Houston guard Terrance Arceneaux (23) celebrates his three-point shot against Oregon with forward J'Wan Roberts (13) and Houston guard Jamal Shead (1) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Andy Nelson)

It’s easy to forget with the near-daily developments in the conference-realignment news cycle, but Kansas hasn’t actually had a new league opponent for 11 years, since TCU and West Virginia first joined the Big 12 back in 2012.

It will therefore be a significant adjustment for KU to have four new schools, BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston, to play annually in some sports and near-annually in others. These schools, which are all coming from so-called mid-major conferences, don’t exactly have an extensive history with KU, either, particularly since Bill Self took over as head coach in 2003. UCF has never played Kansas, period.

With that in mind, here’s a quick preview of what the Jayhawks can expect from each of their four new basketball rivals.

BYU forward Fousseyni Traore goes up for a dunk during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Gonzaga, Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023, in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)

BYU

It’ll be a whole new world for the Cougars as they make the leap from the top-heavy West Coast Conference, home to Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s, to the Midwest-based and reasonably well-rounded Big 12. BYU played its league’s top teams close throughout the 2022-23 campaign but finished just 19-15 (7-9 WCC), two years removed from an NCAA Tournament appearance. The Cougars showed a knack for rebounding up and down the roster — led by forward Fousseyni Traore, a native of Mali who averaged 12.9 points on 60.7% shooting and 7.8 boards per game — and ranked near the top of the WCC in blocks and steals. But in a league that featured high-caliber scorers like Gonzaga’s Drew Timme and Loyola Marymount’s Cam Shelton, BYU lacked a volume scoring option of its own despite having four players averaging in double figures.

Two of those four, forward Gideon George and guard Rudi Williams, graduated, but the Cougars will be quite experienced next year after losing very little in the transfer portal. They retain, among many others, Traore, outside shooter Spencer Johnson and starting shooting guard Jaxson Robinson. They added Charlotte transfer forward Aly Khalifa, noted for his passing acumen, to complement Traore on the inside and replenished the backcourt with a pair of high-scoring guards in Ques Glover (Samford, though he began his career at Florida) and Dawson Baker (UC Irvine). Dallin Hall started 21 games at guard as a freshman and earned a WCC all-freshman team nod, and things could get a little crowded in the Cougars’ backcourt with more experienced players coming in.

The Jayhawks could be headed to Provo to visit the Cougars in the Marriott Center early in the Big 12 slate, as ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla tweeted Saturday that the teams will play there for the first Big Monday of the year.

Central Florida guard Darius Johnson (3) pushes the ball up the court during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Houston, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

Central Florida

Last year’s UCF squad was all about Taylor Hendricks. The native of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, led the Knights in points, rebounds, blocks and overall minutes, producing possibly the best freshman season in program history, declaring for the draft and becoming the first-ever first-round pick out of the program when he went ninth overall to the Utah Jazz.

All that — which only yielded a 19-15 (8-10 American Athletic Conference) campaign — is behind UCF now, and in fact the Knights will look dramatically different next season in what could be a rebuilding year (as the university looks to literally rebuild its facilities with “transformational updates” to its basketball arenas). The Knights’ other primary offensive options C.J. Kelly (graduated) and Ithiel Horton (entered the transfer portal exceptionally late, near the end of June) are also gone. In fact, just one player who started a game last season, incoming junior guard Darius Johnson, is slated to return next season. He averaged 10 points per game and showed some potential as a distributor, leading the team with 104 assists in just 24 games.

Exactly to whom he will distribute the ball remains to be seen, as UCF added a whopping seven players in the portal and returns three freshmen who redshirted last season. One headliner is small forward Jaykwon Walton, who averaged a team-high 13.9 points at Wichita State last season and was supposed to transfer to Alabama before an arrest in Tuscaloosa in April for marijuana possession. The Knights have also bulked up inside with Ibrahima Diallo, a shot-blocker from San Jose State, and Omar Payne, a highly touted forward out of high school who began his career at Florida and has struggled to catch on at Illinois or Jacksonville.

Cincinnati’s forward Viktor Lakhin (30) blocks a shot by Xavier’s guard Souley Boum (0) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022, in Cincinnati. Xavier won 80-77. (AP Photo/Aaron Doster)

Cincinnati

The Bearcats reached nine straight NCAA tournaments in the 2010s under Mick Cronin but have been unable to recapture that success since. Wes Miller will enter his third season attempting to reshape the program following John Brannen’s abortive and controversy-ridden tenure.

Cincinnati seems to be on an upward trajectory, as it improved from eighth to fourth in the AAC in Miller’s second season with a 23-13 (11-7) record but fell a couple of games short of a tournament bid. The Bearcats had two of the top passers in assist/turnover ratio in the AAC in David DeJulius and Mika Adams-Woods and well-rounded scoring from Landers Nolley II (who signed with the New Orleans Pelicans after the season), DeJulius and forward Viktor Lakhin.

The 6-foot-11 Lakhin, who averaged 11.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game, is back after earning his degree in three years and joined in the frontcourt by 6-foot-9 graduate student Ody Oguama, a periodic starter last season. Cincinnati also added 7-footer Aziz Bandaogo from Utah Valley, the team that knocked it out of the National Invitational Tournament in March, and Temple transfer Jamille Reynolds.

The backcourt rotation will be a bit more of an enigma beyond the athletic young guard Dan Skillings Jr. Cincinnati native CJ Fredrick is back home and brings experience after five years spent between Iowa and Kentucky, and the Bearcats added the nation’s No. 4 junior-college prospect in point guard Day Day Thomas.

Baylor guard LJ Cryer (4) scores a 3-point basket over Kansas guard Dajuan Harris Jr. (3) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Monday, Jan. 23, 2023, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Jerry Larson)

Houston

These Cougars should make the biggest immediate impact on the Big 12. They earned a No. 1 national ranking last November for the first time in 40 years and even held that spot going into the tournament, with just three losses to Alabama, Temple and Memphis, before suffering an upset loss at the hands of fifth-seed Miami in the Sweet 16. The Hurricanes went on a 19-4 run midway through the second half to end Houston’s hopes of a first-ever national title.

Last year’s Cougars balanced one of the nation’s best defenses (which finished the year allowing just 36.6% shooting from the field, first in the country, and 57.5 points per game, second overall) and a well-balanced offense with five scorers averaging in double figures, led by Marcus Sasser’s 16.8 points. Houston kept its rotation incredibly consistent throughout the year, with nine players participating in at least 33 of the Cougars’ 37 contests.

Sasser and Jarace Walker went to the NBA, Tramon Mark transferred and Reggie Chaney exhausted his eligibility, but the Cougars will return plenty of last season’s production via senior starters Jamal Shead, a guard and last season’s team leader in steals and assists, and J’Wan Roberts, the Cougars’ top rebounder and shot blocker at just 6-foot-7. Houston will continue to be rather undersized next year; it has three young centers on the roster who have played zero games for the school.

Some of last year’s reserves, like Terrance Arceneaux, Ja’Vier Francis and Emanuel Sharp, could potentially slot into vacant starting spots; however, the Cougars made big offseason additions at guard in LJ Cryer, a scoring guard who averaged 15 points for Baylor last season and thus has proven Big 12 experience, and Damian Dunn of Temple.

This story has been updated to correctly reflect that Kansas has previously played against BYU.