Jimmer Fredette and Jared Sullinger headline the list of finalists for the Oscar Robertson Trophy, awarded to the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's National Player of the Year.

Other finalists include Jordan Hamilton (Texas), JaJuan Johnson (Purdue), Terrence Jones (Kentucky), Marcus Morris (Kansas), Kyle Singler (Duke), Nolan Smith (Duke), Kemba Walker (Connecticut) and Derrick Williams (Arizona).

Asked to comment on which players earn the most minutes, Kansas coach Bill Self said that most bench players believe they have to make a great play to get additional minutes, though often that's not the best way.

"When they're in the game, the (score) differential either goes up or down," Self said. "That's what determines if they stay in or not."

It sounds like Self is using a basic form of the statistic known as plus/minus to help determine which players stay in the game.

Plus/minus is a statistic that measures how a team performs when a given player is on the floor versus when he is on the bench.

Texas lost 91-89 to Colorado in Boulder on Saturday.

Rick Barnes said the Longhorns’ defensive lapses made for “almost identical game” to their upset loss to Nebraska in Lincoln.

“We didn’t play with a purpose,” Barnes said. “That was the problem.”

Said Dogus Balbay: “We didn’t help each other. We couldn’t stay in front of them.”

Jordan Hamilton shot 7-for-24 and scored 21 points, but was very frustrated with the loss.

“We’re not as good as we thought,” Hamilton said.

The Wildcats recently installed a five-out motion offense and Rodney McGruder’s versatility has helped ease the transition.

McGruder, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, can shoot the three, finish inside, and clean the glass.

“I think he can play one through five,” teammate Jamar Samuels said.

After watching McGruder score 20 points and grab four rebounds against his Sooners last week, that’s essentially what Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel called him.

“McGruder is the key to their team,” he said.

Tristan Thompson is finding success against bigger, stronger opponents.

As the team's only true post-scoring threat, most aggressive rebounder and best shot-blocker, Thompson's ability to hold his own against bigger inside players could determine how far the Longhorns go in the postseason.

Teammates say his experience in the Big 12 has prepared him.

"He's getting tougher," Balbay said. "You can see it in his eyes."

Baylor's Perry Jones and Ohio State's Jared Sullinger join Texas' Tristan Thompson and Kentucky teammates Terrence Jones and Brandon Knight as finalists for the 2011 Wayman Tisdale Award, presented to the national freshmen of the year.

The winner will be announced April 1 in conjunction with the Final Four in Houston.

Missouri is 17-0 at home, 3-1 on neutral courts and 2-5 on the road.

The Tigers shoot 12 percentage points worse on the road, get eight fewer rebounds and force seven fewer turnovers. The differences shrink a little if you remove the extremes, but not entirely.

This is a bizarre trend that goes beyond even the normal home-road splits you’d expect in college basketball.

Texas coach Rick Barnes implemented Utah’s flex offense over the offseason, and perhaps no one has been benefited more than Jordan Hamilton.

Hamilton is averaging team highs in points (18.7) and rebounds (7.6), but more important, he is scoring in more varied ways than ever before.

From ESPN via Synergy Sports Technology, 20.5 percent of his Hamilton’s shots come off of screens or post-up moves, a 15.4 percent bump over the year prior, and he has improved his points per possession on nearly every type of play.

Kansas alum David Booth purchased the original Naismith basketball rules with the expressed intention of displaying them on the KU campus.

“The university and athletics and everybody — endowment, alumni, the Booths — we’re all going to get together and work this out and come up with a great plan,” said Jim Marchiony, an associate athletics director for Kansas Athletics Inc.

The Booths are expected to convene with the University sometime in the next few weeks to start formal discussions about creating an appropriate venue for the documents.

Naismith's rules were purchased for $4.33 million, a sports memorabilia record.

Halfway through the season, Kansas State coach Frank Martin installed a five-out motion offense, which is paying dividends for the Wildcats.

The Wildcats often start the offense by feeding the ball to the high post, and then it begins to look like a version of the triangle offense.

The person who passes it to the elbow then cuts off the ball, giving the post player the option to either hand it off, square up and shoot a jump shot, dribble-drive or pass it back out.

"I felt that was a better-suited offense for us," said Jacob Pullen. "I think it helps us out with our mismatches. It really makes teams pick who they want to guard and spreads out the court so teams can't double me without leaving the open shooter."

Martin said part of the reason for the transition to the new offense was because of his team's youth, which had to learn how to move without the ball in their hands in this motion offense.