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.
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.
A couple weeks ago, Texas A&M wasn't even in the bubble discussion. They were 3-7 in the Big 12 and dead in the water. The second year of the Mark Turgeon era was looking like a bitter mistake for Aggie fans.
Then they reeled off five straight wins -- including three on the road -- to get back in the discussion. Finishing off the Missouri Tigers at the end of the season moves Texas A&M into "lock" status.
Missouri, meanwhile, suddenly has some big questions heading into the postseason.
It's incredible to still be saying this March 4, but before Wednesday night's game against Missouri the Oklahoma Sooners hadn't been faced with a real road test while at full strength all season. They didn't play any potential NCAA Tournament teams on the road in non-conference play, and Blake Griffin was injured in the first half of their game in Austin.
That finally changed when they went into Columbia, and while they didn't embarrass themseleves, the Sooners sure didn't have the look of a national title contender in their 73-64 loss to Mizzou.
NCAA Basketball missouri Tigers 
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.
Kansas and Texas should be the class of the Big 12 next basketball season and ESPN is certainly banking on as much..jpg)
The debate about which conference is the best basketball league usually heats up in December.
A couple weeks ago, Texas A&M wasn't even in the bubble discussion. They were 3-7 in the Big 12 and dead in the water. The second year of the Mark Turgeon era was looking like a bitter mistake for Aggie fans. 
It's incredible to still be saying this March 4, but before Wednesday night's game against Missouri the Oklahoma Sooners hadn't been faced with a real road test while at full strength all season. They didn't play any potential NCAA Tournament teams on the road in non-conference play, and Blake Griffin was injured in the first half of their game in Austin. 
