WVU men's hoops picked 9th in first Big 12 preseason poll
On Friday, the Big 12 Conference announced its preseason polls for men's basketball and West Virginia was picked ninth in the first poll of the season, ahead of three new Big 12 teams and Oklahoma.
The poll ranks Kansas atop the teams in the conference with 12 first-place votes, ahead of newly joined member Houston who received two first place votes and then Texas.
Baylor is ranked fourth in the polls after the Longhorns, followed by TCU and then Kansas State. Just ahead of West Virginia, ranked sixth and seventh respectively, are Iowa State and Texas Tech.
Below the Mountaineers in the poll is Oklahoma State at 10th, Cincinnati at 11th, Oklahoma at 12th and then two new member schools, BYU and UCF, who round out the polls at 13th and 14th.
This is the second-straight season where West Virginia has been picked ninth by voters in the Big 12 Preseason Polls, but the Mountaineers improved on that ranking by one spot at the end of last season, finishing eighth with a 7-11 conference record.
The Mountaineers also scored one win in the Big 12 Conference Tournament over Texas Tech a year ago and managed to secure a NCAA tournament berth as a nine-seed last season with a 19-15 overall record.
This season, after the resignation of former head coach Bob Huggins, there is a lot of unknown for the team in the preseason. The Mountaineers are now led by interim head coach Josh Eilert and welcome nine newcomers and bring back four returners, while key contributors transferred away to other schools, some in the Big 12 Conference.
The transfer class for West Virginia is headlined by All-ACC center Jesse Edwards from Syracuse and PAC-12 assists leader in 2022, point guard Kerr Kriisa, from Arizona. Alongside these two are many other contributors like forward Quinn Slazinski from Iona and big man Akok Akok from Georgetown.
West Virginia is still awaiting word on a transfer waiver for guard RaQuan Battle as well, who came to WVU from Montana State.
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