Big 12 Basketball: Preview and Predictions for 2015-16 Season

The Big 12 has established itself the last few years as one of the deepest college basketball conferences in the country, at least when it comes to the regular season. But while the league has sent at least half of its teams to the NCAA tournament each of the last four years, no more than two have advanced out of the first weekend, and the last Big 12 school to make the Final Four was Kansas in 2012.

Is this the year the Big 12 breaks through and performs as well in March as it does between November and February?

Led by 11-time regular-season champion Kansas and several notable challengers, the Big 12 is poised for another strong year. Follow along as we preview the 2015-16 season.

Top Storylines

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12th time's the charm?

Kansas has been in control of the conference so long that it might be time for a name change. It already doesn't make sense for a 10-team league to be known as the Big 12, but if the Jayhawks continue to dominate during the regular season, they'd have a case to start calling it the Rock Chalk Conference.

The Jayhawks have won at least a share of 11 consecutive regular-season titles and 13 of the last 14, a run that began at the tail end of Roy Williams' tenure and which Bill Self has carried on seemingly effortlessly.

Each year, a few teams are expected to have a shot at taking Kansas down, but only four times has anyone tied it for first (the last was Kansas State in 2012-13).

New faces in notable places

The Big 12 hasn't undergone the kind of coaching turnover that many other power conferences have in recent years, with seven of the 10 coaches entering at least their fourth season and four having been in the same place since 2007-08.

But two of the most notable programs have new leadership this year, replacing very successful coaches with some young blood.

Iowa State tabbed Murray State's Steve Prohm, 41, after Fred Hoiberg left for an NBA job, while Texas parted ways with Rick Barnes after 17 seasons and replaced him with 38-year-old Shaka Smart from VCU.

How many teams make the field?

The Big 12 has sent seven teams to the NCAA tournament each of the past two seasons, the 70 percent rate highest of any conference in Division I each year. Will this continue for a third year in a row?

Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller has six Big 12 schools in his preseason projected NCAA bracket, with Oklahoma State a possible seventh depending on how a promising group of newcomers performs.

"Most would agree OK State is the seventh-best team in the Big 12 this year, on an island between six likely tournament teams and three teams with virtually no hope of dancing," Miller wrote. "It could go either way."

The Favorite

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Kansas Jayhawks

It isn't as safe a bet as picking Ronda Rousey to win in a first-round knockout, but picking Kansas to win at least a share of a 12th straight regular-season title is hardly a gamble.

"In a sport in which parity makes consistency even more difficult, Bill Self's program has defied the norm by winning 11 consecutive Big 12 regular-season titles," USA Today's Scott Gleeson wrote.

The Jayhawks lost five conference games last year, the most in Self's 12 seasons, but that was still enough to beat Iowa State and Oklahoma by one game. And with four starters back, there's no reason to think another finish at the top won't happen.

Kansas has one of its deepest teams in years, and that's even if heralded freshman Cheick Diallo isn't cleared by the NCAA.

The Challengers

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Baylor Bears

Scott Drew's team brings back three starters as well as leading scorer Taurean Prince, who mostly came off the bench but still poured in 13.9 points and 5.6 rebounds while shooting 39.5 percent from three-point range. The 6'7" forward is one of three key seniors for a Bears team looking to make up for last year's early NCAA tournament exit.

Iowa State Cyclones

There's a new man in charge, but otherwise the 2015-16 Cyclones will look very much the same as the last group that Fred Hoiberg coached. The Cyclones bring back five of their top eight players and will welcome two more impact transfers for Steve Prohm's first team.

Hallice Cooke, a guard from Oregon State, will be available for the season opener, while former Marquette wing Deonte Burton will become eligible in December at the end of the first semester.

Oklahoma Sooners

The return of Buddy Hield for his senior year ensured that Oklahoma would be a player in the Big 12 again after tying for second place in 2014-15. The Sooners used the same starting five in all 35 games last season, and four of them are back.

Oklahoma was one of the league's two Sweet 16 teams from a year ago (along with West Virginia) when it fell to eventual Final Four qualifier Michigan State.

The Bottom-Dwellers

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Kansas State Wildcats

A streak of six straight NCAA tournament appearances ended last year when K-State went 15-17 despite five wins against ranked opponents. The Wildcats lost four starters from that team, including talented-but-troubled guard Marcus Foster, who was suspended during the season, later dismissed and now attends Creighton.

Justin Edwards, a 6'4" senior guard who started 14 games and averaged 6.3 points, is K-State's top returning scorer.

TCU Horned Frogs

Success hasn't come for TCU since moving over from the Mountain West Conference in 2012, winning just six of 54 Big 12 games. Four of those were last season, but after going 13-0 in the preseason, the Horned Frogs ended up missing out on the NCAA tournament for the 17th consecutive year.

Their top two scorers have moved on, and during the offseason, 6'7" junior guard Kenrich Williams, their leading rebounder, underwent microfracture surgery and will be out for the year.

Texas Tech Red Raiders

Tubby Smith inherited a bad situation in Lubbock two years ago, and he's made the most of it, but even a coach who has taken four other programs to the NCAA tournament can't do much there.

The Red Raiders finished last in the Big 12 at 3-15 last season and will be hard-pressed to do any better than that even with four returning starters.

Best Rivalry

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Iowa State-Kansas

Even though it has dominated the conference for more than a decade, Kansas hasn't been invincible. The Jayhawks have lost 13 times in league play the last three years and have fallen in the Big 12 tournament in three of the past four seasons.

Iowa State has been one of Kansas' toughest challengers, winning three times in the past two years, including in each of the last two conference tournaments. Even when the Jayhawks have come out on top, it's usually been close, no matter the venue.

Coaches Under the Most Pressure

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Bruce Weber

Travis Ford, Oklahoma State

Other than Bill Self at Kansas and Bob Huggins at West Virginia, no Big 12 coach has been employed longer than Travis Ford. He's entering his eighth season in Stillwater with five NCAA tournament appearances, but the Cowboys haven't gone past the second round since Eddie Sutton's second-to-last season in 2005.

OK State has finished below .500 in the conference the last two seasons. It has sharpshooter Phil Forte back for one more season, but beyond that, there's a lot of uncertainty.

Steve Prohm, Iowa State

It can be considered a "good" problem to inherit a team that won the Big 12 tournament and begins this season ranked seventh in the Associated Press preseason poll, which is what Prohm is facing in his first season in Ames.

The expectations for this team are high, and the talent in place is such that anything short of a top-three finish in the league and a strong NCAA tourney performance could be considered a disappointment.

Prohm has been through this before, though on a much smaller stage. When he took over the Murray State program from Billy Kennedy in 2011-12, he had the nucleus of a team that had made two straight postseason appearances. He went 31-2 and reached the second round of the NCAA tourney.

Bruce Weber, Kansas State

His second team at Illinois won 37 games and played in the NCAA title game in 2005, but Bruce Weber was never able to replicate that success, eventually getting let go after the 2011-12 season. Kansas State jumped at the chance to bring him on as Frank Martin's replacement. He went 27-8 that first year, but the fourth-seeded Wildcats were upset in the first round.

The ensuing teams won 20 games and then 15 games, missing the NCAA field last year for the first time since 2009.

Weber doesn't have the same leeway in Manhattan as he had in Champaign, and another losing season could be his last.

Best Backcourt

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Oklahoma Sooners

Isaiah Cousins, Buddy Hield and Jordan Woodard combined to score 38.4 points per game and make 173 three-pointers, with Cousins hitting from outside at a scorching 45 percent clip. They all return and will form the backbone of Oklahoma's push to unseat Kansas atop the Big 12 standings.

The trio are also as adept at finding an open man as creating their own shots, with a combined 278 assists (144 from Woodward), and they also recorded 145 steals.

Best Frontcourt

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Baylor Bears

The damage down low begins and ends with Rico Gathers, a 6'8", 275-pound senior who averaged 11.6 rebounds with more than 40 percent of his boards coming on the offensive end. He does the dirty work on both ends of the court, allowing Taurean Prince to be the scorer and Jonathan Motley to be the defensive specialist.

Prince, who led Baylor in scoring at 13.9 points per game, did so despite only starting six games and playing 26.3 minutes per contest.

"Prince is probably the most underrated scorer in the country, as his per-minute exploits match up with just about anyone beyond [Gonzaga's Kyle] Wiltjer," CBS Sports' Sam Vecenie wrote. "He can score from the three-point line, slash in a straight line to the hoop, and get out in transition and run."

Freshmen to Watch

Cheick Diallo, F, Kansas

The only 5-star recruit from the 2015 class to join the conference this season, per 247Sports, the 6'9" forward has a chance to be the Jayhawks' next great frontcourt star. That is, assuming Cheick Diallo is able to play this season.

The NCAA has yet to give the green light to Diallo as it looks into classes he took at high school in New York after moving to the U.S. from Africa. If he's able to play, he'll bring a mix of what Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins provided to Kansas two years ago.

Jawun Evans, G, Oklahoma State

A 6'0" McDonald's All-American from Dallas, Jawun Evans will slide right into the Cowboys' lineup at the point and be tasked with feeding Phil Forte and others with his pinpoint passes.

"I think the fans will love watching him play," Forte said of Evans, per Mark Cooper of the Tulsa World. "He makes everybody else better."

Kerwin Roach, G, Texas

Kerwin Roach signed with the Longhorns months before Shaka Smart took over the program, but the 6'3" guard has the kind of athleticism that Smart looks for in players to fit into his "Havoc" system. Paired next to senior Isaiah Taylor, Texas could end up having one of the most explosive backcourts in the country by season's end.

All-Conference Teams

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First Team

Buddy Hield, G, Oklahoma

The reigning Big 12 Player of the Year, Hield held off on the NBA to play his senior season with the Sooners in hopes of continuing what they did in 2014-15. He led the conference in scoring (17.4 points per game) and raised that to 18.5 in league competition.

Frank Mason, G, Kansas

Frank Mason had a breakout season as a sophomore but figures to be even better in his third season in the program. His time during the summer with Team USA during the World University Games should prove valuable in Kansas' push for a 12th straight regular-season Big 12 title.

Perry Ellis, F, Kansas

Perry Ellis seems like he's been in Lawrence for a decade. Now in his final season, the 6'8" senior is ready to get the Jayhawks over the hump after losing during the first weekend of the NCAA tournament the past two years.

Ellis was the only player in the Big 12 to finish in the top 10 in scoring, rebounding and field-goal shooting.

Georges Niang, F, Iowa State

One of the most accomplished players in program history—and one of the few whom Fred Hoiberg discovered in high school rather than on another college's roster—the 6'8" Georges Niang should reach the 2,000-point mark in his senior season.

Last year, Niang was the only non-senior in Division I to have more than 1,500 points, 450 rebounds and 300 assists in his career.

Taurean Prince, F, Baylor

The 6'7" senior led his team in scoring as a reserve at 13.9 points per game. Prince also had a team-high 60 three-pointers and was second on the Bears in steals while also shooting 39.5 percent from three-point range.

Second Team

Phil Forte, G, Oklahoma State

Monte Morris, G, Iowa State

Isaiah Taylor, G, Texas

Rico Gathers, F, Baylor

Devin Williams, F, West Virginia

Regular-Season Standings

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1. Kansas
2. Iowa State
3. Oklahoma
4. Baylor
5. West Virginia
6. Texas
7. Oklahoma State
8. Kansas State
9. Texas Tech
10. TCU

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.