Out of Town, to a Conference

Photo By Rebecca Fondren

Funny things happen in March. Lions and lambs coexist, if only in passing. Some years, there is Easter. Other years see no egg hunts until April. There are the Ides of March, a once-ominous time when the bizarre was the order of the day. Julius Caesar found out all too well what could happen to the mighty in March. He was not unlike many a basketball team that enters March at the top of its game, only to be vanquished by everyone's favorite sports story: the underdog. The Cinderella team that learns to wear the slipper, dance past midnight, and embrace each and every sports cliché in the book.

In case you've missed it and are just now tuning in, the University of Texas men's basketball squadron has been in the thick of the race for the Big XII Conference regular-season championship. As we go to press, the Horns are battling the Aggies at the Erwin Center, and they'll face the Jayhawks in Lawrence, Kan., this weekend. Whether UT claims the regular-season crown is unknown to us now – we tend to doubt it – but it's a mortal lock that Texas will be experiencing the dizzying and often inexplicable madness of the NCAA tournament.

First things first, though. Before a team gets to the Big Dance, they must attend a little dance. More of a cotillion, if you will: the conference tournament. For Texas and 11 other teams, this means the Big XII Conference tournament taking place at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, March 8-11. If Texas controls its own destiny for the regular-season conference crown, then they and the rest of the conference control their own destiny for something arguably more important: the league tournament championship and an automatic bid to the field of 65.

Yet all I could ask Texas freshman forward Damion James during a recent gathering of the sporting press was, "Is it intimidating to play against a team coached by a man with a pencil-thin mustache?" I was referring, of course, to University of Oklahoma head coach Jeff Capel, who Rick Barnes bested 68-58 last Saturday.

There I was, a lowly freelancer at my first-ever media day, standing mere inches away from a 6-foot-7-inch Division I athlete asking him about mustaches.

It wasn't pretty.

James assured me that he was intimidated by neither Capel's mustache nor Sooner fans who would surely be heckling him.

"No, man," he said, shaking his head, simultaneously baffled and annoyed by my question. "I don't even think about that stuff."

Act Like You've Been Here Before

This is true for both novice sportswriters and certain basketball teams from College Station. A&M, for all of its success this year, still has much to prove, as the Aggies have never been a basketball power and now find themselves in the curious position as a team to beat. How will they fare in the postseason? This is one of the most intriguing questions surrounding this year's Big XII tourney. Also, which Kansas Jayhawks will show up: the KU that could whip any team in the land or the one that lost at home to Oral Roberts? Will Kevin Durant burn through what will probably be his last league action? And who will Bobby Knight breathe fire upon?

This is the Oklahoma capital's first turn at hosting the annual tournament, a big-revenue event that brings in thousands of basketball fans from the Mid- and Southwest. The tournament has always, until this year, been held in either Kansas City or Dallas.

So, who's got the moves? Who's dressed to impress? For starters, those with the inside track on a Top 4 seed: Kansas, A&M, Texas, and Kansas State. The importance of earning a first-round bye in the conference tournament can't be underestimated, as a bye ensures extra rest. No team in the history of the Big XII tournament has won as a fifth seed or lower. The extra day of rest – or lack thereof – shows whenever the tournament boasts a championship game featuring a team that had a bye vs. one that did not.

Texas, with its four starting freshmen, will have that day of rest. They'll also have Durant. Sophomore guard A.J. Abrams has emerged as a defensive stopper. Barnes has given Abrams tough assignments recently, including guarding Texas Tech leading scorer Jarrius Jackson, as well as Oklahoma State's JamesOn Curry. Each suffered very-decreased productivity. Still, Barnes believes point guard D.J. Augustin will be the true key.

"There's no question that he's our leader on the court," said the coach of Augustin, "and there's no question that he's more understanding of what his teammates can do. His basketball IQ has grown as the season has gone on."

Indeed, as Chronicle sports blog the Score noted way back in December, it's no stretch to say that Texas will go as far as Augustin, and not Durant, can drive them.