KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Big 12 Basketball Media Days wrapped up Wednesday with the final eight men’s and women’s teams taking their turns at the podium, and the day brought a little bit of everything: frustration over NCAA eligibility, a high-profile transfer making peace with her old program, and a pair of freshmen already talking like veterans.
TCU, Arizona, UCF, BYU, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Houston and Kansas State were all on hand. BYU head coach Kevin Young missed the event because of illness.
The Big 12 men’s and women’s seasons open Nov. 2.
One of the loudest themes of the day came from Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, who didn’t hide his irritation with the NCAA and the tangled mess around five-for-five eligibility. Lloyd said he backs the Class of 2022 players getting another season in 2026-27, including forward RJ Godfrey, whose situation is now tied up in a Georgia court case. Godfrey had initially received an injunction allowing him to play a fifth year, but that has since been stayed on an NCAA appeal.
For Lloyd, the bigger issue is the inconsistency. He pointed to international players being ruled eligible even though they’re older than Godfrey because they never went to college.
“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.”
Godfrey can’t play for now, but Lloyd said he believes the forward can still be a real piece for the Wildcats, who are the defending Big 12 regular-season and tournament champions and reached the Final Four last season.
“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.”
On the women’s side, Oklahoma State’s Audi Crooks finally got her moment at media day after spending the summer largely in the background with her new team. Crooks was a star at Iowa State for three years before transferring to Oklahoma State, where she’ll play her fourth college season. She joined Liv McGill and Stailee Heard as the Cowgirls were introduced as the Big 12 favorites.
Her decision wasn’t just about a new opportunity. Crooks said some of the appeal came from having spent years going against Oklahoma State coach Jacie Hoyt.
“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 also stressed that her exit from Iowa State came without bitterness. She said she was one of the last players to leave the portal and had conversations with the Cyclones about what the roster might look like in 2026-27 before moving on.
“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.”
That means Oklahoma State’s trip to Iowa State on Jan. 9 will carry some extra attention. On Tuesday, Bill Fennelly said he wasn’t sure what kind of reception Crooks might get back in Ames.
Two of the brightest young names at the event also made their media-day debuts. BYU’s Bruce Branch III and Arizona’s Caden Holt both arrived with serious hype, and both may be one-and-done players at their schools.
Branch, a McDonald’s All-American, follows AJ Dybantsa - the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft in June after one season at BYU - into a situation full of buzz. But Branch said he’s not chasing that storyline.
“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, another McDonald’s All-American and the No. 2 recruit in the country, also sounded eager to get going - even if he briefly had to be corrected on the Big 12 schedule.
“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.”
TCU’s women’s program arrived in Kansas City with a recent resume that already looks decorated: two straight Big 12 regular-season titles, a conference tournament championship and back-to-back Elite Eight runs. But coach Mark Campbell said this group feels fresh, and he leaned on a foreign trip to Toronto to help the team bond.
That trip included games, practice and, thanks to a storm Campbell described as a “tsunami,” a memorable weather test. He said the team dealt with torrential rain that locals called 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.”
TCU enters the season ranked No. 2 in the preseason poll behind Oklahoma State. With Olivia Miles and Marta Suarez gone, Campbell said the Horned Frogs will look to center Clara Silva as a key piece in 2026-27.
The day also introduced one of the Big 12’s new faces in a new seat: UCF women’s coach Gabe Lazo, the only first-year coach on the women’s side to speak Wednesday. Lazo, a Florida native, had just accepted a job with LSU when UCF came open, forcing him into a tough decision.
“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 said the move has come with an unexpected perk, too. Disney World is close enough to become a regular stop.
“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.”
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