Amid the changes, Kansas remains the favorite

~ The conference has six new coaches and boasts the most touted freshman since Danny Manning.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Any Big 12 school that's not making a dramatic conversion, or saying hello to an NBA-ready freshman, or at least nearing some historic milestone is just not keeping pace with the times.

Like tectonic plates shifting continents around, change is transfiguring this league. From the Gulf of Mexico to the snow-covered caps of the Colorado Rockies, from the banks of the Mississippi to the plains of Oklahoma, almost nothing in the Big 12 will seem the same.

Almost nothing.

Kansas is favored to win the league title again. No surprise there. The Jayhawks are big, quick, talented and deep.

But so many schools are breaking in new head coaches, it's hard to keep everybody straight.

Let's see -- Sampson is out at Oklahoma and Capel is in. Snyder is out at Missouri and Anderson is in. Sutton is out at Oklahoma State and Sutton is in.

The most prolific scorer in U.S. high school history, guard Tweety Carter, has enrolled at Baylor. The Bears, for the first time in three years, are not expected to finish last. Why, the NCAA is even letting them play a nonconference schedule for the first time in two years.

Texas A&M is picked to finish almost first. Yes, the Aggies. The program that's had exactly two winning records in league play the past 20 seasons was the coaches' choice for No. 2 this year behind Bill Self's Jayhawks.

Kansas State has the tallest player it's ever had. Texas has the most heralded recruit the entire Big 12 ever had.

"Players really want to play in the Big 12," said Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie. "As we evolve into our eleventh year ... I think it will continue to get better and better."

He'll get no argument at Kansas State. A sleepy little basketball backwater for the past decade, K-State has sold about 13,000 season tickets and probably canceled that many subscriptions to Sports Illustrated. Wildcat fans are feverish with excitement over Bob Huggins and do not appreciate scathing comments about their controversial new head coach.

After all, how many games did "Hugs" win before they fired him at Cincinnati~

Exactly 567.

How many of his players got their degree~

Who cares~ Didn't he promise to end that hated 23-year Kansas winning streak in the Wildcats' own gym~

Thanks to a change in NBA age restriction rules, the overall freshman class around the country may be the finest ever. And nobody did any better than Texas. The Longhorns lost P.J. Tucker, LaMarcus Aldridge and Daniel Gibson to the NBA, leaving them with no returning starters from the team that won a school-record 30 games.

But in 6-9 Kevin Durant of Suitland, Md., they have arguably the best freshman to sign with any Big 12 member school since Kansas inked Danny Manning 20 years ago. Had he gone into the draft out of high school, Durant probably would have been a lottery pick.

The Longhorns may have the greatest freshman class since the league was formed in 1996. By the time their regular-season finale at Kansas rolls around on March 3, this group of youngsters may be grown up enough to give the Jayhawks all they want.

"We lost a lot," said coach Rick Barnes. "But [the freshmen] came in as a close group. I think each day they are understanding the commitment that it takes to be successful at this level."

Besides six new head coaches, the Big 12 also has one lame duck. Just days before the start of practice, Colorado's Ricardo Patton announced that he will neither seek nor accept a contract extension at the end of the season.

Eddie Sutton, one of the game's most respected elder statesmen, resigned at Oklahoma State just two wins short of 800.

Texas Tech's Bob Knight needs just 11 victories to reach 880 and surpass North Carolina's Dean Smith for No. 1 all-time among NCAA Division I coaches.

By far, the best team would appear to be the Jayhawks, who are 72-24 since Self replaced Roy Williams. With every starter back from last season's co-champions, they might even have what it takes to bring home the Big 12's first NCAA championship.