It might be the most astounding moment of Drew Gooden's junior season.

After all, the Kansas power forward has done pretty much everything this season. He leads the Big 12 in scoring (20.7 ppg) and rebounding (11.2). He's recorded 17 double-doubles. Kansas is the top-ranked team in the country. The Jayhawks have already clinched a conference title and are trying to be the first team in the hybrid of the Big Eight and the Southwest conferences to finish a league season undefeated.

	Drew Gooden could give some voters second thoughts about player of the year honors.

And yet, his coach Roy Williams says Gooden can be better, that he hasn't reached his potential.

Think Coach Roy might be trying to get his superstar to spend another year in Kansas?

"The basketball player we're going to see five years from now is going to be so much more fundamentally sound, no mistakes," Williams said. "I just think he's going to be a great, great, great, great player. I think he can be a lot better as a college player, and he's pretty doggone good as it is. But I think he can improve a great deal. College player, pro player, it makes no difference because he does have a lot of areas in his game that he can improve on and I think he understands that."

But he's already one of the best players in the country. If not the best.

While Duke guard Jason Williams entered the season as seemingly the only possible player of the year candidate, Gooden is among a small group of players who will make voters realize the Blue Devils guard isn't running uncontested.

In the Big 12, no one has figured out how to slow the 6-foot-10 Gooden. While he's always handled the ball well for a player of his side, Gooden has become a much more versatile and much more complete player as a junior.

He's become more than a guy who can simply score in transition and after grabbing offensive rebounds. Now, he's taking defenders off of the dribble, he's scoring on mid-range jumpers and -- while he's not going make 3-pointers all night -- Gooden's become a player who can't be ignored when he's behind the arc.

He's the most proficient scorer on the nation's highest scoring team.

Oh, and he's doing all of this while facing a whole lot of double teams.

That Gooden is improved this season isn't surprising, but the leap he has made with his game is. As a high school senior, Gooden wasn't a McDonald's All-America selection, nor was he a can't-miss kind of player. As a freshman and a sophomore, Gooden showed flashes of being great, but balanced that out with mental errors and a lack of discipline that drove Williams nuts.

"He did not have a great appreciation of the ball or how important it was," Williams said. "Turning the ball over was no problem for him."

He was even nicknamed Hurricane Andrew that first season, because the Jayhawks had little idea what sort of distruction he'd cause.

"I came from unorganized basketball, so I was trying all sorts of trick passes and wraparounds," Gooden said. "At practice (coach told me), 'They pay me enough to send your ass back on the bus,' basically."

That, however, has changed. Sure Gooden will still run his mouth at times -- he's called the Jayhawks both a Final Four and a championship team, and his words can come off rather boastful -- but he's a lot more conservative on the court.

"Drew has matured so much and understands the game so much better now than he did as a freshman," Williams said. "I think that's the whole key.

"He's just worked awfully hard, but I won't tell him that because I keep telling him he can work even harder. The fact of the matter is that he's worked very hard and he's got a great grasp of how the game should be played, and what's good and bad for you and he's playing to his strengths even more. It's been fun to watch the improvement that he has made."

But how much longer will Williams get to watch Gooden play from up close.

In a time when the lure of the NBA's money is so prevalent, the questions about going to "the league," start rather early. It's almost as if a player who spends four years in college must not be very good.

Not surprisingly, Gooden is considering not returning for his senior season. He's said it's a topic he'll deal with after the season.

"My dream has always been to play in the NBA," Gooden said. "But I know I have to get better. And I think I have gotten better from last year."

Williams certainly would like Gooden to stay, but he understands the lure as well.

"I'll tell him, 'You do what you want to do,'" Williams said. "If you decide to go to the NBA, I'll be your biggest cheerleader. And if you decide to come back to Kansas, I'll probably coach you a little more."

Either way, Gooden will likely get more than a little better.

Games of the Week

Creighton at Southern Illinois Wednesday After losing back-to-back games to SMS and Illinois State, Southern Illinois needs to win this game to regain some momentum. The Bluejays, however, can clinch an outright league title with a victory and avenge an earlier loss to the Salukis with a victory. Missouri at Texas Tech Wednesday The loser of this game -- the only meeting between the two schools this year -- will likely finish outside the top four in the Big 12 and won't receive a first-round bye in the conference tournament. Texas at Oklahoma Saturday While first place in the Big 12 isn't a possibility for the Longhorns, a win in Norman would give Texas a chance to finish second. Indiana at Michigan State Sunday This is a game of significance for both teams. A win would help Indiana in its quest for the Big Ten title. For the Spartans, a victory would help secure an NCAA Tournament berth.

Big Ten's Two Biggest Letters
A year ago, he was the hot shot recruit who was trying to find his way through the Big Ten. Indiana's Jared Jeffries didn't have to be a superstar, the Hoosiers already had one of those in Kirk Haston.

But with Haston in the NBA, the player who's usually referred to as J.J. has answered. And with two weeks remaining in the Big Ten's regular season, there's little question that the 6-10 Jeffries is the league's player of the year.

"I think he's the player of the year in the Big Ten hands down," Indiana coach Mike Davis said.

While Davis is a bit biased, he's right.

Jeffries, the only player in the Big Ten who can play all five positions,

The Bloomington native is fourth in the Big Ten in scoring with 16.3 points per game and second in rebounding with 7.8 boards per game. At the same time, the Hoosiers are winning. Since 2001 became 2002, the Hoosiers are 10-3 and 10-2 with Jeffries in the lineup (he missed last week's loss to Wisconsin with a sprained ankle).

"This year he knows it's his team," Davis said. "It's taken him a while to get to this, but he has a great feel for the game."

Jeffries, who averaged 13.8 points and 6.9 rebounds as a freshman, has also done a better job dealing with the physical play of the Big Ten.

"He's really sealing people of harder," Davis said. "He's finishing around the basket and passing the ball a lot better."

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