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The facts will sell this men’s basketball conference.
The Big 12 carries the best win-loss percentage (80.6%) of any through the nonconference schedule as of Friday, though the strength of schedule is fifth toughest.
Of 19 teams in the nation with an average point differential above 20, four are from the Big 12: Iowa State’s 27.5 (second in the nation), Arizona’s 24 (seventh), BYU’s 20.7 (14th) and Baylor’s 20.6 (16th).
Out of the NET rankings, the Big 12 carries a duo of top-three teams and six in the top 25.
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But individual talent is what will drive interest in the Big 12.
The preseason player of the year, Texas Tech big man J.T. Toppin, seems unlikely to win that award even though he’s averaging 21 points, 10.6 boards, 1.7 blocks and 1.2 steals per game.
BYU freshman AJ Dybantsa is averaging 23.1 points per game — second most in the country — on 59% shooting to go with 7.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists.
Dybantsa may not even be the No. 1 NBA Draft pick if Kansas’ Darryn Peterson can get back on the court this weekend after cramping issues limited him to four games played.
Houston freshman guard Kingston Flemings has been uber efficient (15.6 points per game on 56.4% shooting), creates for others and defends at a high level. He could be a top-five draft pick.
Kansas State’s P.J. Haggerty is third in the nation in scoring, while Utah’s Terrence Brown, Baylor’s Cameron Carr, Toppin and Texas Tech teammate Christian Anderson are all 20-plus point per game scorers. Three of those guys are transfers. Toppin is the returning known star, but alongside him, Anderson has made an apparent leap after getting heavy run off the bench as a freshman last year at Texas Tech.
Behind the likely national player of the year, Duke’s Cameron Boozer, the next three most impactful offensive players in terms of points produced per game (scoring and points scored off their assists) are Dybantsa, Haggerty and Anderson. Brown and Toppin are also in the top 10.
We have yet to argue about which is the best player on each of the two undefeated teams, Arizona and Iowa State.
Is Arizona’s Jaden Bradley or Koa Peat its most important player? Freshman guard Brayden Burries has come on strong as their best scorer lately.
Iowa State guard Tamin Lipsey is the Cyclones’ heart and motor on both sides of the ball.
Forward Joshua Jefferson is averaging 18.1 points, 7.1 boards and 5.0 assists, while teammate Milan Momcilovic might be the nation’s best shooter — he’s certainly the most efficient (55.1% overall and 53.8% from 3 on 7.2 attempts per game).
Let’s get to the local teams.
Arizona basketball’s strengths through nonconference play
Brayden Burries #5 and Jaden Bradley #0 of the Arizona Wildcats (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images)
Across the KenPom and Bart Torvik analytic models, Tommy Lloyd’s Wildcats have been analytically logged as a top-15 offensive team and top-five defensive team.
Size that forces misses, rebounds well and gets in transition has made Arizona one of the best 2-point scoring teams in the land. They are shooting 52% overall, 12th best in the country.
That’s because they shoot 2s at a ridiculous 57.8% and mostly take 2s, having the 11th-fewest 3-point attempts (233) so far this season. The Wildcats aren’t even bad at shooting 3s, hitting 37.8% so far.
And when they do miss, Arizona is fourth in offensive rebounding 41.9% of its misses.
It’s made for a balanced attack with no player averaging above 14.2 points per game so far. Lloyd’s rotation appears pretty cemented and set at eight guys, which without injury, looks solid at this moment.
Best player: Freshman forward Koa Peat’s debut of 30 points, seven boards and five assists against a big Florida team was a statement — he’s been simply steady without forcing the issue since. The best news is Lloyd and Arizona already can run the offense through Peat in the high-post, where he has the skillset to play bullyball, score on mid-range jumpers or move it if doubled.
However, Bradley has been efficient as playmaker and third banana (13.4 points, 4.5 assists, 1.9 steals, 53% FG). The senior has reserved his aggressive moments for close late games.
Sneakily, the box score defensive stats have labeled him as one of the nation’s best defenders, but those should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s something to watch, however.
NCAA Tournament resume so far: Arizona (13-0) is No. 2 in the NET rankings used to profile a team for NCAA Tournament selection purposes. The Wildcats are 4-0 in Quad 1 games, 2-0 in Quad 2, have not played a Quad 3 game at this time and are 7-0 in Quad 4 games.
Arizona’s weaknesses
It’s hard to find a weakness without nitpicking.
Arizona’s strong defense unsurprisingly doesn’t allow many deep attempts to opponents, but you can see how they can get beaten. A team that can match them in size can out-math them from the 3-point line.
Arizona’s roster has the right collection of pieces, but one injury could significantly tap into some vulnerability.
Losing just one of freshman guard Burries or backup Anthony Dell’Orso, for example, would zap about a quarter of the entire team’s 3-point shooting production and volume. Peat, center Motiejus Krivas and forward Tobe Awaka have only tinkered beyond the arc while dominating the glass. On the perimeter, Bradley and forward Ivan Kharchenkov have been accurate but relatively unaggressive from deep.
Losing a big man would disallow Arizona to run out massive lineups that can make up for the lack of long-range the shooting with great rebounding. Not to mention take the team out of the elite rebounding tier.
Losing Bradley would be the biggest problem, with Burries the only other capable on-ball creator as Harvard transfer Evan Nelson has only gotten 41 minutes of run so far.
The potential for freshmen development would make us feel better about the roster’s dynamism, even if Arizona stays healthy. Peat hasn’t been forced to show how much water he can carry, and Burries has gained confidence as Lloyd has stuck with him lately.
Aristode has been sneaky efficient as a shooter and is a darkhorse NBA Draft prospect if he were asked to do more, while Kharchenkov’s skillset and opportunity as a starter leaves the door open for him to take a massive step forward.
Arizona State’s strengths entering Big 12 play
Arizona State PG Moe Odum gets shots up during a preseason practice on Oct. 30, 2025. (Damon Allred/Arizona Sports)
Unsurprisingly, a Bobby Hurley-coached team is finding success with an attacking, aggressive style off the bounce.
ASU has the 22nd-highest free-throw rate (free throws attempted per field goal attempted) and a solid 74.9% accuracy from the foul stripe.
Leading that identity is guard Pig Johnson, who has 96 free-throw attempts at 7.4 per game.
Point guard Moe Odum is second at 63 attempts, but he also uses his aggression to find others, like big man Massamba Diop, who at 7-foot-1 is shooting 63.7% from the field.
Best player: Odum averaged 7.5 assists per game last year with Pepperdine, and his transfer to a power conference has seen that playmaking translate.
He’s put in work trying to balance that with his scoring, which has bumped from 13.1 points last season to 16.2 so far in 2025-26, but it’s come with a shooting percentage that’s fallen from 45.2% to 37.9% as he’s tried to find the right mix with ASU needing him to look for his own. More than half of his shots are from deep.
Odum has also been a disruptor with a career-high 1.5 steals per game.
NCAA Tournament resume so far: The Sun Devils (9-4) are No. 77, with a 1-3 record in Quad 1, 3-0 in Quad 2, 1-0 in Quad 3 and 4-1 in Quad 4, its most recent loss to 8-7 Oregon State its biggest red flag and Quad 4 loss.
Arizona State’s weaknesses
A two-game losing streak entering Big 12 play alludes to potential problems for the Sun Devils. Even a 46-for-50 performance at the foul stripe (92%) isn’t enough to make up the other lost margins.
Arizona State lost 90-77 to UCLA and 78-75 to Oregon State.
A rebounding rate of 48.8% overall ranks as the worst in the Big 12 heading into conference play. Offensive boards, especially have been hard to come by, ranking 292 out of 365 teams in rate (28.5%).
It’s a personnel issue mostly. ASU plays small, but its best athlete and biggest player, Diop, is averaging just 5.2 boards per game in 26.9 minutes. That still leads the team by per-game average.
Further, the Sun Devils allow opponents to shoot a ton of 3s, at a rate of 45.4%. That is 327th in the country.
Big 12 men’s basketball standings entering conference play
Team Overall Record Pct. Home Away Neutral Streak Arizona 13-0 1.000 8-0 1-0 4-0 W13 Iowa State 13-0 1.000 8-0 1-0 4-0 W13 BYU 12-1 .923 6-0 0-0 6-1 W9 Houston 12-1 .923 7-0 0-0 5-1 W6 Oklahoma State 12-1 .923 10-0 0-0 2-1 W3 UCF 11-1 .917 8-1 1-0 2-0 W10 Baylor 10-2 .833 8-0 0-1 2-1 W4 Colorado 10-3 .769 8-1 0-1 2-1 L2 Kansas 10-3 .769 5-1 1-1 4-1 W4 TCU 10-3 .769 7-3 1-0 2-0 W5 Texas Tech 10-3 .769 7-0 0-1 3-2 W3 Arizona State 9-4 .692 4-2 1-1 4-1 L2 Kansas State 9-4 .692 7-2 1-1 1-1 W4 West Virginia 9-4 .692 9-0 0-0 0-4 W1 Cincinnati 8-5 .615 8-1 0-1 0-3 W1 Utah 8-5 .615 7-1 0-2 1-2 L1Follow @kzimmermanaz
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