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Kirk Hinrich is averaging 13.9 points and 5.7 assists. Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
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Kansas
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Oklahoma
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Missouri
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Texas
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Oklahoma State
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Texas Tech
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Baylor
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Colorado
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Kansas State
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Nebraska
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Iowa State
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Texas A&M
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Victories Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton needs to reach 700.
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"Homan was ejected because he left the bench, but I'm just glad I had him as my bodyguard. I thought he came off the bench like someone was stealing his cow. He reacted pretty quickly."
-- Iowa State coach Larry Eustachy on the ejection of freshman Jared Homan during the Cyclones' victory over Colorado, which snapped their eight-game losing streak.
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By Adam Thompson, Special to CNNSI.com
Kirk Hinrich was surprised to arrive at Texas A&M's Reed Arena on Jan. 26 to find posters comparing him to Harry Potter.
"Actually, that was the first time I had seen Harry Potter," the Kansas guard said. " I finally realized, I think it's probably because of my hair."
He does have a mop of dark hair that would make him look right at home at Hogwarts. With his elfin cheekbones, you could also make a case for casting him in Lord of the Rings.
The way Hinrich is playing lately, averaging 21.4 points over his last five games, the junior may be ready for his NBA close-up. Missouri coach Quin Snyder has already theorized that if another Jayhawk junior, Drew Gooden, isn't the Big 12's most valuable player, then Hinrich probably is.
But rival coaches often talk up elite underclassmen, sometimes sincerely, sometimes in the hope that they'll leave college early and get out of their hair and sometimes for both reasons. However, NBA scouts with nothing to gain are also whispering in Lawrence that Hinrich could be the second guard picked in this year's draft.
"It's just kind of like an eye-opener, really," he said. "It's just a think like that, you don't know who to believe. Obviously, it's hard not to think about it. You just block it out and try to keep playing."
Hinrich is often overlooked because of Gooden and Nick Collison, but the coach's kid from Sioux City, Iowa, has been integral to KU's perfect record through 11 conference games. After putting him at the point last year, coach Roy Williams has moved him off the ball for the 18 minutes each night when freshman Aaron Miles is on the floor. It frees up Hinrich to run more and leaves him open for his nasty jumper -- he's shooting 56.4 percent from 3-point range. But his offense is only part of his game"
" Jacque [Vaughn] and Jerod [Haase] were the two best defensive guards I ever had," Williams said. " Steve Woodberry was the best strictly with the principles, he didn't have the speed or quickness that Jacque and Jerod had. Kirk sort of combines all of that because he does have great speed and quickness and does understand the principles. One thing that puts him in a different category from the other guys is that he had to guard all three defensive positions on the perimeter. Jacque basically took the point guard, Jerod basically took the guy that ran around screens.
"Kirk's added a new dimension because he's had to play all of those spots. He may be as well-rounded defensively as any guy I've coached on the perimeter."
With the season finale at Missouri looking like the only major roadblock to a perfect league season, Hinrich has plenty to worry about now. But if he can lead his team through the final section of the season and help Williams finally break his NCAA tournament hex, Hinrich might catch the next broomstick to the pros.
"I don't know if I'll be ready," he said, though he added, "I kind of thought in the beginning of the year it would be nice to have to make that choice."
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If anyone on Nebraska ought to know how to win, it should be junior forward Wilson Thomas. Following in the footsteps of Matt Davison two years ago, Thomas has made the jump from the Cornhuskers' always-elite football team to a basketball team still trying to find itself.
Thomas has posted career highs in points in three consecutive games, scoring seven against Colorado, eight against Kansas State and 11 in a loss to Missouri on Feb. 13. That last game represented his first start, necessitated by an ankle injury to John Turek, and Thomas also rewarded coach Barry Collier with a career-high and team season-high 11 rebounds.
Talking like someone who's been in a big game or two, Thomas preached calm after the Missouri game, saying, "It's not that it's frustrating, that's just the trials of having a young team. It's the difference between a team in high school and a team in the pros. When you are in the pros, you are expected to play every night. In high school, you have a team go [low] one night and play great the next night. We are in between that, we are a really young team. We just have to learn to take that next step and play every night."
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HOT: Kansas State's defense
'Cats hold A&M to 39 points to tie the league defensive record.
NOT: Texas A&M's defense.
Outscored by an average 14 points in 11 league games.
HOT: Kansas State guard Larry Reid
Consistent senior saw stretch of double figures in nine straight games.
NOT: Texas A&M guard Bernard King
Big scorer averaging 11.7 points over last three games.
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It probably wasn't hard for Rick Barnes and Dave Bliss to withhold any Valentine's Day cards to the Big 12 offices in Dallas this week. As the regular season enters its final turn, the Texas and Baylor coaches are stuck with the toughest schedules in the conference.
The Longhorns still face four probable NCAA tournament teams -- Missouri, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Texas Tech -- before closing the season at Iowa State, which is down this year but always trouble at Hilton Coliseum. Meanwhile, the Bears must charge towards the postseason against Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, and like Texas, their one "lighter" game is on the road, against Nebraska.
The law of averages says that someone had to get stuck with the chump schedule. That's probably little consolation to those two Texas teams right now.
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 Oklahoma State forward Ivan McFarlin
Career-high 22, including 8 in OT, to stop rival Oklahoma.
Baylor guard Wendell Greenleaf
Seven steals, 19 points in Missouri upset.
Texas guard T.J. Ford
Shows he's multi-dimensional with 22 points, 12 dimes vs. CU.
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Texas and Missouri have both fallen out of favor with AP voters, and both get a chance to re-state their cases against each other Feb. 17, when the Longhorns travel to Columbia. Last year, UT rolled over the Tigers 76-61.
On the road, Baylor can be had by anyone. Just ask Rice. But at home, the Bears are an entirely different beast. They just beat Missouri last weekend, and they host Oklahoma on Feb. 19.
Any doubts NCAA tournament selectors have about Texas Tech could be erased if the Red Raiders put down Missouri at home Feb. 20. Then again, that could create more doubt for a Mizzou team that has been maddeningly inconsistent.
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Kareem Rush of Missouri and Drew Gooden and Nick Collison of Kansas are among 20 finalists for the Naismith Award, given to college basketball's best player. ... Baylor, Missouri and Nebraska all are hitting more than nine 3-pointers per game. Only Missouri has finished a season with an average of at least that many treys. ... Aside from Kansas, Oklahoma is the only team in the Big 12 to have won even four conference games in a row.
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