THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2007
11C
BASKETBALL PREVIEW SEASON PREVIEW
Red Raiders looking to avoid mediocrity
BY ADAM COLEMAN
The Daily Toreador
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
The Texas Tech Red Raiders are coming off a season headlined by Bob Knight's 880th career victory, making him the winningest coach in men's basketball history. Alongside the milestone, Tech (21-13, 9-7 in Big 12) earned
Andy Shaw tries to move past Sherron Collins in the Red Raids victory against KU last season in Lubbock, Texas. The Red Raiders provided coach Bob Knight his 880th career victory.
The Red Raiders return eight players this season but lose Jarrus Jackson's 19.9 points per game. Senior Martin Zeno, who averaged 16.6 points per game in 2006-07, moves to guard from forward to try to replace Jackson. Zeno returns with fellow senior guard Charlie Burgess who averaged nine points and four rebounds per game.
a berth in the NCAA Tournament, but even Knight's coaching couldn't prevent a first-round exit, as Boston College handed them an 84-75 loss.
Other players not returning for
the 2007-2008 season include Darry
Dora and Tanner Ogden.
The Red Raiders add three freshmen to the roster in forwards Mike Singletary and D'walyn Roberts as well as guard John Roberson. Singletay was the No. 5 high school player in the state of Texas heading into his freshman season at Tech, while Roberson ranked No. 6 and Roberts, No. 11.
In 2006, the Red Raiders averaged 71.7 points per game while allowing 69.1 points. Tech shot 45 percent from the field — sixth in the Big 12 Conference — and 41 percent from three-point range, fourth
in Big 12. The Red Raiders were eighth in the conference in scoring offense and seventh in scoring defense.
The team supplemented its average stats with the best free throw percentage in the big 12 at 78 percent and the best turnover margin at 3.12.
Heading into the 2007-08 season, Zeno is an All-Big 12 Preseason Honorable Mention. The Red Raiders kick off their season against UC Riverside Nov. 10 in Lubbock, Texas.
SEASON PREVIEW
ckson
OSU team young and talented
—Edited by Jeff Briscoe
BY CARSON CUNNINGHAM
Daily O'Colly
The 2007 edition of Oklahoma State basketball is an enigma.
The Cowbirds lost 43 points per game and 15.8 rebounds per game with the graduation of forwards Mario Boggan and David Monds and JamesOn Curry forgoing his senior season to play for the Chicago Bulls.
With the attrition, OSU will be young and inexperienced but talented. OSU will field a team comprised of seven newcomers.
Headlining the group is freshman guard James Anderson. Anderson comes to Stillwater, Okla., highly touted. The Junction City, Ark., native was a McDonald's All-American and is already earning rave reviews from teammates.
"The they were great players but we still got guys like Terrel Harris, Marcus Dove who's becoming a better shooter," said freshman guard Marshall Moses. "We've got guys that
can put points up on the board, but more importantly this is a different team. We don't have JamesOn Curry anymore so we've got to be better defensively and get up and down the floor more."
Anderson and Moses are joined by forwards Martavius Adams, Anthony Brown and Ibrahimba Thomas as well as guards Brad Garnett and Nick Sidokoris.
With the absence of Curry and Boggan, returning players will look to shoulder the score load. Junior guard Terrel Harris will fill Curry's shoes at shooting guard. Although Harris struggled at times last season, he had one of the best improvements in the Big 12 Conference last season in terms of scoring, improving his average by 5.5 points per game.
Harris said he was ready to fill Curry's role on the team.
"I watch film on JO (Curry), what they did to him, because they might try to double team me," Harris said. "They might run at me a lot so we've been working on pump fakes and stuff like that and
get to the basket and get free throws."
Harris said the team would look to get transition points in the absence of true scorers.
"It ittms out playing defense, that's what helps me a lot, try to get more points — off defense. The offense will come, the offense will be there."
Senior Marcus Dove is widely considered one of the best defensive players in the country, but he's making strides on the offensive end too. Dove led the team in scoring at Friday's annual homecoming scrimmage.
The Big 12 coaches poll ranked the Cowboys seventh in the Big 12, but the players aren't letting the ranking affect them.
"It's not really a big deal," Harris said. "That's how they feel. We did fall off last year, but we can't worry about that. We just play like we know we're capable of playing. We've got a totally different team so it really doesn't even matter."
— Edited by Jeff Briscoe
SEASON PREVIEW
Longhorns recruit big freshman class for new season to replace Kevin Durant
BY TRAVIS ROBINETT
trobinett@kansan.com
What's the biggest difference in Texas basketball from 2006 to 2007? Surprisingly, it may not be Kevin Durant, the freshman phenom whom Texas lost to the NBA draft. Though Durant left big sneakers to fill — 25.8 points a game to be exact — this year's crop of Longhorns are confident that they'll grow into them.
"K.D. was a big part of our offense," junior guard A.J. Abrams said, "but we want to show people we've got players that can score just like he did, and we can play even better."
OK, A.J., but even if Texas can't account for Durant's absence on offense, it's getting back to the old-school Rick Barnes style of basketball. That means a scrappy defense and an emphasis on rebounding. Instead of shooting its opponents out of the building and playing poor zone defense in order to keep Durant out of foul trouble, Texas could slow games down and face up man-to-man much more often.
"We haven't been a very good defensive team the last couple of years," coach Barnes said.
Helping the Longhorns reach their goal is a physical freshman class, three of whom are at least 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds.
Gary Johnson, a 6-7, 246-pound forward from Houston, is a near-lock for the starting lineup, according to Athlon's 2007 basketball preview edition, and Dogus Balbay, a point guard from Istanbul, Turkey, is expected to back up sophomore starting point guard D.J. Augustine.
"They're going to help in the areas we've talked about," Barnes said.
"Those guys are going to help us be better defensively. They're going to help us rebound better."
If the freshmen turn out to be key contributors to a tournament run, Texas will have truly established a consistently competitive program. The coaches picked Texas to finish second in the conference, one spot behind Kansas.
"I would assume the same people that are picking us No. 2 are the same
people that picked the football poll this year, and that's not very smart," Barnes said. "I guess it's a compliment to our program."
With only two seniors combining for 1.9 points per game in their junior campaign, Texas' two biggest contributors in leadership should be Abrams and Augustine, who combined for 29.9 points per game last season.
Edited by Jeff Briscoe
That's just a smidgen above Durant's average, but still nothing to scold. Texas is an established program and Barnes is an established coach with a Final Four appearance under his belt. Even though the Longhorns are young in age and game experience, there's no doubt they could be a roadblock to all the teams they play.
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