No freshman has ever dominated Big 12 Conference basketball like Kevin Durant, the wispy and wonderful yearling from Texas.

Then again, they were saying the same thing last year about Courtney Paris, the mountainous multi-talented marvel at Oklahoma.

Suffice it to say, few first-year college players anywhere have made an impact like the 6-foot-11 Durant and the 6-4 Paris. Yet there is, of course, a difference.

Durant is a male, and Paris is a female, and as much as the federal government can do to legislate gender equality through Title IX mandates, it cannot control the free-market system.

At this stage, Durant can punt the last three years of his college eligibility by signing a professional contract as soon as the Longhorns’ season is over.

Paris cannot.

The NBA, as you know, now forces a high school graduate to wait a year before becoming eligible for its annual draft, a ridiculous knee-jerk rule instigated by thin-skinned three-piece suits worried about the league’s robbing-the-cradle image.

Meanwhile, the WNBA, the women’s professional basketball league that works in cahoots with the NBA, will not draft a college player until after her senior year or until she has exhausted her eligibility.

That’s a double standard, if ever there was one.

Both Durant and Paris should be allowed to turn pro anytime they desire. Neither should have to wait until after their freshman year, after their senior year or after the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter is aligned with Mars.

Obviously, the WNBA is encouraging women to remain in school and earn a degree. That’s noble as well as pragmatic because about 99 percent of all women playing college basketball definitely should secure a diploma. But what about the other one percent?

At the same time, it doesn’t take a CPA to tell you the difference between NBA money and WNBA money is like comparing the gross national product of Great Britain to the gross average annual income of Great Bend.

“The whole dynamics are different,” Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “Women don’t have the financial opportunity. It’s like earning $35,000 or $15 million.”

But enough of this ranting. Sometimes it’s better just to sit back and enjoy, and folks in these parts will have the opportunity to watch the Big 12’s two best basketball players during a span of about 10 days.

Paris will be in Allen Fieldhouse tonight when the Sooners tangle with the KU women. Then a week from Saturday, Durant and Co. will be here for the men’s regular-season finale, a game that could decide the league championship and the top seed in the conference tournament.

Unless he wins the lottery and won’t need the millions the NBA will shower upon him, Durant will be making his first and last appearance in Lawrence.

Not Paris, though. The Sooners will return in 2009 when she’s a senior, and, unless the rules change, she’ll still be in an OU uniform then, too – a prospect that can’t cheer 11 Big 12 coaches.

Or as Henrickson said good-naturedly: “We’d be all for Courtney going to the WNBA early.”