Around the Rim- Thur., Oct. 18 2012

Welcome to the first edition of Around the Rim. This will be a daily feature during basketball season but is making its debut due to Big XII Media day. Enjoy.

Important News (in other words Jayhawk news)

Things you can read

An excellent feature by Bill Reiter with Fox Sports comparing and contrasting Bill Self to John Calipari. I think this is a pretty spot on compare and contrast between the two coaches. Something to keep in mind for all KU fans moving forward. I know which coach I would rather have. Must Read of the Day

A quick text rundown of Bill Self’s answer to select questions by the athletic departmentKU Athletics Recap of Bill being Bill

Jesse Newell’s excellent blog from the whole event with lots of KU info and video inserts. KU Sports Blog

Gery Bedore's recap of Big XII Media Day. Ring out the Old

Austin Meek with a good story on KU preparing to chase its 9th straight Big XII title and 56th overall conference title. KU Sports Blog. Listening to the difference between Self and the players here is fantastic. Self takes almost no credit at all while the players recognize exactly who the boss is. We will compare this to some slightly less secure coaches here in a bit.

Another angle on Self’s tenure at KU from Rustin Dodd with the Kansas City Star KC Star. The most interesting facet of this story is getting Self’s view on NBA related jobs. An interesting read for all KU fans.

KU checks in at #7 in the Coach’s preseason poll Top 25

Things you can watch

Kevin Young takes you behind the scenes at Big XII Media Day with his wonderful hair and some questionable music choices Kevin Young Behind the Scenes

A series of videos from the Kansas City Star covering a range of topics. KC Star Video

Things you can listen to

Fescoe talks with Bill Self and the KU Seniors about the upcoming season Fescoe & Self

Jeff Withey Talks to Danny Parkins with 610 Sports Parkins & Withey

Nate Bukaty this morning with Travis Releford Bukaty & Releford

Bill Self talks to the Border Patrol Self & on the Border Patrol

Significantly Less Important News (everyone else)

KSU

Tom Keegan attempts to get to the reasoning behind the infamous funeral that Bruce Weber held for Bill Self. A look inside the mind of Bruce. One could not find a larger contrast between coaches than that which exist between Weber and Self. In almost every media day piece from Self he talks about how they need to make the team tougher and wring maximum effort out of them. Bruce in several interviews basically says that the team plays plenty hard and that he just needs to teach them basketball skills. Nowhere are his comments as glaring as the left-handed layup nonsense from Illinois but it is clear he still views himself as teaching a more refined game than either Bill Self or Frank Martin. KSU's squad is really built to be one that wins on effort and work rate and trying to make them play a skill game seems like a losing battle but Weber seems committed to it. Ken Corbitt of the TCJ on Weber's offensive system

Danny Parkins Talks to Bruce Weber Podcast

Soren Petro Talks to Bruce Weber Podcast

Texas

The degree to which no one in Texas cares about basketball would be surprising if it were not already a well known fact. The solitary article on basketball in the Austin newspaper addresses the PG issues Texas would have if Myck Kabongo were ruled ineligible. Austin American Statesman. We presume there will be more news out of Austin once the sting of that 63-21 bludgeoning from Oklahoma heals up.

More to follow tomorrow as we will bring you the best stories about the rest of the Big XII...