Happy New Year everyone and welcome to 2012!

It's here! It's finally here! Big 12 competition starts tonight and for Baylor and Texas A&M they'll face each other for the 204th time in the Battle of the Brazos. At the start of the season, this game looked like one that would have major implications for early supremacy in the conference. Though the Aggies have had speedbumps along the way and Baylor has cruised, this rivalry game will definitely be more evenly matched than most games on either schedule.

A closer look at Texas A&M and Baylor is coming up. It feels good to write about a game between two Big 12 teams for once!

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This game took a little time before it became a top 15 matchup. Baylor started the season ranked 12th in the nation and without prospect Perry Jones III for five games. They went through that part undefeated including a win against San Diego State (#25 AP). Jones III returned and this team took off, registering wins at BYU and West Virginia on a neutral court.

Mississippi State (#15 AP/#14 USA Today) got to a bit of a rocky start. After winning the opener, they fell to Akron at home. I was one who thought losses like that would be commonplace this season, but the Bulldogs have won eleven in a row, including their own win against West Virginia as well as Texas A&M and Arizona.

So here they are: two teams littered with NBA talent meet in The Showcase in Dallas. The preview continues on after the jump.

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Last night the Las Vegas Classic gave us two games with two completely different themes: one went back and forth throughout while the other was mostly one-sided and was never really in doubt.

West Virginia was tied with Missouri State at halftime and the end of regulation but still pulled off a 70-68 victory in OT to give Bob Huggins career win No. 700. Baylor led by as many as 15 as they cruised past Saint Mary's in the second half 72-59.

Tonight it's a non-conference game but Baylor-West Virginia will be a fun matchup whenever the Mountaineers officially arrive in the Big 12. The preview is coming up.

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First of all welcome back to the college basketball season. Thanks to final exams for most colleges and universities, some of us fans (well me) looked at this week's uninteresting matchups and decided to do other things with our spare time. We've waited long enough so let's get to some real hoops.

Believe it or not, Brigham Young has had the upper hand in the all-time series with the Bears, leading 5-2. That includes the Cougars winning four of five games in Provo. The talented Baylor Bears (#6 Associated Press/#7 USA Today) will certainly have their hands full with the BYU Cougars at the always raucous Marriott Center. More after the jump.

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Baylor Bears center J'Mison Morgan will redshirt this season. Morgan has suffered from a lingering calf injury, but the redshirt might have more to do with Baylor's depth at the 4 and 5 positions and not wanting to waste Morgan's senior season playing sparingly in junk time.

Ironically Morgan was granted a waiver by the NCAA which didn't make him sit out the normally requisite year after transferring from UCLA. Last season, Morgan's first with Baylor, he averaged 3 ppg and 2.4 rpg while playing 12.5 minutes per game.

With that announcement Baylor coach Scott Drew also prepared BU fans for California Golden Bears transfer Gary Franklin. Franklin transferred in January 2011 from Cal and sat out the second half of last season and the first half of this one. In 13 games for the Bears, the point guard started 11 while averaging 8.2 ppg and 2 apg in 25.7 minutes of court time per night.

Franklin's addition will help fill out the guard rotation, which is improved upon since last season, but still the weakest link in an otherwise talented and deep Bears squad. Franklin becomes eligible for Saturday's BYU game in Provo.

After sitting out the first five games of the year due to an NCAA suspension, Perry Jones III makes his season debut tonight as the Baylor Bears take on the Prairie View A&M Panthers in Waco.

Jones, a Big 12 preseason Player of the Year candidate, was suspended six games for receiving improper benefits prior to coming to Baylor, and sat out the Bears' final game of last season -- an 84-67 blowout loss to Oklahoma in the first round of the Big 12 tournament - before watching the start of this season from the sidelines.

Tonight's game is a rematch of a drubbing Baylor put on Prairie View last year, beating the Panthers 90-45, thanks, in no small part, to Jones' 16 points and 13 rebounds. In that game, Baylor's long defense held the Panthers to 25.4% shooting from the field.

Baylor, which was one of the tallest teams in the country without Jones, grows taller with the addition of the 6-11 Jones and will play against a smaller Prairie View team whose three leading scorers are 6-1, 6-3 and 6-4 guards. No one on Prairie View's roster tops out over 6-9, while Baylor will trot out Jones, 6-11 Quincy Miller, 6-10 Anthony Jones and 6-7 Quincy Acy.

Without predicting an outcome, let's just say that Baylor might win the rebounding edge.

For the second straight year, the Baylor Bears have a game smack dab in the middle of ESPN's 24-Hour Tip-Off Marathon. Unlike the La Salle game last season, San Diego State is a more visible opponent especially for their stellar regular season and run to the Sweet Sixteen in 2010-11.  They also lead the all-time series with Baylor 3-1.

A look at the Aztecs and Bears is coming up after The Jump.

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How will the Baylor Bears fare this season? What will their overall and Big 12 records be? Will they make a postseason tournament?

We'll answer all those questions, plus guess which teams they'll upset and which will upset them after The Jump.

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