OKLAHOMA CITY -- Hey, New York, we're doing fine.How's the weather Chicago?Kevin Durant is one of the many highlights in the Big 12. (Getty Images) Kevin Durant is one of the many highlights in the Big 12. (Getty Images) Sure it's dusty here. It's OKC. But it's warm, too -- 70 degrees today -- and there's a cold one with my name on it at Tapwerks as soon as the first day of the Big 12 Tournament is over.What more to do want? There are two All-Americans here, including the best player in the past 20 years. So are two possible No. 1 seeds. So is the winningest Division I coach. Welcome to the Big (12) Shill. This is where lifelong Midwest resident wakes up one day and suddenly realizes basketball heaven is in his backyard this weekend.Not the Big East and Madison Square Garden.Not the Big Ten and the House that Jordan Built. This is where it hits home that the Big 12 has three top 15 teams, plus Acie Law, plus Kevin Durant, plus Bob Huggins, plus Bob Knight.Yeah, he's a jerk, but he's our jerk.And we haven't gotten to No. 2 Kansas yet."I'm really disappointed in the way that people are perceiving our league," and I think our league doesn't do as good a job as our competitors as far as marketing," Texas A&M's Billy Gillespie said.That's the problem, if there is one. The Big 12 is top heavy with Texas A&M, Texas and Kansas. But so is the Big Ten after Ohio State and Wisconsin."There are a hell of a lot of teams that will get beat by Kansas and Texas and Texas A&M," Knight said. "That's three really good teams. I'm not sure who else has three really good teams."And the difference is marketing? You can't swing a remote Monday nights without running into the Big 12. The Food Network wants to do a piece on Texas' Kevin Durant, because it is the only outlet that hasn't. Marketing? The three best games of the year have involved the Big 12 -- Texas at Oklahoma State, Texas A&M at Texas and Texas at Kansas. Those might as well be paid commercials.The best marketing is winning, Billy. The 11-year-old Big 12 just hasn't won enough. Not for 50-plus years like the ACC. Not in major media markets like the Big East. Both Texas and Kansas have been to Final Fours in the past five years but haven't broken through.Advertisement "The only thing people remember is that we don't have a national championship yet," Gillespie said. "Is that going to come? No question."Ohhh, that kind of marketing. Half the league's coaches turned over before this season. That's one explanation if only three Big 12 teams get in the NCAA Tournament. But the mere fact that we're discussing Kansas State's chances is a plus. The Wildcats haven't mattered for most of the last 20 years. With Huggins in Manhattan, the basketball world is forced to pay attention.Hugs has the 'Cats over .500 in the league for the first time since 1989. His quarterfinal with Texas Tech might be a loser-leave-town match. Huggins vs. Knight."I hadn't experienced it like I did, top to bottom, this year," said Huggins, who basically took the same players Jim Wooldridge left behind and scrounged out 21 wins.Meanwhile, here's a shocker for those wild-eyed Wildcats slobbering over Gillespie at Kentucky. He ain't going.Go ahead, fire Tubby Smith.Go ahead, offer Gillespie $2.5 million a year.He's still staying. Why? Billy Clyde Gillespie is all Texan. By staying at A&M he can land the best talent in the state. A few years ago folks would have laughed at that statement. Now the rest of the country is envious.By staying in his native state, Billy Clyde can win a national championship. He might do it before Bill Self and Rick Barnes."Billy is dumb like a fox," college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla said. "Every coach in the league appreciated what he said, even though I don't think it's true."If this wasn't the best league in the country, this was definitely the most exciting league in the country."Exciting sells. Kevin Durant's one-and-done Tour Over America alone makes it worth it to be here. They'll be scalping tickets when Texas plays at 8:20 Friday night."He's bigger than Texas, bigger than the Big 12," Gillespie said.The last time someone went that far, Jesus Christ was involved, and they were burning Beatles records.Exciting sells, but championships sell the critics. This is exciting. Four years ago, six Big 12 teams made the dance. This is better, by far. Durant trumps everything. So does Law and Knight and Huggins. Not that the NCAA selection committee cares, or even has time to read Gillespie's this week.Good. Maybe they'll catch up to the Big 12 in Atlanta. For now, it's warm. Dusty, but warm.
Manning was better than Durant.
There are two All-Americans here, including the best player in the past 20 years.
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Who, or what, were they cheering for?As the seconds wound down on Kansas State's 22nd victory, in a half-full arena, at the end of an ugly game, the purple people were yelling for something.For someone.Was it the resurrected coach, his DUI and graduation record as forgotten now as the pet rock?Was it the junior guard, whose mother is battling advanced bone cancer?Was it the impish, brilliant school president who 18 years ago hired an unknown offensive coordinator to revive football (Bill Snyder), before being presented with a different, maybe riskier hire last year?Maybe it was the players themselves, the names of which would stump Dick Vitale.Out of all those, who needed it more after Kansas State's 66-45 victory over Texas Tech in the Big 12 Tournament that likely puts it into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996 and second time in 14 years?"K-State needed it more," senior guard Cartier Martin. "Coach Huggins has a long resume of making the tournament. This is bigger for K-State."Kansas State basketball used to be great. Jack Hartman, Tex Winter, Lon Kruger, Mitch Richmond, Rolando Blackman. If you don't know those names, please excuse yourself from the March banquet right now.The program fell into a dark and trying time, though, since about 1990. While football rose to prominence, Kansas State basketball had failed to matter -- nationally and, worse, locally where fans stayed away from Bramlage Coliseum.Bob Huggins' hiring at least caused people around the country to check the box scores. In Manhattan, they started buying up those empty seats. Huggins chastised the student section after a game as if they had a bad practice. Now folks stay around after K-State home games to see whom Huggins is going to rip next.But what happened Friday came from a different place. It came from the soul of a senior guard (Clent Stewart) whose mother still attends all the games despite battling Stage 4 bone cancer. It came from the judgment of president Jon Wefald who took a chance on Huggins and his baggage. « Back · 1 · 2"It took about a month for the players to buy into Huggins being a warrior," Wefald said. "It took all of November and December to get the players to realize if you're going to play for Huggins, you're going to have to be tough, and you're going to have to be unrelenting."Advertisement Huggins all but said that in July over a quiet glass of wine before departing for a recruiting trip. What, he was asked, did his new players have to look forward to?"They're going to work," he said like an executioner sharpening his ax.Friday's 22nd win was K-State's most in 25 years. It was the 11th in the Big 12 despite a non-conference schedule that would put Pee Wee Herman to sleep. Huggins, having inherited some ugly non-cons, decided to play them all this season. Clear the decks for a national schedule that will get the Wildcats on TV, thus getting recruiting going again.That meant fulfilling a three-for-one deal to go to North Dakota State on Dec. 9. The Bison had just beaten Marquette and their high-schoolish gym bared fangs that night. In perhaps the most hostile environment of the season, K-State won by two.Less than a month later the Wildcats lost five-star prospect Bill Walker, before they knew they had him. Walker had struggled to become eligible. His career was only six games old when he shredded his knee in early January.That meant they would chase the NCAA dream with essentially the same team that went 15-13 last year and got Jim Wooldrige fired."We finished fourth in the Big 12 and you're asking us if we're in?" said an incredulous Walker.Well, yes. No Big 12 team that has won at least 20 overall and 10 in the conference has been left out of the NCAA Tournament. That, of course, means nothing to the selection committee which is buried up to its double chins in data this weekend.This is a team that lost at New Mexico by 24 and at Cal by 30. Among the top 60 in the RPI only Nevada, Davidson, Massachusetts and Xavier had played fewer games than Kansas State (six) against the top 50. K-State had won only one of those, a shocker five weeks ago at Texas that had stood as their lone pass behind the NCAA velvet rope.Until Friday. Texas Tech was top 50 win No. 2. It got K-State to the Big 12 Tournament semis, a place it hasn't been since 1999. Bob Knight, who had never lost to Huggins, almost seemed to step aside for his old friend. His team's tournament berth safely sewed up, Knight barely budged off the bench as Texas Tech played one of its worst games of the season."It's very difficult for me to imagine a tournament that cold put 65 teams together that were better than Kansas State," Knight said.Never mind that the Wildcats are actually trying to be one of 34 at-large teams -- 31 other spots are reserved for conference winners -- and it only takes only one to knock them out.If Knight says they're in, they're in.Four years ago, one recruiting service (supposedly on LSD) rated Wooldridge's incoming class No. 1 in the nation. Only two of those players remained for Huggins when he took over last summer -- Lance Harris and Cartier Martin. Martin was promptly suspended by his new coach for still unknown reasons.Given another chance, Martin led the team in scoring, averaging 17 points coming off the bench. Harris started 27 games, leading the Wildcats to the victory parade with 20 on Friday."You can't take things personally," said Walker, who has become the conscience of the team while cooling it on the sidelines. "You have to come in knowing that he's doing the best things for you. He's going to get on you. You don't want to go somewhere where somebody is scared to get on you or treats you like a prima donna."Halfway through the second half on Friday, Huggins' former whipping boys became his chosen ones. They were completely outplaying Tech. Someone held up a giant replica of an admission ticket stamped with the words "Big Dance."Huggins leaned down into the huddle."He said, 'We need to guard for nine more minutes and we're in the NCAA Tournament,' " Harris said.Huggins and the players won't let it end there. They play No. 2 Kansas on Saturday in the semis."It's why you play," Huggins said. "We didn't come down here to win a game, we came down here to win a tournament."Do you understand now what they were cheering for?
Why does huggie get so much crap for a DUI? Tons of people get them everyday. Granted it is dumb to do but people can make mistakes.
