Big 12 Basketball: Iowa State, TCU, Texas Tech rise in latest power rankings

12. Texas (12-5, 1-3)

Texas had high hopes at the beginning of last season, with Chris Beard having built a talented roster in Austin. He was fired in January after being arrested a few weeks earlier and interim coach Rodney Terry helped take that talent to the Elite Eight. Terry received the full-time gig in the offseason and crafted another roster that seemed talented and ready to compete in the Big 12.

The early returns were good, with the Longhorns sitting in the Top 25 for many weeks and only losing to Connecticut and Marquette before conference play began. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really a resume-building win during that stretch and Texas has certainly taken a step back these last few weeks against their Big 12 rivals. A double-digit home loss to Texas Tech was followed by a close call at Cincinnati, but losing back-to-back games at West Virginia and against UCF at home is horrible.

Adding scoring fiend Max Abmas and former Virginia big Kadin Shedrick to a talented roster that includes Tyrese Hunter and Dillon Mitchell should have produced better results than this. All four of those players are putting up decent figures, but this team certainly has taken a step back from last season, especially on the defensive end. We’ll see if a turnaround can happen, but that win over the Bearcats is the only one of any value for the Longhorns more than two months into the season.