Big 12 Basketball: Way-too-early power rankings for 2023-24 season

13. BYU Cougars

Like UCF, BYU finished last season with a 19-15 record. Unlike the Knights, though, the Cougars are bringing back their best player, big man Fousseyni Traore. The sophomore averaged 12.9 points and 7.8 rebounds last year, and though he’s only 6’6″, he’s exactly the type of tough, physical player the Cougars will need to compete in the rough and tumble Big 12.

Seniors Gideon George and Rudi Williams are gone to graduation, but BYU will hope to fill the void with the arrival of promising freshman guard Jake Wahlin. Head coach Mark Pope has made heavy use of the transfer portal in recent years, and figures to do so again in the coming weeks.

KenPom rated BYU as one of the unluckiest teams in the country last year. Amazingly, 13 of the Cougars’ 15 losses were by single digits, including all four games the team played against Gonzaga and St. Mary’s. The team also lost a close game at eventual national runner-up San Diego State at the beginning of the season and beat eventual Elite Eight team, Creighton. Had a couple bounces gone their way in the final minutes against the Zags and Gaels, the Cougars likely would have been dancing.

BYU last made the tournament in 2021, and finishing in the top half of the revamped Big 12 sounds like a tall order. Still, the Cougars can compete physically with most of the teams they’ll come up against, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them pull off a couple big wins as they get adjusted to their new conference home.