KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Big 12 Conference wrapped up “talking season” on Wednesday, with all 16 men’s teams sending their coaches and selected players to T-Mobile Center for a second round of media days.
Houston, which won the Big 12 regular season and tournament titles last year, was selected as the preseason favorite. Teams like Texas Tech, Iowa State, Kansas and BYU are in chase mode to try and run down the Cougars, who reached the national championship game last year.
Here are five takeaways from Big 12 men’s basketball media days.
Tang the Team Builder
Most of us call it team building or building chemistry. Kansas State coach Jerome Tang calls it “living life together.”
That means many things to Tang. One example he used on Wednesday was dinner at his house. All three of his players with him at Big 12 Media Days — PJ Haggerty, Mobi Ikegwuruka and Abdi Bashir Jr. — all came to his house one night for dinner. Tang asked each what they wanted. Haggerty wanted pizza.
“I think he thought I was going to order Domino’s,” Tang said.
No. The pair made pizza and cooked it in Tang’s pizza oven. Ikegwuruka wanted spaghetti. He made hit himself and Tang called it “the biggest plate of pasta I’ve ever seen anyone eat.” Bashir wanted to steak. Yep, grilled it himself. They spent the night watching the musical “Hamilton.”
To Tang, there is intentionality in moments like that.
“The time we spend together these dudes know the staff loves them and because they know that we’ve earned the right to hold them accountable on the court,” he said. “They don’t see it as us being mean. They see it as us pushing them.”
Cincinnati’s Energy Transfer
The Cincinnati Bearcats have one of the most experienced players in college basketball in guard Kerr Kriisa, who is entering his sixth season. He played three years at Arizona, one at West Virginia and one at Kentucky, where he suffered a season-ending injury and received a medical hardship to play this year.
He’s 24 years old, so his coach, Wes Miller, can make jokes.
“I think I played against him when I was in college,” Miller said with a chuckle.
Kriisa comes with loads of experience. He also comes with loads of energy and one of the benefits, Miller says, is that it rubs off on his new teammates.
“There’s an energy that Kerr has to play transition basketball and it’s not for anything other than he wants to get up in the open court and get easy baskets,” Miller said. “That energy, it makes all four guys run harder. I mean Day Day Thomas is running the court harder when he doesn’t have the ball than any other time in his career because he knows that he’s going to get it or good things are going to happen.”
Kelvin’s Eye Opener
Houston is the Big 12 preseason favorite among the coaches and are likely to be the preseason favorite among the media, who cast their ballots later this week in the Big 12’s first preseason media poll. But some of the chatter on Wednesday had nothing to do with Houston. It had to do with Louisville.
The Cardinals landed a commitment from London Johnson, who played in the G League for two years. The G League is a professional developmental league for the NBA. That sparked a critical reaction from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, who called out the NCAA or “whoever approved that.”
During the coaches’ roundtable section, Houston coach Kelvin Sampson admitted that he didn’t know that was allowed. He also admitted that he didn’t know that his program was recruiting a former G League player until he asked his son and assistant coach, Kellen, about the rule.
It was an eye-opener for the long-time coach.
“I didn’t even know about the rule,” Sampson said. “So, what are we supposed to do?”
Kansas coach Bill Self was also asked the question and said while he didn’t want to knock the practice, he wasn’t that familiar with the rule that allows it either, per Shreyas Laddha of the Kansas City Star.
It’s just another complexity for coaches to deal with in an ever-changing world of college basketball.
What Bill Self Needs from Darryn Peterson
BYU forward AJ Dybansta is one of the league’s impact freshmen recruits. So is Kansas guard Darryn Peterson. The Canton, Ohio, product was the national player of the year and averaged more than 30 points per game. He was an all-Big 12 first-team preseason selection, which is rare for a freshman. Dybansta also made the team.
The adjustment for both will be key to the success of both teams. Both players fielded a ton of questions on Wednesday. Peterson’s coach, Bill Self, wants to make sure that Peterson remains an aggressive player even as he adjusts to the college game.
“I want him to realize that, in every form of fashion of the game, our team gets better immediately [when he makes plays] as opposed to deferring and letting somebody else make a play,” Self said. “He can make the play because he’ll make the right play and the right play is usually to the benefit of his teammates.”
Iowa State Film Break
One of the cool things ESPN did during the television portion of media days was film breakdowns with players and coaches. One such breakdown was Iowa State’s double screen action at the top of the key against Kansas. Guard Tamin Lipsey broke down the play first, which ended with dishing to Joshua Jefferson, who dished to another player for a basket.
It led coach T.J. Otzelberger to talk about what a key player Jefferson, a forward, is to the Cyclones this season.
“With his unique talents and interior passing intelligence, seeing everything a step ahead, when we can get Joshua Jefferson the basketball inside of 12 feet it puts such tremendous pressure on the defense,” Otzelberger said. ”He can score it going both ways, he can finish through you, he can dunk on you he can make plays for his teammates. So that clip right there to me we need to hit repeat and have that clip about 50 times a game this year and the Cyclones will be in in great shape.”
