This isn’t your father ’s Big 12 anymore.
Since the conference’s inception in 1996, men’s basketball has been mostly run by Kansas, with the occasional solid seasons from Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa State and Baylor.
It’s undergone rapid change in the past few years. The Sooners and Longhorns are gone. A bunch of new schools across the country joined, with the goal to help the league maintain its prestige in a sport it loves to say it is the deepest conference in.
Well in a now 16-team Big 12, it’s the newbies that have raided the territory and claimed the land. Out with the old and in with the new.
Credit commissioner Brett Yormark for striking gold in the conference realignment mess. It’s impossible to replace the brands in Oklahoma and Texas, so what did the Big 12 do? Got the right pieces at the right time in the right place – reminding the college sports world the moves aren’t all about football.
In 2023, the Big 12 added Houston; not the biggest football team in Texas, but a men’s basketball program coming off a four consecutive Sweet 16 berths, a Final Four appearance in 2021 and still riding high in the sport. Also joining that year were Cincinnati and Central Florida. In the first season in the league, Houston went 15-3 and won the regular season title before it made the conference tournament final.
The following year, the Big 12 snatched up Arizona along with three other Pac-12 schools, bringing in a basketball powerhouse that stacked up wins left and right while it dominated the “conference of champions” since Tommy Lloyd came in.
In its inaugural campaign in the Big 12, Arizona’s conference success has transferred over. The Wildcats stormed out to a 11-2 start and are second in the conference. The team above them? The Cougars at 12-1. d
The two teams will meet Saturday in a heavyweight matchup of the new cats in charge.
“Anytime a good team comes into the league, I’m sure a lot of the coaches in this league probably thought the same thing when we came into the league,” said Houston coach Kelvin Sampson.
The rise of Houston and Arizona in their formative Big 12 years might come as a shock, even with all of the aforementioned accolades. Yeah Houston was dominating the American Athletic Conference, but who really gave it competition? They weren’t getting many tests until March. Yeah Arizona ruled the Pac-12, but outside of UCLA and occasionally Oregon, it wasn’t a deep league anymore.
Any doubt on whether they were legit programs have been put to rest. It happened, Sampson said, because both teams built a culture that players “could touch and believe in.”
Think about Arizona before Tommy Lloyd. It was sinking rapidly toward the end of Sean Miller’s tenure – partly due to the recruitment violations – and the program needed someone to bring faith back to Tucson quickly. Sampson said he knew it was a great hire for Arizona when it announced Lloyd as coach in April 2021, and with Lloyd’s international approach to the game, the fanbase was rocking immediately.
BRACKETOLOGY: Michigan surges in NCAA tournament projection
STARTING FIVE: SEC, Big 12 lead biggest games of the weekend
There’s proof the Big 12 move isn’t made for everyone. Now back in the league, Colorado is at the bottom of the standings, still searching for the first league victory. Right above the Buffaloes is Arizona State with a 3-10 conference record. Utah is barely above the other former Pac-12 schools at 12th place with a 5-8 mark.
“If it was done in the Eastern Time Zone or east of the Mississippi, I think he would get more credit,” Sampson said. “In the coaching profession, you know who the real ones are, and Tommy is a real one.
“He knows how to coach, knows how to build, and kudos for Arizona for giving him an opportunity.”
The same could be said for Sampson. Houston hadn’t sniffed success like the Phi Slama Jama days of the 1980s before the veteran coach came in. Since 2019, it’s been to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament each year and won a share of a conference championship each season.
Meanwhile, the longstanding Big 12 powers can only watch the new kids race by them. Kansas, preseason No. 1 team back-to-back seasons, lost its grip on the chokehold it had on the league. The Jayhawks are 18-13 in the Big 12 since last season, far from the program with 12 conference tournament titles. They will end the regular season with a daunting slate of Houston then Arizona.
Iowa State, which has been revived under T.J. Otzelberger, learned first-hand how tough it is to win at Arizona. It hasn’t recovered since.
Only Texas Tech can say it has handled the new blood this season with wins against both Houston and Arizona, but the Wildcats got revenge last week. Houston awaits its chance at the end of the month.
But before that, the Wildcats and Cougars will play in a top 15 matchup in what will be a rocking McKale Center. The winner will have control of first place of the league and own the tiebreaker should it be needed by March 8.
Saturday won’t decide anything. After all, the Big 12 is a chaotic one where just about any result can happen.
But Houston and Arizona are taking center stage, pushing out the ones that occupied it for so long. All of the incumbent members can do is watch and realize the new kids on the block are legit.
“Arizona wasn’t good because they were in the Pac-12. We weren’t good because we were in the American,” Sampson said. “Arizona was good because they’re good. They can play anywhere, and I always felt we could too.”