+
sports
+
KANSAN.COM/SPORTS [THURSDAY,OCT.27,2016
Big 12 still holds challenges for Graham and Mason
▶ BRIAN MINI @brianminimum
Big 12 media day featured the surplus of talented guards in the conference. Two of the headliners sat sandwiched between senior Landen Lucas and freshman Josh Jackson.
Senior Frank Mason III and junior Devonte' Graham occupied a third of last season's Big 12 All-Defensive team. On paper, their job has gotten easier with the departure of Oklahoma's Buddy Hield, Texas' Isaiah Taylor and West Virginia's Jaysean Paige, to name a few.
"We want to play against the best, so we actually wish those guys were still in school," Mason said. "It's really fun and we'll miss those good guys."
Hield, Taylor and Paige were first, fifth and seventh, respectively, in scoring last season. In order for the rest of the Big 12 to compete with Kansas' backcourt, teams will need to find its own standout guards.
A prime candidate would be Oklahoma State's Jawan Evans. Named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year last season, Evans finished with 12.9 points per game, 4.9 assists per game and 47.5 per cent three-point shooting.
At media day, Evans said he "wasn't really focused on" the possibility of first team honors, but his freshman season certainly hinted at the possibility. Despite an injury that sidelined Evans for nine games, Evans remains one of the toughest guard defenders in the conference.
We want to play against the best, so we actually wish those guys were still in school."
Frank Mason III Senior guard
For TCU, coach Jamie Dixon might have this year's Evans in freshman guard Jaylen Fisher.
"Point guards win college basketball games, and he's as good as there was available," Dixon said. "But I think he might be as good a point guard as there was last year, as far as a true point guard."
Fisher was ranked as the 34th best recruit by ESPN and may eventually develop into a threat to Kansas' dominant backcourt, but
with the loss of leading scorer Chauncey Collins, TCU has a shortage of proven talent to complement Fisher.
Meanwhile in Waco, junior guard Al Freeman could continue to build on the promising season he quietly put together last year. Freeman was the leading scorer in Baylor's loss to Kansas during the Big 12 Tournament and doesn't see a huge dip in guard talent this year.
"The Big 12 has really good guards every year," Freeman said about the departures of Hield, Taylor and Oklahoma's Isaiah Cousins. Freeman also cited himself, Evans and Oklahoma State's Phil Forte as proof that the Big 12 is still deep in guard talent.
The Big 12's depth is undeniable. Even with the conference losing the Naismith College Player of the Year, there's still a deep list of possible All-Americans that return in 2016.
Even with the depth, there's still a question that even Hield and Cousins weren't the answer to: Which team can beat Kansas's talent at the guard position?
Then-junior guard Frank Mason III brings the ball up against K-State in Bramlage Coliseum on Feb. 20.
Missy Minear/KANSAN
Bill Self speaks at Big 12 Media Day on Oct. 25 in Kansas City, Mo.
Christian S. Hardy/KANSAN
Target on Kansas' back grows as it aims for 13th-straight title
> CHRISTIAN S. HARDY
@ByHardy
Ishmail Wainright has grown used to this. When the monotony of the Big 12 basketball rankings—with Kansas at the top—is brought up, he looks down and lets out a short breath. Another question about the Jayhawks.
His wide gratuitous smile pushes the corners of his mouth toward the small dimples forming on his cheeks. Baylor's senior guard has seen and heard this over and over again, like clockwork.
Wainright knows all about the Jayhawks. He's lost to them eight times in his three years at Baylor — his Baylor teams have never won. His grandpa played for the Jayhawks from 1954-1957 and alongside Wilt Chamberlain for two of those years.
"I can drive all the way up (to Lawrence) with my eyes shut," Wainright said sitting at Big 12 media day in Kansas City, Mo., where he grew
Ishmail Wainright Baylor forward
up. He spent his first two years of high school playing basketball at Raytown South, about 20 minutes from his neighborhood. "I was born here, so I know all about them ... They've been a tough team since I was in diapers."
After 12 straight titles in the Big 12 and being picked by the conference coaches, this is the reality of the Big 12 now. TCU coach Jamie Dixon called the run "unheard of," and essentially said Bill Self is a future college basketball hall of famer. West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said no one will dethrone the Jayhawks if teams can't
I was born here,
so I know all
about them ...
They've been a
tough team since
I was in diapers."
"We don't look at it like that at all," said Baylor guard Al Freeman, who averaged 11.3 points last year in his junior season. "We know that Kansas has been winning it every year, so when we step on the court, especially when we play against them — every team in the conference is coming after them."
win at Allen Fieldhouse. That hasn't been done since Feb. 2, 2013, when Oklahoma State topped then-No. 2 Kansas, 85-80.
Maybe the strongest stance on Kansas' conference dominance came from Wainright's coach at Baylor, Scott Drew, who nonchalantly said the conference is competitive "two through 10," but that Kansas is a clear favorite to win the conference.
Freeman paused for a moment, then continued:
"Every team, they want to take it from them. And we want to be the ones to do it."
SEE BIG 12 PAGE 9
Kansas faces Emporia State
MATT HOFFMANN
@MattHoffmannUDK
On Sunday, the concourses of Allen Fieldhouse will once again fill with fans. Cheese will be melted, popcorn popped and drinks filled. At 2 p.m., basketball returns to Allen Fieldhouse.
It may just be an exhibition game against Fort Hays State, a Division II school in northwest Kansas, but the Kansas women's basketball team is ready to get back on the hardwood.
Last season was Schneider's first at Kansas, and the team went winless in Big 12 regular season play before its first win in the conference tournament. The team hopes this year will be different.
Kansas has two exhibition games before the regular season, one on Sunday and another on Nov. 6 against Washburn. These games aren't the first exhibitions Kansas has played so far, as the team took a trip to France and Switzerland this summer where they played in four additional exhibitions.
"I think we're just really excited to build on the momentum we built last year" coach Brandon Schneider said.
“It's been that build up of waiting and waiting, we finally just get to play," senior forward Jada Brown said.
It's been that build up of waiting and waiting,we finally just get to play."
Jada Brown
Senior forward
"I was happy with what I saw in team improvement and more importantly in individual improvement," Schneider said of the trip.
Like in Europe, Kansas should have a deep rotation of players on Sunday. Last year, ten different players scored in the team's first exhibition including two in double figures. The leading scorer in that game, Lauren Aldridge, left the program and transferred to Missouri this offseason.
The team will look to replace Aldridge's play with transfers McKenzie Calvert, a redshirt sophomore, and Jessica Washington, a junior.
Calvert isn't nervous
about putting up big numbers in her first game at Allen Fieldhouse — she just doesn't want to miss the rim.
"I don't wanna airball or get in foul trouble early," Calvert said. "Because then I'm going to have to sit out."
Kansas last played Fort Hays State in 2014, a 73-52 victory for the Jayhawks. In that game the Jayhawks shot 43.5 percent from the field and 46.2 percent from beyond the three-point line. Fort Hays State shot just 26.8 percent from the field and just 16.7 percent from three-point range.
Senior guard Timeka O'Neal scored six points, the highest of any player still on the current roster.
In the MIAA preseason coaches poll, Fort Hays State is picked to finish fourth this year. It is the fourth-straight year Fort Hays State was selected in that position. Washburn, Kansas' second preseason opponent, was picked to finish third.
The regular season gets underway for Kansas on Sunday Nov. 13 against Missouri State, while Big 12 play will begin on Dec. 29 against Oklahoma.
2.1
Missy Minear/KANSAN
The Kansas women's basketball team celebrates from the bench during a 2015 regular-season game.