It was 8 a.m. last Thursday, and even after two cups of coffee I wasn’t quite awake. But I made it to Kansas City’s Sprint Center just in time to catch Kansas coach Bill Self open Big 12 men’s basketball media day with a too-early press conference about what his team could accomplish this season.

“I think we have a chance to be a special group,” Self said of his team.

It may just be the understatement of this basketball season.

When the Associated Press released its preseason men’s basketball poll Thursday, the Big 12 wasn’t even in medal contention for the most teams on the list. Six Big Ten schools earned top 25 rankings, five from the Big East and four from the Atlantic Coast Conference. But Self’s squad blew them all out of the water, single-handedly making this a really tough year to be in the Big 12.

Of 65 voters in the AP poll, 55 picked the Jayhawks as this season’s national champs. That’s almost 85 percent.

My guess is the voters placed their confidence not in Kansas, but in Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins. The frontcourt-backcourt tandem led the team in scoring last season, and both return this year despite plenty of financial incentive to enter the NBA draft. Talking to other Big 12 athletes last week, the general consensus is that Collins seems to have been in the league since most of its coaches were playing junior high basketball at the local rec. He was a key contributor in the Jayhawks’ 2008 national title, averaging 9.3 points per game off the bench as a freshman and sophomore before jumping into the starting lineup.

Aldrich’s ride to the college basketball elite has been a little more traditional. I remember watching him come off the bench his freshman season; it was obvious he had the raw potential but didn’t have the on-court comfort of Mario Chalmers or low-post presence of Sasha Kaun.

Texas Tech still has more to worry about than it’s one meeting with the Jayhawks on Jan. 16. The Big 12 was the only conference with two teams in the top five; Texas is ranked third. Oklahoma, despite its 30-6 finish in 2008-09, fell to No. 17, likely because it lost Blake Griffin to the No. 1 pick in last summer’s NBA draft.

Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Texas A&M and Missouri all received votes.

Tech coach Pat Knight has said since before practice began that this year’s team is more physical and more talented than the Red Raiders of last season. I saw Tech play just three games last season and I can attest to the improvement. But coach after coach spent media days last week talking about how much stronger, faster and smarter his team has become.

Even Kansas, with its 55 first-place votes, knows winning in the Big 12 will be tough this season.

“We’ll have to be very special, because I think the league is the best since I’ve been in it,” Self said, “and I think it’s the best it’s going to be since the inception of the league.”

Unlike the Big Ten, where there is a sharp drop between the top and bottom halves of the conference, the Big 12 is talented from first through 12th. That will make this one of the most difficult – and probably most exciting – years in conference history, whether you’re a Red Raider or a Jayhawk.

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