NCAA Basketball texas Longhorns

Could the NBA and its minimum age requirement really be guilty of hypocrisy?

It certainly appears that way to Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel and some other Big 12 coaches after watching the most recent NBA Finals and seeing which NBA players were pushed as the faces of the league throughout the season.

The straight out of high school players, who are the type of players the NBA no longer wants to be associated with, are now carrying the torch for the world's best pro game.

"If you follow the NBA, if you look at the guys who are promoted as the face of the NBA, you are talking about Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett," Capel said. "Those are four that jumped right out and none of those guys attended college and I don't think it hurt them."

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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.

Blake Griffin has missed his team's last two games due to a concussion suffered against Texas, both of which were Oklahoma losses.

Needless to say, he's the most important part of one of the better teams in the nation.

Fortunately for the Sooners, Griffin has been cleared to play again, and will likely return against the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Saturday.

It's a win some, lose some kind of day for Oklahoma. On the downside, the Sooners suspended forward Juan Pattillo for Saturday's game against Texas Tech, further weakening an already depleted frontcourt.

But on the upside, that might be Oklahoma's temporarily depleted frontcourt.

While the Sooners were announcing news of Pattillo's suspension for violating an unspecified team rule, according to the Oklahoman, player of the year candidate Blake Griffin was doing something he hadn't done in almost a week -- playing basketball.

All the hype prior to Saturday night's primetime showdown between Texas and Oklahoma was focused on superstar Sooners forward Blake Griffin, but in the end it was two guards who stole the show, with Texas' sharpshooter getting the last laugh.

Griffin suffered an apparent concussion after taking an elbow to the nose midway through the first half, and didn't play at all in the second period, finishing with just two points on the night. The Longhorns went on a run right after the break to go up 12, but for a while it looked like freshman Oklahoma guard Willie Warren would be the star of the night, as he hit four threes in a 3:28 span to put OU up five.

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.

Yes, yes, in conference play anything can happen. No. There are still some things that shouldn't occur. Colorado, which could only score nine points in one half against Iowa State this week and has only one win in the Big 12, should not shoot better than 50 percent in regulation and put a tremendous scare into Texas. Even in Boulder. Texas has to feel lucky to come away with an 85-76 overtime win.

Texas shot very well in the game. All season, they it has been an excellent defensive team, but struggled on offense. This time, though, the Longhorns could not play patient defense. They took dumb gambles and they were late on rotations. Colorado picked them apart, and drew the fouls, but in the end, the superior talent prevailed.

Just one week ago, you would've been laughed at for mentioning "Texas" and "bubble" in the same sentence. The Longhorns were 4-1 in the Big 12, 15-4 overall, and looked to be on track to claim a protected seed in the NCAA tournament. After three straight losses -- including Saturday afternoon's 58-55 defeat at the hands of Nebraska -- it's probably time to reassess that notion.

Texas held a seven-point lead at halftime, and was up 12 after a 5-0 run to begin the second half. But Nebraska chipped away at that, and the game was back and forth for the final eight minutes.

Until Kansas State did it over the weekend, Texas had not lost at home in Big 12 action for nearly two years. The Longhorns had not suffered consecutive home losses since 2002. Finally Texas had not lost to the Missouri Tigers at home since 1999. So much for all of that, Missouri knocked off Texas 69-65.

Missouri pressured Texas all game, and forced the Longhorns into 15 turnovers. Meanwhile the Tigers had four players score in double figures. This included Zaire Taylor, a transfer from Delaware, who scored 17 points including a driving layup with 5.5 seconds left. Taylor was fouled as well and converted the free throw to put ice the game.

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.