Early Takeaways from Big 12 Media Days

Over two days in Kansas City, both the men's and women's basketball teams showed that they are ready for the upcoming season.

Starting on Tuesday afternoon and running through Wednesday, the Big 12 Conference hosted their annual Basketball Tipoff event, where all 10 teams in the conference come to celebrate the beginning of the basketball season and share some early thoughts about the upcoming season.

Both the men's and women's teams were present, with Bill Self and Brandon Schneider both bringing three players to represent their squads heading into the season. Both contingents featured veteran players who will be expected to lead their teams.

For the women, Taiyanna Jackson, Zakiyah Franklin and Holly Kersgieter were all in attendance. For the men, Kevin McCullar, Jalen Wilson and Dajuan Harris were present to answer questions.

We'll dive more into each of the appearances individually, but while audio is being transcribed, I wanted to make sure to share some initial thoughts from both days of the event.

Everyone will see Kansas coming

Last season, Brandon Schneider led his team to a fifth-place finish in the Big 12 and a first round victory in the NCAA Tournament, an effort that led to him being named Big 12 Coach of the Year and being offered a contract extension. Coming into the season though, there wasn't much fanfare, and the Jayhawks were somewhat of an afterthought at last year's media event.

This year it couldn't be more different. The Jayhawks are regarded as one of the better teams, picked to finish fifth in the conference this year. Kersgieter was named to the preseason All-Big 12 team, while Franklin and Jackson earned honorable mention, and multiple coaches included the Jayhawks when talking about how deep this conference is. No matter how well the Jayhawks play this season, no one will be able to say it was because they surprised anyone.

This team expects to take the next step.

I don't think this is a surprise to anyone who has ever followed any team anywhere, but this team expects to win. Nearly every significant contributor from last season's squad. They have Jackson manning the post down low, with Ioanna Chatzileonti and Nadira Eltayeb. Kersgieter and Franklin are joined by Chandler Prater and more, and the addition of Wyvette Mayberry via transfer and Bella Swedlund in the high school recruiting class should provide a lot of options.

During the breakout sessions, the players talked about how much trust they have in Coach Schneider and how they expect to build on last year immediately. And it's easy to see the extra confidence that they have this season compared to last. As Schneider put it: "If we are picked fifth in the conference, I hope that means there are 5 contenders for the conference title."

This is Jalen Wilson's team, but he has plenty of help.

Much like Ochai Agbaji last season, Jalen Wilson has become the face of this Kansas men's team. Also like Agbaji, Wilson will have plenty of help, with point guard Dajuan Harris and Texas Tech transfer Kevin McCullar providing extra support and additional options on both offense and defense.

What will be different is the number of young players that are expected to play significant minutes. Wilson acknowledged his role in leading this team and helping to bring the younger players along as they prepare for the toughest conference in the nation.

The Big 12 is ridiculously deep.

It seems like hyperbole when you say that this may be the strongest conference ever from top to bottom, especially when you think about just how good this conference has been recently. But it's hard to imagine that it isn't true.

As we were reminded multiple times during every coach's time at the podium today, this conference has had the last two national champions, a clear overall best team in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, and a title game participant in 2019. And none of those teams have gotten significantly worse.

Add in the fact that all four Texas schools are ranked and every school seems ready to take a big step forward, and it will be an absolute gauntlet in this conference. And everyone knows it.

We'll have plenty more coverage of the basketball media days, especially next week when the football team is on bye.