2024-25 Big 12 Preview
2024-25 Big 12 Preview
Previewing the new-look Big 12, which expands to 16 teams this season.
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The first season of the new-look Big 12 has arrived. Gone are Texas and Oklahoma. In their place, the conference added Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah, expanding the conference to 16 teams and shaking up the pecking order.
Let’s take a look at how all the teams compare heading into the new season.
Her Hoop Stats’ Big 12 Projected Standings
Place in conference preseason poll in parentheses
Iowa State (2)
Kansas State (1)
Baylor (3)
TCU (4)
West Virginia (5)
Utah (6)
Kansas (8)
Colorado (9)
Arizona (7)
Texas Tech (10)
Oklahoma State (11)
Cincinnati (13)
UCF (14)
BYU (12)
Arizona State (15)
Houston (16)
Award Picks
Big 12 Player of the Year: Ayoka Lee (Kansas State)
Big 12 Coach of the Year: Mark Campbell (TCU)
Big 12 Newcomer of the Year: Aaronette Vonleh (Baylor)
Big 12 Freshman of the Year: Tabitha Betson (Colorado)
Team Previews
Iowa State
Iowa State was the biggest surprise of the season last year. The Cyclones were expected to struggle a bit as they rebuilt after the Ashley Joens era ended, but a young squad led by Audi Crooks and Addy Brown went 13-7 in conference play.
Having Iowa State at No. 1 over Kansas State might come as a slight surprise, but this is a team that won 21 games and took Stanford to overtime in the NCAA Tournament. With another year for this core to gel, the sky’s the limit. Crooks averaged 19.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 0.5 blocks per game last season while Brown averaged 13.0 points. 8.2 rebounds and 4.8 assists.
Kansas State
Ayoka Lee was dominant last season, averaging 19.7 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game for a Wildcats team that made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Serena Sundell returns too and will look to keep her elite shooting going, as she shot 39.8% from deep last year, which ranked in the 92nd percentile nationally.
Replacing Gabby Gregory will be tough, but the addition of Tulsa’s Temira Poindexter will make that loss sting less. Poindexter averaged 21.0 points per game last season on 43.2% shooting. Can she keep it up at the next level?
Baylor
The Bears lost last year’s leading scorer, Dre’Una Edwards but return some key players like Sarah Andrews and Darianna Littlepage-Buggs. And the team snagged a big get to replace Edwards at the five, bringing in Colorado’s Aaronette Vonleh, who averaged 14.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 1.0 steals and 1.1 blocks last season.
The big question that determines how good Baylor will be is how Jada Walker will play. Walker was a big addition for the Bears last year, but she saw her scoring drop off from where it was at Kentucky, and she shot 10.1 percentage points worse from three. Baylor needs Walker to figure her shot out for the team to win the conference.
TCU
TCU went undefeated in non-conference play last season. However, injuries derailed the Horned Frogs’ momentum and they ended up having to cancel games and never regained their footing.
But Year 2 of the Mark Campbell era looks even more promising. The team brought in a number of transfers, the most notable being Hailey Van Lith and Maddie Scherr. Adding those two players to a team that already features Madison Conner and Sedona Prince gives TCU the highest ceiling in the conference, but we don’t yet know how all these pieces are going to fit together. Putting TCU fourth feels appropriate as it balances the reward and the risk.
West Virginia
From one Mark-coached team to another, we get Mark Kellogg’s Mountaineers. After a successful career at the helm at Stephen F. Austin, Kellogg took the WVU job last year and found immediate success, winning 25 games, the program’s most since the 2017-18 campaign.
JJ Quinerly and Jordan Harrison are back this season for the Mountaineers, forming a formidable duo. I’d go as far as saying that Harrison’s exclusion from the Preseason All-Big 12 Team was the biggest miss of all the awards. Harrison averaged 13.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 2.9 steals last year.
The issue here is that the offense could be a bit too reliant on those two players. Can someone else step up? West Virginia will be a really strong defensive team, but you also have to score buckets to win games.
Utah
And now for our first newcomer: Utah.
The Utes enter a period of uncertainty this season now that Alissa Pili has moved on to the pros, but the return of a (hopefully) healthy Gianna Kneepkens still gives Utah a star player. Kneepkens missed most of last season with a broken foot, but was averaging 16.8 points on 50% shooting from deep with 6.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.2 steals per game when she went down. Kneepkens is ready to be a true No. 1 option.
Kennady McQueen being the No. 2 scorer is another plus, but one still has to wonder how Utah replaces such a unique star like Pili. The team ranked 13th in offensive points per 100 possessions last year because of Pili, and here +15.1 points per 100 possessions better on offense with her on the floor. Considering they were outside the top 100 in points allowed per 100 possessions, can they handle a drop in offensive production and still be a good team?
Kansas
This is where it feels like the top tier of the Big 12 ends and we reach this very uncertain middle.
Kansas has to replace Taiyanna Jackson, which will be tough. Jackson was one of the nation’s best bigs, but her imposing presence inside wasn’t enough to save this defense from ranking 206th in opponent points per 100 possessions. Take Jackson away, and what can we expect from this team?
The good news is that S’Mya Nichols looks like a star, averaging 15.4 points, 2.7 assists and 1.4 steals per game as a freshman. The Jayhawks also return Wyvette Mayberry, but with no Jackson and no Holly Kersgieter or Zakiyah Franklin, Kansas’s run of three consecutive 20-win seasons is in jeopardy.
Colorado
The Buffaloes no longer have Jaylyn Sherrod or Aaronette Vonleh, but they do return Danish guard Frida Formann, who averaged 12.5 points per game and shot 42.1% last year. If she can scale up her volume while maintaining her efficiency, she’ll have a strong season.
Colorado also has preseason Big 12 Freshman of the Year Tabitha Betson. The 6-foot-2 forward from Australia was a top 50 prospect in ESPN’s HoopGurlz rankings and will need to make an impact quickly for Colorado to be a tournament team.
Arizona
Arizona looks to bounce back after failing to hit 20 wins last year, the first time since the 2017-18 season that the Wildcats failed to hit that mark.
Adia Barnes’s team has a lot of production to replace this season, but if sophomore Jada Williams continues to improve and transfers like Paulina Paris and Sahnya Jah can make some noise, this can be a solid team.
Texas Tech
I’ve long been a believer in the Krista Gerlich project. She was behind the eight ball when she started at Tech because she took the job very late, but she proved at UT Arlington that she’s a good coach.
Unfortunately, she hasn’t really put together the kind of showing you want to see from the Red Raiders in Big 12 play. Still, I really like this roster. Is this the year? The team brought in Jalynn Bristow from Iowa State, a sophomore whom I was high on last year but never could make an impact on a Cyclone team that had some breakout stars take away minutes.
Then there’s Bailey Maupin, from the small west Texas town of Gruver. Maupin averaged 14.1 points, 3.1 assists and 1.3 steals for Tech last year. She might be the Big 12’s most underrated player.
Oklahoma State
The Cowgirls went 21-12 in the 2022-23 season and looked to be a program on the rise, but last year’s 14-16 mark stalled that momentum. Then much of that squad hit the transfer portal. Now, five of the top seven scorers from last season are gone.
The addition of former Texas Southern and Seton Hall player Micah Gray could be huge for this team’s chances of finding success this season, but there’s just too much uncertainty around this roster to rank them too high.
Cincinnati
The Bearcats were a pleasant surprise last year, going 14-18 overall. That was a nice improvement from a 9-21 season the year before.
That included a 6-14 mark in Big 12 play, sweeping UCF in three meetings and beating Texas Tech twice and Oklahoma State once. Not quite a murderer’s row of opponents. The return of Jillian Hayes and A’riel Jackson gives the team a strong one-two punch, but not strong enough to turn them into contenders.
UCF
Sometimes, having one star can boost a team out of the bottom. That wasn’t true for UCF last season as it went 3-16 in conference play despite Kaitlin Peterson averaging 21.3 points and 2.2 steals in Big 12 play. Maybe it will be true this season, especially as the team added another strong player to pair with her in Hannah Gusters.
Gusters has been on a long journey in college, as this is her fourth school. Last year at Oklahoma State, Gusters averaged 14.3 points per game and shot 56.5% from inside the arc.
BYU
Can BYU replace Lauren Gustin’s production this year? Gustin averaged 16.7 points and 15.3 rebounds for the 16-17 Cougars last season, but Amari Whiting might be able to step up and provide some scoring help.
As far as shoring up the inside, the team has to hope that adding 6-foot-2 forward Kendra Gillispie helps. Gillispie was a top 100 recruit out of high school but never found her footing at Baylor or Arkansas State.
Arizona State
The Sun Devils enter the Big 12 with just four conference wins in their last two Pac-12 seasons. Last year’s leading scorer Jalyn Brown is back and I like the addition of Oregon’s Kennedy Basham and Texas Tech’s Jazion Jackson, but this team is by far the worst positioned of the league’s new additions to make a splash this season.
Houston
Bringing up the rear in the Big 12 is my alma mater. Last year, I was optimistic that a very experienced Houston team could make some noise in the conference, but the Coogs went 5-14 in conference play.
The good news for Houston is that Laila Blair is back for another season. The bad news is that the roster around her isn’t very strong. The team will be counting on players like Kateri Poole and Ashley Chevalier to make major strides at their third collegiate stops.
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