The babble continues about which Kansas basketball players might go pro after this season. But has anyone noticed that if an all-Big 12 team should be picked right now, some voters wouldn’t even name a Jayhawk for their first five? Maybe KU’s Brandon Rush could nudge in on a six-man unit, but currently the NBA is not salivating about pending thefts from the KU campus.

The top five scorers in the league are Texas’s Kevin Durant, Oklahoma State’s Mario Boggan, Texas Tech’s Jarrius Jackson, OSU’s JamesOn Curry and Colorado’s Richard Roby. Nebraska’s Aleks Maric completes the 18-point-and-up sextet. KU’s Rush, down around 15th or 16th on chart, is the only Jayhawk in the top 20.

Sure, points aren’t everything, and the heralded Boggan was held to eight points and no rebounds in the rout by Kansas. But voters love scorers, and Durant (37-12), Boggan (37-20) and Curry (28-9) certainly boosted their causes with scintillating scoring-rebounding performances in that Tuesday Texas-OSU knock-down-drag-out. Texas A&M’s Acie Law is commanding a lot of attention, too, because the Aggies win a lot. People seem to think Bobby Knight always “deserves” an all-leaguer, in this case Jackson, whose longevity is heavily in his favor.

Rebounding? KU’s Julian Wright is running third with an 8.2-board average while Durant leads with 11.1 and Boggan is fourth at 8.1. Iowa State newcomer Wesley Johnson is second at 9.0 while Rush is down around 15th at 5.7.

Russell Robinson and Mario Chalmers of Kansas show up impressively in the assists and steals categories but they’re not all-league choices. Jayhawk Darrell Arthur leads the blocked-shot pack, and Wright is in the top five. Yet it’s the scoring and rebounding departments that draw the most attention, and Kansas gets so many good things from so many guys it has nobody with the individual glitter and glamor of Durant and Boggan.

Voters might put Rush on their first unit ahead of Colorado’s Roby, who continues to labor valiantly in a lost cause that does little to enhance his status. Rush and Wright of Kansas were chosen as preseason players of the year in the Big 12, but it’s safe to say Durant and Boggan with their Stillwater explosions have moved considerably ahead in the MVP contest. Rush and Wright will have to erupt like Vesuvius just to gain first-team status.

At this stage, Rush, Wright and Arthur do not loom as pro prizes for next year. Little guys like Robinson, Chalmers and Sherron Collins are well-advised to spend all four of their seasons here considering how few leave-early successes we see for 6-foot-2-and-under pros. (Remember T.J. Ford of Texas?)

One Jayhawk who may have as good a chance as any to be drafted high and stay on a pro roster a long time is junior center Sasha Kaun. He’s 6-11, 250, strong, agile and getting better all the time. By the time he’s matured and improved in a four-year stint here, he could get a nifty contract. Further, let’s be practical. Sasha’s white, and a lot of pro teams admit they look for guys of that status to give their clubs more diversity to aid ticket sales. No politically correct rants, please. That’s the way it is, and it offers great potential for Sasha to make big money for quite a while.

KU coach Bill Self has said often that while he loves the balance this team provides, he’d love to have one or two consistent go-to guys emerge to make it all work even better. For starters, how about somebody emerging as bona fide all-Big 12?