Jersey numbers identify athletes to the point that schools retire them in order to honor the player. And when refs whistle players for fouls, their jersey number is what they report to the scorer's table.

They are also good for debate. Ask any NBA fan who the best #23 is and you will have a majority in the Jordan camp, but LeBron is now in the conversation.

With that said, I decided to form an All Big 12 Jersey team made up of 2009-10 conference players. Rules were simple; the best player wearing each of the 36 approved numbers would get on the team.

Some were downright impossible to choose, like having to decide between Cole Aldrich of Kansas or Baylor' Tweety Carter to wear the 45 jersey.

Some were difficult, such as #11 which Colorado's Cory Higgins and Oklahoma's Tommy Mason-Griffin both deserved recognition.

Some were no brainers, as in Oklahoma State's James Anderson's #23.

Some were humorous, where I had to decide on the #25 representative between 6 guys, who COMBINED logged a grand total of 46 minutes on the season (Missouri's Jarrett Sutton got the nod after registering 31 of those 46 minutes).

Some were tricky, like having to decide between a player who hasn't seen floor time all season (Jaye Crockett #30 on Texas Tech) or a decently good player, who suffered a season ending injury in the 3^rd games this year (Toney McCray #30 on Nebraska).

Some guys got lucky and were the only conference guys who wore certain numbers (like Kansas' Jordan Juenemann, Texas' Clint Chapman and Colorado's Trey Eckloff).

There were also 5 jersey numbers not worn by current Big 12ers: 42, 43, 51, 52, 54.

All told 11 of the 12 schools were represented. The lone school not to get a guy on the team, Oklahoma, did have two guys finish second in balloting (#13 Willie Warren and #11 Tommy Mason-Griffin), but neither could crack the starting line-up.

So without further ado, after The Jump, I present the All Big 12 Jersey Team.