Hahahahaha! The Big 12 is going to be an absolute murder’s row of games and truly spectacular teams. KenPom released preseason rankings for the year and it’s filled with all sorts of fun things. It should be an absolutely fun and fingernail-biting type of season because 8 teams are within the top 25 and I’m not sure how Kansas State isn’t up there considering what they brought in and what they are returning.
| Rank | Team | Conf | W-L | NetRtg | ORtg | ORtg Rank | DRtg | DRtg Rank | AdjT | AdjT Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Houston | B12 | 0-0 | 29.45 | 114.2 | 5 | 84.7 | 1 | 67.8 | 356 |
| 6 | Kansas | B12 | 0-0 | 24.42 | 114.1 | 6 | 89.7 | 10 | 72.1 | 93 |
| 7 | Iowa St. | B12 | 0-0 | 24.42 | 111 | 17 | 86.6 | 2 | 70.2 | 243 |
| 8 | Arizona | B12 | 0-0 | 23.76 | 112.9 | 11 | 89.2 | 9 | 74.6 | 6 |
| 11 | Baylor | B12 | 0-0 | 23.2 | 114 | 8 | 90.8 | 23 | 69.8 | 285 |
| 15 | Texas Tech | B12 | 0-0 | 22.02 | 110.8 | 19 | 88.8 | 7 | 68.5 | 337 |
| 17 | Cincinnati | B12 | 0-0 | 20.22 | 110.1 | 25 | 89.9 | 13 | 71.1 | 172 |
| 21 | BYU | B12 | 0-0 | 19.21 | 110.9 | 18 | 91.7 | 31 | 71.6 | 125 |
| 49 | Kansas St. | B12 | 0-0 | 14.98 | 104.8 | 94 | 89.8 | 12 | 71.6 | 129 |
| 58 | TCU | B12 | 0-0 | 13.4 | 107.2 | 57 | 93.8 | 64 | 72.1 | 96 |
| 66 | UCF | B12 | 0-0 | 12.22 | 106 | 73 | 93.7 | 62 | 71.2 | 161 |
| 71 | Arizona St. | B12 | 0-0 | 11.39 | 104.8 | 92 | 93.5 | 54 | 72.5 | 66 |
| 80 | Colorado | B12 | 0-0 | 10.23 | 105 | 89 | 94.8 | 78 | 71.1 | 175 |
| 82 | Utah | B12 | 0-0 | 10.02 | 104.3 | 100 | 94.3 | 71 | 72 | 98 |
| 87 | West Virginia | B12 | 0-0 | 9.61 | 105.3 | 83 | 95.7 | 85 | 71 | 184 |
| 89 | Oklahoma St. | B12 | 0-0 | 9.26 | 102.4 | 123 | 93.1 | 51 | 74.4 | 8 |
The fascinating thing for me is that head coach Grant McCasland has said that he’s going to have a bigger emphasis on defense and the KenPom formula at least confirms that they’ll be top-10 on defense. Houston is obviously the best team in the nation, they didn’t win it all last year, but it’s not because of lack of talent. Kansas and Iowa State will absolutely terrific, as will Arizona and Baylor will have another freshman who will probably be an All-American at something.
Things to note:
- The Big 12 will have 5 of the top 10 defenses in the nation.
- The offense is a bit behind, but the Big 12 will have 8 of the top 25 offenses.
- The AdjT is the tempo rating, meaning how fast a team is or isn’t. Houston is one of the slowest teams in the nation, while Arizona is one of the fastest. Texas Tech is expected to be really slow as well, as is Baylor and to an extent Iowa State as well.
- Texas Tech did not make the initial AP top 25, which maybe isn’t a surprise. Both analytics sites have Texas Tech as a top 20 team so take solace in the numbers.
And although KenPom gets a ton of headlines, T-Rank has their rankings as well and you can click on over because I like their stats page just a bit better than KenPom. The numbers have Texas Tech winning 20 games with a conference record of 11-9 as well as an overall rank of 20th, 13th in adjusted offense and 38th in adjusted defense, and to finish 6th in the Big 12. I’ll just emphasize that I love T-Rank, it is my go-to for stats and it helps me scout teams without having seen them. It’s a great resource.
