By Jeff Walker | A-J SPORTS EDITOR
Pat Knight, fair or unfair, will draw comparisons to his father. He already has.

Depending on how his first full season goes as Texas Tech’s head coach, he might not mind this comparison.

The Red Raiders were predicted to finish 10th in the Big 12 Conference in the conference coaches preseason poll that was released on Tuesday.

The last time Tech was predicted to finish that low was prior to the 2001-02 season – Bob Knight’s first season in Lubbock.

Bob Knight guided Tech that year to a 23-9 finish, including 10-6 in the Big 12, that ended with the first of four trips to the NCAA Tournament.

Oklahoma is predicted to finish first, the highest the Sooners have been cast prior to the season. OU received 109 points from the coaches, who were not allowed to vote for their own team.

Texas received the most first-place votes (4), but finished two points behind the Sooners.

Baylor (2) and Kansas (3) were the other schools that received first-place votes. The Bears and Jayhawks – the defending national champions – were tied for third with 103 points.

The coaches have been right in each of the last four years when predicting the conference winner, though three of those four champions were the Jayhawks. Texas was tied (with Kansas) as the preaseason favorite prior to the 2005-06 season and the Longhorns finished first.

The team with the lowest preseason slot in the Big 12 coaches poll to win the Big 12 championship was Iowa State, who was projected to finish sixth prior to the 1999-00 season before going on to win the conference title.

Big 12 men’s basketball poll

1. Oklahoma (3) 109

2. Texas (4) 107

3. Baylor (2) 103

Kansas (3) 103

5. Texas A&M 79

6. Oklahoma State 69

7. Missouri 51

8. Kansas State 50

9. Nebraska 49

10. Texas Tech 39

11. Iowa State 20

12. Colorado 13

Note: Coaches were not permitted to vote for their own team.