Conference preview: Big 12

With Oklahoma down and Nebraska out, the Big 12 has abandoned its claim to football supremacy. No problem. This is a basketball league, anyway.

No conference in the country has a better 1-2 punch than the Big 12's Texas and Oklahoma. Throw in Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, and the Big 12 has four potential Sweet 16 teams. Add Kansas, whose freshmen ought not to be playing like freshmen by February, and the Big 12 has five teams capable of getting to the NCAA Tournament and staying awhile.

And then there's Iowa State, which is ranked in many preseason Top 25 polls (though not the poll here at CBS SportsLine).

The Big 12 even has the best of the worst, too.

Baylor got one of the worst penalties in college basketball history when the NCAA took away its 2005-06 non-conference schedule after Dave Bliss' nightmarish tenure. And up to four other Big 12 teams -- definitely Missouri and Kansas State, possibly Colorado and Nebraska -- have coaches fighting for their jobs.

If you're not interested in Big 12 basketball this season, please have someone check your pulse.

Texas

Top three: PG Daniel Gibson, SF P.J. Tucker, C LaMarcus Aldridge.

NCAA or bust: Texas is so good, we can't figure out which players to include in their top three. Gibson, Tucker and Aldridge are future NBA players, but what about PF Brad Buckman? And former McDonald's All-American PF Mike Williams? And senior SG Kenton Paulino, whom Rick Barnes calls the most indispensable player on the roster? OK, we're set on Gibson, Tucker and Aldridge. But the other three would be the top three at several schools in the Big 12. If Aldridge stays healthy and Tucker stays eligible and Gibson figures out how to keep everyone involved while still scoring his 15-20 points per game, this will be Barnes' best team at Texas. And he took Texas to the 2003 Final Four.

Oklahoma

Top three: PF Taj Gray, PG Terrell Everett, C Kevin Bookout.

NCAA or bust: Even without offseason defectors Lawrence McKenzie (to Minnesota) and Drew Lavender (Xavier), the Sooners are loaded. They're so loaded, they've got a future NBA PF (Gray), PG (Terrell) and SG -- though we're not sure which SG. It could be Nate Carter, or it could be Michael Neal. Or it could be both. Carter came to the Sooners from UC-Riverside, while Neal is a juco transfer. Both are gifted offensively, but they do it differently. Carter is a strong, explosive scorer, while Neal is a pure shooter. And neither player will be the Sooners' focus. The offense will run through Gray and Bookout.

Texas Tech

Top three: PG Jarrius Jackson, SG Martin Zeno, PF Darryl Dora.

NCAA or bust: The Red Raiders won 22 games and reached the Sweet 16 last season after losing all-time scoring leader Andre Emmett. And you're wondering how Texas Tech will make do without Ronald Ross? Get serious. Ross was exceptional, but Bob Knight still has Jackson and Zeno, who form one of the Big 12's best backcourt duos, and Dora returns to a frontcourt that will be bolstered by Knight's best recruiting class yet at Texas Tech. And then there's the Knight factor. The guy is simply better than almost everyone else.

Oklahoma State

Top three: SG JamesOn Curry, SF Torre Johnson, PF Mario Boggan.

NCAA or bust: Laugh at anyone who thinks this won't be a Top 25 team by season's end. Laugh hard. In terms of talent and immediate readiness, the Cowboys probably have the best recruiting class in the country. No, we're wrong about that. There's no "probably" about it. Oklahoma State will introduce three juco transfers who could be double-figure scorers right away in the explosive Johnson, the beastly Boggan and savvy PG Jamaal Brown. Plus, freshmen SF Keith Brumbaugh and PG Byron Eaton will contribute right away. Anchoring this group is Curry, who deferred to last season's seniors but who could contend this season for Big 12 player of the year.

Kansas

Top three: SF Brandon Rush, PG Mario Chalmers, SF Julian Wright.

NCAA or bust: The Jayhawks replaced four departed starters with four of the best high school players in the country. Over the long haul, that's advantage: Kansas. Short term? Not so much. Very good seniors are generally better than exceptional freshmen, though Kansas' freshmen are so exceptional that Bill Self might win big anyway. But he might not. Roles must be determined and then fulfilled, and there's a potential chemical reaction with so many talented young players on the wing in Wright, Rush, freshman Micah Downs, sophomore Russell Robinson and Southern California transfer Rodrick Stewart. Then again, too much talent is a problem most coaches would love to have. Meanwhile, under the radar, Kansas' season might just hinge on two of its three sophomore big men -- C.J. Giles, Sasha Kaun and Darnell Jackson -- being able to replace Wayne Simien.

Iowa State

Top three: SG Curtis Stinson, PG Will Blalock, C Shawn Taggart.

NIT or bust: Predicting Iowa State will be an NIT team puts me in the minority, but I gotta be me. The Cyclones will be as good as Taggart. It's as simple as that. Iowa State has great guards in Stinson and Blalock, and a horde of capable wings led by sophomores Rahshon Clark and Tasheed Carr. But can Iowa State score in the post? And can it defend there? The answer lies with Taggart, a skilled but skinny 6-foot-10 freshman who signed in the spring out of Mount Zion (N.C.) Academy. If he's ready to be very good, the Cyclones will follow suit. If he's not, Iowa State will go to Plan B and hope that another of its incoming horde of big men can replace Jared Homan.

Texas A&M

Top three: C Joseph Jones, PG Acie Law, PF Antanas Kavaliauskas.

NIT or bust: The Aggies had more going for them last season than Antoine Wright. Jones is one of the best young centers in the country, and Law is as underrated as any point guard nationally. Kavaliauskas is a 6-10, 250-pound juco transfer from Lithuania who will make a huge impact. Look at it this way: Last season the Aggies played 6-5, 210-pound walk-on Chris Walker at power forward. Now, it's Kavaliauskas. And in January the Aggies will get another boost when tight end Martellus Bennett is expected to join the basketball team. Bennett is a 6-7, 250-pound athletic freak who applied for the NBA Draft out of high school. He's not NBA-ready -- yet, anyway.

Nebraska

Top three: SG Joe McCray, C Aleks Maric, SG Jason Dourisseau.

NIT or bust: A second consecutive strong recruiting class has helped Nebraska overhaul its talent level. Has it happened too late to save fifth-year coach Barry Collier? Lots of people seem to think his job's at stake, and while surely he couldn't survive a dip into the Big 12 basement, he ought to be allowed to build on the NIT bid he'll lock up this season, which would be Nebraska's second in three years. McCray and Maric are two excellent sophomores, and with seniors Dourisseau and Wes Wilkinson complemented by a gifted class of new guards, Nebraska will win more than it loses.

Baylor

Top three: G Aaron Bruce, SF Tim Bush, C Tommy Swanson.

Bust: With a full season, Baylor would probably be an NIT team. But without a non-conference schedule to (A) build up their record and (B) get ready for the Big 12, the Bears won't be going anywhere in March. Which is too bad, because Baylor has postseason talent. Bruce is a potential All-American, while Bush and Swanson are double-figure scorers. To that trio, Scott Drew added a surprisingly good recruiting class led by explosive guards Henry Dugat and Curtis Jerrells, and PFs Kevin Rogers and Jari Vanttaja. Explain to me, again, why this Baylor team is paying so heavily for the sins of Dave Bliss?

Poll Who will win the Big 12 this season?   43%  Texas     19%  Kansas     14%  Oklahoma     11%  Texas Tech     12%  Oklahoma State     Total Votes: 5451

Colorado

Top three: SF Richard Roby, PF Chris Copeland, PG Dominique Coleman.

Bust: Everyone's back from a bad team, but the good news is not everybody who started last season is guaranteed to start this season. That's because of Coleman, a juco transfer who led the country in scoring last season at 27 ppg. He figures to unseat either Marcus Hall or Jayson Obazuaye, giving the Buffaloes a solid three-guard contingent to go along with a decent frontcourt of Roby, Copeland and Andy Osborn. Roby is more than decent, of course. Copeland and Osborn? If they're more than decent as well, and if Coleman masters the transition to Division I, Colorado could be an NIT team and Ricardo Patton will be back for a 12th season.

Missouri

Top three: PG Jason Horton, SG Jimmy McKinney, SG Thomas Gardner.

Bust: Check out the positions of those three players. Guards, all of them. And if we had to name Missouri's next two top players, they would probably be another pair of perimeter players: Marshall Brown and Glen Dandridge. Missouri's backcourt, in another words, is not the problem here. The frontcourt is. Losing sophomore PF Linas Kleiza to the NBA Draft was a terrible blow for a team that now must rely on underachieving senior Kevin Young, underachieving sophomore Kalen Grimes and freshman Leo Lyons. If Quin Snyder truly has to get this team into the 2006 NCAA Tournament to keep his job, Quin's gone.

Kansas State

Top three: SF Cartier Martin, PG Clent Stewart, SG Lance Harris.

Bust: The best two players, PF Jeremiah Massey and SG Fred Peete, from last year's 6-10 Big 12 squad are gone. The Wildcats will get a nice push from a pair of Division I transfers, PG Mario Taybron (Temple) and SF David Hoskins (Central Michigan), but embattled coach Jim Wooldridge is breaking in a new, motion-style offense. Best of luck with that.