Kansas tabbed by coaches at Big 12 favorite

<br>DALLAS (AP) _ Kansas, which returns all five starters and four other lettermen from last year's 24-10 team, is the unanimous pick of the Big 12 basketball coaches as the favorite to win the 2000-01

Wednesday, October 18th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DALLAS (AP) _ Kansas, which returns all five starters and four other lettermen from last year's 24-10 team, is the unanimous pick of the Big 12 basketball coaches as the favorite to win the 2000-01 conference title.

While each coach was not allowed to vote his own team, the Jayhawks received all 11 possible first-place votes in the preaseason poll released Wednesday.

Oklahoma was tabbed by the coaches to finish second, followed by Missouri and defending Big 12 champion Iowa State. In order, the rest of the picks, were Texas, Oklahoma State, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Baylor and Kansas State.

Coach Roy Williams is entering his 13th season at Kansas, which finished fifth in the Big 12 with an 11-5 league record. While failing to win the Big 12 tournament after winning the first three, the Jayhawks still made their 11th straight appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Iowa State senior Jamaal Tinsley was selected by the coaches as the preseason player of the year. The 6-foot-3 guard averaged 11 points and 5.1 rebounds a game last season as the Cyclones had a 32-5 record and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.

Joining Tinsley on the coaches preseason Big 12 team were Nebraska senior center Kimani Ffriend (12.0 ppg, 8.8 rpg) and three sophomore forwards, Drew Gooden (10.6 ppg, 7.5 rpg) and Nick Collison (10.5 ppg, 6.9 rpg) of Kansas and Kareem Bush (14.7 ppg, 4.3 rpg) of Missouri