Kansas St. provides lone surprise in Big 12's first full weekend

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ All of those Big 12 coaches who wondered aloud which of the conference's underdogs would be the first to bite didn't have to wait long to find out. <br><br>It wasn't

Monday, January 13th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ All of those Big 12 coaches who wondered aloud which of the conference's underdogs would be the first to bite didn't have to wait long to find out.

It wasn't just that Kansas State upset No. 23 Texas Tech on Saturday night. It's that the Wildcats shut down the Red Raiders' offense, dominated the boards _ and blew them out by 24 points, 68-44.

``I'm sure people are looking at that score right now and thinking it has to be a misprint,'' Kansas State freshman forward Marques Hayden said.

``Mismatch'' was more like it.

Kansas State held Texas Tech (10-2, 0-1 Big 12) to a season-low 26 percent shooting and outrebounded the Red Raiders 51-26. It was the Wildcats' first win in nine tries against a team coached by Bob Knight.

``We got outhustled. We got outscrapped,'' said Knight, whose protest of a first-half foul call earned him his first technical foul in 1 1/2 seasons at Texas Tech. ``I mean that at every single position.''

The Wildcats (10-4, 1-0), whose eight-game winning streak is their longest since they started the 1997-98 season 9-0, aren't the only Big 12 team still on a roll after the first full day of conference play.

No. 14 Kansas (11-3, 2-0) started slowly but won its 22nd straight regular-season Big 12 game, opening the second half with a 16-0 run for a 92-59 victory over Nebraska.

A win over Wyoming on Wednesday night would be the 400th _ all at Kansas _ in coach Roy Williams' career. But he wasn't looking past the Cornhuskers (8-5, 0-1) on Saturday, when he yanked his starters with less than four minutes gone in the game and kept them out for almost two minutes.

``I didn't like the atmosphere in the locker room before the game,'' Williams said. ``The attitude I saw was, 'Ho-hum, we're going to go out there and (beat) somebody else. We're not deep enough or talented enough to have that attitude.''

Iowa State, the only other team with two Big 12 games under its belt, dropped to 0-2 after Saturday's 70-50 loss to No. 8 Texas (10-2, 1-0).

What makes it even worse for the Cyclones (10-3, 0-2) is that their next two games are also against ranked opponents. Iowa State hosts No. 9 Oklahoma on Saturday and plays two days later at No. 13 Missouri.

Two other teams that meet Monday night at Stillwater, Okla., in the intrastate Bedlam Series are also on winning streaks.

Oklahoma State (12-1, 1-0) has won 10 straight games after a 93-76 victory over Texas A&M (8-4, 0-1) while Oklahoma beat Colorado 69-54 on Saturday for the Sooners' 30th straight home win.

The Sooners (10-2) held Colorado to its lowest point total since a 78-35 loss to Texas in the 2000 Big 12 tournament. The Buffaloes (10-4) shot a season-low 31.1 percent (19-of-61).

``This team cannot be as good offensively as last year's team,'' Sooners coach Kelvin Sampson said. ``It can't. But that doesn't mean we can't win as many games. This team, potentially, has a chance to be the best defensive team we've ever had.''

Like the Sooners and Cowboys, Missouri also has a short weekend before returning to action Monday night against a streaking team. Unlike their conference mates, though, the Tigers (10-1, 1-0) don't get to stay close to home.

Missouri, which beat Baylor (9-3) 77-69 on Saturday, travels east to take on a Syracuse team that has won 10 straight games.

The two teams have met four times before _ most recently in 2000 in the championship game of the Great Alaska Shootout _ with Syracuse holding a 3-1 lead.

All four of those games have been on neutral courts, however.