Ariel Puterman gives his Big 12 basketball power rankings heading into week 8 of the 2025-26 season.
Week 7 team of the week: Texas Tech
Week 7 game of the week: Duke vs. Texas Tech
Week 7 player of the week: AJ Dybantsa, BYU
Week 8 matchup of the week: Northern Colorado at Colorado
Week 8 under-the-radar matchup of the week: UCF at FAU
1) Arizona Wildcats
Last week’s ranking: 1 (-)
Record: 11-0
Last week: W vs. Abilene Christian (96-62), W vs. San Diego State (68-45)
Next week: vs. Bethune Cookman (Dec. 22 – 9 p.m.)
Quality wins: at UConn, Alabama (Neutral), Florida (Neutral), Auburn, UCLA (Neutral), San Diego State (Neutral)
Bad losses:
Again, is Arizona ever going to lose? The scary thing is, it seems like they’re getting better. They added another big win on Saturday, taking down the Mountain West favorites San Diego State, and held them to just 45 points. They just have so many weapons on both sides of the ball and are so selfless.
Arizona will enter 2026 undefeated, barring a crazy upset, and with how their schedule was built, there’s a great chance they can enter February undefeated as well if they can beat BYU on the road late in the month.
2) Iowa State Cyclones
Last week’s ranking: 2 (-)
Record: 11-0
Last week: W vs. Long Beach State (91-60)
Next week: None
Quality wins: at Purdue, St. John’s (Neutral), Iowa, Creighton (Neutral), Syracuse (Neutral), Mississippi State
Bad losses:
Like Arizona, barring a crazy upset, they will head into 2026 as one of the final undefeated teams. The trio continues to dominate, and Killyan Toure has been awesome defensively. This team is absolutely a championship threat, and it will be awesome seeing them go up against the best in the Big 12.
3) BYU Cougars
Last week’s ranking: 3 (-)
Record: 11-1
Last week: W vs. Pacific (93-57), W vs. Abilene Christian (85-67)
Next week: vs. Eastern Washington (Dec 22 – 9:00 p.m)
Quality wins: Wisconsin (Neutral), Clemson (Neutral), Villanova (Neutral), Miami (Neutral), Dayton (Neutral)
Bad losses:
AJ Dybantsa has been as good, if not better than advertised. He showcased that again, scoring 35 points on 9-12 shooting in the win against Abilene Christian. He is now 6th in the country in scoring and has scored 22+ in five straight games. The rest of the team has been great too, with Saunders adding 24 in the win against Pacific.
All the doubters have been silenced, and they’ll enjoy their last game of the season on Monday before gearing up for Big 12 play.
4) Houston Cougars
Last week’s ranking: 5 (+1)
Record: 11-1
Last week: W vs. #14 Arkansas (94-85)
Next week: None
Quality wins: Arkansas (Neutral), Auburn (Neutral), Syracuse (Neutral), Notre Dame (Neutral), Florida State
Bad losses:
Houston is now completely looking like Houston. After struggling early in the season, they are in championship form, adding their best win of the season against Arkansas. Kingston Flemings continues to be terrific, and Emanuel Sharp did a great job scoring on all three levels as well. Even Milos Uzan made some big-time shots. Defensively, they definitely weren’t as good as some of the Houston teams of the past, but a win is a win, especially against a talented team like Arkansas.
Houston still has a little to learn about their team, like Uzan’s role, how to maximize Chris Cenac’s talent, and how to improve defensively before it can reach the same tier as Arizona and Iowa State, but it’s not far behind right now, which is scary for the rest of the conference.
5) Kansas Jayhawks
Last week’s ranking: 5 (-1)
Record: 9-3
Last week: W vs. Towson (73-49)
Next week: vs. Davidson (Dec 22 – 8:00 p.m)
Quality wins: Tennessee (Neutral), at NC State, Syracuse (Neutral), Notre Dame (Neutral), Missouri (Neutral)
Bad losses:
The big story is still Darryn Peterson, and whether he’s in or out, but you have to give a lot of credit to the rest of this team. Flory Bidunga has been great, most recently scoring 18 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, and role players Melvin Council Jr., Tre White, and Bryson Tiller have all stepped up.
Obviously, they need Peterson, especially as they enter conference play, but they’ve done a good job without him. They face Davidson in a rematch of the 2008 Elite Eight before calling it a year.
6) Texas Tech Red Raiders
Last week’s ranking: 9 (+2)
Record: 9-3
Last week: W vs. Northern Colorado (101-90), W vs. #3 Duke (82-81)
Next week: None
Quality wins: Duke (Neutral), Wake Forest (Neutral), LSU (Neutral)
Bad losses:
How good is Christian Anderson?? The sophomore was special in the win against Duke, scoring 27 points on 9-14 shooting, hitting five threes, and also adding five assists and three steals. Whenever Duke made a run and seemed like they were going to pull away, Anderson kept them in it. This is a huge win not only for the resume but also for their confidence.
LaJuan Watts was terrific as well this week. He scored 36 in the win against Northern Colorado, then added 20 against Duke. If he can emerge as a consistent third option, this is a scary team.
7) Baylor Bears
Last week’s ranking: 6 (+1)
Record: 9-2
Last week: W vs. Alcorn State (113-56), W vs. Southern (111-67)
Next week: None
Quality wins: Washington, Creighton (Neutral), San Diego State (Neutral)
Bad losses:
They obviously didn’t play the most quality opponents, but holy cow, what an offensive explosion from Baylor this week. They averaged 2.8 points per minute, and six players scored in double figures in the first game. Obviously, you’d like to see them do this more against better teams, but a good sign nonetheless.
8) UCF Knights
Last week’s ranking: 12 (+4)
Record: 10-1
Last week: W vs. Mercer (81-63), W vs. Florida Gulf Coast (102-80)
Next week: at FAU (Dec. 23 – 2 p.m.)
Quality wins: at Texas A&M, vs. Pittsburgh (Neutral)
Bad losses:
10-1 is nothing to scoff at. They added two 18+ point wins this week as well. Jordan Burks led the team in scoring in both wins and leads the team in scoring as well. Per KenPom, this is a top 25 offensive team, and the only loss being undefeated Vanderbilt looks good as well.
They have a sneaky road game in an otherwise quiet week in college basketball. If they win that one, an 11-1 start to the season is great for UCF fans.
9) Oklahoma State Cowboys
Last week’s ranking: 9 (-)
Record: 11-1
Last week: W vs. Kansas City (91-79), W vs. Cal State Fullerton (94-89)
Next week: None
Quality wins: at Northwestern, Texas A&M, South Florida, Grand Canyon
Bad losses:
It was a 2-0 week, but not the most confidence-building week for the Cowboys. They led by just four at half to 2-11 Kansas City, then beat Cal State Fullerton, who are 219th in KenPom by 5. The defense obviously is struggling, and not having Parsa Fallah isn’t helping.
They have a week off before a buy game against Bethune-Cookman. They definitely need to get healthy during this break, because they start Big 12 play with two of their first three games being against Texas Tech and Iowa State on the road.
10) TCU Horned Frogs
Last week’s ranking: 11 (-)
Record: 9-3
Last week: W vs. Incarnate Word (69-65), W vs. Oral Roberts (72-53), W vs. Florida A&M (80-56)
Next week: None
Quality wins: Florida (Neutral), Wisconsin (Neutral)
Bad losses: New Orleans
This week almost started as a disaster for TCU when they found themselves tied with Incarnate Word with one minute left. They’ve already dropped to one mid-major opponent this season, so two would be a disaster. Brock Harding scored the last four points, and they avoided the upset. They followed that up with two less stressful games.
This team is definitely one of the more confusing teams in the country, but that win against Florida is going to hold a lot of weight this season. They have a brutal start to conference play, but plenty of opportunities to pick up quality wins.
11) Kansas State Wildcats
Last week’s ranking: 13 (-2)
Record: 8-4
Last week: W vs. South Dakota (106-76)
Next week: None
Quality wins: California, Mississippi State (Neutral), at Creighton
Bad losses: Bowling Green
Kansas State has now won three in a row after dropping four straight. PJ Haggerty continues to be a star, and Nate Johnson and Abdi Bashir have been great as well. It’s still hard to get a read on this team’s outlook, but it’s definitely heading in the right direction.
12) Colorado Buffaloes
Last week’s ranking: 10 (-2)
Record: 10-2
Last week: W vs. Portland State (84-73), L vs. Stanford (68-77)
Next week: None
Quality wins: Providence, San Francisco (Neutral), Washington (Neutral)
Bad losses:
Not a great week for Colorado, and they might be heading into last year’s territory. Not starting 0-13 in conference play is bad, but being toward the bottom all season long is bad. They went 9-2 last year in non-conference, and will enter this year with two losses as well. The news is they don’t have any bad losses, and a favorable start to Big 12 basketball play to hopefully build some confidence.
13) Arizona State Sun Devils
Last week’s ranking: 8(-5)
Record: 9-4
Last week: L at UCLA (77-90), L vs. Oregon State
Next week: None
Quality wins: Texas (Neutral), Oklahoma, Santa Clara
Bad losses:
Losing to UCLA by 13 on the road isn’t bad. Losing to Oregon State when leading for nearly the entire second half is bad. Every game matters for a team like Arizona State, and losing to a 7-6 Oregon State team at home is a bad look. The defense needs to be better, and obviously, the coaching. They’ve wrapped up non-conference play and will spend the next 12 days prepping for their first Big 12 matchup, Colorado at home.
14) West Virginia Mountaineers
Last week’s ranking: 14 (-)
Record: 8-4
Last week: None
Next week: vs. Mississippi Valley State (Dec 22 – 7:00 p.m)
Quality wins: Pittsburgh
Bad losses:
West Virginia didn’t play last week and faces the worst team in college basketball this week. As mentioned last week, they’ll have to do a lot of work in conference play to make up for the lackluster non-conference results. They have the talent and coaching; it just needs to translate onto the court.
15) Cincinnati Bearcats
Last week’s ranking: 15 (-)
Record: 7-5
Last week: W vs. Alabama State (88-51), L vs. Clemson (65-68)
Next week: None
Quality wins: Dayton
Bad losses: Eastern Michigan
Cincinnati trailed Clemson 30-5 at one point. Yes, you read that right. They did a great job getting back on track and nearly pulling off the win, but alas, they fall to 7-5. There’s no way around it; this team can not be successful with coach Wes Miller in charge. Hopefully, they realize that before it’s too late, although it might be. Oh yeah, Jizzle James is back, I guess, and he averaged 13 a game this week.
16) Utah Utes
Last week’s ranking: 16 (-)
Record: 8-4
Last week: W vs. Eastern Washington (101-77)
Next week: None
Quality wins: Ole Miss (Neutral)
Bad losses: Cal Poly
Quiet week for Utah, winning by 24. Three players scored 20+ in the win. Utah is still comfortably the worst team in the Big 12, but still a lot of season left to turn it around.
Big 12 Basketball Power Rankings: Week 7
Big 12 Basketball Power Rankings: Week 6
Big 12 Basketball Power Rankings: Week 5
Big 12 Basketball Power Rankings: Week 4
Big 12 Basketball Power Rankings: Week 3