NCAA Basketball kansas state Wildcats

It seems like every year the usual suspects are lined up as contenders for the best basketball conference in the country.

Big East. ACC. Pac-10. Big Ten.

But the Big 12 never seems to get much love, despite some impressive numbers that suggest the newest of the major conferences deserve to be part of the conversation. No conference has advanced more teams to Elite Eight (13) and Final Four (six) since 2002. The Kansas Jayhawks even cut down the nets in 2008.

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The Kansas Jayhawks are the No.1 choice almost every preseason basketball publication, now they are also the unanimous pick to win the Big 12 championship by the league coaches, according to the poll released Wednesday.

The Jayhawks, who return all five starters and pretty much all of their scoring from a season ago, received all 11 possible first-place votes by the Big 12 coaches (head coaches can not vote for their own team). In addition to the retuning starters, which include All-Big 12 First Team selections Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich, Kansas also brings aboard one of the top recruiting classes in the nation.Collins and Aldrich have also been selected the preseason co-Players of the Year.

Kansas and Texas should be the class of the Big 12 next basketball season and ESPN is certainly banking on as much.

The Big 12 and ESPN released its Big Monday package for the 2010 campaign and both the Jayhawks and Longhorns will appear four times each in the eight-game package, which includes an anticipated February 8th showdown between the two power teams. Kansas will likely enter the season as the nation's No.1 ranked team while Texas is bringing in an influx of young talent that should make the Longhorns a Top 10 team.

The debate about which conference is the best basketball league usually heats up in December.

But the Big 12 coaches set fire to the debate early by staking claim as the best basketball conference Tuesday, some five months before the 2009-10 season begins. So the Big East, ACC, Pac-10 and SEC will have to just lineup for second best.

"I do think it's going to be the best with what we have retuning and the things that we've done in the last few years," Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon said during the Big 12 summer teleconference call Tuesday. "I've talked to some so-called experts out there and they think we are going to be the best league, too.

When you talk about being able to weather a storm in the state of Kansas, what Bill Self's Jayhawks did on Saturday ranks right up there with Dorothy dodging that tornado.

No. 16 Kansas endured an absolutely abysmal start on the road against a Kansas State squad needing an NCAA tournament resume-booting win. The Wildcats spurted out to a 30-14 lead just 12 minutes into the game -- a run almost as baffling as the fact that Kansas melted that 16-point cushion down to 43-42 at the break. KU then took the lead a little more than five minutes into the second half, and poured it on for an 85-74 victory.

Kansas State fans 1, Cole Aldrich 0.

A year after Wildcat fans obtained the number of Brandon Rush and flooded message boards with his digits, they've done it again. Aldrich had his number revealed as well, which didn't sit well with the sophomore.

State fans started ringing and texting Aldrich, who retaliated (if it is him) with the following very, VERY NSFW message.

For Texas A&M, Saturday's game against Kansas State could've been considered a must-win kind of tilt. The Aggies didn't play a challenging non-conference schedule, but did roll through it to a 14-1 start. Conference play, however, has exposed them, and, after a 65-60 loss to Kansas State, consider them officially off the bubble and out of NCAA tournament discussion.

Neither team cracked 40-percent shooting in a tight, defensive game. But Kansas State had much more effective guard play. Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente provided the slashing and drives to the basket, while Fred Brown hit the 3-pointers to keep Texas A&M from collapsing on the Wildcats' interior.

Texas has been one of the better defensive teams in the country. The Longhorns have been very good at frustrating teams in shooting. They hold down the shooting percentages by contesting shots and clogging things inside.

They have also been extremely tough at home, with their last loss coming in December 2007 to Wisconsin. The Longhorns' last home conference loss came nearly two years ago to Kansas State -- until K-State did it to Texas again on Saturday, this time in overtime, 85-81.

Now that the dust has settled and the final withdrawal deadline for the NBA Draft has passed, there are still 13 freshmen who have decided to remain in the 2008 NBA Draft.

1. Michael Beasley, Kansas State
2. Derrick Rose, Memphis
3. O.J. Mayo, USC
4. Eric Gordon, Indiana
5. DeAndre Jordan, Texas A&M
6. Jerryd Bayless, Arizona
7. Kevin Love, UCLA
8. Davon Jefferson, USC
9. Anthony Randolph, LSU
10. Donte Greene, Syracuse
11. J.J. Hickson, NC State
12. Bill Walker, Kansas State
13. Kosta Koufos, Ohio State

Last year, only 8 freshmen declared and stayed in the NBA Draft. All 8 went in the first 21 picks. That won't happen with this group, though, it is likely that at least 10 of the 13 will go in the first round.

With all the name going around about who was staying in the NBA Draft and who was going back to school ... there were a few names that may not be as household that are keeping their names in the draft.

Some may have made a mistake. Just as Josh McRoberts, JamesOn Curry, Von Wafer and Alex Acker made mistakes in the past few seasons ... some could be doing the same now.

Guys like UCLA's Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. Mbah a Moute probably won't be drafted (and if he is, it will be very late in the second round). If he had stayed in school, he could have become the rare guy to go to four Final Fours in his career. Despite losing some big-time talent, the Bruins still have a good shot at getting back.

Or there is USC's Davon Jefferson who probably won't be drafted either. Jefferson left school as a freshman and almost immediately signed with an agent. He made this move without even discussing it with the Trojans' coaching staff. When they have "testing the water" discussions in the future, they might want to have him talk to the class.

How about IUPUI's George Hill? Ya know, good ol' George? No? Yeah, he didn't have a household name or, really, no hype around him to warrant heading into the draft. He may not have the skill, either. He probably will be drafted, but not until the second half of the second round.

Mississippi State's Jamont Gordon really never had a second thought about coming back to school. I mean, he may go late in the second round. Not bad for a guy that no one knows what position he'll play.