MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WCHS) — The West Virginia men’s basketball team was picked to finish in the bottom half of the Big 12 Conference in a preseason poll released Thursday.

The Mountaineers were voted No. 11 out of 16 teams in the conference, according to the preseason poll. No WVU players were chosen to the preseason All-Big 12 Team.

The Houston Cougars were picked as the preseason conference favorite for the first time after coming in at No. 2 the previous two seasons.

BYU was chosen No. 2 in the rankings, followed by Texas Tech, Arizona and Iowa State to round out the top five. Both BYU and Arizona received one first-place vote.

Below is the full preseason rankings:

1. Houston (14) - 224

2. BYU (1) - 204

3. Texas Tech - 200

4. Arizona (1) - 179

5. Iowa State - 170

6. Kansas - 163

7. Baylor - 137

8. Cincinnati - 120

9. K-State - 117

10. TCU - 90

11. West Virginia - 79

12. Oklahoma State - 77

13. Utah - 50

14. UCF - 39

15. Colorado - 37

16. Arizona State - 34

Texas Tech's JT Toppin was named Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year, returning to Lubbock after capturing postseason player of the year honors in 2024-25. The Dallas native averaged 18.2 points and 9.4 rebounds per game.

West Virginia is coming into the season with another new head coach. The Mountaineers hired Ross Hodge to lead the program after Darian DeVries departed in Indiana in the offseason after just one year in Morgantown.

Hodge comes to West Virginia after two seasons as head coach at North Texas. He spent several years as an assistant with the team prior to the head coaching job.

The Mountaineers were picked to finish No. 13 in the 2024 preseason poll and finished the conference schedule at No. 8 with a 10-10 league record and 19-13 overall.