Big 12 Basketball: Ranking the new-look league after 4-team expansion

10. Iowa State Cyclones

Just a few years ago, the Cyclones were making regular trips to the NCAA Tournament and had an argument of being a top-25 program nationally. But after “The Mayor” Fred Hoiberg left for the NBA (before coming back to Nebraska currently), the program cratered and is coming off a year of winning just two out of 24 games. They also have a new head coach in T.J. Otzelberger who was just average during his time at UNLV and is starting from the bottom, although he does have a top-100 commit in Eli King coming in the 2022 class.

Iowa State doesn’t have the greatest recruiting pipeline and there’s no telling how the Otzelberger era will ultimately go. Right now, they just don’t have the talent to compete in the Big 12 and if it wasn’t for the perceived lower ceiling that the previous two teams have, I may have had the Cyclones at the very bottom.

9. Kansas State Wildcats

Once the core of Dean Wade, Kamau Stokes, and Barry Brown all graduated, the Wildcats went from a nationally-ranked team to the bottom of the Big 12 in the past two years. Their current roster doesn’t offer much hope either, outside of sophomore guard Nigel Pack.

What gives Kansas State hope is head coach  Bruce Weber, who has numerous NCAA Tournament trips on his resume. But playing under the shadow of rival Kansas limits what they can do on the recruiting trail and the program hasn’t been very successful in landing talent from the transfer portal. They’ll have to improve on that or risk falling back in the league standings for a long time to come.