We are evaluating the development of the past season before the focus is fully shifted to the 2025-26 men's college basketball season.

As we have already entered the Big East, Big Ten and ACC results, we will continue to head to Big 12 and earned a report card on the 16 teams below.

Part of the process is simple: A good team as good as a good team will get great results, and a team as good as a bad team won’t. But this can be complicated for some teams. Some people have the dream of winning. Others hope to win only one game. Either way, we judge each team’s season based on preseason expectations while providing grace for any unfortunate mid-time game on a case-by-case basis.

In the last part of next Wednesday, check out the SEC next Wednesday.

Note: Teams listed alphabetically under each hierarchy layer.

Jump to the team: Arizona | Arizona | Baylor | byu | Cincinnati | Colorado | Houston | Iowa | Kansas | Kansas | Oklahoma | TCU | Texas Institute of Technology | UCF | Utah | West Virginia

score

grade: one

The buzz around BYU continued to grow when Top Recruit AJ Dybantsa signed with the program, but first-year coach Kevin Young didn’t let fans wait until the 2025-26 successful season.

The Cougars are expected to finish 10th in the Big 12 pre-season poll, one of the most fruitful sports in program history. With Richie Saunders (16.5 points per game) and 6-foot-9 freshman Egor Demin, they finished the regular season with an eight-game winning streak. They have been driven by the best offense in the country in the last two months of the season since Jimmer Fredette starred in BYU more than a decade ago.

grade: one

Kelvin Sampson, 69, proved once again that he was one of the greatest coaches in college basketball, including a 35-5 campaign that included one of the greatest comebacks in NCAA Tournament history, Houston beat Duke in its last four games.

LJ Cryer, Milos Uzan, J'Wan Roberts, Joseph Tugler and Emanuel Sharp anchored a team that lost just one game between November 30 and the National Championship Tilt. Even in the championship game, the Cougars led the way in Florida before the Gator made a comeback and won the chaotic final. Houston is just seconds away from Sampson’s first national title, but everything was blessed before that moment.

grade: one

Texas Tech is one of the best seasons in college basketball in 2024-25. Grant McCasland may not be able to stand the shot of his team's elite eight-point loss to ultimate champion Florida as the Red Raiders lead the Gators 75-66 in less than three minutes of play. But this is the only "flaw" in the Red Raiders campaign. Obviously, given how close Texas Tech is to be a legitimate contender to win the championship.

The Red Raiders ranked second in Houston’s final 12 standings after being selected as No. 7 in the pre-season poll. JT Toppin also won the National Honors of AP Team 2.

grade: one

If Kelvin Sampson doesn't win the Big 12 coach of the year, that honor could be attributed to Darian Devries. His son, Tucker Devries, was his two-time Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year while at Drake, and the climbers competed in just a few games due to an upper body injury. In Tucker's absence, Javon Small (AP All-American Honors nomination) stepped up, leading the climbers to win wins in Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas and Iowa.

The climbers, widely regarded as the biggest weakness in Sunday's trials, overcame Tucker's losses, who did not derail the new coach in his first and only season.

Level B

grade: b

Tommy Lloyd's team lost three of the top four scorers last season, but the return of Caleb Love (PAC-12 final player of the year) has put expectations for Arizona's first year in Big 12. After starting the game 4-5, the Wildcats won 13 of the next 14 games before another 3-4 turmoil in the final month of the regular season. But love, the choice of the All-Around 12 first team, brought them to the sweet 16, where they lost to Duke in a 100-93 thriller.

grade: b

TJ Otzelberger maintained his track record of developing players as well as any coach in the country. Curtis Jones (17.4 points, 3 points 37.4%) became one of the country's most important reserves, winning the AP National Honor Award. Keshon Gilbert was on a similar trajectory before he was injured later in the season. Once he was in good health, Milan Momcilovic (11.5 points, 39.6%) became a key contributor. But when Gilbert missed a game with a groin injury in the second round of the NCAA Championship, they lost to Ole Miss, the Tornado finished fifth in the Big 12 and had no playoff potential.

C-level

grade: c

After a long term as an assistant, Steve Lutz hired his first senior position in April 2024 at Oklahoma State, after the Cowboys were led by Mike Boynton. Despite finishing tenth in Big 12 and not appearing to be a NIT quarterfinal, the Cowboys are expected to reach the league's 14th place this season. So this is also ranked in the top 40 in defensive turnover rates compared to previous plans.

grade: c

In Big 12's pre-season poll, the Horned Frog was selected as 10th. They ended up tied for ninth. It was one of Jamie Dixon's worst sports in TCU, with Jamie Dixon's third .500 or worse in nine seasons at Fort Worth. Frankie Collins suffered a season-end foot injury in just nine games and he could have helped compete. But it's still a TCU team that is under the adjusted offensive efficiency to play lower than Dukene and Idaho.

grade: c

Johnny Dawkins signed Mikey Williams, who never played in Memphis due to legal issues, as Dawkins said he believes the former five-star recruit will shine in Orlando. But Williams (5.1 points) never found his big stride, like other team members.

After defeating Texas Tech in their first game of the conference Slate, on December 31, the Cavaliers looked like they could shock the Big 12 and compete for a spot in the first half of the rankings. However, the defense, which ranked 15th out of 16 teams, was not enough to avoid falling out in the rest of the league.

Level D

grade: d

Jayden's quirky (right ACL) and BJ Freeman (fired for acts that are harmful to the team) lost a lot late-season, but Bobby Hurley's tenth campaign was a disaster. When Freeman was fired, the Sun Devils were 3-12 in the Big 12, with only one game before Gucci's last outing of the season. Arizona ended up being lower than its 12th-place forecast (No. 15) than in the conference's pre-season poll.

grade: d

Baylor, four years since his first national championship game, appears to have been equipped with players to reach these heights again. The addition of five-star recruit VJ Edgecombe has enhanced expectations, while Norchad Omier (Miami) and Jeremy Roach (Duke) are considered elite transfers. But even if Robert Wright III became one of the country’s top freshmen, the Bears never found the motivation many expected to come into the season. Scott Drew's team ended up finishing seventh in the Big 12, earning nine seeds in the NCAA Championship, and they lost 23 points to Duke in the second round.

grade: d

Wes Miller has the right ingredients for his fourth year in Cincinnati is his best. Two of his top three scorers in the 2023-24 season have recovered. Jizzle James (12.7 points) grew into the Bearcats' leading scorer, and Texas transfer Dillon Mitchell added their frontcourt depth. But they won only seven big 12 games for the second straight year, scoring only 30.2% of the field goal percentage in the conference game, and they extended the NCAA Championship drought to six years.

grade: d

Bill Self said before the season advances that he believes he has the right players to reveal at the end of the 2023-24 season before losing in the second round of the NCAA Championship. But the 2024-25 team ended up being even more disappointing.

Kansas spent millions of dollars on Transfers AJ Storr, Zeke Mayo and Rylan Griffen. It also returned to the U.S. with Hunter Dickinson and two players, KJ Adams Jr. and Dajuan Harris Jr., who won the national championship with Jayhawks in 2022. Apart from the pandemic season, their 21-13 season – the first round NCAA Championship loss to Arkansas was Lawrence’s worst 22-year term. This is much lower than the KU standard.

grade: d

Era Zero has changed the way teams can analyze their potential. The more the team spends, the more fans expect. That's what happened in Kansas last season.

Coleman Hawkins, who reportedly made $2 million from transfers in Illinois, chose the Wildcats on the roster of other elite programs, isn't the only highly compensated transfer added by Jerome Tang. But the team missed the trace. Tang and Michigan Transfer Dug Dug McDaniel are not on the same page, Samford Transfer Achor Achor left the team only after the game for personal reasons.

This is the first below .500 season since the program's final year of 2021-22.

grade: d

Utah has fired Craig Smith before the end of the regular season, which will be the fourth straight year without an NCAA Championship former coach. The program is facing other dynamic conference plans encountered in the new climate: Utah’s 16-17 and 8-12, still won BYU and Kansas wins, but has little else to do with the future fan base.

Level F

grade: f

It's an ugly season for a Colorado team that made its sixth NCAA Championship led by Tad Boyle in 2023-24. The Buffalo lost to the professionals or transfer portal from that roster, which didn't complement their talent pool, suggesting they finished their final game in Big 12. Julian Hammond III and the return staff started the conference game with a 0-13 record and never recovered.