Mayo, Beasley prepare for duel

Their opening-round game features plenty of star power.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Michael Beasley was standing in a narrow hallway outside the Kansas State locker room. Suddenly, O.J. Mayo appeared at the end of the corridor.

“Yo, Michael!” Mayo yelled.

“Juice!” Beasley screamed back.

They shook hands and embraced, these two freshman standouts, both of them stopping by the NCAA tournament on their inevitable journey to the NBA.

Don’t expect things to be so cordial tonight when Mayo’s Southern California Trojans face Beasley’s Kansas State Wildcats in a game oozing with star power, the kind better suited for the Final Four rather than the opening round of the tournament.

They’ve been friends since their early teens — unless they’re on opposite teams. That’s when things get serious. It doesn’t matter if it’s a pickup game in a deserted high school gym or a pressure-packed NCAA game in a sold-out arena.

“I have no friends on the court,” Beasley said.

Mayo confirmed the intensity of their rivalry.

“Hopefully we’re going to finish this game,” he said, “because usually when we play one-on-one games there’s a lot of arguing and fighting. We hardly ever get to finish the games.”

If not for a change in draft rules, the two freshmen surely would have been NBA rookies this season. But they were required to spend at least a year in college, time spent honing their games and quickly establishing themselves as two of the country’s best players — even if it’s for one season only, as everyone expects.

Mayo led the sixth-seeded Trojans (21-11) in scoring at 20.8 points a game, as well as assists, steals and 3-point shooting. Beasley had an even better season at Kansas State, averaging 26.5 points and 12.4 rebounds to contend with North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough for player of the year honors.

Beasley vs. Mayo.

Now that’s a matchup everyone can get excited about, even if you’re on another team.

“Mayo and Beasley, you’ve got to give it to them,” said Darnell Jackson of top-seeded Kansas, which had its own game to play against Portland State. “The guys are great players.”

Considering their superb skills, it was inevitable Beasley and Mayo would hook up on the AAU and high school all-star circuit. They met when they were 13 or 14 and quickly hit it off.

“After games, we got to meet each other,” Beasley said. “We’re the same kind of guys. We like the same kind of things. We pretty much clicked right away.”

Mayo is even better friends with another Kansas State freshman, Bill Walker. They’re both from Huntington, W.Va., and have known each other since preschool.

“We used to sneak up under our cots at nap time,” Walker remembered, breaking into a grin. “We got in trouble together and, after that, we just bonded.”

Some thought they would be a package deal coming out of high school. But, when it came time to choose a college, they couldn’t have taken two more divergent paths: Mayo chose the glitz and glamor of Los Angeles, while Walker settled for Manhattan — Kansas, that is.

Just imagine if they both had chosen the Wildcats, and joined with Beasley to form the Fab Three.

“We talked before we made our decisions,” Walker said. “He told me that USC was best for his career, and I understood that. Kansas State was best for my career.”