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' basketball team may have an early-season problem, but Kansas' athletic department may have an even bigger mess on its hands.
The Kansas football and men's basketball teams are at odds, resulting in at least two skirmishes Tuesday and another early Wednesday morning. Sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor suffered a thumb injury in one of the altercations and likely will not be available when the Jayhawks begin practicing next month.
The situation is serious enough that it demanded the attention of the school's administration, as well as basketball coach Bill Self and football coach Mark Mangino, on Wednesday.
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.
During the NCAA Tournament, we NBA heads watch (almost) every game, judging the pro prospects of particular players. Inspired by our daily Doing Lines feature, Drooling Lines offers a daily summary of what the box scores tell us.
Blake Griffin -- If I have ever suggested a fellow collegiate player might usurp Griffin as the consensus No. 1 in the 2009 draft, well ... I'm sorry. Like his NBA avatar (Amar'e Stoudemire), Griffin is one of those out-of-sight, out-of-mind dominating players. For whatever reason, we chalk up the devastation they reek to circumstances (their physical prowess, the competition level, the table-setters) and just assume in a wink or a blink they'll be weak. Err ... NOT the case. Just as Amar'e could thrive anywhere, Griffin should be an NBA stud. Against Syracuse, Blake totaled 30 points on 15 FGAs, 14 rebounds, three assists, a steal and just one turnover. He's shooting better than 70% through three tournament games. He is a beast.
No, it was most certainly not pretty. Until the second half of the final minute, Michigan State never looked like it had this won. It had trouble all night finding somebody other than Goran Suton to give them any consistent scoring, and in the first half Kansas beat the Spartans at their own game -- pushing them around on the boards.
But while Kansas proved to be a more worthy defending champion than anybody imagined it'd be, Michigan State has more.
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.
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' basketball team may have an early-season problem, but Kansas' athletic department may have an even bigger mess on its hands..jpg)
The debate about which conference is the best basketball league usually heats up in December.
During the NCAA Tournament, we NBA heads watch (almost) every game, judging the pro prospects of particular players. Inspired by our daily Doing Lines feature, Drooling Lines offers a daily summary of what the box scores tell us.
No, it was most certainly not pretty. Until the second half of the final minute, Michigan State never looked like it had this won. It had trouble all night finding somebody other than Goran Suton to give them any consistent scoring, and in the first half Kansas beat the Spartans at their own game -- pushing them around on the boards.
Kansas State fans 1, Cole Aldrich 0. 
