The Kansas Jayhawks stand atop a new-look Big 12 loaded with tournament-caliber teams.
Conference realignment stripped the Big 12 of its two biggest football brands, Texas and Oklahoma, but it resulted in the nation’s best basketball conference becoming even stronger. With Arizona now in the fold, the league has five teams ranked in the AP’s preseason top 10, including No. 1 Kansas, No. 4 Houston and No. 5 Iowa State. Baylor clocks in next at No. 9, followed immediately by Tommy Lloyd’s Wildcats.
The depth of the Big 12 also extends well beyond that top group. Kansas State and Texas Tech are hoping to rebound with rosters led by impact transfers, while many have tabbed Cincinnati as a potential breakout team under Wes Miller — including the preseason AP voters who put them at No. 20. Even squads like BYU and Arizona State have the talent to punch well above their perceived weight class.
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How will things shake out in the sport’s best conference? And will this new-look league continue to run through Lawrence?
1. Kansas Jayhawks
A year ago, Kansas finished 10-8 in the Big 12 and fifth in the league standings. It was the worst conference campaign of the Bill Self era, and the worst for the program since the turn of the millennium. As things were collapsing for the Jayhawks in February, Self publicly acknowledged the flaws with his team and promised it would never happen again.
Self then approached the offseason like he meant business.
For starters, Kansas landed three of the country’s top perimeter transfers in AJ Storr (16.8 ppg, 32.0 3P%, 48 3PM at Wisconsin), Rylan Griffen (11.2 ppg, 39.2 3P%, 74 3PM at Alabama) and Zeke Mayo (18.8 ppg, 3.5 apg, 39.1 3P%, 92 3PM at South Dakota State). Storr was a second-team All-Big Ten selection last year despite a dip in his 3-point shooting, while Mayo was the Summit League Player of the Year. All three players come from winning programs, and they all have a knack for putting the ball in the basket. So does David Coit (20.8 ppg at Northern Illinois), who will bring instant scoring pop off the bench. Grad transfer Shakeel Moore (7.9 ppg at Mississippi State) also adds experience, toughness and defense.
Add that group to a returning core featuring Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year Hunter Dickinson, a championship-winning point guard in Dajuan Harris Jr. and one of the nation’s top forwards in KJ Adams Jr., and you have a group capable of winning another national title. That doesn’t even mention five-star freshman Flory Bidunga, a 6-9, 220-pound phenom who might be the next great big man in Lawrence.
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