BYU Basketball Picked Near the Bottom of Big 12 Preseason Poll
On Friday, the Big 12 released the Big 12 Men’s Basketball Preseason Poll. In basketball, the head coaches in the conference place votes that are aggregated to create the preseason poll. Kansas, who is no stranger to preseason basketball accolades, was picked to finish first in the conference. Fellow newcomer Houston was picked to finish second in the conference and was the only team outside of Kansas that received first-place votes. BYU was picked to finish 13th out of 14 teams ahead of only UCF. Below is the full poll results.
Big 12 Men's Basketball Preseason Poll
- Kansas
- Houston
- Texas
- Baylor
- TCU
- Kansas State
- Iowa State
- Texas Tech
- West Virginia
- Oklahoma State
- Cincinnati
- Oklahoma
- BYU
- UCF
Mark Pope and the BYU basketball program will be taking on a major challenge in the first year of Big 12 play. Last season, 7 of the 10 Big 12 teams made the NCAA tournament. The Big 12 won consecutive national championships in 2021 (Baylor) and 2022 (Kansas). The conference also placed a team in the Final Four from 2018-2022.
The Cougars will combine a pair of veteran transfers in Aly Khalifa and Dawson Baker with returning players like Fousseyni Traore, Dallin Hall, Spencer Johnson, Jaxson Robinson, and Richie Saunders this season. BYU enters the basketball season with low expectations. It will be the job of head coach Mark Pope to help this group come together and exceed those expectations this season.
Next week, BYU basketball will participate in Big 12 media days. Media takes will take place in Kansas City, Missouri on Wednesday, October 18.
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