BIG 12 MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Houston
- BYU
- Texas Tech
- Arizona
- Iowa State
- Kansas
- Baylor
- Cincinnati
- Kansas State
- TCU
- West Virginia
- Oklahoma State
- Utah
- UCF
- Colorado
- Arizona State
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-BIG 12 TEAM:
-AJ Dybantsa – BYU
-Richie Saunders – BYU
-Emanuel Sharp – Houston
-Joseph Tugler – Houston
-Tamin Lipsey – Iowa State
-Darryn Peterson – Kansas (Preseason Freshman of the Year)
-PJ Haggerty – Kansas State
-Christian Anderson – Texas Tech
-JT Toppin – Texas Tech (Preseason Player of the Year)
COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-It is hard to overstate how good Houston’s program has become. They nearly won the national championship a year ago in a game that came down to the very last play in the final seconds. LJ Cryer is gone, but three key starters do return and Houston looks to be as good as ever. Milos Uzan decided to return to school and wait another year before going into the NBA Draft. He and Emanuel Sharp make up one of the best backcourts in the country. Isiah Harwell is also an incredibly talented freshman. They are not quite as experienced in the frontcourt as what we are used to seeing, but they are still incredibly talented and will likely develop quickly. Houston is also always one of the best defensive teams in the country. I expect them to be as good as anyone. They were my pick to win it all in the preseason last year and they almost did. They are not my pick this year, but I think they are a Final Four-caliber team and it would not shock me if they won it all.
-BYU won 26 games last year in Kevin Young’s debut as head coach with the Cougars, and have once again stacked their roster with talent this year. Robert Wright III, Kennard Davis, and Richie Saunders make up a very talented backcourt that is as good as any in the country. All three can hit from the outside and Saunders may be among the best 3-point shooters in the entire nation. There frontcourt does give me a little bit of pause, but when I say that I mean it gives me pause when I compare it to other teams that are protected seed-caliber teams. It is certainly good enough to be formidable against 95% of the teams in D-1 (thanks to 1 of the best freshmen in the nation in AJ Dybantsa). The Cougars are good. I think they will be high in the rankings all season and will likely earn a protected seed come March.
-Grant McCasland had a phenomenal season at Texas Tech a year ago, winning 28 games and advancing to the Elite Eight. This is a program that seems to be lost in the shuffle of blue bloods and never gets the full respect of being as good as it actually is. They have undergone coaching changes, they play in one of the strongest conferences in the country, yet they still perform at a top-15 level year after year. Just one starter is back, but they have reloaded on their talent and will likely be a protected-seed caliber team yet again. Tyeree Bryan comes in from Santa Clara, LeJuan Watts comes in from Washington State, and JT Toppin was a phenomenal post player at New Mexico who from all accounts is a likely future NBA player. This is a loaded roster and I expect them to have another big year.
-Arizona returns three starters from last year’s Sweet Sixteen team and all indications are that they will be that strong again this year. Losing Caleb Love is massive, but they still have a formidable backcourt with Jaden Bradley and incoming freshman Brayden Burries. Koa Peat is another highly-touted freshman who is new to D-1, but showed he could produce in the FIBA U19 World Cup over the summer. They will need some guys who were role players a season ago to step into bigger roles this year, but I think Arizona has the pieces to be a top-25-caliber team and safely make The Dance.
-Iowa State returns three starters from last year’s 27-win team, and once again looks like they will be in the top-25 for most of the season. Tamin Lipsey and Nate Heise make up a solid backcourt, and Heise is a very good outside shooter. Joshua Jefferson transferred in from Saint Mary’s a year ago and put up over 13ppg, and they have a fair amount of experience underneath as well. I think they will easily finish in the top half of the conference and end up in the top half of the NCAA Tournament bracket come March.
-It is not often that you see Kansas projected to finish as low as 6th, but with all five starters gone from a year ago and finishing just 6th in the standings last year, people are once again thinking that Kansas is not quite strong enough to finish at the top of the standings. As you would expect from a program like Kansas, they are loaded with new talent. Melvin Council Jr. comes in after putting up strong numbers at Saint Bonaventure, Tre White comes in from Illinois, and they have some very-highly-touted freshman coming in who will play big roles as well (including Darryn Peterson, who Coach Bill Self called, “the best player we have recruited since we have been here”).
-I am almost always big on Baylor. I think Scott Drew is a Hall of Fame coach and he continues to build successful teams year after year and find ways to win. He does have his work cut out for him this year. All five starters are gone from last year’s NCAA Tournament team and a new crop of talent is coming in. The Bears are adding 8 total transfers, and all have a lot of experience. Dan Skillings Jr. comes in from Cincinnati, Michael Rataj put up points and grabbed a lot of rebounds at Oregon State, Caden Powell came off the bench last year and should be able to step into a bigger role, and JJ White was a solid player at Omaha. So, they do have some pieces to work with.
-Cincinnati had high expectations a year ago and kind of fell flat. They were just 19-16 overall and finished 12th in the conference after beginning the season in the top 25. Just one starter returns from that team and there appears to be a lot of question marks surrounding Coach Wes Miller. Jalen Haynes is a solid returner (update: https://gobearcats.com/news/2025/10/14/jalen-haynes-out-indefinitely), and Moustapha Thiam transfers in after putting up double-figures at UCF a year ago. Day Day Thomas also averaged double-figures and is a solid outside shooter. I like Wes Miller as a coach, but like everyone else I was expecting a lot more out of this team a year ago and am now questioning if they will be able to rebuild this year.
-Jerome Tang has done a fantastic job at Kansas State, but the team did struggle last season finishing just 16-17 overall. The roster has been overhauled in the hopes of getting this team back to the NCAA Tournament. They are bringing in five players who averaged double-figures a year ago including PJ Haggerty, who was an absolute monster at Memphis. I think K State is being a little undervalued. They definitely have the pieces to be much improved this year. I guess the question is can those pieces fit together?
-TCU was just 16-16 a year ago, which was a bit of a digression from what we had been seeing from them. Jamie Dixon has gone into the portal and gotten some guys that put up quality minutes from high level conferences. Brock Harding (Iowa), Jayden Pierre (Providence), and Liutauras Lelevicius (Oregon State) are guys who should be able to step into key roles right away. I think we will see an improved Horned Frogs team this year and that they have a shot at getting back into the Big Dance.
-Ross Hodge takes over at West Virginia and is having to start over from scratch. All five starters are gone, but they did grab some really high level players from Under the Radar programs. Treysen Eaglestaff averaged 19ppg at North Dakota last year, Chris Moore was a solid player at Saint Bonaventure, and Honor Huff is a great outside shooter who put up big numbers at Chattanooga, so they have some pieces. There are reasons to be optimistic.
-Oklahoma State has not been anywhere close to the NCAA Tournament the last two years, and from all accounts will struggle to get there this year. Just one starter returns and head coach Steve Lutz has gone into the portal to try and restock the cupboard. Isaiah Coleman had a great season at Seton Hall last year (although his team did not), and Jaylen Curry put up some quality numbers at UMass (which was a team that had very little else in the way of quality), and Parsa Fallah comes in after a pretty good season at Oregon State, so the Pokes have some pieces to work with.
-Alex Jensen takes over at Utah, and will try to resuscitate a program that has been…well…just flat out bad in recent years. They have had losing records in three of the last five seasons and were 11th in the Big 12 a season ago. Babacar Faye comes in from Western Kentucky and should be able to contribute right away (update: https://utahutes.com/news/2025/9/22/utah-mens-basketball-injury-update). His former Hilltopper teammate Don McHenry also comes in, and will be joined in the backcourt by Terrence Brown from Fairleigh Dickinson. Both put up big time numbers at their respective programs and both make up what should be a decent backcourt this year.
-UCF won 20 games a year ago, but struggled in conference and is now having to reload. Johnny Dawkins has had a good run with this program, but it is hard for them to build and retain talent from year to year. Themus Fulks is a solid grad transfer from Milwaukee and George Beale Jr. is an experienced player from Hampton, and while they are solid players, it is questionable if they can compete against the high level of talent that exists in this league.
-I very much want to like Colorado. I think Tad Boyle is a very good coach, and because of that I tend to overvalue this program. They were not good last year, and they’ve lost most of the key players from that team. Barrington Hargress is a big-time transfer from UC Riverside who averaged over 20ppg last season, but other than him I just do not see anyone who is a proven Big 12-caliber player. It could be a long and frustrating year for the Buffs.
-Bobby Hurley has proven that he can win. He has had some great years. But, last year was not a great year, and the year before that was not great either, and this year is looking like it will be…well…not great. Adante’ Holiman comes in from Georgia Southern, and while he is a solid player, he is going to need some help, but I doubt he is going to get much.
