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.
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.
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.
Note to Pat Knight: When you have the pedigree your father did, temper tantrums are endearing -- even lovable -- to some of your team's fans. When you are 2-10 in Big 12 play, however, tantrums are just annoying. They come off as childish gum-flapping.
Bob Knight is famous for his expletive-laced tirades and out-of-control behavior towards referees. And, judging by his son, Pat Knight's, reaction to some bad news on the court, they're not too terribly different.
Texas Tech was struggling to make layups against Stephen F. Austin to other night. So during a timeout, Knight looked in the crowd and welcomed a 12-year-old fan to join his team's huddle.
Knight asked the boy whether he could make layups. The boy said he could.
"I was just tired of having 18- or 21-year-olds miss layups that a 12-year-old could hit, so I brought a 12-year-old in to let them know that he could hit layups," Knight said. "He's 12 and he can hit layups, so why can't you when you're 18 to 21?"
The tactic seemed to work. Tech would start hitting their layups and pulled out a 69-55 win over SFA.
No word on if Kentucky's Billy Gillispie has offered the young man a scholarship.
Most of the hype around Texas Tech these days surround their No. 2 ranked football team and their showdown at No. 4 Oklahoma on Saturday. But today, the Tech hoops team decided to make some noise of their own.
The Red Raiders beat East Central Oklahoma, 167-116 setting a school record for points. They scored 90 points in the second half alone.
Ten players scored in double figures and the 167 points are easily the highest output in Texas Tech history (the old mark was 128). They put up an amazing 113 field goal attempts, hit 13-of-25 three point attempts and forced 29 turnovers.
This was part of the Legends Classic, which is one of those "tournaments" where big-name schools pound on smaller schools and then advance to a neutral site to determine a champion. Even if the small school beats them, they still get to go.
The East Central Oklahoma Tigers are part of Division II's Lone Star Conference.
While giving a speech in April, former Indiana and Texas Tech coach Bob Knight's phone rang. So he answered it and had a profane conversation (with Knight, is there any other kind?) in front of everyone in attendance:
There was a brief kerfuffle early in the presidential campaign when Rudy Giuliani answered his cell phone while giving a speech to the NRA. The Giuliani campaign tried to spin it as evidence that he's a dedicated family man -- the call was from his wife -- but it was painted by many as a sign that Giuliani is arrogant, aloof and much more concerned about his own time than the time of those around him.
I'll leave it to the political pundits to determine whether that's true of Giuliani, but I'd certainly say that describes Knight.
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..jpg)
The debate about which conference is the best basketball league usually heats up in December.
Blake Griffin has missed his team's last two games due to a concussion suffered against Texas, both of which were Oklahoma losses. 
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.
Note to Pat Knight: When you have the pedigree your father did, temper tantrums are endearing -- even lovable -- to some of your team's fans. When you are 2-10 in Big 12 play, however, tantrums are just annoying. They come off as childish gum-flapping. 
We knew that Bobby Knight was good for some interesting motivational tactics during his coaching career. Apparently his son can do the same.
