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.
Rick Barnes' Texas team came into a Rivalry Week matchup against Texas A&M needing a big win to make sure they didn't find themselves on the oh-so-slippery NCAA Tournament bubble.
Instead, they got straight up punched in the mouth by their disregarded in-state rivals, as the Aggies used a balanced attack -- five different scorers hit double-figures -- to down the Longhorns, 81-66, Monday night.
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.
No matter what the final score actually turned out to be, UCLA won. The Bruins came back and Texas A&M wilted under the pressure. Donald Sloan, the Aggies leading scorer had the ball and was driving to tie the game and send it to overtime. The UCLA defense blocked his attempt and stripped the ball to send it the other way. Well, blocked might not be the correct word as these photos indicate.
These aren't photos FanHouse has permission to post. So, we can only link to them. They do suggest that UCLA continues to lead a charmed life when it comes to late calls -- made or not. Last I checked Josh Shipp getting all wrist, is not the usual way to get a clean block.
Actually, maybe not in this case. Making the free throws -- no lock itself, as Sloan is only a 67% FT shooter and the Aggies were 3-7 at the line that night -- would have only sent the game into overtime. Texas A&M hardly looked like the team it had been for the first 30-35 minutes. Neither did UCLA. The Bruins would have been the team heading into the OT with the momentum and energy.
Still, you never know. I also know I don't want to be anywhere near UCLA fans when the late calls start swinging the other way.
Many people were a bit puzzled that the final dunk at the end of last night's UCLA-Texas A&M game counted. The final score was listed as 53-49 even though the dunk clearly came after the buzzer. If you don't know about it, go to the 1:31 mark of the video above.
"Amidst the activity courtside, there was a misinterpretation of the signal," Hank Nichols, national coordinator of men's basketball officiating, said in a release Sunday. "But the ruling on the court was that the basket should not have counted, making the final score 51-49, not 53-49."
Sure, it doesn't mean anything in the long run -- UCLA won the game. The line as UCLA by 10, so betters aren't affected by the outcome. Still, it is quite disturbing that signals between the officials and the official scorer were misinterpreted like that.
No. 1 seed UCLA managed to survive a tough onslaught from No. 9 Texas A&M tonight in Anaheim, holding on to win 53-49 in by far the toughest challenge a 1 seed has had so far in this year's NCAA Tournament.
Most of the UCLA players turned in lousy performances, but Kevin Love and Darren Collison carried the Bruins on their backs, making two crucial shots apiece down the stretch. Collison and Love combined for 40 points on 14-of-25 shooting; their teammates combined for 13 points on 6-of-20 shooting, including a dunk by Russell Westbrook at the buzzer that looked, to these eyes, like it was actually after the buzzer.
"We made big plays by big-time players down the stretch," UCLA coach Ben Howland said of Love and Collison.
For the first time in this year's NCAA Tournament, a No. 1 seed is in trouble. It's halftime in Anaheim, and UCLA, the 1 seed in the West region, trails 9 seed Texas A&M 29-26.
UCLA has gotten a big game from Darren Collison, who has 14 points and is 4-for-4 from the field, with all four shots coming from beyond the arc. Kevin Love has eight points and five rebounds. But UCLA's other three starters -- Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Josh Shipp and Russell Westbrook -- have combined for zero points on 0-for-11 shooting.
A&M has eight points apiece Bryan Davis and Donald Sloan, and DeAndre Jordan has come off the bench to score six. Jordan, a 7-foot freshman who was one of the top recruits in A&M history, will need to have a big second half against Love, the more celebrated 7-foot freshman, for A&M to pull this one out.
That's how many points the Aggies scored in the the first half at Oklahoma. Texas A&M shot a pathetic 5-27 in the first half, including 0-11 on 3s. As if that wasn't enough, the Aggies committed 11 fouls and DeAndre Johnson had 3 fouls -- he was also their leading scorer with a whopping 4 points.
Oklahoma has hardly been that impressive, but the shear incompetence of A&M makes them look like a top-teir team. At the half they were up 28-10.
It seems impossible for almost any D-1 team, let alone one in a major conference fighting for an NCAA berth, but Texas A&M went from 12:51 in the first half to 16:40 in the second between scores for the Aggies. 16 minutes and 9 seconds between points.
Texas A&M is down 21 points 4 minutes into the second half. They look like they have already packed it in for the season.
Throughout the season we'll look at bubble teams and assess whether they have a better chance of ending up in the NIT or NCAA Tournament.
Team: Texas A&M Aggies
Record: 21-7 (7-6 Big 12) Good Wins: Ohio St. (neutral court), Texas
Bad Losses: At Texas Tech, Oklahoma State Comments: The Aggies have spent most of the season ranked in the top-25. They have fallen out recently on the heels of their second 3-game losing streak in the conference. It hasn't been an easy transition from Billy Gillespie to Mark Turgeon coaching the team.
Their non-con, which looked good in January hardly impresses at the end of February. The wins over Alabama and LSU looked nice but both are 4-9 in a weak SEC. Washington has been only 15-13. The Aggies got beaten by Arizona in their one true non-con road game -- and the Wildcats are a bubble team themselves. Other Views: They are 43d in RPI, 28th on Basketball State, 28th by the Sagarin Ratings.
Verdict: Hard to believe this team is putting itself on the bubble with more than 20 wins, but A&M's struggles in the Big 12 do just that. None of their remaining 3 games are gimmees -- at Oklahoma, at Baylor and Kansas -- meaning they could finish only .500 or worse.
The Aggies are probably in right now but they need to finish above .500 in the Big 12 to avoid sweating it.
NCAA Basketball .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 
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.
No matter 
No. 1 seed UCLA managed to survive a tough onslaught from No. 9 Texas A&M tonight in Anaheim, holding on to win 53-49 in by far the toughest challenge a 1 seed has had so far in this year's NCAA Tournament. 
For the first time in this year's NCAA Tournament, a No. 1 seed is in trouble. It's halftime in Anaheim, and UCLA, the 1 seed in the West region, trails 9 seed Texas A&M 29-26.
10 points. 
