{"id":170131,"date":"2025-12-18T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=170131"},"modified":"2025-12-17T20:50:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T01:50:50","slug":"college-basketball-big-12-rankings-12-18-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/12\/18\/college-basketball-big-12-rankings-12-18-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"College Basketball: Big 12 Rankings 12-18-2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Big 12 is on the verge of being the most stratified league in the country. The top-4 are all legitimate threats to win the National Championship, and the top-6 are all legitimate threats to reach the Final Four. After that, there are a few teams that are in a good position to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, but the bottom of the league just represents fodder for the top, who are unlikely to punch above their weight.<\/p>\n

NCAA Basketball: Big 12 Rankings<\/h2>\n

1. Arizona<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Candice Ward-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boat-racing Alabama by 21 points in a virtual road game is enough to get promoted to the top of this list, especially considering it was a game where Koa Peat was instantly in foul trouble. This team does not take a lot of 3-pointers, and there are some nights where they will lose on that math, but this is an incredibly disciplined and efficient basketball team that has played a top-tier non-conference schedule.<\/p>\n

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Also, make sure to check out our latest ACC Rankings<\/a>!<\/h4>\n
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2. Iowa State<\/h3>\n

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The Cyclones trailed by double-digits before rallying to beat Iowa 66-62 in Hilton Coliseum. Joshua Jefferson is a legitimate player of the year candidate at this point, and Kilyan Toure looks like a great replacement for Keshon Gilbert.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

3. Houston<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: David Leong-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It must be absolutely miserable to play against this Houston team. Only two opponents so far this season have scored more than 70 points in regulation against Houston. With so many new faces in the lineup, that level of sustained defensive intensity is a credit to the culture that Kelvin Sampson has instilled.<\/p>\n

4. BYU<\/h3>\n
\"AJ
Photo Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

AJ Dybantsa had his coming-out party in the \u201cWorld\u2019s most famous arena,\u201d against Clemson, putting up 28, 9, and 6 in a second-half comeback for the ages. But it was Robert O Wright, not Dybantsa, who hit the shot of the night when Clemson sold out to stop Dybantsa. This team has multiple ways to win games.<\/p>\n

5. Texas Tech<\/h3>\n

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I think it\u2019s quite likely that JT Toppin ends up winning the National Player of the Year Award. Stylistically, Arkansas is a team that is uniquely suited to attack Grant McCasland\u2019s drop-coverage-based defense, so I am not knocking Tech too much for losing to the Razorbacks on a neutral floor. Playing that game should make them better moving forward.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

6. Kansas<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another week, another injury concern for Darryn Peterson. He left the win over NC State early due to the lingering effects of his hamstring injury. Will he ever be 100%? We simply don\u2019t know, but the rest of the team has been holding it down well in his absence.<\/p>\n

7. Baylor<\/h3>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

The Bears have an absolute cakewalk to finish their non-conference schedule, playing Alcorn State, Southern, and \u201cArlington Baptist\u201d (if that\u2019s even a real place) before the calendar turns to 2026. I\u2019m ready to see this team go up against real competition to see just how good Cameron Carr is \u2013 or if there\u2019s a real reason he didn\u2019t play much at Tennessee last season.<\/p>\n

8. TCU<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Abe Arredondo-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jamie Dixson has really found something with this team \u2013 it\u2019s a smaller lineup by height but not by strength. David Punch is playing the best ball of his career and is a true mismatch when he is playing the 4 spot.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

9. UCF<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Chris Jones-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Johnny Dawkins\u2019 Knights have lost only one game to this point, and it was a game to Vanderbilt, where they still scored 93 points. We know this team can score, but they only have one win inside the KenPom top-100. We\u2019re going to have to wait until conference play to find out if they are for real.<\/p>\n

10. Colorado<\/h3>\n
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Photo Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The loss to Colorado State remains the only blemish on the record, and likely will be until conference play begins. I am eager to watch this team begin conference play to see if Tad Boyle\u2019s super-tall starting five will be effective in the Big 12.<\/p>\n

For more great college basketball analysis, check out DrRoto.com<\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Big 12 is on the verge of being the most stratified league in the country. The top-4 are all legitimate threats to win the National Championship, and the top-6 are all legitimate threats to reach the Final Four. After that, there are a few teams that are in a good position to qualify for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5637,"featured_media":170135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773],"tags":[3120,846,884,2792,2876,1046,878,881,2901,1508,4431],"class_list":["post-170131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","tag-acc-basketball","tag-arizona-wildcats","tag-baylor-bears","tag-byu-cougars","tag-colorado-buffaloes","tag-houston-cougars","tag-iowa-state-cyclones","tag-kansas-jayhawks","tag-tcu-horned-frogs","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-ucf-knights"],"modified_by":"Doug Henderson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170131"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170140,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170131\/revisions\/170140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}