton’s return than getting No. 800.

“Why’d he come back? I think it’s the love of the game,” Barnes said. “He’s never ever said anything to me about getting into the Hall of Fame or 800 wins. You can tell he still loves the game.”

Here’s the list, with some extra notes to ponder:

• Third game in league history to go three overtimes or more

• Baylor sets a Big 12 record for most points in a conference game

• Big 12 record for most combined points (226) in a league game.

• Big 12 overall and conference game record for rebounds by Baylor (70)

• Big 12 overall and conference game record for field goals attempted by Baylor (97)

• Big 12 conference game record for free throws made was tied by Baylor (39).

• Curtis Jerrells of Baylor set a Big 12 overall and conference game record for free throws made (20).

• Five players in double figures for Texas A&M

• Three Texas A&M players had 55+ minutes in the game

• Five Baylor players fouled out

• Earlier this year, Baylor stopped a 25-game overall road losing streak and a 25-game conference road losing

• Baylor’s 16 wins this season eclipses its win total from 2006-07 (15-16 overall) and marks the most wins in

• The Bears’ last win over the Aggies was a 67-61 overtime victory in College Station during the 2003-04

• Baylor’s win over No. 18 Texas A&M is the first over a ranked team this season and first since beating No.

• Trailing 22-8 with 10:35 remaining in the first half, Baylor put together a 12-0 run over 2:45 minutes to cut the

• Facing a 50-49 deficit, Baylor outscored Texas A&M 11-1 over the next 4:45 to build a 60-51 lead, its largest

• Texas A&M made 36-of-59 free throws (61.0%). Baylor’s Big 12 opponents are shooting a collective 60.9%

• With 19 points and 18 rebounds, Kevin Rogers tallied a double-double for the second straight game. He

• Curtis Jerrells scored a career-high 36 points, including 20-for-24 at the free throw line. He also recorded a

• Mamadou Diene recorded three blocked shots (has recorded 3 blocks in all four Big 12 games). He has 16

• Bryan Davis scored a career-high 30 points with a career-best 14 rebounds, his first career double-double. It

• Donald Sloan tied his career high with 18 points and set a career-best with seven rebounds. His seven assists

• Josh Carter scored 15 points and matched his career high with 10 rebounds, his second career doubledouble

• Curtis Jerrells made 20-of-24 free throws, the most by an opposing player against A&M since Baylor’s David

• A&M’s 36 free throws made were the third-most in school history and the most since it made 40 against

And even if the two teams get derailed along the way, Memphis coach John Calipari said he would like to schedule a regular-season game against the Jayhawks.

Calipari served as an assistant coach at KU for Ted Owens and Larry Brown in the early 1980s, and hopes the Tigers and Jayhawks continue their unbeaten ways this year.

“The only time I’m not going to root for Kansas this year is if it’s April 7 and we’re playing them,” Calipari said after Wednesday night’s 56-41 victory at Tulsa.

As for scheduling KU in the future, Calipari has often stacked his non-conference schedule with hefty opponents and said it’s not because his Tigers are members of Conference USA, which is perceived as weak.

“It all depends on what you’re trying to do. If you want to be the champion, you can’t fight in the undercard. You’ve got to take on all comers,” Calipari said. “Now will those teams play you on your home court? No, they’re not going to. So you’ve got to get in neutral events where you’re going to play those opponents.

“When I was at UMass we played Kentucky, we played Arkansas and we played
North Carolina; No. 1 ranked teams in the country all on neutral sites. And we won those games, but they were all on neutral sites. You’re never going to get those opponents at home, so you’ve got to risk it.

“Everybody says the league this, the league that. You’re crazy,” Calipari said. “Teams in this league know us better than anybody else knows us. So it’ll be hard (to finish unbeaten).”

It was a time when the Sooners were No. 1 in the rankings, No. 1 in scoring and No. 1 in steals. They’re only downfall was not finishing No. 1 at the end of the NCAA Tournament.

Thanks in large part to King, OU nearly became king. His personality, deft shooting, rebounding, shot blocking and an ability to run baseline to baseline helped King earn national player of the year honors from The Sporting News as a senior.  Having some talented teammates and a liberal-minded coach certainly helped the cause.

Those who want to relive those thrilling short-shorts days of yesteryear can do so by visiting the OU website at www.soonersports.com. On the far right of the page you will find pricless footage of King and the Sooners, including a post-game locker room celebration with Mike Tyson after beating UNLV in Las Vegas.