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The Daily Athenaeum

Big 12 Tournament Edition

THE DAILY ATHENAEUM Friday March 7, 20142 | BIG 12 TOURNAMENT

OU leaning on SpanglerBy COnnOr MUrrayAssociAte sports editor

@connorKMurrAy

Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger is no stranger to the NCAA Tournament. Now in his 27th season as a college coach, Kruger has made 14 appearances in the Big Dance as a head coach.

This year, Kruger has the No. 23 Oklahoma Sooners primed for an-other NCAA Tournament run. As the regular season winds down, however, his team’s focus will be on the Big 12 Tournament in Kan-sas City, Mo.

Kruger and the Soon-ers are currently No. 2 in the Big 12 standings and have managed to stay near the top of the conference standings all season.

Kruger said one reason for the Sooners’ success this season has been the play of sophomore center and the Big 12’s leading re-bounder Ryan Spangler.

“Ryan has been fantas-tic. Obviously he’s a terrific rebounder and has done a very good job for us there,” Kruger said.

To prove he is more than just a rebounder, Spangler has averaged scoring 10.1 points per game this sea-son. Kruger said Span-gler’s offensive prowess has grown as the season has progressed.

“His offensive abilities have improved consis-tently throughout the year. He’s given us a bunch on the offensive end.”

In his first year of playing eligibility since transfer-ring from Gonzaga to Okla-homa, Kruger said Span-gler has given his team a lift in the attitude depart-ment to go along with his on the floor abilities.

“Most important (to the team) is his competitive-ness and his toughness. He’s definitely elevated our other guys in those ar-eas,” Kruger said.

“We needed to improve in those areas quite a bit in terms of being more physi-cal and fighting on the de-fensive end, especially. I think we’ve improved a lot in those areas because of Ryan. Ryan has been at the core of it all the way along.”

As the Big 12 regular season winds down, there are four teams – Okla-homa, Texas, Iowa State and Kansas State – vying for the No. 2 position in the conference standings.

With such a log jam in the standings, Kruger said he knows it could be diffi-cult for the selection com-mittee to determine which teams should be seeded highest in the NCAA Tour-nament, but there are some factors that should be given more weight than others.

“I’d probably put the greatest significance on the conference finish be-cause it is a true round robin and those teams are

all so closely bunched,” Kruger said.

Although his team has shown itself worthy of playing in the postsea-son all year, Kruger said making a run in the Big 12 Tournament would help set his team apart from the pack.

“You can split hairs and rationalize anything but I think if one of the teams emerges … depending on what happens, if one of those teams runs to the championship game and does great in the confer-ence tournament, that might influence it a little bit,” Kruger said. “Those teams are awfully closely lumped.”

Depending on how Spangler and the rest of the Sooners finish the regular season, this team could make a run at the Big 12 Tournament Champion-ship in Kansas City.

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WYTHE WOODS/THE DAILY ATHENAEUMRyan Spangler attempts to block Juwan Staten’s shot earlier this season.

Star trio leads Iowa

KYLE MONROE/THE DAILY ATHENAEUMIowa State coach Fred Hoiberg speaks with a referee earlier this season.

By COnnOr MUrrayAssociAte sports editor

@connorKMurrAy

It’s safe to say Iowa State head coach Fred Hoiberg has quickly made a name for himself in the Big 12 and across the nation.

Known as “The Mayor” in Ames, Iowa, Hoiberg has brought respect back to the Cyclones’ basketball pro-gram since he took over for Greg McDermott in the 2010-11 season.

After leading Iowa State to a 16-16 record in his first year on the job, the former Cy-clone basketball star has led his program to three straight 20-win seasons.

This year, Hoiberg and the Cyclones have been led by a trio of stars: Melvin Ejim, DeAndre Kane and Georges Niang.

Hoiberg said that although Kane and Ejim have received the majority of attention this year, each player brings something different to the table, and they all have one thing in common: the ability to change a game.

“They have different roles on our team. Both of those guys have a great impact on winning,” Hoiberg said. “I would throw Georges Niang in there as well as a guy who is an important cog in what we’re trying to do to get wins on the floor.”

While having raw talent is one thing, Hoiberg said what sets his team’s leaders apart is their willingness to cast aside personal accolades and do what is best for the team.

“The great thing about it is you’ve got guys that buy into it and have the ultimate goal of winning, and that’s what you need if you’re going to have a successful team,” he said.

Including Dustin Hogue, there are four Cyclones that average scoring in double fig-ures every game.

While some teams’ suc-cess is dependent on the per-formance of one or two star players, the Cyclones have gotten significant contribu-tions from several different sources this year.

As the season winds down and postseason awards be-

come a popular topic of dis-cussion, there will be several Cyclones in the conversation for Big 12 Player of the Year and the All-Big 12 team.

A First Team All-Big 8 se-lection in 1995, Hoiberg knows what characteristics a player needs to be recog-nized as one of the best in the conference.

“I think you’ve just got to look at the whole body of work, what they do over the course of the season to help their team win, what they do on the floor to make their teammates better and how they impact the game (over-all),” Hoiberg said.

While Hoiberg made it clear he would endorse any of his top players for postsea-son awards, he said he real-izes the Big 12 is full of stand-out players worthy of being recognized.

“There are some great players in this league. It’s go-ing to be interesting to see how it all plays out,” he said. “I don’t think you can go wrong with any guy.”

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THE DAILY ATHENAEUMFriday March 7, 2014 BIG 12 TOURNAMENT | 3

Embiid’s health in question as season winds downby amit batra

sports editor @batra01

Despite Kansas fresh-man big man Joel Embiid missing the last two games of the regular season, KU head coach Bill Self doesn’t expect it to affect him in the postseason.

The Jayhawks’ Embiid suffered a back injury fol-lowing a win over TCU ear-lier this season, but ac-cording to Self, he should be able to play in the Big 12 Conference tournament. For the 10th year in a row, Kansas clinched the regu-lar season conference title.

According to Self, the doctors encouraged Em-biid to rest as it will be the best remedy with this type of injury. Following the in-jury sustained against TCU, the 7-foot center played the next three games but re-injured his back in a 72-65 loss to Oklahoma State Saturday.

In that loss to Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla.,

Embiid recorded a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds, going 4-for-6 from the floor in 29 min-utes of action. The 7-foot, 250-lb center went a perfect 5-for-5 from the free-throw line and also stacked up the stat sheet with three assists.

“I think he could return for the Big 12 tournament,” Self said to ESPN.com. “But it shouldn’t impact the NCAA Tournament. We’ve spoken with experts with this particular injury and have been told the same thing we’ve been told be-fore, rest is the best remedy. It should not be an injury that keeps him out for the rest of the season.”

In the previous game against Oklahoma Feb. 24, Embiid had 12 points, 13 rebounds and four steals three blocks.

In the Big 12 teleconfer-ence earlier this week, Self described the injury as a back strain that seemed to have gotten worse follow-ing the Oklahoma State game, but it doesn’t seem

like anything that will affect postseason.

“I think (Joel) is OK on long-term, but I’m not sure how long or if we’re going to need to rest him,” Self said. “It’s a similar thing as before. He certainly bene-fited from the five days we gave him off, but it’s still not close to 100 percent, because he re-aggravated (it) in the Oklahoma State game.”

With Embiid’s stat line as of late, losing him long-term would affect KU. The talented big man pro-vides an issue for teams that lack size, especially for an upcoming opponent in West Virginia Saturday afternoon.

The Cameroon native is averaging 11.2 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game. Experts and ana-lysts have regarded Embiid as a top NBA Draft pick, possibly even surpassing teammate and freshman guard Andrew Wiggins.

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APJoel Embiid will miss the last two games of the regular season.

Cowboys heating up after Smart serves suspensionby amit batra

sports editor @batra01

Oklahoma State sopho-more guard Marcus Smart has brought the Cowboys back in the NCAA Tourna-ment picture following a win over then-No. 5 Kansas Saturday.

Following a seven-game losing streak, OSU has been getting better at playing team basketball. More guys have played to their strengths, and it’s ultimately made a difference.

In the games since Smart’s return, Oklahoma State has seen a rise in production. The All-American guard re-corded a double-double in his first game back from sus-pension against Texas Tech, contributing 16 points and

10 assists against the Red Raiders Feb. 22.

In the following game at TCU, Smart posted 17 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and five steals.

Then, in the upset victory over KU, Smart led the way for OSU with 21 points, six rebounds, five assists, four steals and a block in 36 min-utes of action.

“He made big plays down the stretch, huge plays,” said Oklahoma State head coach Travis Ford following the win.

“There aren’t many (play-ers) that have his competi-tive toughness.”

The preseason Big 12 Con-ference Player of the Year took over in the final minutes of play, both on the offensive and defensive end.

While recent incidents

have perhaps turned view-ers away from Smart’s abil-ity, Saturday showed why he is one of the best players in the country.

“My teammates stayed in my ear and told me keep shooting, keep driving and just do what I do,” Smart said. “They told me (to) let my de-fense create my offense, so that’s what I was trying to do.”

Smart made play after play in the second half, and the stars of Kansas didn’t have any answers for the do-it-all point guard.

Losing seven straight games opened the eyes of Oklahoma State, and the amount of talent the team possesses made it a shocker the team was outside look-ing in at an NCAA Tourna-ment berth.

Despite Oklahoma State

and Smart struggling in the first half against Kansas, the team battled the whole way through.

“When you’re great at something and it’s not going your way for a while, you’re not just going to quit,” Ford said of Smart’s first-half woes. “Marcus (Smart) strug-gled a lot, but then, he made a lot of big plays. After the game, I told him he’s a piece of work. He’s a competitor.”

Most recently, Smart recorded 18 points, six rebounds and five assists in the Cowboys’ win over Kan-sas State Monday night.

“They’re definitely a tour-nament team,” Self said. “They’re too talented. They can get hot and make a seri-ous run. There’s no question.”

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WYTHE WOODS/THE DAILY ATHENAEUMMarcus Smart calls out a play against West Virginia earlier this season.

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THE DAILY ATHENAEUM Friday March 7, 20146 | BIG 12 TOURNAMENT

WVU rides roller coaster season to Kansas Cityby doUg Walp

sports writer @dougwalp

The West Virginia men’s basketball team will head to Kansas City, Mo., next week with as much – if not more – riding on this year’s Big 12 Conference Tournament than any other team in the league.

Five teams in the league – Kansas, Iowa State, Okla-homa, Texas and Kansas State – are virtually locks to earn selections to the NCAA tournament, while Okla-homa State and Baylor have also most likely done enough at this point to warrant their own inclusion.

That leaves just West Vir-ginia on the outside of the tournament bubble looking in at this point.

That hasn’t derailed the Mountaineers’ assurance in themselves.

“Right now, with us be-ing desperate for wins, re-ally needing these wins to try and get a NCAA bid, I think (our confidence) is actually clicking,” said junior guard Juwan Staten. “At this point in time, I hope we’re all on the same page. It didn’t really seem that way in the first half (against TCU), but as long as we stay on each other, hold each other accountable be-fore the coaches can get to us, I think we should have the right mindset.”

It’s not necessarily all bad news for WVU, as the Moun-taineers’ success within the league still has them in con-tention with both Baylor and Oklahoma State in the Big 12 standings for the last first-round bye of the conference tournament.

A big part of West Vir-ginia’s success this year has been cultivated from Staten’s turnaround season, a finalist

for the Bob Cousy Award and leads the Big 12 in assists and minutes played. He is also tied for second in the con-ference in scoring.

Staten also became the first player in WVU school history to reach a truly im-pressive statistical landmark this year.

“He’s had a phenomenal season. He just was the first player in West Virginia his-tory to have 500 points, 150 rebounds and 150 assists,” said WVU coach Bob Hug-gins on the Big 12 telecon-ference Monday morning. “When you think that Jerry (West) didn’t do that, or Hot Rod (Hundley) didn’t do that or Rod Thorn didn’t do that, none of the great play-ers we’ve had.

“He’s been terrific. He asks intelligent questions, he doesn’t make excuses and takes the blame for things and knows when it’s his fault.

He plays hard.”Offensively, only one

team in the Big 12 has shot the ball from the perimeter more efficiently than West Virginia this season, but the Mountaineers’ 3-point shooting has still been a bit sporadic at times.

In fact, WVU shot just 38 percent from the floor and 33 percent from 3-point range in its 13 losses com-pared to 49 percent from the field and 43 percent from behind the arc in its 16 wins before its game against Oklahoma.

“It just comes down to us making some shots,” Hug-gins said. “We don’t score close so we’ve really got to make some shots. When we’ve made them, we’ve been very competitive. When we haven’t, we’ve struggled.”

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CORY DOBSON/THE DAILY ATHENAEUMJuwan Staten fights off a Kansas State defender earlier this season.

drew has baylor back in contention after tough startby doUg Walp

sports writer @dougwalp

After a lengthy losing skid that lasted a month, the Bay-lor Bears have not only re-gained their footing but are currently one of the hottest teams in the Big 12 as the calendar turns to March.

In fact, the Bears have won six of their last seven games after dropping eight of 10 from Jan. 7-Feb. 8 – giving themselves at least a chance at a first-round bye in the Big 12 Tournament and also improving their standing in regard to an NCAA tourna-ment selection.

“The guys always stuck together,” said Baylor head coach Scott Drew. “What I mean by that is normally when you’re losing, peo-ple finger point, and it turns into players versus players, players versus coaches, and we never really saw that. Ev-

eryone stuck together, be-lieved in what we were do-ing and kept encouraging each other.”

Baylor found itself on the outside of the NCAA tourna-ment bubble looking in a lit-tle less than two weeks ago when they made the trip to Morgantown and eventually dispatched the Mountain-eers (another bubble team) on WVU’s home floor.

Now Baylor finds itself more or less in position to se-cure an NCAA bid, regard-less of how it performs in the Big 12 Tournament – espe-cially after knocking off No. 16 Iowa State Tuesday night by a double-digit margin.

“Oh absolutely, no ques-tion,” Drew said about his team’s tournament eligibility.

“You can’t hold losses against top-25 teams in the top conference in the coun-try against you. We have seven top-50 wins now, and

no one has ever been let out with seven top-50 wins. You’ve got to be thankful for the league strength and play-ing in a great league.”

Baylor has just one reg-ular season game remain-ing on its schedule, which is slated against Kansas State in Manhattan, Kan., Satur-day afternoon.

Baylor has been the most efficient long-range shooting team in the Big 12 this sea-son, making nearly 39 per-cent of its 3-point attempts as a team this season.

Four Baylor players have averaged double-figures in scoring this year: Cory Jeffer-son (13.3 points per game), Brady Heslip (11.6 ppg), Kenny Chery (11.1 ppg) and Isaiah Austin (10.7 ppg).

It’s not just the produc-tion that’s allowed Baylor to right the ship following that lengthy losing skid in January and early February – Drew said ultimately his players’

selflessness and their ability to put the team first is what got the Bears to the position they are in today.

“Our staff has always said we really like this team be-cause they like each other and care about each other,” Drew said. “For instance, Senior Night, sometimes we start seniors and sometimes we don’t. Before the (Iowa State) game I got a text from Kenny Chery saying, ‘Coach I really want Gary (Franklin) to take my place. I really want his parents to hear his name, he’s done so much for our team and I really want that for him.’

“You don’t get that nowa-days from Division I athletes normally. A lot of times peo-ple have their own agendas, and I just think that shows what kind of people we’re blessed to coach and work with.”

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WYTHE WOODS/THE DAILY ATHENAEUMKenny Chery drives around Juwan Staten.

THE DAILY ATHENAEUMFriday March 7, 2014 BIG 12 TOURNAMENT | 7

Kansas State struggling on offenseBy GreG MadiaMultiMedia editor

@GreGMadia

The last time Kansas State scored more than 80 points in a game was Feb. 10 in an 85-82 overtime victory over in-state rival Kansas. Since then, the Wildcats have struggled offensively.

The Wildcats are No. 9 in the Big 12 in scoring, only ahead of TCU. The Wild-cats are also No. 9 in field goal percentage and last in the league in free throw percentage.

Against Oklahoma State Monday night, the Cow-boys held Kansas State to less than 35 percent from the field and less than 21-percent from beyond the arc. K-State scored just 61 points in the loss.

Marcus Foster leads Kansas State in scoring, averaging 14.9 points per

game. “It gets stagnant some-

times. Oklahoma State kept up with our motion offense, and they were re-ally strong with guarding us,” said guard Will Spra-dling. “Marcus (Foster) and I were moving well with our offense. But when I went out, the only one who can really keep mov-ing is Marcus, and he was getting worn out by him-self. It makes it hard.”

The Wildcats only trailed Oklahoma State by eight at the half, but because Kan-sas State couldn’t hit shots, they couldn’t keep up with the Cowboys.

Kansas State’s struggles have emulated that pattern throughout the season.

In losses to Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Iowa State, Bruce Weber’s team al-lowed the poor offensive performance to affect the

other side of the floor. “Our offense can’t dic-

tate our defense. We’ve said that a million times. It just happened today,” said forward Thomas Gipson. “We have to stay focused on defense aside, and the offense will come.”

Entering the Big 12 Tournament, Kansas State will have to shoot the ball better in order to not let it affect the team’s good de-fense. The Wildcats are No. 2 in the league in field-goal percentage defense and first in the league in 3-point percentage defense.

If K-State can get some scoring, they will have a shot to advance in the Big 12 tournament.

Kansas State will have a bye and play for the first time in the Big 12 Tourna-ment Thursday.

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Barnes, Longhorns to rely on big menBy GreG MadiaMultiMedia editor

@GreGMadia

Throughout this basket-ball season, Texas has used its strength in the post to win games. In conference, the Longhorns finished above .500 after finishing last year four games below the mark.

Currently Texas is the top rebounding and shot-blocking team in the Big 12 Conference.

Cameron Ridley, six-foot-ten, 285-lb center provides Texas with a dominant, over-bearing presence down low. Ridley averages more than 11 points and eight rebounds per game. In total he has reg-istered eight double-doubles this season. He may have even had his best game March 1 against Oklahoma when he scored 19 points while grab-bing 14 rebounds.

Jonathan Holmes, Connor Lammert and Prince Ibeh

give Texas more options in the paint.

“Connor (Lammert) should go down there a little more because he can score down there,” said Texas coach Rick Barnes. “Jon (Holmes) can go down there, and Cam (Ridley) and Prince (Ibeh) are as strong and as big as any-one. We do like playing with a big lineup.”

Texas has struggled when those big men get in foul trou-ble. Barnes then has to turn to a smaller lineup.

Javan Felix has been good at times, but as a team, the Longhorns have the second-worst assist to turnover ratio inside the league.

“It’s been our guard play for the most part. I think we all know how important guard play is,” Barnes said. “You look at our post players, (and) they’ve done a good job, but we have to get more consis-tent guard play.”

Baylor and Kansas are

the only two teams that can match the strength of Texas. Baylor has longer players in Isaiah Austin and Cory Jeffer-son, while Kansas boasts the size of Andrew Wiggins, Tarik Black and Joel Embiid.

“It’s been a great group, they’ve worked hard, we’ve got ourselves in good posi-tion,” Barnes said. “We can go up to Kansas City, and by knowing what’s happened in league play this year, any-thing can happen. We should feel good that we’re a part of it. We’ve been right in the mix with everybody, and like ev-erybody, we want to win it all.”

The Longhorns are 1-1 on a neutral floor this season – playing both games at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., the site of this week’s Big 12 Tournament.

Texas will have a first-round bye and play their first tournament game Thursday.

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TCU limping through Big 12 seasonBy Kevin HooKer

SportS Writer @dailyathenaeuM

Despite a 9-3 start to the season, the TCU Horned Frogs have dropped all 16 of their conference games with their matchups with Texas and Oklahoma still to be played. The Horned Frogs have already clinched the 10th and final seed in next week’s conference tournament.

TCU has battled injuries for most of the season, with only three players on roster playing in all 28 games this season. Junior forward Am-ric Fields, the team’s second leading scorer, has missed three straight games with in-jury and most likely won’t return in time for the league tournament.

“He’s probably done for the year,” TCU coach Trent Johnson said in his weekly teleconference. “I think we’re going to move for-

ward without him. I think (playing him) puts him in too much jeopardy, in terms of the physical nature of the game. He was basically play-ing off of one leg last week, so it’s going to take a lot of commitment from him to get back on the floor.”

TCU must instead rely on junior guard Kyan An-derson, who leads the team with 16.6 points and 4.5 re-bounds per game. Ander-son was held to 10 points on 3-11 shooting last weekend against West Virginia.

“These guys are resilient,” Johnson said. “It’s been one thing after another (this season), but I dwell on one thing and one thing only – who’s out there (on the court) and who’s capable of playing. Several teams have it worse off than we do. We try and stay positive.”

Now in his second sea-son with the Horned Frogs, Johnson made it to the sec-ond round of the NCAA

Tournament back in 2008 with Louisiana State Univer-sity. TCU’s last NCAA Tour-nament appearance came in 1998.

Fortunately, a brighter fu-ture may be in store for TCU, as the team only has two se-niors and five freshman on the roster.

“It’s unfortunate that our two seniors have had to go through this (long season),” Johnson said.

“They’ve been very good in terms of building a base (for our team) and con-ducting themselves. There’s something to be said about doing things the right way, and these guys have been a part of that.”

The Horned Frogs will face the league’s 7th seed Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. Sev-eral teams, including West Virginia, could face the Horned Frogs in the first round.

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Red Raiders up and down under SmithBy Kevin HooKer

SportS Writer @dailyathenaeuM

The Texas Tech Red Raiders weren’t able to get much of anything going in their first stint under new head coach Tubby Smith.

Smith, who has a 68 per-cent winning percentage in his 35 years of coach-ing, made the NCAA Tour-nament three times in his six years at Minnesota. He hasn’t found the same success yet in Lubbock.

The Mountaineers de-feated the Red Raiders in both meetings this season.

The Red Raiders had a tough month of February, which included a stretch of Iowa State, Kansas and Oklahoma State in the same week.

Offensively, the Red Raiders are led by senior forward Jaye Crockett, who averages 13.6 points per contest to go along with 6.3 rebounds.

Despite their second-to-last seed in the Big 12, the Red Raiders have proven to play well against good competition. TTU lost to No. 11 Iowa State and No. 8 Kansas 70-64 and 64-63, respectively.

“We want to play fast and up-tempo, but we re-alize our talent level isn’t the same (as teams like) Kansas,” Smith said. “We want (our opponents) to work at both ends of the court, and we’ve done that against (the better teams in the Big 12).”

“You have to make cer-tain plays, and we haven’t,” Smith said. “That’s why we’re sitting here with five straight losses, because we haven’t found a way to make those winning plays. Teams in the top 25 know how to make those plays, and we just haven’t learned those yet.”

The Red Raiders haven’t earned an NCAA Tourna-ment bid since 2007 and

last won the Big 12 regular season title in 1996.

Assuming TTU remains the 9th seed, they will play the 8th seed at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

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Cory Dobson/The Daily aThenaeumJaye Crockett goes up for a rebound against WVU.

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