Big 12 Basketball: Preseason conference power rankings for 2023-24 season

7. Kansas State Wildcats

Last season: 26-10, 11-7 in the Big 12

Head coach Jerome Tang and the Kansas State Wildcats return in 2023-24 with a bigger task on their hands as they return just three players from last year’s Elite Eight squad. Tang took the college basketball world by storm in his first year as head coach, winning the Big 12 Coach of the Year award and the Naismith Coach of the Year award with the Wildcats in one of basketball’s toughest conferences. Now, he’ll look to rebuild the rotation and still find success in Year 2.

The Wildcats finished fourth in the standings this past season and will start at the seventh spot in the preseason power rankings. Depth could come back to haunt the Wildcats, but for now, they’re in the thick of things inside the Top 10.

Nae’Qwan Tomlin, Cam Carter and David N’Guessan are their returners while they’ll add former Creighton forward Arthur Kaluma, former North Texas point guard Tylor Perry and former Samford guard Ques Glover out of the transfer portal.

Kaluma, Perry and Glover will need to be ready to contribute in a big way for things to continue to move in a positive direction. Kaluma is a 6-foot-7 forward who should bring some versatility to the Big 12 with his production of 11.8 ppg, 6.0 rpg and 1.6 apg on 31.1 percent shooting from deep and 42.3 percent shooting from the field. Perry will look to fill the void left by Markquis Nowell with his own exploits at the floor general spot. He finished with 17.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 2.1 apg and 1.3 spg on 41.3 percent shooting from 3-point land with the Mean Green this past season.