Iowa State men’s basketball: Coaches pick Cyclones to finish fourth in Big 12

The USA Today released an abomination of a preseason poll for the Big 12, so the conference’s coaches released their own preseason poll on Thursday to fix it.

Mar 17, 2012; Louisville, KY, USA; Iowa State Cyclones head coach Fred Hoiberg calls out instructions during the first half against the Kentucky Wildcats in the third round of the 2012 NCAA men

Alright, so this is really an annual event before the media day, but it did end up being more uniform across the board and most importantly, it made sense.

The Iowa State Cyclones ended up at fourth place, well ahead of the schools behind them. Kansas and Oklahoma State ended up being tied at first place with five votes each at the top of the list, the third time that’s happened in Big 12 history. Baylor ended up third.

In many preseason polls for the Big 12, the top three schools are unanimous. As a reminder, none of the head coaches can vote for their own schools in this poll.

Here’s the entire list with the total number of points. The scale is simple; first place is nine points, second place is eight points, etc.

1. Kansas Jayhakws – 77 points
2. Oklahoma State Cowboys – 77 points
3. Baylor Bears – 63 points
4. Iowa State Cyclones – 56 points
5. Kansas State Wildcats – 43 points
6. Oklahoma Sooners – 43 points
7. West Virginia Mountaineers – 35 points
8. Texas Longhorns – 30 points
9. Texas Tech Red Raiders – 14 points
10. TCU Horned Frogs – 12 points

This is the highest ranking the Cyclones have had since the 2000-01 poll. They were ranked eighth in the poll for the last two years. Everybody can see how head coach Fred Hoiberg has his team trending in the right direction, and they’ll finally have high expectations heading into this season.

Source: Big 12 Sports