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.
It's shaping up to to be one of the best Sweet 16s of all time with top-three seeds alive by the dozen. So who's heading back home in time for the weekend and whose moment will continue to be oh so shining? Find out as we rank the last 16 teams and explain why your favorite team is going to lose. We're 15/16 certain of it.
Even if you phrase it as carefully as a major leaguer testifying before Congress, ask Kansas coach Bill Self who he thinks should be the national coach of the year and you're likely to get about the same answer as if you'd just asked him to explain the economic stimulus plan.
Which is to say a whole lot of stammering and more tap dancing than Broadway's spring season.
If there was one player the Kansas Jayhawks can't afford to lose for any serious time this season, it's Sherron Collins. Title defense aside, because it's a longshot, if Kansas wants to have a decent season Collins, as the lone returnee and only experienced player, will have to play a major role. So it must have made Bill Self's heart skip a beat or two when word broke that Collins faced criminal charges of exposing himself and rubbing himself against a woman.
If Collins were to find himself convicted of a crime, Self would almost certainly have to suspend him and jeopardize the chance of a winning campaign. Self can exhale, though, and get back to planning for the upcoming season. The Douglas County District Attorney decided last Friday that there wasn't enough evidence to file charges against Collins. They can still change their minds if more evidence comes to light but, for the time being, the Jayhawk is in the clear.
Collins still needs to sort out a $75,000 default judgment from a civil case stemming from the same alleged incident in May 2007. He never responded to a communication from the court but his lawyers are arguing that it was sent to the wrong address. Happy though Collins must be, I wonder if his ego stings at all after his flashing case ended because of insufficient evidence?
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.
Even if you phrase it as carefully as a major leaguer testifying before Congress, ask Kansas coach Bill Self who he thinks should be the national coach of the year and you're likely to get about the same answer as if you'd just asked him to explain the economic stimulus plan. 
If there was one player the Kansas Jayhawks can't afford to lose for any serious time this season, it's Sherron Collins. Title defense aside, because it's a longshot, if Kansas wants to have a decent season Collins, as the lone returnee and only experienced player, will have to play a major role. So it must have made Bill Self's heart skip a beat or two when word broke that Collins faced criminal charges of exposing himself and rubbing himself against a woman. 
