THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON -- Texans rookie Connor Barwin once held former NBA No. 1 draft pick Greg Oden scoreless for five minutes in a college basketball game.

Barwin soon gave up basketball to focus on football, but the competitiveness he showed in that tangle with Oden remains -- and is an attribute the Texans love.

"I don't know anything about that matchup, but I know he's a very competitive kid," coach Gary Kubiak said with a chuckle when told of the game.

Oden finished with 14 points and Ohio State easily won that game, but the tale of the six-foot-four walk-on who held his own against the seven-footer followed Barwin throughout his career at Cincinnati.

Though the defensive end has recounted the story dozens of times in the 2 1/2 years since, he doesn't mind going over it one more time.

"I'll never forget going against Greg Oden," he said after Houston's minicamp on Tuesday. "I just looked at that as a huge challenge and an opportunity to be competitive and I think out here it's the same thing because these guys are bigger than they were in college. It's just a good competitive atmosphere where I want to be able to beat that guy."

Along with adjusting to the size of the players, the second-round pick is receiving a crash course in learning Houston's defence and on improving his technique. His learning curve might be a bit steeper than most rookies after spending just one year on defence in college.

Barwin spent his first three seasons at Cincinnati playing tight end. He made the switch to defensive end before his senior year. He immediately excelled at the position, piling up a Big East-best 12 sacks and finishing with 53 tackles. He broke an NCAA record for most sacks in a player's first season on defence.

Barwin also starred on special teams for the Bearcats, blocking three kicks in 2008, which may help him get on the field even earlier for the Texans.

Kubiak is impressed with his work ethic but knows Barwin has a lot to learn. He believes working with new Texans defensive line coach Bill Kollar will hasten Barwin's development.

"He's got a (heck) of a teacher," Kubiak said of Kollar, who has two decades of coaching experience. "So with Bill, I think that he can make up a lot of ground."

When Barwin made the move to defence in college, a coach gave him what he calls a "sack tape" of different NFL players taking down quarterbacks. It was from that, he says, that he learned a lot about pass rushing.

Kollar has continued that tradition, giving him DVDs of different ends to give him a feel for how things are done. He's studied footage of Minnesota's Jared Allen and Tennessee's Kyle Vanden Bosch extensively.

"I like watching the type of guys that don't slow down, don't necessarily have any certain patented moves but are good at a couple different things," Barwin said.

If he runs out of DVDs, he can probably get a few pointers from fellow ends Mario Williams and Antonio Smith, who had a combined 17.5 sacks last season.

"You want to learn from guys like that because those guys have been successful in this league," Barwin said. "Then you want to be on the same line as those guys because they're only going to make you better."