And … exhale. We are less than one week away from the start of the season. With today’s post, Buzzer’s comprehensive power conference previews are complete. We can not explain how excited we are to get to the part where we get to watch actual, non-exhibition basketball, where we can start to make some definitive comments about real results, where everything doesn’t have to be couched in “should” or “could.” It’s almost here. Amen.
We’ll be back before the season tips off Nov. 3 with one more preseason piece, touching on interesting mid-majors and other collected thoughts. In the meantime, here’s what we make of the 2025-26 Big 12, from the retooled Houston juggarnaut on its revenge journey, to the most-mentioned team of the 2025-26 preview season (because all of their talented players transfer every year, and spread like dandelion seeds across the college basketball meadow, in a way that both mystifies and entertains us): Arizona State.
Let’s do this.
Note: This is the latest in a series of power league and mid-major previews we’ll be running in the coming weeks. We skipped this in Buzzer’s first season, but last year found the preview process remains a) fun, b) popular and c) the best way for the author to make sure he knows what guys are on which rosters come November. Team ranks are vague, in broad tiers, and not to be taken super seriously.
Also! If you’d like to hear me discuss some of the metrics used to form the below opinions, check out the latest episode (and leave a five-star review!) of the Basket Under Review Podcast with guest Evan Miyakawa:
Title contenders
Houston Cougars
At first glance, it’s easy to hand-wave a Houston preview. The Cougars were one possession away from winning the national title. Milos Uzan, Emanuel Sharp, and Joseph Tugler are all still here. The program coming off another dominant Big 12 title campaign and a No. 1 seed, the latest in a de rigueur string under Kelvin Sampson. They will defend and rebound with the same manic knife-between-teeth fervor as ever. We get it. Just put the national title prediction in the bag, bro.
It’s not quite that simple.
At Big 12 Media Day last week, Kelvin Sampson was eager to remind folks that a key component of the 2025-26 Cougars — a raft of highly touted freshman who need to adapt to a new and radical way of basketball life immediately — are, in fact, freshmen, and thus unlikely to do so anytime soon:
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