Kansas and Oklahoma State Tie for First in Preseason Coaches’ Poll
IRVING, Texas – Kansas, nine-time Big 12 defending regular-season champion, and Oklahoma State tied in the men’s basketball Big 12 preseason coaches’ poll to win the 2014 conference regular season the league office announced Thursday.
Big 12 coaches were not allowed voting for their own team and KU and OSU each received five first-place votes and were awarded 77 points each. This marks the third time in the 17-year history of the poll (there was not a coaches’ poll in 1996-97) that the preseason poll ended in a tie. The other years the preseason poll result was a tie was 2005 (Kansas, Oklahoma State) and 2012 (Kansas, Texas A&M).
“Like I’ve said all along, preseason predictions don’t mean much,” Kansas head coach Bill Self said. “I know going into it that other teams in our league, primarily Oklahoma State, return basically their entire team and we have a lot of newcomers. We’ve got a lot of work to do to put ourselves in a position to play for a championship. I am excited about the pieces we have and I look forward to the challenge of being able to compete in what will be, once again, a highly competitive league.”
Kansas has been the preseason favorite 11 times in the Big 12 era and nine times lived up to its billing by winning the regular-season title. In Self’s 10 seasons at KU, the Jayhawks have been the preseason choice six times (2005-07-08-10-12-13) and went on to win the title every time. Kansas has won 13 of the 17 overall Big 12 regular-season titles since the league formed in 1996-97.
Baylor finished third in the league coaches’ poll followed by No. 4. Iowa State. Kansas State and Oklahoma tied for fifth with No. 7 West Virginia, No. 8 Texas, No. 9. Texas Tech and No. 10 TCU rounding out the poll.
2013-14 Big 12 Preseason Poll
Team (First-place votes) – Points
T1. KANSAS (5) – 77
T1. Oklahoma State (5) – 77
3. Baylor – 63
4. Iowa State – 56
T5. Kansas State – 43
T5. Oklahoma – 43
7. West Virginia – 35
8. Texas – 30
9. Texas Tech – 14
10. TCU 12
Nine points were awarded for first place, eight for second, etc .Coaches are not permitted to vote for their own team.
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