Upheaval at top no surprise to Oklahoma's Capel

ST. LOUIS - Long before North Carolina's recent tumble, Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel believed the No. 1 ranking would be up for grabs. He includes his sixth-ranked Sooners in that mix.

"We always thought it was open," Capel said Monday on the Big 12 coaches teleconference. "No one's going to go undefeated anymore."

Capel, who starred at Duke as a player, was skeptical early in the season when North Carolina was a unanimous top pick and was being touted as perhaps that school's best team in a quarter century. Instead, the Tar Heels have lost their first two league games for the first time since 1996-97.

"I don't think it's necessarily the best Carolina team in the past six years," Capel said, pointing out the Tar Heels' NCAA championship in 2005. "I did think Carolina was playing better than everybody else for a while, but teams get better, teams improve.

"And sometimes when a team loses like North Carolina does, it kind of knocks that maybe air of invincibility off."

Headed into a Monday night game against No. 11 Texas (12-3, 1-0), Oklahoma (15-1, 1-0) had lived up to its billing as the Big 12 preseason favorite. The Sooners were the only conference team to open with a road victory, winning at Kansas State on Saturday.

Sophomore forward Blake Griffin, who capitalized on Kansas State's decision not to double-team him with 29 points and 15 rebounds, on Monday was named Big 12 player of the week for the fourth time this season.

"We like where we are, we like our thing," Capel said. "We're trying to get better every day."

Texas coach Rick Barnes said it's far too early to worry about the rankings.

"I don't get caught up in all that, wondering who's going to run the table," Barnes said. "It's a long time and you'll see some teams come out of nowhere right now that you might think are dead that'll raise up and get new life.

"And sometimes it goes the other way, teams that you think can't be touched will fall back a little bit."

Thus far, pretty much the entire conference has thrived as evidenced by a .780 winning percentage against non-conference opponents that's the best in Big 12 history. The Big 12, ACC and SEC are the only conferences with no losing teams.

Oklahoma State (12-3, 1-0) is one of the early success stories under new coach Travis Ford, and opened conference play with a victory over Texas A&M. The Cowboys, trying to end three straight seasons of settling for the NIT, rode sophomore Marshall Moses' first career double-double.

Ford said Moses was a disappointment early in the season because he allowed limited playing time to affect his attitude "rather than doing something about it." A talk with the coach got Moses on track

"He was kind of taking the other approach, sulking, complaining, and that's not going to work," Ford said. "I think life is much easier for him when he's not worried about everything, and just having fun."

Decision time also has arrived at Kansas (11-4, 0-0), with coach Bill Self weighing whether to have 6-5 junior guard Mario Little keep trying to play through injuries or apply for a medical redshirt hardship. Players can't get one if they play in the second half of the season, which starts Tuesday at home against Kansas State.

Self said he'd make the call by Tuesday morning with Little, one of the best junior college players in the country last season and the preseason Big 12 newcomer of the year. He's played only two games because of a stress fracture in his leg and a broken hand.

"We're rolling the dice, but you'd be rolling the dice no matter what," Self said. "I'm going to wait until after practice (Monday) to see if he can go hard."

Texas A&M is looking for a bounceback effort from guard Josh Carter, held scoreless for the first time in 66 games against Oklahoma State. Carter is the Aggies' leading scorer heading into Wednesday's game against No. 21 Baylor.

"We do a lot to get Josh the ball, but Josh has got to create his own shot," coach Mark Turgeon said. "He's got to get himself going, that's what great players do."

Colorado (8-6, 0-0) is the exception to the conference's strong start. The Buffaloes' struggles have been no surprise to coach Jeff Bzdelik.

"I've said this from Day 1: We're extremely young and very inexperienced, and it's going to be a very challenging year," Bzdelik said. "It's not a doom and gloom statement, it's just a statement of fact."