SportsFebruary 6, 2006
Snyder, Wooldridge remain on hot seats
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Halfway through one of the Big 12's wackiest seasons, it's time for predictions, reflections and midterm grades. Nothing yet is written in stone. In fact, enough time remains for just about everybody to turn things around, except for Baylor's making a late charge for a regular-season title. That will not happen...
DOUG TUCKER ~ The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Halfway through one of the Big 12's wackiest seasons, it's time for predictions, reflections and midterm grades.
Nothing yet is written in stone. In fact, enough time remains for just about everybody to turn things around, except for Baylor's making a late charge for a regular-season title. That will not happen.
But neither will the woebegone Bears go winless. A 72-70 overtime win against Kansas State and its pressure-ridden coach last Wednesday night saw to that.
Coaches on the hot seat
Easy -- Missouri's Quin Snyder and Kansas State's Jim Wooldridge. The Wildcats (12-7, 3-5) followed their loss at Baylor with a disappearing act at home on Saturday against Oklahoma State. Word out of Manhattan is that Wooldridge needs to get the Wildcats into the NCAA tournament to earn another year.
Since beating archrival Kansas, the Tigers (10-10, 3-6) have lost five straight, all by double digits.
It got so bad Saturday in a 73-55 loss at Texas Tech, Snyder benched Thomas Gardner for the entire second half. Gardner, who's been the Big 12's leading scorer, totaled a shocking two points.
Coach of the year
A tough one. No. 7 Texas has shown every sign of being the best team. So why not give it to Rick Barnes? But also deserving of consideration are Kelvin Sampson of Oklahoma, Bill Self of Kansas and Ricardo Patton of Colorado.
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It's just the 14th time in 59 years the Buffaloes (15-4, 5-3) have gotten off to a 5-2 or better conference mark.
Self's rapidly maturing collection of freshmen and sophomores is just one game in back of Texas after erasing a 16-point deficit on Sunday and beating Oklahoma 59-58. Not one point was scored by a junior or senior, which has to reflect some good, patient leadership of so many youthful athletes.
Sampson's Sooners are the only Big 12 team so far to beat Texas.
Player of the year
Even tougher. Lots of possibilities. Seems to change every week. Texas has LaMarcus Aldridge and P.J. Tucker. Tucker averaged 22.5 points and 12 rebounds last week in victories over Missouri and Texas A&M.
Even after the debacle at Texas Tech, Gardner is averaging 20 points a game.
But also certain to get consideration are Joseph Jones of Texas A&M and Richard Roby, Colorado's sensational sophomore.
Freshman of the year
Has to be Kansas' Brandon Rush. He started slowly, but is now leading all Big 12 freshmen in scoring.
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