BYU Basketball Picked to Finish 13th in Big 12 Preseason Poll

The Big 12 released its preseason men’s basketball poll Friday morning and BYU was picked to finish 13th out of 14 teams. The league’s 14 head coaches voted and were not allowed to vote for their own team. BYU will play the top 3 teams only once this season.

BYU’s predicted finish is not surprising after a 19-15 season and fifth place WCC finish. BYU returns nearly 70% of its scoring production from last season, which is tops in the Big 12. Transfers Aly Khalifa and Dawson Baker will add to a core that include Fousseyni Traore, Spencer Johnson, Dallin Hall, Jaxson Robinson, Trevin Knell, Richie Saunders, Noah Waterman, and others.

If you want to have a more optimistic view of the coming season, analytics gura Evan Miyakawa has BYU ranked 32 nationally and 7th in the Big 12 in his preseason projections. Aly Khalifa is rated as the 14th best player in the Big 12 and Fousseyni Traore at number 25 going into the season.

We’ll get our first chance to see BYU in action October 25 in the Blue-White scrimmage on BYUtv. BYU hosts Stanford in a secret scrimmage October 28 and Life Pacific in an exhibition on November 1 before the regular season tips off November 6 versus Houston Christian.