The Big 12 Conference released its preseason polls and awards for the 2024-25 season on Thursday and the results were about what I expected.
Kansas looked at last year’s failure and loaded up with a slew of transfers, making them a runaway favorite to be the No. 1 team in the country come Nov. 4. Houston and Iowa State were easily the best teams in the Big 12 a season ago. Baylor wasn’t far behind and Arizona is the cream of the crop for the Big 12’s newest additions from the Pac-12.
None of the top five positions in the poll were surprising. My curiosity, of course, was to see how league coaches felt the Texas Tech basketball team would fare in Grant McCasland’s second season.
In last year’s preseason poll, the Red Raiders were picked eighth, which was fair. I had questions about how the makeup of McCasland’s inaugural squad would hold up. There wasn’t a lot of size or depth. Some of the pieces just didn’t fit quite right.
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Last year’s team had the motto of “Toughest Team Wins,” which didn’t always fit the on-court product. The Red Raiders were rarely the toughest team on the floor, a sticking point for McCasland throughout the season. While the offense was the best in decades, the defense was nowhere close to the Texas Tech or McCasland standard. Those same questions I had before the season were issues that kept popping up throughout the year.
Even if they weren’t the toughest, deepest or best defensive team, the Red Raiders just found ways to win. At times it was hard to even quantify how they were getting it done. It often didn’t make sense. Texas Tech won games it logically had no business winning — comeback wins over BYU and Oklahoma and the regular-season finale against Baylor come to mind.
At a certain point last season, I stopped trying to overly-analyze my way into the answer of how Texas Tech got to 23-11 overall, tied for third in the Big 12 and got back to the NCAA Tournament. Some numbers can help solve part of the equation, but not the whole thing. Some teams and some coaches just know how to get the job done. That was Texas Tech last year.
So it wasn’t a big surprise that Texas Tech came in seventh in this year’s preseason poll, a whole spot up from last year’s projection. This is also not egregious. Arguments could be made for putting the Red Raiders over the Bearcats, though I probably stop there.
Except I can’t help but go back to last year’s projection, team and final results. There will always be teams that jump up from preseason expectations just as teams will inevitably fall short of what others see of them on paper.
I can’t in good conscience say definitively that Texas Tech will leapfrog any of the top five teams in the poll, but I can say this team feels much more cohesive. It’s much deeper than last year. The lineups make more sense. There’s versatility the group lacked in the 2023-24 campaign.
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At this point of the year, I have less questions about the Red Raiders than 365 days ago. My biggest headscratcher is lineup possibilities because there are so many options.
Texas Tech has a much better chance of winning the conference this year than it does at finishing in the middle of the pack. My gut is pretty big, and it doesn’t steer me into hyperbole for the sake of it. Right now, my gut’s telling me that this year’s team can do some impressive things, and it won’t come as a surprise this time.
Big 12 basketball preseason poll
1. Kansas (9 first-place votes) — 215
2. Houston (5) — 211
3. Iowa State (1) — 194
4. Baylor — 185
5. Arizona (1) — 179
6. Cincinnati — 140
7. Texas Tech — 135
More: Texas Tech basketball roster breakdown: Projected starters, top lineups for 2024-25 season
8. Kansas State — 133
9. BYU — 116
10. TCU — 90
11. UCF — 83
12. Arizona State — 64
13. West Virginia — 62
14. Oklahoma State — 46
15. Colorado — 37
16. Utah — 30
Preseason All-Big 12 Teams
First Team
Hunter Dickinson, Kansas (unanimous)
Caleb Love, Arizona
LJ Cryer, Houston
J’Wan Roberts, Houston
Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State
Second Team
Norchad Omier, Baylor
Jeremy Roach, Baylor
Keshon Gilbert, Iowa State
Dajuan Harris Jr., Kansas
Coleman Hawkins, Kansas State
Preseason All-Big 12 Basketball Awards
Player of the Year: Hunter Dickinson, Kansas
Newcomer of the Year: (tie) Jeremy Roach, Baylor and Coleman Hawkins, Kansas State
Freshman of the Year: VJ Edgecombe, Baylor
