Kansas picked to win Big XII basketball

(Dallas-AP) -- Reporters who regularly cover the Big 12 have picked Kansas to repeat as the men's basketball champion. <br><br>Oklahoma is the choice to finish second and Oklahoma State is picked sixth.

Wednesday, November 6th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Dallas-AP) -- Reporters who regularly cover the Big 12 have picked Kansas to repeat as the men's basketball champion.

Oklahoma is the choice to finish second and Oklahoma State is picked sixth.

League coaches also picked the Jayhawks in a poll released last week.

Reporters picked Oklahoma guard Hollis Price as pre-season player of the year. Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich of Kansas and T.J. Ford of Texas also received votes.

The pre-season all-conference team featured Price, Collison, Hinrich, Ford, and Texas Tech's Andre Emmett. All were the same as the coaches' picks.

The pre-season pick for top newcomer was Nate Johnson of Nebraska in a narrow vote over Missouri point guard Ricky Clemons, while Texas A-and-M's Antoine Wright was picked the top freshman.

Reporters and coaches agreed on the top seven team selections: Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and Iowa State.

Reporters picked Colorado next, then Baylor _ coaches had them reversed _ while both sides closed the rankings with Nebraska, Kansas State and Texas A-and-M.