FanHouse JamesAnderson

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.

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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.

Throughout the regular season, three teams separated themselves from the pack in the Big 12. But after not even two full days, two of those teams -- Kansas this afternoon, and now Oklahoma -- have been eliminated from the conference tournament.

It was a crazy environment in Oklahoma City, coupled with some fiery emotions and a bizarre ending. But in the end it was Oklahoma State taking down Blake Griffin and the Sooners, 71-70.

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Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

John Fox and Marty Hurney headed into 2008 with their jobs on the line after an underwhelming 2007 that featured a whole lot of Mittens and not a lot of excitement in Charlotte. They decided to throw caution to the wind and play for "now" by trading their 2009 first-round pick for a chance to pick up both Jeff Otah and Jonathan Stewart in the first round of the draft.

With a healthy Jake Delhomme, Julius Peppers finally deciding to care, a road-grading offensive line and a rejuvenated Smash and Dash running game that featured DeAngelo Williams and Stewart, the Panthers surprised some people by winning the NFC South and looking like a Super Bowl-caliber squad.

While most of the Carolina Panthers injury talk has centered around the quarterback -- and by the way, Jake Delhomme would like you to know he's not giving up on this week -- few have noticed that middle linebacker Dan Morgan is hurt again, and this time, his shoulder and his foot are both almost as banged up as his head. However, his backup, Adam Seward, may not be available because of injury, either.

At this point, you would think that John Fox and defensive coordinator Mike Trgovac would shift Jon Beason to the inside, but it seems he's doing too well at outside linebacker these days.

Thus, it appears James Anderson, the second-year man out of Virginia Tech, will get a shot at middle linebacker this week. And guess what? Until he replaced the injured Morgan last week against the Falcons, he had never played a snap at middle linebacker. Isn't that just grand?

On the bright side, though, Anderson doesn't seem to think it's that big of an adjustment.

"It's different, but it's not completely different," he said. "Because in a 4-3 scheme, all linebackers have to be kind of interchangeable on a given play. So we're just trying to figure out where you fit, as opposed to what position you are on a given play."

The middle linebacker also calls plays in the defense, which is something a rookie like Beason probably can't do just yet. Still, putting a weakside linebacker in the middle is something of a gamble for Carolina, even though it appears they don't have much of a choice. If it pays off, though, it could end up being Anderson's new job. Morgan's shelf life may be even closer to its expiration date than anyone expects.