Welcome to Larry Eustachy's reality. It isn't pretty.

Eustachy's Iowa State team opens Big 12 play by hosting Kansas, the preseason conference favorite. Five days later the Cyclones play at Texas, a Sweet 16 team from a year ago that has nearly everyone back. A week after that, Oklahoma, a Final Four team a year ago, comes to Ames. And three days after that, Iowa State goes on the road to play a Missouri team that played in the West Regional final last season.

	Don't expect any Big 12 team to duplicate last season's perfect regular-season run by Kirk Hinrich and Kansas.

No, 0-4 isn't out of the question at all.

Welcome to the Big 12, the best conference in the country.

"That stretch in early January will be a big test for this season," Eustachy said. "Whether we win or lose, we have to come out better for it -- a stronger, better executing team and move ahead and finish up our schedule in the conference."

When the Big 8 and Southwest Conference merged, the Big 12 was dubbed a football league. There was Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and a lot of money to be made on the football field. Those schools got that money by creating a football championship game. But the perception was the move diluted the basketball being played in the Big 8.

For the first five years the Big 12 was in existence, that was certainly true. While the ACC and Big Ten were putting multiple teams in the Final Four, the Big 12 was getting shut out.

That changed a year ago. There was Kansas and Oklahoma, which both advanced to the Final Four. But the league's success was deeper than that. Missouri and Texas both survived until the second weekend of the tournament and Texas Tech, with first-year coach Bob Knight, might have been the biggest surprise in the country.

Kansas wing Keith Langford might sum it up the best: "Our league's a bitch."

Yes it is. So much so that it's almost unfathomable that Kansas rolled through the league undefeated a year ago.

The Jayhawks have once again been dubbed the Big 12 favorite. Usually, KU coach Roy Williams doesn't mind that title. This year he's not so sure with the league having five legitimate top 30 teams in the country.

"Texas could be fantastic," Williams said. "They have five starters returning. Oklahoma has four starters back from a Final Four team. I think those two teams, on paper, before the season starts, you have to pick them.

"We did lose probably more than anybody in the league. I think this is going to be the best year the Big 12 has ever had. I thought last year was the best we've ever had and I think this year is far better than that."

While most of the Big 12 talk surrounds the top five schools, this is isn't one of those leagues where there's a huge dropoff in level of play. While Oklahoma State is a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 team in 2002-03, it isn't as if going to Gallagher-Iba Arena is something the top teams cherish.

	“	There's not a bad team in the league. The mark of a great league is the top to bottom balance. ”
		— Rick Barnes, Texas head coach

Most of the Big 12 schools receive good fan support so going on the road isn't easy. At Oklahoma State, the fans wear so much orange that opposing guards struggle to pick out the rim. Iowa State's Hilton Coliseum can be one of the loudest places in the country.

And the bottom dwellers aren't automatic victories. After all, both Baylor and the Cyclones defeated Mizzou last season. Kansas State and Texas A&M both beat Texas and Nebraska defeated the Red Raiders.

"There's not a bad team in the league," said Texas coach Rick Barnes, who previously coached in both the Big East and ACC. "The mark of a great league is the top to bottom balance.

"If you look at our league, it's interesting. Melvin Watkins thinks his team's improved, Larry Eustachy thinks his team's improved. Dave Bliss, Ricardo Patton, Barry Collier, Coach Knight, Kelvin (Sampson), Roy, the all feel they've gotten better."

Those coaches are much of the reason for the Big 12's emergence. When there have been coaching openings -- especially among the former SWC teams -- most of the hires have been good ones. Baylor hired Bliss, who had been successful at New Mexico; Barnes had taken Clemson on an NCAA tournament run; and Bob Knight, love him or hate him, is one of the game's greatest coaches ever.

"The coaches know how to keep games close and give their teams a chance to win at the end," Barnes said. "People have been coaching 15, 17 years, people have been around.

"I can't imagine any league that's been better top-to-bottom. There were times when I was in the Big East when we had nine teams that we talked about getting six or seven in (the NCAA), but it wasn't as deep as this. When I was in the ACC, all four years we had a team in the Final Four, either Duke or North Carolina. But it was more of a two-tier league."

That's something that can't be said about the Big 12.

Sure it might be a league that came together because of football, but the basketball has certainly caught up.

Jeff Shelman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (www.startribune.com) is a regular contributor to ESPN.com