The Big 12 coaches believe that an 11th consecutive Big 12 championship celebration will soon be coming to Lawrence.
For the 13th time in the 19-year history of the conference, the Kansas University men’s basketball squad was selected as the preseason favorite to win the regular-season championship by a vote of the league’s coaches, released Thursday.
Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams in the poll and KU received six first-place votes. Texas (3) and Oklahoma (1) earned the other first-place votes and were picked to finish second and third, respectively. Kansas State and Iowa State came in fourth and fifth in the preseason rankings, while Baylor and West Virginia tied for sixth and Oklahoma State, TCU and Texas Tech rounded out the poll.
Kansas has won, or tied for, 13 of the 18 Big 12 regular-season titles, including the last 10, a streak which ranks tied for third all-time in NCAA Division I history. Overall, KU has won an NCAA-best 57 conference regular-season championships.
Historically, the preseason favorite has gone on to finish first in the regular-season 11 times, which does not include 1996-97 as a coaches’ poll was not conducted. KU has been the preseason favorite prior to 10 of its 13 Big 12 regular-season titles, missing 1996-97 (no poll), 2005-06 (third) and 2010-11 (second).
2014-15 Big 12 Preseason Poll
Team (First-place votes) – Points