Twenty wins is a must in competitive Big 12

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Just to be average, a coach in the Big 12 needs to win 20 games a year.

Five Big 12 coaches -- Bob Knight, Eddie Sutton, Roy Williams, Kelvin Sampson and Dave Bliss -- have 300 or more career victories.

Only three have fewer than 200.

In 187 combined seasons, the men who head what could be the best-coached league at any college level stand 3,778-1,940.

That's 20.2 wins a year. And that's impressive even to the coaches themselves as they launch the Big 12's fifth season with five schools in the top 25.

"I don't think anybody is ever going to catch any of the coaches in this league asleep," said Kansas' Williams, who got to 300 wins faster than any coach in history.

"The level of coaching is going to make the level of basketball even better, which is going to make the Big 12 look better. I think this year it will be the best it's ever been from top to bottom."

Adding Bobby Knight

A league already dominated by accomplished coaches took a huge leap forward last spring when Texas Tech rolled the dice and hired the colorful, bombastic and intimidating Knight.

After leading Indiana to 764 wins and three NCAA championships, Knight gives the Big 12 the highest profile in its five-year histo.

There will also be an enormous curiosity factor.

Will he implode? Will he explode? Will he build the Red Raiders into champions and cement his reputation as one of the game's all-time greats?

"I do not think there is any other league in the country that has the quality of coaches that the Big 12," said Texas' Rick Barnes, who has also worked in the Big Ten and ACC. "This is the best group of coaches in the country."

Oklahoma's Sampson feels Texas Tech's decision was "brilliant."

"Most good things he's done have gone unnoticed. I don't know if there's a veteran coach that has been better with young coaches."

Before Knight, the Big 12's winningest coach was Oklahoma State's Sutton, who has 679 victories in 31 seasons and is the only coach to take four different schools to the NCAA tournament.

"It's going to be a fun experience to play against Texas Tech," said Sutton. "It's going to be fun for our fans as well in Stillwater when they come to play us."

Ironically, none of the league's veteran coaches has what almost everyone figures to be the best player and top newcomer

Missouri's Kareem Rush, a 6-foot-6 junior smoothie with a rare blend of outside touch and inside presence, is the conensus choice as preseason player of the year.

What delights third-year coach Quin Snyder, whose Tigers are ranked No. 8 right behind No. 7 Kansas, is that Rush is no longer content with merely scoring.

"He has started to take pride in his defense. It matters to him and hurts him to get beat," said Snyder.

Rush led the conference with 21.1 points per game last season. With the thumb injury that hampered him finally well, he could be on the verge of national stardom.

"I look at my thumb and it is 100 percent healed. I just want things to happen," Rush said. "We still have things to accomplish as a team."

Point guard T.J. Ford is perhaps the most highly sought high school star Texas ever signed. He'll be playing for Barnes on the same court where he won two state high school championships.

Conference favorite

In both media and coaches' polls, Kansas is favored to win the conference race. Williams not only returns what amounts to four starters, he also welcomes one of the nation's top freshmen classes.

"We expect them to come in and do good things for us," Williams said. "We're going to push them a lot early to see who can handle the most."

In a real toughie of a schedule, Kansas' non-conference opponents include UCLA, Arizona, Wake Forest and Tulsa.

"It's probably the most difficult schedule we've ever faced," Williams said.

Nobody would be surprised to see Oklahoma State on top. Sutton returns all five starters, including guard Maurice Baker, who led the Cowboys in five statistical categories last season.

"The one concern for me is if we have the right chemistry," said Sutton. "There is no doubt with the nucleus we have returning and the addition of our newcomers, that we have a much deeper ballclub."

Not much is expected right away of Knight's rebuilding Red Raiders, who have only two returning starters to blend with a raft of newcomers.

"The most realistic expectation for our team is to show up everywhere we play," Knight said. "I'm not sure we can expect anything else right now. I don't know what would be realistic yet for this team."

And what about the level of coaching in his new conference?

"The absolute best in the country," Knight said.