Beasley, Augustin picked unanimously for AP All-Big 12 team

Michael Beasley, Kansas State's record-smashing super freshman, and playmaking sophomore point guard D.J. Augustin of Texas are unanimous first-team choices on The Associated Press All-Big 12 basketball team for 2007-08.

Also selected to the first team by a panel of 19 media representatives from every Big 12 state are Baylor's Curtis Jerrells, Oklahoma freshman Blake Griffin, and Nebraska center Aleks Maric, the lone senior and only the sixth player in the Big 12 era with 1,500 points and 900 rebounds in his career.

Texas Tech senior Martin Zeno received honorable mention. He was the only Tech player on the lists.

Noticeably absent from the first team was Kansas, which shared the Big 12 regular season championship with Texas. The Jayhawks turned out to be as balanced in balloting as they have been on the court, where they have had seven different high-scorers and seven different leading rebounders.

All but two voters wrote Kansas players onto their first team. Kansas had four starters who received first-team votes: starters Darrell Arthur, Mario Chalmers, Darnell Jackson and Brandon Rush. As a result, the Jayhawks wound up siphoning votes away from one another in a way that left their coach feeling more flattered than snubbed.

"Coaches are always disappointed when their players don't receive the recognition we feel they deserve," said Bill Self. "But I also think it's a compliment when you have four players from the same team who split votes like that."

Only one other school, Kansas State with Beasley and Bill Walker, had as many as two players receive first-team votes.

Arthur, Chalmers and Rush ended up on the second team, joined by Oklahoma State guard Byron Eaton and Texas' A.J. Abrams. Making up the third team were Bill Walker and Jackson, Colorado's Richard Roby, Texas' Damion James and Baylor's Kevin Rogers.

The 6-foot-10 Beasley is having perhaps the greatest year in more than a century of Kansas State basketball and goes into the postseason as a top candidate for national player of the year honors. He's the nation's leading rebounder with more than 12.5 a game and third-leading scorer, putting in 26.5 points a game with an unstoppable array of shots and moves that often makes him look like a grown-up among children.

At last count, Michael Beasley had set 27 Kansas State records and 12 conference records while breaking the NCAA freshman mark with 26 double-doubles.

"He may not be named the national player of the year," said Kansas coach Bill Self, whose Jayhawks lost at Kansas State for the first time in 25 years because of Beasley's dominance. "But there's no question he's the best player in the country."

While leading the Wildcats to a two-game sweep of Colorado, Beasley caught Jeff Bzdelik's attention for something more subtle than points and rebounds.

"What really impressed me was his quickness on the perimeter," said the Colorado coach. "He was able to anticipate, kind of invite the pass and get the steal, and that's a rare talent, an exceptional talent, to invite the pass and get the steal."

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