For the 20th time in the 27-year history of the Big 12 coaches’ preseason poll, the Kansas men's basketball program has been selected as the favorite to win the conference.
Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams and a coaches’ preseason poll was not conducted during the Big 12’s first season in 1996-97.
Bill Self's squad received 12 of the 13 available first-place votes and finished ahead of second-place Houston by 15 points in the voting. The Cougars, in their first year in the Big 12 Conference, received two first-place votes.
Texas was third with 143 points, while Baylor was fourth 137 points and TCU fifth with 113 points.
KU's selection at the top of the preseason poll came one day after the Jayhawks saw big man Hunter Dickinson and point guard Dajuan Harris Jr., land on the preseason all-Big 12 first team squad voted on by the league's coaches.
KU senior Kevin McCullar Jr., also earned an honorable mention nod on the preseason team, while Dickinson also was named the preseason player of the year and preseason newcomer of the year.
Kansas returns three starters — Harris, McCullar and KJ Adams — from last season’s 28-8 team which won the Big 12 regular-season title with a 13-5 league mark.
Bill Self and company brought in nine newcomers during the offseason, six scholarship players and three walk-ons.
KU, which officially kicked off the 2023-24 season with Late Night in the Phog last week, will play an exhibition game to help fund the Maui fire relief efforts at Illinois on Oct. 29 before opening the season with an exhibition game against Fort Hays State on Nov. 1 and the regular season opener against North Carolina Central on Nov. 6.
2023-24 BIG 12 PRESEASON POLL
1. Kansas (12), 168
2. Houston (2), 153
3. Texas, 143
4. Baylor, 137
5. TCU, 113
6. Kansas State, 106
7. Iowa State, 95
8. Texas Tech 80
9. West Virginia, 70
10. Oklahoma State, 57
11. Cincinnati, 55
12. Oklahoma, 54
13. BYU, 29
14. UCF, 14
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kutickets.com
