14. Oklahoma State

Eddie and Patsy Sutton celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in June, which meant two things: The Suttons got to spend a night at the White House (in the Lincoln Bedroom, no less), and Eddie got to play golf with the President, an old buddy from the days when Sutton coached at Arkansas in the late '70s and early '80s. As they rolled down the fairway at the Army-Navy Country Club, the Prez got down to business. "So how does your team look?" he asked. Replied Sutton, "We'd be the best 6'6"-and-under team in the country."

The graduation of 6'11" pivotman Brett Robisch has made the Cowboys lineup look even smaller, but all the other starters from last year's team return, which scared the devil out of Duke before losing by six in the second round of the NCAAs . Oklahoma State 's unknown soldier is Adrian Peterson , a 6'4" senior guard who, almost entirely without national recognition, has become the best player in the Big 12 .

Sutton switched to a three-guard offense last year, and Peterson had more rebounds (193) than in his previous two seasons combined (186), although he gave his coach fits by sleepwalking through the first halves of games. "At halftime Coach would always come in and say, 'I don't know what's wrong with you, but we need you to play right now', " says Peterson . "Then the second half would come, and I'd do really well. I can't figure it out."

He does figure to get plenty of help this year. Sutton considers forward Desmond Mason the best athlete he has ever coached—better even than Sidney Moncrief—while the timely shooting of Joe Adkins last year justified Sutton's change to the three-guard attack. Ace distributor Doug Gottlieb handed out a school-record 6.9 assists per game, but his shooting was so bad (41.4% FG, 48.6% FT) that he worked with three coaches, including Marquette 's Mike Deane, over the summer to improve his touch.

Unfortunately for Sutton, though, the Big 12 isn't a 6'6"-and-under league. His starting center will be Alex Webber, a 6'10" junior whose play has never quite recovered after he underwent back surgery in February '97. If Webber falters, 6'10" freshman Fredrik Jonzen from Uppsala, Sweden , will get a shot. Neither will dominate, but will it make any difference? "You win championships with guard play, defense and rebounding," Gottlieb says, citing Arizona and Kentucky as examples. "Look at Kansas . They've depended on big men, but they get beat in the tournament because their guards haven't been as good as they used to be."

That remark will probably end up on a bulletin board one state to the north, home of the four-time defending conference champion Jayhawks, whom Oklahoma State will visit on Feb. 22. No matter. Gottlieb refuses to wear last year's Big 12 South Division championship ring for a reason. "That's a second-place ring," he says. "If there's any year Kansas is going to be taken, this is the year."

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