The best team in the Big 12 the last few years has pretty clearly been Houston, a once-middling mid-major that Kelvin Sampson has taken to five straight Sweet 16s, a pair of Final Fours and came oh-so-close to leading to a national title last year.

It hasn't been Kansas, which struggled to live up to its billing as the preseason No. 1 the past two seasons.

But count Sampson among those that think the league is better off when the Jayhawks are in the title hunt. He has been a part of the Big 12 longer than just about everyone, when you consider his years spent at Oklahoma, dating back to the days of the old Big Eight. He remembers when Roy Williams had the Jayhawks rolling, and Bill Self kept them that way, with teams that seemed so far ahead of the pack that everyone else seemed to b

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