Big 12 coaches have given the Arizona Wildcats a little extra motivation for their second go-round in the conference this season.
The leagueβs 16 head coaches voted the Wildcats to finish fourth in the Big 12 race β behind Houston, BYU and Texas Tech β while not voting any Wildcats onto the leagueβs 10-player preseason all-conference team.
Asked about the results later Thursday at a news conference, UA coach Tommy Lloyd basically shrugged.
"Preseason stuff's for you guys. It's to make your job easier to quantify something that might not be quantifiable," Lloyd said. "Obviously media is a big part of what we do, and if it helps you guys out, I've got no problem with it. I have not spent one second thinking about it or talking about it.
"We're building for what we hope is a successful, tough season, and hopefully at the end of the day, our team plays well enough, and some of the individuals play well enough that they get the real honor that matters and and that would be credit at the end of the season."
The Wildcats did pick up one first-place vote, as did BYU, while Houston gained the other 14 first-place votes after winning the Big 12 and reaching the NCAA championship game last season.
Big 12 coaches, who were not allowed to vote for their own teams or players, also voted Iowa State to finish fifth and Kansas sixth. Baylor was chosen seventh, Cincinnati eighth, and Kansas State ninth, while TCU finished out the leagueβs top 10. The three Pac-12 refugees other than Arizona were picked low: Utah was 13th, Colorado 15th and ASU 16th.
The coachesβ prediction of Arizona was largely consistent with how media and analytics-based websites have been picking the Wildcats. The Athletic picked Arizona second behind Houston, but Lindyβs preseason annual had Arizona fifth and Blue Ribbon put the Wildcats sixth.
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd speaks to his team during a partially-open practice at Richard Jefferson Gymnasium, Aug. 12, 2025.
The Associated Press Top 25 poll also effectively picked the same top six Big 12 teams as the leagueβs coaches did, putting Houston at No. 2 overall nationally, BYU at No. 8, Texas Tech at No. 10 and Arizona at No. 13.
Among the major analytic sites, Kenpom also had the Wildcats as its fourth-highest rated Big 12 team (at No. 15), while BartTorvik.com had only Houston (1) and BYU (6) above Arizona (12) — and EvanMiya.com had Arizona (7) below only Houston (1) among Big 12 teams.
Last season, the Wildcats slightly outperformed their Big 12 expectations. Big 12 coaches, as well as Lindyβs and Blue Ribbon, all picked UA to finish fifth, but the Wildcats finished in a third-place tie with BYU at 14-6. Arizona also advanced to the championship game of the Big 12 Tournament, where the Wildcats lost to Houston.
In major preseason player awards, Big 12 coaches surprised only in choosing Texas Tech forward LeJuan Watts, a transfer from Washington State, the preseason Newcomer of the Year.
Coaches chose Texas Tech forward JT Toppin as the preseason Player of the Year after Toppin won the postseason Player of the Year award last season, while potential No. 1 NBA Draft pick Darryn Peterson of Kansas was named the preseason Freshman of the Year.
Texas Tech forward JT Toppin (15), shown battling Arizona center Tobe Awaka (30) for a rebound during a game at McKale Center last season, was named the Big 12's preseason Player of the Year after winning the postseason Player of the Year last season.Β
The Big 12 coaches put Toppin and Peterson on the conferenceβs preseason all-league team along with AJ Dybantsa and Richie Saunders of BYU; Emanuel Sharp, Milos Uzan and Joseph Tugler of Houston, Tamin Lipsey of Iowa State, P.J. Haggerty of Kansas State and Christian Anderson of Texas Tech.
