2020–21 Big 12 Conference men's basketball season

The 2020–21 Big 12 men's basketball season began with practices in October 2020, followed by the start of the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. Regular season conference play will start in December 2020 and conclude in March 2020. The Big 12 Tournament is scheduled to be held from March 11–14, 2021 and will be played at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

2020–21 Big 12 Men's Basketball Season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	10
TV partner(s)	CBS, ESPN, FSN
NBA Draft
Big 12 Tournament

2020–21 Big 12 men's basketball standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 2 Baylor	9	–	0		1.000			17	–	0		1.000
No. 6 Texas	5	–	3		.625			11	–	4		.733
No. 17 West Virginia	5	–	3		.625			12	–	5		.706
No. 9 Oklahoma	6	–	4		.600			11	–	5		.688
No. 23 Kansas	6	–	4		.600			12	–	6		.667
No. 13 Texas Tech	5	–	4		.556			13	–	5		.722
Oklahoma State*	4	–	5		.444			11	–	5		.688
TCU	3	–	5		.375			10	–	7		.588
Kansas State	1	–	9		.100			5	–	14		.263
Iowa State	0	–	7		.000			2	–	10		.167
*ineligible for postseason due to improper certification of student-athletes
† 2021 Big 12 Tournament winner As of February 3, 2021; Rankings from AP Poll

Coaches

Coaching changes

There were no head coaching changes following the 2019–20 Big 12 Conference men's basketball season.

Head coaches

Note: Stats are through the beginning of the season. All stats and records are from time at current school only.

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Seasons at school	Overall record	Big 12 record	NCAA Tournaments	NCAA Final Fours	NCAA Championships
Baylor	Scott Drew	Valparaiso	18th	342–213 (.616)	140–150 (.483)	8	0	0
Iowa State	Steve Prohm	Murray State	6th	95–73 (.565)	40–50 (.444)	3	0	0
Kansas	Bill Self	Illinois	18th	501–109 (.821)	236–53 (.817)	16	3	1
Kansas State	Bruce Weber	Illinois	9th	161–110 (.594)	72–72 (.500)	5	0	0
Oklahoma	Lon Kruger	UNLV	10th	179–117 (.605)	81–81 (.500)	7	1	0
Oklahoma State	Mike Boynton	Oklahoma State (asst.)	4th	51–49 (.510)	20–34 (.370)	0	0	0
TCU	Jamie Dixon	Pittsburgh	5th	84–57 (.596)	29–43 (.403)	1	0	0
Texas	Shaka Smart	VCU	6th	90–78 (.536)	40–50 (.444)	2	0	0
Texas Tech	Chris Beard	Little Rock	5th	94–44 (.681)	40–32 (.556)	2	1	0
West Virginia	Bob Huggins	Kansas State	13th	289–158 (.647)	127–102 (.555)	9	1	0

Preseason

Recruiting classes

Rankings

Team	ESPN[1]	Rivals[2]	Scout/247 Sports[3]	Signees
Baylor	No. 22	No. 42	No. 28	3
Iowa State	No. 18	No. 37	No. 29	4
Kansas	No. 25	No. 17	No. 22	4
Kansas State	-	No. 19	No. 35	7
Oklahoma	-	No. 86	No. 85	2
Oklahoma State	No.8	No. 4	No. 13	6
TCU	-	No. 66	No. 52	3
Texas	-	No. 57	No. 96	1
Texas Tech	No. 14	No. 10	No. 10	5
West Virginia	-	No. 61	No. 51	4

Preseason watchlists

Below is a table of notable preseason watch lists.

	Wooden[4]	Naismith[5]	Cousy[6]	West[7]	Erving[8]	Malone[9]	Abdul-Jabbar[10]
Jared Butler, Baylor
MaCio Teague, Baylor
Marcus Garrett, Kansas
Cade Cunningham, Oklahoma State
Greg Brown III, Texas
Oscar Tshiebwe, West Virginia
Matt Coleman III, Texas
Ochai Agbaji, Kansas
Terrence Shannon Jr., Texas Tech
Mark Vital, Baylor
Brady Manek, Oklahoma
Derek Culver, West Virginia

Big 12 Preseason Poll Big 12 Coaches Points 1. Baylor (7) 79 2. Kansas (3) 73 3. West Virginia 61 4. Texas 58 5. Texas Tech 53 6. Oklahoma 39 7. Oklahoma State 35 8. Iowa State 19 9. TCU 18 10. Kansas State 15 Reference:[11] (#) first place votes

Pre-Season All-Big 12 Team Big 12 Coaches Jared Butler †, G Baylor Marcus Garrett †, G Kansas Austin Reaves, G Oklahoma Cade Cunningham, G Oklahoma State Matt Coleman III, G Texas Oscar Tshiebwe, F West Virginia † denotes unanimous selection Reference:[12] Player of the Year: Jared Butler, Baylor Newcomer of the Year: Marcus Santos-Silva, Texas Tech Freshman of the Year: Cade Cunningham, Oklahoma State

Preseason national polls

	AP[13]	Athlon Sports[14]	Blue Ribbon Yearbook[15]	CBS Sports[16]	Coaches[17]	ESPN[18]	Kenpom[19]	SBNation[20]	Sports Illustrated[21]
Baylor	2	1	3	3	1	1	1	2	1
Iowa State							67
Kansas	6	5	6	6	5	9	5	6	7
Kansas State							113
Oklahoma		17		38			31
Oklahoma State				35	RV		33
TCU							53
Texas	19		23	20	22	20	9	19	22
Texas Tech	14	11	10	14	13	14	6	14	20
West Virginia	15		20	7	15	18	8	15	17

Rankings

Legend

		Increase in ranking
		Decrease in ranking
		Not ranked previous week

		Pre	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Wk 17	Wk 18	Final
Baylor	AP	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
	C	1	–	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Iowa State	AP
	C		–
Kansas	AP	6	7	5	5	3	3	6	6	9	15	23
	C	5	–	5	5	4	4	6	7	9	18	22
Kansas State	AP
	C		–
Oklahoma	AP			RV				RV			24	9
	C		–	RV				RV			RV	14
Oklahoma State	AP			RV	RV	RV		RV	RV	RV	RV	RV
	C	RV	–	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	24
TCU	AP		RV
	C		–
Texas	AP	19	18	14	11	10	8	4	4	5	5	6
	C	22	–	12	11	10	9	4	4	5	5	6
Texas Tech	AP	14	17	17	14	15	13	18	15	12	10	13
	C	13	–	17	14	16	14	19	15	13	10	11
West Virginia	AP	15	11	11	8	7	9	14	13	14	11	17
	C	15	–	10	7	6	8	16	14	15	11	18

Regular Season

Conference matrix

	Baylor	Iowa State	Kansas	Kansas State	Oklahoma	Oklahoma State	TCU	Texas	Texas Tech	West Virginia
vs. Baylor	—	0–1	0–1	0–2	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–0
vs. Iowa State	1–0	–	0–0	1–0	0–0	1–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	2–0
vs. Kansas	1–0	0–0	—	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–2	1–0	0–1	0–1
vs. Kansas State	2–0	0–1	1–0	—	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0
vs. Oklahoma	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–1	—	0–0	0–2	0–1	2–0	0–1
vs. Oklahoma State	1–0	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–0	–	2–0	1–0	0–1	1–0
vs. TCU	1–0	0–0	2–0	0–1	2–0	0–2	–	0–0	0–0	0–0
vs. Texas	1–0	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–0	0–1	0–0	—	1–0	0–1
vs. Texas Tech	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	0–2	1–0	0–0	0–1	—	1–0
vs. West Virginia	0–0	0–2	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	0–0	1–0	0–1	—
Total	9–0	0–7	6–4	1–9	6–4	4–5	3–5	5–3	5–4	5–3

References

1. "2020 Basketball Class Rankings". espn.com. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
2. "New Rivals 2020 basketball team rankings released". Rivals.com. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
3. {{Cite web|url=https://247sports.com/Season/2020-Basketball/CompositeTeamRankings/%7Ctitle=2020 Basketball Team Rankings|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=November 12, 2020
4. "Six on Wooden Award Watch List - Big 12 Conference".
5. "Naismith Trophy Watch List Headlined by Big 12 Players - Big 12 Conference".
6. "Point Guards on Bob Cousy Award Preseason List - Big 12 Conference".
7. "Teague, Agbaji Named Candidates for Jerry West Shooting Guard Award - Big 12 Conference".
8. "TTU's Shannon Named to Julius Erving Award Watch List - Big 12 Conference".
9. "Four Selected to Karl Malone Preseason List - Big 12 Conference".
10. "Culver on Abdul-Jabbar Award Watch List - Big 12 Conference".
11. "Baylor Picked as Big 12 Preseason Favorite for First Time". big12sports.com. Big 12 Conference. October 29, 2020.
12. "Big 12 Reveals 2020-21 Men's Basketball Preseason Awards". big12sports.com. Big 12 Conference. October 28, 2020.
13. "AP Top 25 Poll". collegebasketball.ap.org. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
14. https://athlonsports.com/college-basketball/college-basketball-top-25-2020-21. Retrieved 12 November 2020. Missing or empty |title= (help)
15. Dortch, Chris. "Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook Preseason Top 25 for 2020-21". blueribbon.substack.com. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
16. "College basketball 1-357 rankings: Here are the projected best 68 teams for the 2020-21 season". CBSSports.com. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
17. "Men's Basketball Coaches Poll". USA Today Sports. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
18. "Kentucky climbs to No. 5, Baylor still No. 1 in Way-Too-Early Top 25 update for 2020-21". ESPN.com. 2020-10-26. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
19. Pomeroy, Ken. "2021 Pomeroy College Basketball Rankings". Retrieved 12 November 2020.
20. "Gonzaga leads the way in preseason AP poll for 2020-2021 season". SBNation. Vox Media. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
21. "SI's Men's College Basketball Preseason Top 25 for 2020–21". SI. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 27 January 2021.