KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The final eight men’s and women’s basketball teams spoke to the media during Big 12 Basketball Media Days on Wednesday.
TCU, Arizona, UCF, BYU, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Houston and Kansas State were in attendance. BYU head coach Kevin Young was not in attendance due to an illness.
The Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball seasons starts on Nov. 2.
Here are five takeaways from the second day in KC.
Tommy Lloyd’s Frustration
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd is frustrated with the NCAA over five-for-five eligibility. During his time with the media on Wednesday and he made it clear that he’s in favor of the Class of 2022 players being eligible for an additional season in 2026-27. He has one of those players, forward RJ Godfrey.
He’s a Class of 2022 player who played two years at Clemson, another at Georgia and then another at Clemson. He is part of a case in a Georgia court seeking an injunction to allow him to play a fifth year. He was initially granted the injunction, but it has since been stayed on an NCAA appeal.
So, for now, Godfrey can’t play. But there are plenty of other players in the Big 12 that are in Godfrey’s position who are eligible via injunction. That’s where Lloyd’s frustration lies.
“One question I’d have to get when you bring up R.J. in specific is there’s international players getting eligible now that are older than him, a ‘fifth-year’ of eligibility because they didn’t go to college,” Lloyd said. “They played four years pro, but they’re getting eligible now. Somebody has to explain to me how logically this all makes sense.”
The Wildcats are the defending Big 12 regular-season and tournament champions and made the NCAA Final Four last season. Lloyd is hoping for a return trip and believes Godfrey can help.
“R.J. is going to help put all the pieces in the right place,” he said. “I hope and pray we get to see it.”
Audi’s an Okie
For three years, Audi Crooks was a star at Iowa State. She’ll be the same thing at Oklahoma State where she’ll play her fourth season of college basketball.
Of course, the fact that she transferred from Iowa State — and she’s an Iowa native — and transferred to OSU in the offseason made news. For most of the summer, she’s been practicing with her new teammates, but the media hasn’t had much opportunity to speak to her. That changed on Wednesday.
She was available, along with Liv McGill and Stailee Heard, as the Cowgirls are the favorites to win the Big 12.
So, why Oklahoma State? One of the factors was getting her head beat in by Oklahoma State in the past.
“I’ve played coach Jacie [Oklahoma State coach Hoyt] the last few years and lost quite a few of those matchups,” she said. “So, I just loved her competitive spirit and nature.”
Crooks said she was one of the last players to leave Iowa State in the transfer portal and had conversations with ISU about what the roster could look like in 2026-27 before she transferred out. There were no hard feeling on her end.
“I was there for three years, so I’m not going to sit around be callous about that,” she said. “I have a lot of love and care for those people and I always will.”
Oklahoma State heads to Iowa State on Jan. 9. On Tuesday, Iowa State head coach Bill Fennelly said he wasn’t sure what the reception would be.
Prep Stars Make Media Day Debut
Two of the most sought-after players at media days were freshmen — BYU’s Bruce Branch III and Arizona’s Caden Holt. Both could be one-and-done players for the Cougars and Wildcats so Wednesday may be their only media day appearances.
Branch was a McDonald’s All-American and is following in the footsteps of AJ Dybantsa, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft in June after playing just one season at BYU. Branch sees it as inspiration but not something he has to chase.
“Long story short, just don’t think about it,” Branch said. “Don’t look for rankings, drafts, nothing like that. I just take every day, just use that day to get better. Just really focused on BYU right now. Not really focused on we know what’s next next year or anything like that. Honestly, I just want to win this year. I’m going to do everything in my power for us to do that.”
Holt was considered the No. 2 recruit in the country and was also a McDonald’s All-American. At one point he said he was looking forward to playing on Tuesdays and Fridays, but head coach Tommy Lloyd had to remind him that the Big 12 plays on different days.
“Yeah, yeah, every — two nights a week it’s probably going to be one of the biggest games of my life,” he said. “I’m looking forward to competing with the guys every night in the best conference in the country, honestly. Whatever day it is, Monday through Sunday.”
The TCU Tsunami
The TCU Horned Frogs women’s basketball team is used to success these days. The program has won two straight Big 12 regular-season titles, a Big 12 Tournament title and has reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament each of the last two seasons.
But this is a brand-new team in head coach Mark Campbell’s eyes. To build camaraderie and chemistry, he did what many coaches do — get his kids a foreign trip. In this case it was Toronto.
The Horned Frogs played games, practiced, got to know each other and endured what Campbell called a “tsunami.” It was a tsunami-like storm that dropped torrential rain on Toronto, something the locals considered to be a 100-year storm.
“We were doing a bike tour in Toronto and a tsunami hit,” Campbell said. “It’s one of those things, you can either kind of pout and it sucks or go jump in the puddles. Some of these guys were out there dancing and made the best of it. They had their ponchos on.”
The Horned Frogs were ranked No. 2 in the preseason poll behind Oklahoma State. While Olivia Miles and Marta Suarez are gone, TCU can lean on center Clara Silva as their lead player in 2026-27.
New Coaches in New Places
UCF’s Gabe Lazo is the only first-year women’s coach that spoke on Wednesday. He’s a Florida native who had just taken a job with LSU when the Knights moved on from Sytia Messer. That put him in a weird spot — should he stay at LSU or take the head-coaching job in his native state?
“It was a difficult conversation to have with coach Kim Mulkey, but it’s something you can’t say no to, right?” Lazo said.
He couldn’t. He took the job. It’s had a side benefit — Disney World is right down the road.
“I’ve been to Disney World six times in the last four months,” Lazo said. “I went to Disney World once as a kid. My mama loves Disney World. She’ll be here. She’ll be going to Disney World.”
