Here it is: the first post of the new season of basketball! Practice officially starts one week from tonight (on October 16th) and the first exhibition game (for Iowa State, anyway) is on November 1st. Cool!

The pre-season awards were voted upon this week, so here are the basics...

2009-10 Big 12 Conference Women's Basketball Preseason Awards
(coaches not allowed to vote for own players)

Preseason Player of the Year: Danielle McCray, Kansas, F, 5-11, Sr

Preseason Newcomer of the Year: Danielle Adams, Texas A&M, F/C, 6-1, Jr

Preseason Freshman of the Year: Brittney Griner, Baylor, C, 6-8

Preseason All-Big 12 Team
Name - School, Position, Height, Class
Danielle McCray - Kansas, F, 5-11, Sr
Kelsey Griffin - Nebraska, F, 6-2, Sr
Danielle Robinson - Oklahoma, G, 5-9, Jr
Andrea Riley - Oklahoma State, G, 5-5, Sr
Brittainey Raven - Texas, G, 6-0, Sr

Honorable Mention (listed alphabetically by school)
Brittney Griner (Baylor), Alison Lacey (Iowa State), Ashley Sweat (Kansas State), Whitney Hand (Oklahoma), Tanisha Smith (Texas A&M)

Don't know anything about the Newcomer of the Year, but I would have to pretty much agree with the other picks. I would most agree with Player of the Year. I had said at the end of last season that McCray should be pegged POTY to start the season. Kansas is poised to break through to the top half of the league this season and I wouldn't be surprised to see them be the best in the north.

I'm still waiting for the new media guides/prospecti to be published. When I have that information, I'll be able to do my own pre-season scouting.

The pre-season poll as voted by the coaches of the Big 12 was released yesterday. Here is the article and voting run-down from www.Big12sports.com:

Baylor was selected as the preseason favorite to win the 2009-10 Big 12 women's basketball regular season title in a vote of the league's head coaches.
It was a tight race for the top three spots with Kansas and Texas tying for second, just three points behind the Lady Bears - last season's Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship winner. The first-place votes were spread among four teams as Baylor earned five, KU and UT received three each and fourth-place Texas A&M nabbed one. BU was also the preseason pick in 2005-06 after winning the 2005 national championship.

Oklahoma, last year's preseason favorite and regular season champion, placed fifth, followed by Nebraska in sixth, Iowa State seventh, Kansas State eighth, Oklahoma State ninth, Texas Tech 10th, Colorado 11th and Missouri 12th.

Big 12 squads return 101 letterwinners in 2009-10, including 38 starters. The Conference has 16 of 30 leading scorers and nine of 20 top rebounders back. Andrea Riley (Oklahoma State) led the Big 12 in scoring (23.0) in 2008-09 for the second consecutive year and was fifth nationally. Kierra Mallard (Texas Tech) is the league's top returning rebounder after averaging 7.9 boards her rookie season.

The 2009-10 regular season gets underway on Friday, Nov. 13. Big 12 head coaches and select student-athletes will convene in Kansas City on Oct. 21 for the annual Big 12 Women's Basketball Media Day. Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium will serve as the site of the 2010 Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Basketball Championship Thursday-Sunday, March 11-14.

2009-10 Big 12 Conference Women's Basketball Preseason Poll
1. Baylor (5) 109
2. Kansas (3) 106
2. Texas (3) 106
4. Texas A&M (1) 87
5. Oklahoma 86
6. Nebraska 80
7. Iowa State 59
8. Kansas State 44
9. Oklahoma State 41
10. Texas Tech 38
11. Colorado 22
12. Missouri 15
(first place votes in parentheses; coaches not allowed to vote for their own team)

Ok, now for the involved part - my preview of the conference and what to expect this season. Baylor has been selected the pre-season favorite pretty much based on the arrival of the nation's number one recruit, Brittney Griener, a 6'8" freshman from the Houston area. She can dunk literally at will and could bring even more attention to the league than the arrival of the Paris twins did in 2005 at OU.

Watch the video from youtube (viewed over 4,000,000 times already):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuDfRzY2Vqw

So, in the order that the Big 12 coaches thought things would shake out, here we go...

Baylor

Is the arrival of Brittney Griener all they need to win the conference this year? Time will tell, but the Bears lost a ton of talent to graduation after last spring. Gone are starters Rachel Allison, Jessica Morrow, Jhasmin Player, and Danielle Wilson who totalled 45.4 points and 24.4 rebound for the team. They return two players who averaged more than five points a game. Four other newcomers will join Griener as freshmen, so I think there are big question marks as to whether this team can win the title. You can't do it with just one player. But the thing to remember about Kim Mulkey is that she has already won a national title at Baylor and she can bring in highly talented recruits.

Key non-conference games for Baylor include: Tennessee, California, Louisiana Tech, Boston College, and Arizona State.

Kansas

I started touting Kansas as a team to watch toward the end of their last season when it seemed as though all of a sudden, something clicked with the team and coach Bonnie Henrickson. They made a late-season run all the way to the WNIT finals. The game, which was in Lawrence, ended up setting the all-time Big 12 women's single game attendance record at over 16,000 fans. This year's team returns nearly everyone as they look to make their first leap to the upper half of the conference in nearly ten years. Danielle McCray is the league's pre-season Player of the Year, and rightfully so. She has a deadly long-range shot and is one of those players you can look at and say "ok, there's 20 points, guaranteed." The Jayhawks return three other starters, and seven newcomers, including point guard Angel Goodrich who was lost to the season last year with a torn ACL before the exhibitions even started. Listed at only 5'4", she still regarded as the "real deal" and the main reason why things did not click earlier in Lawrence. This team has the talent to compete for the top spot. At the very least, KU should win the north.

Key non-conference games for the Jayhawks include: Iowa, Michigan, Xavier, and TCU/Minnesota (in the second day of a tournament).

Texas

Texas is picked to tie with Kansas for second place. Once again, the Longhorns face lofty expectations, but will they be able to deliver and not collapse at the end of the season like they did last year, losing 7 of 9 (beating only Missouri twice in that span)? Texas loses two starters, including point guard Carla Cortijo, combining for over 14 points a game. Only two newcomers join the team, but last year's reserves should make up for the losses easily. The Longhorns' problem has seemed to be a loss of focus as the season wears on - mental lapses and general laziness. Coach Gail Geostenkors will have to keep the energy level and focus high if they wish to avoid another finish in the bottom half of the standings. The talent is there, but is the drive? The pick of second place could be brilliant fortune telling or it could be exceedingly over-optimistic.

Key non-conference foes include: UCONN, USC, Mississippi State, Rutgers, and Tennessee.

Texas A&M

The Aggies return for another run at the top under Coach Gary Blair. Gone are two of the best players in the Big 12 from last year, Danielle Gant and Takia Starks, who combines for 20 points per game. They welcome five newcomers and a slew of reserves with unremarkable stats for the most part. Blair always seems to have tricks up his sleeves, so I certainly would expect A&M to compete for one of the top spots in the conference. The top spot? Probably not, although they may be in a position to capitalize on stumbles by other teams.

Key non-conference match-ups include: Duke, Auburn, California/Colorado State (second day of a tournament), TCU, Arizona State, and New Mexico.

Oklahoma

Outside the top four is an unusual place to find the Sooners in a pre-season poll. With the loss of the Paris twins to the WNBA, suddenly OU is facing life as a guard-oriented team. OU returns little-used Abi Olajuwan under the basket (like she was going to get much game time with the Paris girls playing), so she is an unproven commodity. As a senior, can she step up and help Oklahoma keep some sort of inside-outside game going? If not, it could fall to one of two 6'3" freshman, including Joanna McFarland, sister of CU's Jackie McFarland, who rewrote the record books for the Buffaloes. Back for OU are guards Danielle Robinson and Whitney Hand, the former who can slash her way to the hole at will, the later who can knock down 3s left and right with defender in her face. If things go OU's way, coach Sherri Coale could have another winner on her hands.

Key non-conference games include: Georgia, San Diego State Notre Dame, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

Nebraska

The Cornhuskers are expected to rebound somewhat from last year's disappointment. When star player Kelsey Griffin went out with a season ending injury before play ever began, it was clear NU had no leader on the floor. Now that she is back for her senior year along with all but one from last year's roster, NU has expectations to return to the top half of the standings and maybe even push Kansas off their expected perch in the north. Griffin with join Cory Montgomery, last season's leading scorer, and Yvonne Turner, their most productive guard, in trying to bring Nebraska back to the NCAAs. NU will need to overcome late-season difficulties similar to those faced by Texas - February collapses that lead to March disappointment. This has been a running issue with Connie Yori coached teams since she arrived from Creighton seven years ago.

Nebraska's non-conference slate is pretty light in terms of competition (although wait until you see what ISU has scheduled). Top teams they will face include: UNLV, Washington State, LSU, Creighton.

Iowa State

After Iowa State's Elite 8 run last season, Coach Bill Fennelly found out that not only would he have to replace five seniors (including three starters), but also he would have three of his four freshman not returning for the 09-10 campaign. So, along with returning starters, Alison Lacey and Kelsey Bolte, the remaining roster including Denae Stuckey, Genesis Lightbourne, Anna Florzak, Shellie Mosman, and Whitney Williams, ISU welcomes five newcomers: four freshman and a sophomore juco. One of the freshmen is 6'7" Anna Prins from Colorado, rated the 44th best player in the country amongst high school seniors last year. Obviously, she will find significant playing time under the basket. But the great thing is that she can also knock down the 3 with ease (needless to say, the Baylor @ Iowa State game has been slated for national tv on FoxSports with 6'7" vs 6'8"). ISU will have to find others to step up and score with the departure of Nisleit, Ezell, and Wieben. The freshmen will be relied upon greatly, but Lacey and Bolte will both have to emerge as true leaders. Iowa State hosts NCAA 1st and 2nd round games in March, so a successful season is necessary to ensure that we are not watching four other schools play at Hilton Coliseum.

I mentioned before that ISU has a pretty weak non-conference slate, so check out the big dogs on the schedule: Drake, Iowa, Minnesota, Northern Iowa. Our RPI is not going to be pretty even if we sweep through November and December.

Kansas State

The Wildcats lose floor general Shalee Lehning (finally! - seems like she's been there eight years!) along with Marlise Gipson and Danielle Zanotti, which amounts to over 25 points/15 rebounds per game. Returning is a good nucleus of Ashley Sweat, Kari Kincaid, and Shalin Spani. Kansas State made it to the Sweet 16 last season after starting the season with 15 straight wins. If they can find a capable leader on the floor, they should make a return trip to the Dance.

The non-conference schedule is an improvement over last season's slate, when the Wildcats literally played one team with an RPI above 200 before Big 12 play started and was only seriously tested by an improving Northwestern team. Key non-conference match-ups include: Washington State, BYU, Creighton, Northwestern, and Arkansas.

Oklahoma State

Coach Kurt Budke returns three staters, while losing two plus six others, including four underclassmen who had their scholarships revoked (for apparently not working hard enough). Back is senior guard Andrea Riley who will try to lead the Cowgirls back to the NCAA after a monumentally disappointing 08-09 campaign. OSU finished one game over .500 and went 1-1 in the WNIT in March. Definitely a step down considering the Sweet 16 run they had one year earlier. A lot of new faces won't necessarily translate to more wins, but Budke seems to be able to create magic more often than not. Time will tell.

Non-conference foes include: Michigan State or George Washington (second round of tournament), Marist, and a berth in the pre-season WNIT.

Texas Tech

Last season, I predicted that coach Kristy Curry would be out of a job (and she probably should have been), but she's still alive and kickin' in Lubbock. Gone is arguably their best offensive threat, Dominic Seals, who averaged over 13 points per game. Three starters return, plus two reserved who combined for over 9 points per game. The key for their season may lie in the seven newcomers that will be eligible to play (two others will either sit out due to NCAA transfer rules or due to a pre-season injury). If they click, things could end up better than they have in several years for Tech. If they don't, Curry will be on the hot seat once again.

Key non-conference games include: Tennessee, New Mexico, and UCLA.

Colorado

Colorado should honestly be picked higher than 11th, but with the history Coach McConnell-Miller either collapsing mid-way through the season or just outright coaching horribly, next-to-the-bottom might be about right. The Buffs return all but their starting center (Kara Richards) from last season and add five newcomers, including a 6'7" freshman from Omaha, Melissa MacFarlane, whom I have never heard of before typing this. She might end up being a hidden gem for CU on the inside. It will definitely be interesting having three players in the league at 6'7" or taller (along with Baylor and Iowa State). If Colorado doesn't at least make the middle of the pack by the end of the year, it will likely only be the fault of the coach, who seems to do less with more than anyone else in the Big 12. The talent is definitely there in Boulder. It's time to produce.

Key games in the non-conference season include: Minnesota, Virginia, Colorado State

Missouri

Once again, the Tigers are picked to bring up the rear of the league. Mizzou only loses their best guard, Alyssa Hollins, but returns a bunch that gave up a ton on defense. Coach Stein could have enough good players in Columbia to finish above the bottom quarter of the Big 12, but with the talent level on the teams above them, moving up might be tough. MU adds two freshmen, but returns four starters and many reserves who accumulated valuable floor time last season. The talent level isn't quite as high as Colorado, but with some breaks (and decent coaching - Hellooooo defense), Missouri could surprise and pull themselves out of the basement.

Non-conference games of note include: Indiana, Florida State, Xavier, Northern Iowa

So there is a quickie preview of the Big 12. With this league, as always, there could be a lot of shuffling going on from start to finish. That's what makes the Big 12 so fun - you really never know what to expect. Maybe we get another team to the Final Four this year. Maybe we break 1,000,000 in total attendance again. Maybe we knock off some of the big dogs of women's basketball in some nationally televised games before January. Maybe this thread will draw over 18,000 views like last season's (I have no idea how that happened!). Stay tuned - the exhibition games start Sunday!...

The first AP poll of the season has been released today. Four Big 12 teams are ranked and a total of 10 league teams received votes. Not too bad to start things out!

AP Top 25 (rank, team, pointless team record, total points)
1. Connecticut (40) 0-0 1000
2. Stanford 0-0 951
3. Ohio State 0-0 862
4. Notre Dame 0-0 799
5. North Carolina 0-0 798
6. Duke 0-0 772
7. Baylor 0-0 744
8. Tennessee 0-0 676
9. LSU 0-0 600
10. Michigan State 0-0 521
11. Xavier 0-0 492
12. Texas 0-0 487
13. Oklahoma 0-0 444
14. Virginia 0-0 394
15. Florida State 0-0 385
16. Arizona State 0-0 317
17. DePaul 0-0 301
18. California 0-0 294
19. Georgia Tech 0-0 262
20. Kansas 0-0 241
21. Georgia 0-0 201
22. Vanderbilt 0-0 165
23. Louisville 0-0 156
24. Middle Tennessee State 0-0 143
25. Rutgers 0-0 138

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Texas A&M 137, Maryland 114, Mississippi State 110, San Diego State 78, South Dakota State 70, Pittsburgh 48, Purdue 45, Kansas State 33, Gonzaga 30, Marist 26, UCLA 26, Michigan 16, Iowa State 14, Minnesota 14, Boston College 12, Louisiana Tech 11, Tulane 9, Bowling Green 8, Arkansas 7, TCU 7, Wisconsin-Green Bay 7, Auburn 6, Nebraska 6, Texas Tech 6, USC 5, Florida 3, Fresno State 3, Oklahoma State 3, Delaware 1, Florida Gulf Coast 1, Temple 1

The ESPN poll was released this morning. Only seven Big 12 teams received votes here, but five are in the top 25 (including ISU!). There are some pretty big differences between the two polls to start things off for the year.

ESPN/USA Today Poll (rank, team, again pointess record considering no one has played, points)
1. Connecticut (31) 0-0 775
2. Stanford 0-0 739
3. Ohio State 0-0 653
4. Baylor 0-0 649
5. North Carolina 0-0 561
6. Duke 0-0 547
7. Notre Dame 0-0 438
8. Oklahoma 0-0 416
9. Tennessee 0-0 412
10. Michigan State 0-0 353
11. Arizona State 0-0 328
12. Florida State 0-0 323
13. California 0-0 314
14. Texas 0-0 311
15. Xavier 0-0 303
16. Texas A&M 0-0 302
17. LSU 0-0 298
18. Virginia 0-0 246
19. Louisville 0-0 232
20. Vanderbilt 0-0 223
21. Maryland 0-0 209
22. Pittsburgh 0-0 127
23. Purdue 0-0 126
24. Iowa State 0-0 125
25. DePaul 0-0 121

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Middle Tennessee State 118, Kansas 110, Rutgers 106, Auburn 84, Georgia 76, Georgia Tech 73, South Dakota State 70, Mississippi State 66, Gonzaga 48, San Diego State 39, Kansas State 39, Florida 31, TCU 12, North Carolina State 11, Michigan 10, Arizona 10, Bowling Green 7, Syracuse 6, South Florida 6, South Carolina 3, Temple 2, Southern Methodist 2, Richmond 2, Georgetown 2, Ball State 2, Arkansas-Little Rock 2, UCF 1, Charlotte 1, Fresno State 1, Hartford 1, Minnesota 1, West Virginia 1, Western Kentucky 1

Iowa State has completed its two exhibition games for the season. We beat Dubuque 99-57 last weekend and we defeated Minnesota-Crookston 98-37. ISU was led by Freshmen in both games. In the first game Jess Schroll had 18 points, while freshman Chelsea Poppens had 14 points and 12 rebounds. Today's game had Poppens with 22 points, 12 rebounds (she had the double-double by the half) and freshman Anna Prins with 20 points, including hitting all eight of her free throws. Time will tell if the new players will be able to compete effectively in the Big 12, but as of right now, I have to give them praise for showing they they at the very least want to compete at the next level. I think we'll be just fine.

It looks like the only close game a conference team has had so far is a 13 point win for Kansas State over Ft. Hayes State. Everything else seems to have gone as one would expect so far. One notable out-of-league exception came last week when Minnesota lost in Minneapolis to Winona State, 64-62. Winona State hit a three with one second left on the clock to take the game. Not sure what happened, other than UM's offense didn't seem to be operating at 100%. Winona State might be one of the better programs in their Division, but it's still a bit shocking for them to knock off a Big 10 school.

I guess Baylor's Griener dunked against their last exhibition opponent, but it doesn't count for anything yet. I would imagine Baylor will be seeing a lot of that, especially before January. It will be interesting to see if Baylor has any difficulties over the next four years with Griener becoming more of 1) a side show, with people coming to games only to see her dunk, and 2) a one-woman show, where the other players on the floor stand around and watch to see what she's going to do (like Oklahoma State did last year with Andrea Riley and Iowa State did in 2002-03 with Lindsey Wilson) instead of contributing like they would otherwise.

I will post any interesting details later in the week if they happen.

Texas Tech lost their only exhibition game of this season on Monday night to Lubbock Christian University, 71-65. This game was won at the line by LCU, with them going 26 of 30, while TTU was only 9 of 12. The Lady Raiders were also out-rebounded, 40-29. Not a good start for the team down in Lubbock, but to be fair, LCU is one of the best teams in the NAIA. TTU is going to have to figure things out in a hurry with Tennessee coming up on Tuesday. Most of the rest of Tech's non-conference schedule is pretty light, so they should come out of it with at least a .500 record. That's IF they figure things out.

Just passing along a quick score from earlier today: Indiana State beat Kansas State, 77-74 AT MANHATTAN. At one point in the second half, Indiana State was up 62-40, so the Wildcats had to come back big-time to only lose by 3. Not a good start to the season for them. Sycamore's player Kelsey Luna, who stands all of 5'5", was 15-21 from the floor and scored 31 points in the game.

Tech seemed to have found their offense (and defense) today when they beat Sam Houston State in Lubbock, 91-52, bouncing back from an embarrassing exhibition loss to Lubbock Christian University earlier in the week.

In a non-Big 12 regional score, #10 Michigan State lost their season opener at Dayton, also by a score of 77-74. The only player to score more than 11 points was reserve Courtney Schiffauer with 21. 6'9" center Alyssa DeHaan was 3-10 from the field, 4-4 from the line for 10 points. For the game, there were 25 missed free throws - 16 by Dayton (17-33), and 9 by MSU.

Matt - what happened to ISU's freshmen from last season? Why did they lose 3 of them?

Well, Claire Rockall decided she missed Ireland and went back home. That most likely combined with seeing the writing on the wall that she would not be the first or second guard off the bench in games. Ashley Arlen would have most likely been a starter at either the 3, 4, or 5 spot. She showed tremendous potential last year. In my own personal opinion, in high school she was a big fish in a small pond (small town Iowa) and the game came pretty easily to her. At ISU, she realized she was only one piece of the puzzle and was going to have to work pretty hard to compete at the level of the Big 12. I just don't think she wanted to work that hard. Arlen ended up transferring to Wayne State in Nebraska where she should be one of the better players in her league. Alexis Yackley was another player in Rockall's position - probably wouldn't see as much playing time as she wanted. Plus I don't think she wanted to be at ISU without Arlen here, so she transferred to a school in her home state of South Dakota.

Rockall's departure was not a surprise, but Arlen's definitely was. When you add those three on top of the graduation of FIVE seniors, it left us with a pretty thin line-up and a lot of questions with four freshmen and one juco sophomore coming in. But things have worked out pretty well so far.

Scores from this opening weekend of hoops!:

Sunday, November 15:
Missouri 74, Northern Iowa 57
Colorado 61, UC Irvine 56
Nebraska 73, UNLV 51
Tennessee 74, Baylor 65
Kansas 106, Oral Roberts 80
Oklahoma State 70, Georgia Tech 64
Texas A&M 95, Duke 77
Georgia 62, Oklahoma 51
Iowa State 80, Florida Atlantic 40

Saturday, November 14:
Indiana State 77, Kansas State 73
Texas Tech 91, Sam Houston State 52

Friday, November 13:
Nebraska 86, Davidson 62
Texas 71, UTSA 60
Oklahoma 108, Mercer 66
Oklahoma State 67, Arkansas-Little Rock 58

I highlighted the surprises from Sunday (since I already talked about K-State). Tennessee/Baylor was on national tv this afternoon. People were curious to see how Pat Summit's Vols would bounce back from their first ever pre-Sweet 16 loss in the NCAAs last year. They also wanted to see the country's #1 high school player from last year in Baylor's 6'8" Brittney Griner. Griner never really got close enough to the basket to dunk as UT played a zone defense that slowed the Bears down at the start of the game. Baylor led by two at the break, but the Vols scored the first 12 points of the second half to take the lead and win the game in Knoxville, 74-65. Griner finished with 15 points, but was only 3-8 from the floor and collected only 4 rebounds. Both teams shot under 40%, but UT attempted 73 field goals compared to Baylor's 50 tries. Baylor gets to regroup at home next against Tennessee Tech before heading to play at Cal this coming weekend.

Texas A&M blew out #6 Duke at College Station, 95-77. The Aggies led by 10 at the half and held off a Duke run in the second half that cut the lead to three. A&M shot nearly 57% while taking twenty fewer shots than the Blue Devils. Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Danielle Adams scored 24 points in 22 minutes in the win for A&M.

#8 Oklahoma lost at Georgia, 62-51. UGA led by as many as 13 in the second half before OU tied the game at 43 with under seven minutes to play. OU was led in scoring by Whitney Hand with 13 points. She was 3-10 from long range, 5-18 overall. Abi Olajuwon, the senior successor to Courtney Paris under the basket scored 10 points with 9 boards. OU only got 2 points from the bench and went to the line 4 times. Georgia had four players in double-figures for points and was 12-17 from the free throw line.

And in the game I actually attended, Iowa State destroyed Florida Atlantic, 80-40 in Ames. 6'7" freshman Anna Prins led all scorers with 20 points, including going 3-5 from three point range. Fellow freshman Chelsea Poppens scored 16 of her 17 points in the second half after sitting most of the first period with two fouls which were collected early on. ISU was 9-21 from long range, but only 15-26 from the charity stripe. Yeah, something is going to be worked on over the next week (wonder what?). FAU came out with a very tough defense that had ISU scrambling to counter the aggressiveness of the Owls. Once we adjusted and Poppens came back in the second half, we settled into our offense and scored pretty easily from there. We'll play at Drake on Sunday before heading to Chicago for a Thanksgiving invitational at Northwestern.

As a Lady Dawgs season ticket holder, I was at the UGA-OU game. I was quite pleasantly surprised by the outcome of the game. UGA has a very young team, outside of three veteran starters. There were 4 freshmen who saw quite a bit of playing time. One, Jasmine James, tied in leading the team with 15 points. I saw what everyone expected from OU. A very talented back court and a not very dominating front court. Olajuwon is tall, but was only productive when she got the ball close to the basket. Hand and Robinson are both very good and Robinson may be as quick a player as UGA will face all year.

Last year was a disappointing one for UGA, but with the good early showing from yesterday, things are looking up. They better be ready as a very well coached Rutgers team comes to Athens Sunday.

Good luck to the Cyclones this season!

Thank you for the well-wishing - a hat tip to you! Also, thank you for an in-person take on the game in Athens - great to have someone else chime in!

Interesting, thanks for filling me in on the ISU departures.

I'm still looking for somebody to come with me to the ISU game in Evanston.

Two home games, two losses. That's what's happened to Kansas State so far this year. After dropping a surprising game at Bramlage Coliseum over the weekend, K-State lost last night in OT to Arkansas State, 80-79. ASU had huge advantages in rebounding (47-35) and points in the paint (58-22). Kansas State led for most of the game and near the end of both regulation and OT, but could not hold on. ASU hit a 3 with nine seconds to play in the extra period to take a lead that would become the final score and the Wildcats had no answer.


And CHIathlete needs to just sit with us if he can't find anyone to go with next weekend (regardless of whether you find someone to go with you or not)! Oh, yeah - wear red!

Results from the last couple of days:

Wednesday, November 18:
Oklahoma State 70, New Mexico 56
Texas A&M 86, Rice 50
Kansas 66, Iowa 55
Memphis 75, Missouri 74

Tuesday, November 17:
Connecticut 83, Texas 58
Baylor 100, Tennessee Tech 55
Tennessee 91, Texas Tech 53

Iowa stayed with Kansas until about six minutes remaining in the game when KU went on an 11-0 run to wrap things up. Iowa is playing with an 8-person rotation due to many injuries already this year, including a season-ending blood clot in the leg of senior JoAnn Hamlin. I didn't expect this game to be that close, honestly.

Missouri is off to their usual start...

Texas was never really in the game with UCONN. I guess maybe the Huskies really are that good. We'll see if it means the 'Horns will struggle to find consistency as the season presses onward.

Brittney Griner fouled out for Baylor against Tennessee Tech, but had an otherwise "ok" game (compared to expectations) - 10 points, 11 rebounds, 8 blocks. It might take her a while to adjust to college ball, which is why Mulkey left her on the court after her 4th foul - so she could learn.

I think Tech forgot they had a game on Tuesday with Tennessee. Ouch.

Weekend scores...

Sunday, November 22:
Minnesota 87, Colorado 78
Baylor 69, California 49
Nebraska 107, Washington State 54
Drake 78, Iowa State 75
Missouri 76, Indiana 71
Texas Tech 97, Arkansas Pine-Bluff 57
Texas A&M 79, Auburn 59
Kansas 77, Michigan 56
Ohio State 93, Oklahoma State 72

Saturday, November 21:
Oklahoma 74, TCU 70

Friday, November 20:
Kansas State 70, Washington State 63
Texas 96, North Texas 52
Colorado 63, Illinois Chicago 49

Score from last night:

Monday, November 23:
Creighton 63, Kansas State 54

Most of the Big 12 teams won over the weekend, many in convincing fashion. Iowa State was not one of them. Despite leading by eight points in each half, ISU found themselves down by as many as eight as time ticked down. The final margin was a 3 point win by Drake in Des Moines, 78-75. The Cyclones had their chances, but freshman mistakes played a big part in not being able to get over the hump - lots of fouling, unforced turnovers, etc. Drake played with more poise than I had expected them to and even with their building being half full with Iowa State fans, they remained in control, dictating the tempo nearly the whole game. Kelsey Bolte led the Cyclones with 18 points, while Whitney Williams and Alison Lacey were both in double figures for points as well.

Kansas State managed to lose another one, but at least this time it was on the road (at Creighton in Omaha). The Wildcats picked up a win earlier over the weekend when they played Washington State. K-State was 4-12 from the charity stripe and had three starters score 5 points or less.

Oklahoma State lost their defense against Ohio State at Columbus. The Cowgirls got killed on the boards (40-26), at the line (19-23 vs. 9-13), and in assists (21 vs. 12). Andrea Riley scored 27 points on 9-23 shooting.

Nebraska nearly doubled up Washington State (I don't think Wazzu is very good again this year), 107-54. The Huskers had six players in double figures and all thirteen players who saw floor time scored at least one basket. NU dominated the boards (59-38), the free throw line (28 attempts vs. 12), and shooting percentage (52.7% vs. 25.6%). NU had 59 points at halftime.

Baylor beat Cal soundly in Berkeley, 69-49, a make-up game for one that was canceled last year because Baylor could not make the trip from Portland to Berkeley due to icy conditions. Baylor held Cal to only 16 made field goals. BU's Griner had an improved day defensively with only one personal foul, vs. fouling out last game.

Missouri might be better than people think (including me). They beat a decent Indiana team in Bloomington, 76-71 to go to 2-1 on the season. We'll see if one road win translates into many more as the season moves along.

Minnesota got 30 of their 87 points from the free throw line against Colorado in their 87-78 win over the Buffs. CU's Brittany Spears had 27 points and two others in double figures, but they could not answer the Gopher's five players scoring in double digits.

Results from the holiday weekend:

Sunday, November 29:
Baylor 87, Lamar 65
Texas Tech 67, Prairie View A&M 60
Florida St. 73, Missouri 66

Saturday, November 28:
Nebraska 84, St. Mary's (Cal.) 73
Colorado 67, Harvard 65
Texas Tech 71, UT Arlington 37
Michigan State 93, Oklahoma State 90; 2OT
Texas 70, Rutgers 67
Notre Dame 81, Oklahoma 71
Iowa State 68, College of Charleston 50
TCU 74, Kansas 69
Baylor 89, Louisiana-Lafayette 42

Friday, November 27:
Texas Tech 69, San Francisco 38
Colorado 62, Georgia Southern 50
Baylor 82, Idaho 37
Nebraska 62, Arkansas-Little Rock 45
Southern California 61, Texas 54
Kansas State 65, Brigham Young 62
Missouri 69, Florida A&M 65
Iowa State 78, Penn 38
Oklahoma State 71, Marist 69
Oklahoma 87, San Diego State 48

Thursday, November 26:
Texas 73, Mississippi State 55
Xavier 76, Kansas 71
Oklahoma 75, South Carolina 67

Got to see my Cyclones play two games in Chicago right after Thanksgiving. Northwestern was having an "invitational." Not quite sure why it wasn't an actual tournament, but it was what it was. As mentioned in the next post, ChiAthlete and hubby were able to join us for the second game that was Iowa State vs. College of Charleston on Saturday afternoon. We're always happy when we can share our team with people - glad you had a good time and thanks for coming with us!! Now you can see how nutty we really are about "our" girls.

Anyway, ISU won both games handily, but started out slowly in both first halves. The first win was by 40-some points, the second was by 18. Both games had different players step up and do some scoring and rebounding, which is great. I think once the new kids settle in, we could do some serious damage in the Big 12.

Kansas managed to drop both games over the weekend, but both to good teams - Xavier and TCU. Honestly, I didn't think Kansas would be sitting at 3-2 right now, but they are. I'm pretty confident that they will get better as the season moves forward. It took them the better part of last season to figure out they could play with just about anyone, but once they did, they were nearly unstoppable.

Oklahoma lost another game as well to Notre Dame, one day after dismantling San Diego State by nearly 40 points. The bad news for OU is that long distance sharpshooter, Whitney Hand, went down with a leg injury in the first half of the SDSU game and didn't play again. Plus, she saw no action against Notre Dame. I have not heard any reports on her status, but honestly I don't expect good news from this. It could be a devastating blow to their season. When I hear details, I will post the situation here.

Oklahoma State and Michigan State were in a game-of-the-weekend double overtime shootout in the Bahamas. MSU won 93-90 as 6'9" center Allyssa DeHaan scored 23 points, 9 rebounds and 8 blocks to offset the 44 point performance of OSU guard Andrea Riley. The first OT featured 8 lead changes in the first three minutes. MSU went up by 3 as time wore down, but Riley banked in a triple at the buzzer to force the second OT. Only one other Cowgirl scored in double digits (15). Wish that one had been on TV - would have been fun to watch!

Texas was tripped up by USC before knocking off Rutgers. USC used balanced scoring and outshot the Longhorns 46% to 30% for the game. UT beat Rutgers in spite of missing 18 of 39 free throws. They stayed in it until the end when one of their best perimeter players, Kathleen Nash, knocked down her only 3 of the game.

Missouri played a good road game at Tallahassee, but came up short against top 15 Florida State. Mizzou hit 9 threes, but sent FSU to the line 21 times where they converted 18 of those opportunities. Still leads me to believe that the Tigers will be better than they were last year.

Matt: Kevin and I had a great time watching the victorious Cyclones in Evanston. Thanks for allowing us to tag along. :-)

Next time you happen to be visiting home during basketball season, we'll get you to a game in Hilton. If you think the game was fun at NU, wait until you see one in Ames with 10,000 fans in the seats!

Glad you both liked it - thanks for coming with us!

Oklahoma's fears have been confirmed. From rivals.com:

NORMAN, Okla. (AP)—Oklahoma starting guard Whitney Hand will miss the rest of the basketball season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee.

Hand suffered the injury Friday during the first half of a win over San Diego State in the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She underwent an MRI on Monday morning that revealed the extent of the injury.

Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale says the school will pursue a medical hardship waiver in an attempt to preserve Hand’s eligibility. The sophomore from Fort Worth, Texas, played in five games this season and was the Sooners’ second-leading scorer, averaging 13.4 points.

Hand was the Big 12 freshman of the year last season as the Sooners reached the Final Four.

Hand’s injury leaves No. 18 Oklahoma (4-2) with only nine players on its roster.

Scores from mid-week games:

Thursday, December 03:
Oklahoma 100, UT Arlington 67
Kansas 54, UCLA 49
Nebraska 77, South Dakota 38

Wednesday, December 02:
Texas Tech 75, Texas State 71
Colorado 84, Denver 57
Arkansas 60, Kansas State 58
Texas A&M 106, Stephen F. Austin 56

Tuesday, December 01:
Iowa State 83, Mississippi Valley State 44
Texas 94, Oral Roberts 80


Kansas beat UCLA in a game that had 41 combined turnovers and 38 combined personal fouls. Kansas won the game at the line, going 15-20, while UCLA was only 4-7.

Arkansas trailed K-State from the 8 minute mark of the first half until 15 seconds remained in the game when a jumper plus a free throw put the Razorbacks up for the win. K-State played four girls for 40 minutes and only six players overall. Fatigue may have been a factor in the turnover discrepancy - 19 for the Wildcats, and only 10 for Arkansas.

Oklahoma had a close win today!

Results from weekend games:

Sunday, December 06:
Iowa State 80, Arkansas Pine-Bluff 64
Tennessee 78, Texas 58
Texas A&M 68, California 61
Oklahoma State 80, Coppin State 51
Colorado 80, Seton Hall 54
Kansas 81, Northern Colorado 54

Saturday, December 05:
Baylor 77, Louisiana Tech 67
Kansas State 64, Missouri State 60
Texas Tech 66, New Mexico 55
Oklahoma 87, Arkansas 86 OT
Texas A&M 72, Southern Illinois 58
Nebraska 76, Miami FL 71
Missouri 66, Ball State 55

Friday, December 04:
Kansas State 87, Grambling 62


Iowa State hit 17 3s today in a game where senior Shellie Mosman got her first career start (and scored 14 points, a career high). We needed the perimeter shooting to be on, because there wasn't a lot happening in the paint (only 18 points there). APB actually played quite well, I thought - they hit many 3s that kept things closer than they would have been otherwise, but also knew how to get inside on us. We will have to improve things defensively (again) as we host Iowa on Thursday.

Oklahoma needed overtime to knock off Arkansas in Norman. The Sooners got 31 points from point guard Danielle Robinson and had three other players with double digit scoring. OU overcame a 16 point second half deficit to force the overtime.

Nebraska won a good road game against previously unbeaten Miami. The Huskers had five players in double digit scoring and knocked down 9 of 23 treys.

Baylor had a 24 point lead over Kim Mulkey's alma mater, Louisiana Tech, but hung on for a ten point win. Mulkey was not happy with the play of her team today saying "I thought we had some [veteran] players who coasted today."

Texas got embarrassed at Tennessee last night, losing by 20. None of their starters scored more than 5 points. Honestly, this should not be happening at this point with the Longhorns. Gail Goestenkors has had three years to get people up to speed with her system. Plus it's not like Texas doesn't have good athletes. So, WTF, 'Horns? You should be competing toe-to-toe with these top programs, not losing by 20 or 30 points every time you take the floor against them. Brittainy Raven did score 19 for Texas, but missed 14 of 20 shots getting that total. One other player was in double figures (11). Rebounding was even and Texas got to the line 16 times (vs. 8 for Tennessee). Texas shot 30% while Tennessee hit on 52% of their shots. Yeah, I'm probably being a little hard on Texas, but I think most people expected much more out of them by now with Coach G at the helm. I don't think any other team in the league has underperformed more than the Longhorns over the last two seasons, considering the talent that is out there. End rant. For now.

Today's AP poll was just released. Good showing for the Big 12 this week as Nebraska joins the top 25.


AP Top 25 (rank, team, record, points):

1. Connecticut (40) 7-0, 1000
2. Stanford 6-0, 957
3. Notre Dame 7-0, 900
4. Tennessee 7-0, 895
5. LSU 6-0, 770
6. Baylor 7-1, 724
7. Duke 7-1, 713
8. Xavier 7-0, 709
9. Ohio State 9-1, 693
10. Texas A&M 6-0, 663
11. North Carolina 6-1, 645
12. Florida State 8-0, 603
13. Georgia 8-0, 559
14. Arizona State 6-1, 468
15. Pittsburgh 7-0, 377
16. Oklahoma 6-2, 356
17. Texas 5-3, 269
18. Vanderbilt 8-1, 258
19. Virginia 6-2, 254
20. Dayton 8-1, 175
21. Michigan State 5-3, 143
22. California 4-3, 142
23. Kansas 5-2, 141
24. Nebraska 8-0, 131
25. Maryland 8-1, 82
OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Georgia Tech 81, DePaul 73, Wisconsin-Green Bay 47, James Madison 40, Hartford 19, Syracuse 18, Oklahoma State 14, West Virginia 14, Illinois 12, Gonzaga 11, St. John's 10, Temple 7, Texas Tech 7, Miami (FL) 4, Middle Tennessee State 4, Mississippi State 4, Kentucky 2, TCU 2, Louisiana Tech 1, Louisville 1, Rutgers 1, St. Bonaventure 1

The ESPN poll came out this afternoon. I'm bored, so I'm posting that one also...


ESPN/USA Today Poll:

1. Connecticut (31) 7-0 775
2. Stanford 6-0 742
3. Tennessee 7-0 699
4. Notre Dame 7-0 669
5. Texas A&M 6-0 627
6. Baylor 7-1 578
7. Florida State 8-0 551
8. Xavier 7-0 547
9. Ohio State 9-1 543
10. Duke 7-1 498
11. North Carolina 6-1 486
12. LSU 6-0 478
13. Georgia 8-0 396
14. Arizona State 6-1 380
15. Pittsburgh 7-0 318
16. Oklahoma 6-2 252
17. Vanderbilt 8-1 221
18. Maryland 8-1 209
19. Virginia 6-2 178
20. Dayton 8-1 175
21. Texas 5-3 149
22. California 4-3 127
23. Nebraska 8-0 71
24. Michigan State 5-3 69
25. Syracuse 8-0 56

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
DePaul 54, West Virginia 44, Hartford 24, Temple 24, James Madison 20, Iowa State 17, Kansas 14, Gonzaga 11, East Carolina 10, Louisville 10, Vermont 8, Wisconsin-Green Bay 8, Southern Methodist 6, St. John's 6, Gardner-Webb 5, Kentucky 5, Georgetown 4, Miami (FL) 3, St. Bonaventure 3, San Diego State 2, Bowling Green 1, Liberty 1, Northwestern 1

There are some unusual teams listed in the "others" category - East Carolina, Vermont, Gardner-Webb, and Northwestern, to name a few.

Hey Matt - How come Anna Prins has been missing from the last two ISU Box Scores? Is she injured?

Scores from this week's games:

Thursday, December 10:
Oklahoma 59, Army 46
Iowa State 85, Iowa 66
Kansas 81, UMKC 53
Missouri 83, Texas Pan American 34

Wednesday, December 09:
Nebraska 69, Creighton 56
Oklahoma 80, Marist 71 OT

Tuesday, December 08:
Missouri 52, Bradley 46
Texas A&M 108, North Texas 49
Texas Tech 70, Lamar 56

Iowa State destroyed Iowa last night in Hilton Coliseum. The final score doesn't indicate how lopsided the game really was. With 3:30 or so left, ISU led 85-54. The subs were in at that point and the defense got a little lax, allowing the Hawks to score the final 12 points of the game. ISU hit 11 3s in the first half, 16 for the game. Alison Lacey notched the first triple-double by a Cyclone women's basketball player since 1986 with 19 points, 13 assists, and 11 rebounds. Her assist to turnover ratio is around 5.8-1 right now - yeah, a lot of that has to do with our competition, but that's pretty damned good no matter who you've been playing. Kelsey Bolte hit eight 3 pointers en route to a career high 26 points. Whitney Williams was 4-5 from long range to tie her career high with 14 points.

To answer your question about Anna Prins, Bobby: she's got some sort of virus that the doctors can't identify. She's been at the games, but hasn't suited up for the last two. She is not scheduled to play at Minnesota this Sunday (Big 10 Network, 3:30 p.m. CST) and they don't have an estimate on when she will be back. I had one of "those" bugs back in the 90s - undiagnosable, won't go away, makes you feel miserable, "sorry we can't help you, the bill is on the way." Not fun. At least the game against Iowa showed that we can win without her under the basket, but we also need to keep the 3s falling as well. Everything worked last night and the mistakes were kept to a minimum. Iowa started three freshmen and two sophomores, so their mistakes sort of piled up as the game went on. My only complaint was the crowd size. We had an announced attendance of 12,200, but there were maybe 8000 there. I have to figure the bad weather conditions from the previous day played a part in that, but this was the lowest (actual) turnout for an ISU/Iowa game since 1997.

The only other game that stood out from this group was Oklahoma @ Marist. It took overtime for the Sooners to down the Red Foxes. Nyeshia Stevenson hit 9 three pointers, including two in OT, en route to a career high 32 points in the game. She made her 7th with 16 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game at 68. At one point, Marist led by 10 in the second half (57-47) before OU came back and forced the OT. The 9 threes tied a school record at OU for an individual performance.

Results from the weekend's games:

Sunday, December 13:
Iowa State 77, Minnesota 60
Oklahoma State 68, Vermont 63
Nebraska 69, Northern Illinois 44
Kansas 77, Creighton 56
Northwestern 53, Kansas State 50
Missouri 71, Murray State 32
Baylor 68, Boston College 55

Saturday, December 12:
TCU 56, Texas A&M 54

Friday, December 11:
Colorado St. 69, Colorado 61

Just got home a bit ago from the Iowa State vs. Minnesota game and what a blast that was! The last two times ISU has played the Gophers in Minneapolis, they have gone home with a loss, but not this time. With as good as the team looked against Iowa, they looked oh-so-much better against Minnesota. UM is a big, physical team and we were expecting to get pretty beaten up. We managed to stay close the entire first half, in spite of giving up several wide-open looks from long-range. ISU even had a four point lead at the break (32-28). The second half, we spent driving to the basket, drawing fouls, and pulling away. We got up by 19 before the final margin of 17 at the buzzer. Minnesota looked lost in the second half. I honestly don't think they were prepared at ALL for us this time (nor were they last year in Ames). Alison Lacey didn't have the game she did against Iowa (the triple-double), but with a line of 23 points, 6-10 from the field, 2-2 from long range, 9-9 from the line, and only 2 turnovers, she should be one of the front-runners for Big 12 Player of the Week. Mark my words: Lacey will be 1st team All-Big 12 this year. I won't go out on a limb and predict any national honors until later, but she'll be in the mix if she keeps this up.

Texas A&M lost at TCU while being held to 33 points under their season scoring average. A&M led TCU 45-31 with under 12 points remaining in the game before the Horned Frogs closed out the game on a 25-9 run.

(From the ESPN.com article on the A&M game...) "A&M lost the ball on the ensuing possession and was then whistled for a shot-clock violation with 8.5 seconds remaining that drew the ire of Aggies coach Gary Blair.
TCU's Emily Carter ended up on the floor with a loose ball as the officials blew the whistle. No jump ball was signaled and the Frogs were out of timeouts. After a discussion between the officials, it was ruled that the shot clock had run out and Carter had not signaled time out.
"TCU just won a ballgame over Kansas by Kansas calling a timeout [they didn't have]," Blair said. "Then they ended up doing the same thing and we ended up not getting the reward for it."
(TCU coach Jeff) Mittie was asked if he got an explanation after the call.
"Once they told me it was our ball, I didn't need an explanation," he quipped.

I would have to see it for myself, but that doesn't sound like a good ending for that or any other game.

In a battle between Northwestern and Kansas State, the Wildcats won. Ha, ha. Northwestern beat KSU in Manhattan, 53-50. KSU's Ashley Sweat was the only player for K-State with more than 8 points (19). NU had three in double figures. The loss was the third of the season already at Bramlage Coliseum.

Here are the current RPI standings as of this morning, Monday, December 14th from collegerpi.com/women.

(team, rpi, strength of schedule)
Oklahoma 4, 3
Oklahoma State 7, 5
Kansas 14, 15
Texas 20, 6
Nebraska 22, 107
Texas A&M 27, 68
Baylor 40, 127
Texas Tech 48, 151
Missouri 62, 126
Colorado 72, 131
Iowa State 77, 222
Kansas State 113, 55

Yeah, ISU's numbers aren't great, but consider how much they've come up since last Wednesday before playing Iowa and Minnesota. We were around rpi 145 with an SOS of 305 (out of 314 teams). Fortunately, the Big 12 is still the top rpi conference, so once league play begins, almost everyone's numbers should improve greatly.

Ah-ha! I knew it!

From Cyclones.com:

Lacey Garners Big 12 Weekly Honors

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State senior point guard was named the Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Player of the Week by a media panel voting on performances for the week of Dec. 7-13. It was the third Big 12 weekly honor of Lacey’s career.

In wins over Big Ten foes Iowa and Minnesota, Lacey averaged 21 points, seven rebounds and eight assists per game. In the 85-66 win over Iowa, the 6-foot guard posted just the second triple-double in school history and the 13th in Big 12 Conference history. Lacey tallied 19 points, 11 rebounds, 13 assists, five steals and blocked two shots against the Hawkeyes. Her 13 assists were a career high and tied for sixth place on the ISU single-game list.

Despite missing the final eight minutes of the first half with foul trouble at Minnesota, Lacey scored 23 points and posted three assists and three rebounds. She went 9-for-9 from the charity stripe and 2-for-2 from beyond the arc in the winning effort.

“Aus (Lacey) had a great week,” ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said. “She was not just the best player in the Big 12 this week, but I don’t know if there was a player in the entire country who played better. She was tough at both ends of the floor in leading us to two wins over Big Ten teams in a span of four days.”

For the week, Lacey shot 42.3 percent from the field and 40 percent from beyond the arc. She also went 16-for-16 from the free throw line in the two games combined. She has moved into 11th place on the Iowa State career scoring chart with 1,285 points.

Lacey has posted double figures in every game this season, but even more impressive are her assist numbers. The senior is averaging 8.4 assists per contest, while committing just 1.7 turnovers per game. In NCAA statistics released Monday, the Canberra, Australia, native ranked in the top three nationally in four categories. She leads the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (5.15) and ranks third in assists per game (8.4), free-throw percentage (.957) and triple-doubles (1).

She is the first Cyclone player to be named Big 12 Player of the Week this season. Anna Prins earned Big 12 Freshman-of-the-Week honors after the first week of the campaign.


Congrats to Aus!

The new ESPN poll out today, December 15th:

ESPN/USA Today Poll
(rank, team, record, points)
1. Connecticut (31) 8-0 775
2. Stanford 7-0 743
3. Tennessee 8-0 706
4. Notre Dame 9-0 677
5. Baylor 8-1 629
6. Florida State 8-0 598
7. Ohio State 10-1 560
8. Duke 7-1 543
9. LSU 7-0 512
10. North Carolina 8-1 497
11. Texas A&M 7-1 475
12. Georgia 9-0 457
13. Arizona State 7-1 402
14. Xavier 7-2 314
15. Oklahoma 8-2 306
16. Vanderbilt 9-1 259
17. Virginia 7-2 240
18. Nebraska 10-0 211
19. Pittsburgh 8-1 182
20. Michigan State 7-3 174
21. Texas 5-3 146
22. Syracuse 9-0 116
23. West Virginia 9-1 82
24. Wisconsin-Green Bay 9-0 51
25. James Madison 7-0 50

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Kansas 47, Dayton 47, Maryland 45, Iowa State 40, Temple 39, Kentucky 23, Hartford 19, Gonzaga 15, St. John's 15, East Carolina 13, St. Bonaventure 13, California 11, DePaul 8, Miami (FL) 6, Mississippi State 6, Gardner-Webb 5, Georgetown 5, TCU 5, Vermont 3, Georgia Tech 2, Northwestern 2, Louisiana Tech 1

Results from mid-week games:

Thursday, December 17:
Oklahoma State 69, UC Riverside 46

Wednesday, December 16:
Baylor 101, Oral Roberts 76
Texas 64, Ole Miss 58

Texas had to come back against Mississippi for the win. The Rebels were up five in the second half before UT mounted their run to take the game.

Weekend games:

Sunday, December 20:
Iowa State 76, Northern Iowa 51
Kansas State 73, VCU 67
Kansas 75, UC Riverside 60
Texas 91, Texas Southern 42
Oklahoma 67, Creighton 58
Nebraska 77, LSU 63

Saturday, December 19:
Baylor 70, Gonzaga 49
Hawai'i 71, Kansas State 61
Texas A&M 72, Arizona St. 62
Colorado 88, Southern Utah 36
Oklahoma State 100, Mercer 68

Friday, December 18:
Texas Tech 59, UCLA 58

Iowa State knocked off Northern Iowa in Ames tonight, winning by 25. Alison Lacey scored 23 for ISU on 9-10 shooting, along with 10 boards for her 4th double-double of the season. Freshman Amanda Zimmerman scored career highs in several categories: 11 points, 6 rebounds, 4 blocked shots, and 4 assists. She was also 5-5 from the floor. This was the 6th time in nine games that Iowa State has made at least 10 three pointers.

#18 Nebraska blew out #9 LSU, handing the Tigers their first loss of the season at Lincoln and showed the world that the Huskers are for real. NU's Kelsey Griffin scored 30 points and 14 rebounds in the effort that started with a 21-4 lead out of the gate. LSU cut the lead to five early in the second half before a 12-2 Husker run that kept the margin in double digits to the final buzzer. Foul trouble plagued the Tigers as four starters finished the game with 4 fouls apiece. 25 LSU fouls sent Nebraska to the line 25 times where they connected on 19 of them. The game was played in front of the largest crowd to ever see a women's non-conference game in Lincoln (7717).

Kansas State blew a 14 point halftime lead over Hawaii in the opening round game of UNLV's Duel in the Desert tournament Saturday. Hawaii outscored KSU 49-25 in the second half en route to the 71-61 win. Brittany Chambers and Shalin Spaney each hit 5 three pointers for K-State, but they were the only double-figure scorers for the Wildcats. Hawaii had balanced scoring with six players hitting for 8 or more points. Kansas State won the second day of the tournament, beating Virginia Commonwealth, 73-67.

Texas Tech moved to 9-1 on the season winning an exciting game at Los Angeles against UCLA Friday, 59-58. A two point lead became four with 4.7 second left when Lady Raider Ashlee Roberson hit two free throws. The Bruins hit a 3 to end the game and create the final margin of one point. The largest lead by either team was 6 points (TT) over the course of the entire game. UCLA took a two point lead with under six minutes to play, but could not sustain their momentum at home.

Standings as of Sunday night:

Nebraska 11-0
Baylor 10-1
Texas Tech 9-1
Iowa State 8-1
Texas A&M 8-1
Oklahoma 9-2
Kansas 8-2
Oklahoma State 8-2
Colorado 7-2
Missouri 7-2
Texas 7-3
Kansas State 5-6

Anna Prins is still out for ISU? Wow, hope she gets better soon.

Iowa State's Anna Prins was basically sent home to Colorado after her finals were completed in order to recover from the viral infection she has (and get some TLC from mom). It was hoped she would be back in time for the Cyclone Challenge games on the 29th & 30th of this month, but she's had a difficult time shaking the bug. Now they are thinking it might be one of the two final non-conference games the first week in January before she returns. But when she is cleared to play, it will take a while to get reconditioned since she's been out for so long already. I wouldn't expect her to see more than 15 minutes per game when she does come back. If she misses enough time, there is the outside chance they may choose to apply for a medical hardship year (like a redshirt) and just start over next season. You can play up to 1/3 of your schedule and still be eligible for this - she's only played in five games. I would love to have her back sooner rather than later, but not if she isn't going to be 100%.

Texas A&M's new-comer of the year, Danielle Adams, has suffered a concussion a couple of weeks ago and has been slowly worked back into their rotation. She played 18 minutes in the most recent game.

As mentioned before, sophomore guard Whitney Hand from Oklahoma is out for the season with an ACL tear. She will most likely apply for the extra year since her injury was so early in the season, though you don't know that a person is necessarily going to want to stay in school for that long.

I am not aware of any other injuries (or illnesses) in the league that are impacting a particular team right now.

Not an injury, but... there was a story from Columbia about the Tiger's two top scorers both being suspended from the team for a period of time for beating up a male cheerleader. Long story short, this guy roomed with a female friend of the two players and an argument happened on night that got out of control. He reportedly got pushy with the roommate and the two players stepped in to stop the situation. No one's story matched up with anyone else's according to police and the cheerleader chose not to press charges. The players were re-instated this past week. I don't know if the cheerleader is looking for a new roommate or not.

Results from early this week:

Tuesday, December 22:
Colorado 86, San Jose State 50
Oklahoma State 90, Oral Roberts 65
Kansas 89, Houston 68

Monday, December 21:
Texas Tech 60, Mercer 49
Missouri 81, Arkansas Pine-Bluff 48
Kansas State 59, UTSA 55

Nothing too surprising in these scores. Everyone is off again until this coming Monday when five teams will take to the court. In the meantime, here are the latest RPI numbers for the Big 12 courtesy collegerpi.com/women:

(team, rpi rank, strength of schedule rank)
Oklahoma 4, 8
Oklahoma State 5, 9
Nebraska 6, 56
Texas A&M 12, 41
Kansas 16, 20
Baylor 18, 60
Texas 28, 16
Texas Tech 44, 158
Iowa State 57, 189
Colorado 68, 149
Missouri 81, 204
Kansas State 115, 88

Half the league is in the top 20, with nine teams in the top 60. That makes the Big 12 the top rpi league right now followed by the ACC, Big 10, Big East, SEC, and Pac 10.

Ok, been a busy holiday season and I haven't been around ye old computer as much as usual. SO. I'll do another quickie update on what's happend in the Big 12 since teams returned from their Christmas breaks.

Wednesday, December 30:
Colorado 92, Grambling 43
Texas A&M 84, New Mexico 69
Iowa State 67, Fairfield 37
Baylor 100, Texas Pan American 46
Oklahoma 95, Cal State Fullerton 76
Nebraska 88, Albany 41
Kansas 82, Pepperdine 63

Tuesday, December 29:
Kansas State 73, UC Davis 59
Tulane 67, Texas Tech 49
Iowa State 66, North Carolina A&T 62
Oklahoma State 68, Western Illinois 55
Texas 76, Miami FL 65

Monday, December 28:
Texas Tech 81, North Dakota 61
Texas A&M 89, Prairie View 48
Missouri 71, North Texas 44
Texas 94, Central Michigan 83

Texas Tech lost the championship game in Tulane's holiday tournament (after beating North Dakota on the first night), 67-49. Tech managed to out-board Tulane by 15, but missed 10 of 21 free throws and went 0-10 from 3 point range. Not sure what this says at this point about the Lady Raiders. They are they only team of note that the Green Wave have beaten (next best rated rpi opponent they beat was South Florida at #119). Tech has knocked off New Mexico and UCLA, both in the top 60 rpi, but played little of consequence otherwise. I am going to say that this game was an aberration for Tech at this point, given the poor over-all performance in this one - everyone has their off days. But you still have to wonder if Curry knows what the hell she's doing down there in West Texas.

The only other score that might really stand out would be the Iowa State/North Carolina A&T game from Tuesday, a four point win for ISU. This game was close throughout and A&T would have a one point lead with only 7 minutes remaining in the contest. Needless to say, Coach Fennelly was NOT pleased with the performance on the night. In the post-game press conference, he had this to say: “Alison Lacey was the only player on our team that decided to show up tonight from start to finish. I want to apologize to our fans.
What happened tonight was unacceptable. It is my responsibility to have the team ready to play, and we were not ready to play and if it happens again I quit.” Of course, he was kidding (although he probably did mean it at the time). He'll say that about once a year after a bad game, or something to that effect.

Iowa State did play much better Wednesday night against Fairfield. After leading by only four points at the break, the Cyclones held Fairfield to 10 second half points, winning by 30 (67-37). Still not the best game of the season by far, but it was one of the more productive halves (the 2nd, that is). Oh, in the first game, Alison Lacey moved into the top ten all-time in scoring at Iowa State. She passed Heather Ezell by a single point. Ezell was at the game while on the holiday break from her pro team in Iceland (where she is kicking some serious ass!). Lacey is also now in fourth place all-time in assists at Iowa State, trailing only former great Cyclone point guards Lyndsey Medders, Lindsey Wilson, and Stacy Frese.

There are only four more actual game-days before league play starts on the 9th. There will be a couple of good match-ups between now and then. Virginia plays at Colorado on FoxSports Rocky Mountain 4:30 p.m. MST this Saturday, the 2nd. Oklahoma plays at Tennessee on ESPN2 at 6:00 p.m. CST on Sunday, the 3rd.

Here are the current standings as of January 1, 2010:

Nebraska 12-0
Baylor 12-1
Texas A&M 11-1
Iowa State 10-1
Texas Tech 11-2
Kansas 10-2
Oklahoma 10-2
Oklahoma State 10-2
Colorado 9-2
Missouri 9-2
Texas 9-3
Kansas State 7-6

One final note for people following ISU, specifically: Anna Prins is back in Ames and is working on conditioning to return to the court as soon as this Sunday. She will most likely play very limited minutes to begin since she has been out of commission for so long due to that nasty viral infection. But she seemed mentally ready and was anxious to get back on the court when I spoke with her after Tuesday's game (so that's a great sign!).

Almost forgot that a new poll came out a few days ago. Here is the ESPN Coaches poll from the 28th:

1. Connecticut (31) 11-0, 775
2. Stanford 9-1, 724
3. Notre Dame 11-0, 717
4. Tennessee 10-1, 675
5. Baylor 11-1, 639
6. Ohio State 14-1, 615
7. North Carolina 9-1, 574
8. Georgia 12-0, 534
9. Duke 10-2, 521
10. Texas A&M 10-1, 496
11. Florida State 11-2, 439
11. LSU 10-1, 399
13. Xavier 9-2, 393
14. Nebraska 11-0, 391
15. Oklahoma 9-2, 324
16. Vanderbilt 11-1, 295
17. Arizona State 8-3, 240
18. Pittsburgh 10-1, 221
19. West Virginia 11-1, 204
20. Wisconsin-Green Bay 11-0, 146
21. Virginia 8-3, 144
22. Texas 8-3, 120
23. Syracuse 11-0, 104
24. Michigan State 9-4, 86
25. James Madison 8-1, 48

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Kansas 34, Dayton 32, St. John's 22, Kentucky 19, Iowa State 16, Georgia Tech 15, TCU 14, Gardner-Webb 11, Oklahoma State 11, Miami (FL) 10, Georgetown 9, DePaul 8, Michigan 7, East Carolina 6, Maryland 6, Temple 6, Vermont 6, Southern Methodist 4, Wisconsin 4, Northwestern 3, St. Bonaventure 3, Tulsa 3, Gonzaga 1, Hartford 1

Saturday's games:

Baylor 99, Texas State 18
Virginia 74, Colorado 59
Texas Tech 69, Savannah St. 40
Kansas State 78, Yale 59
Missouri 72, Duquesne 66
Oklahoma State 84, Texas Pan American 31
Texas 114, Arkansas Pine-Bluff 53


Ok, about that Baylor score. Can Texas State really be that bad? Yeah, probably. They are 4-7 on the season with their four wins all coming against non-Division I opponents. Their rpi was 325 going into the game. Yet, somehow they only lost at Texas Tech by four points. Anyway, Baylor could not be stopped in this one - AT ALL. It was 24-0 before Texas State got their first bucket and 47-5 at the break. BU's freshman star Brittney Griner dunked twice and set the school's single-season blocking record in just 14 games (87). TSU's leading scorer had 7 points, while the starters combined for 5 total points. Seriously, Baylor, don't schedule this school again. It's just cruel.

Colorado lost at home to Virginia. The game got away from them in the second half after trailing by only two points at the break. Only two Buffaloes scored more than six points (Bianca Smith and Brittany Spears), which didn't help their cause.

Missouri knocked off Duquesne at home after trailing by five after twenty minutes. The game began with runs by both teams: 21-6 by Duquesne to start the game, followed by a 20-3 run by the Tigers. The Dukes got to within two at 66-68, but a lay-in and two free throws sealed the game for Mizzou. Missouri gets to face top 15 team Xavier in Columbia on Tuesday. It will be televised on FoxSports Midwest. Former Cyclone Ann O'Neil will be doing color commentary on the broadcast.

Matt - I see that ISU had a pretty lopsided score as well. Although looking at the box score you wouldn't guess it. Bolte and Lacey combined to shoot 2-18 from the field. Fortunately it seems the freshmen saved them.

And it's good to see Prins back, even in limited action.

Scores from the last couple of days...

Monday, January 04:
Colorado 78, Yale 71
Oklahoma State 98, Sam Houston State 60
Texas A&M 90, Lamar 57
Nebraska 94, Vermont 50

Sunday, January 03:
Iowa State 67, Lafayette 25
Tennessee 96, Oklahoma 75
New Mexico State 61, Kansas 60



So, yeah. I was thinking as I was typing the previous post about Baylor yesterday that ISU would end up blowing out an overmatched opponent on Sunday evening. Hey! Guess what happened? Iowa State held Lafayette College to the lowest offensive total by any ISU opponent, ever (25 points). To defend, Baylor was expected to be at the top of the conference, while Iowa State was not. Our schedule was made accordingly, bringing in teams that would allow all our new kids a chance to play against teams that would not beat us up before the Big 12 season started. The only major college teams we played were Iowa and Minnesota, and our strength of schedule reflects that - in a big way (262 as of last night). At least we beat both of them. We even spotted Lafayette a 5-0 lead before going on a 30-2 run. Yeah, everyone has some cupcakes on their schedule every year and we're no exception.

Last night, Iowa State really only had one player score much and that was freshman Chelsea Poppens with 22 points. Lacey only had 11, while Bolte ended up going 0-10 from the floor. Whitney Williams never even got a shot off in 21 minutes of action. I am not sure what is going on with the team right now, but the offense and energy have been lagging the past couple of weeks. The team is capable of more, but we're not seeing it. Had the team that played Minnesota showed up last night, ISU could have won by 81 just like Baylor did against Texas State. I will give credit that Lacey and Bolte kept shooting even if the shots were not falling. Anna Prins only played 8 minutes, but that was about what we expected to see at this point. If she can stay out of trouble, those minutes will increase substantially by the first of February.

Oklahoma got blasted at Tennessee on Sunday, losing by 21. Tennessee's Shekinna Stricklen notched a triple-double with 17 points, 13 rebounds, and 12 assists. Both teams had four players in double figure scoring, but UT had more help off the bench. OU only played seven and one of those saw one minute of floor time. The game was remarkably even - except for baskets made (39 vs. 29) and rebounds (48 vs. 31). You can certainly tell the Paris twins are not under the basket anymore for the Sooners. OU is still a very good team, but they are so short-handed this year that it will be tough to keep fighting when all your players are going to see 35-40 minutes every game. That is going to be one gassed team by March.

Kansas lost a game at New Mexico State by a single point. Aggie Crystal Boyd hit one of two free throws to break a tie with only 0.8 seconds remaing on the clock. KU's Danielle McCray had an uncharacteristically low-scoring game (for her) with only 16 points on 6-17 shooting. KU was also only 10-19 from the line.

The latest ESPN poll was released this afternoon...

1. Connecticut (31) 13-0, 775
2. Stanford 11-1, 736
3. Notre Dame 13-0, 714
4. Tennessee 12-1, 684
5. Baylor 13-1, 647
6. Ohio State 16-1, 618
7. North Carolina 12-1, 575
8. Georgia 14-0, 557
9. Duke 12-2, 527
10. Texas A&M 12-1, 503
11. Florida State 13-2, 449
12. LSU 12-1, 429
13. Nebraska 13-0, 406
14. Xavier 9-3, 353
15. Oklahoma 10-3, 329
16. Vanderbilt 12-2, 299
17. West Virginia 13-1, 273
18. Wisconsin-Green Bay 13-0, 241
19. Virginia 11-3, 206
20. Texas 10-3, 173
21. Michigan State 11-4, 132
22. Pittsburgh 11-3, 68
23. Iowa State 11-1, 54
24. Arizona State 8-5, 50
25. Georgetown 12-2, 45

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Georgia Tech 39, Syracuse 34, Kentucky 31, Oklahoma State 31, TCU 22, James Madison 13, Kansas 11, Dayton 9, Maryland 9, Vermont 7, St. John's 6, Tulane 4, East Carolina 3, Miami (FL) 3, Southern Methodist 3, DePaul 2, Gonzaga 2, Illinois 2, Hartford 1

Conference season has begun (and the last few games from earlier in the week)!!

Saturday, January 09:
Nebraska 57, Iowa State 49
Texas A&M 91, Texas 70
Oklahoma State 78, Baylor 65
Oklahoma 73, Texas Tech 58
Colorado 64, Missouri 48
Kansas State 59, Kansas 35

Tuesday, January 05:
Iowa State 68, South Dakota 43
Texas 84, UT Arlington 41
Xavier 68, Missouri 60

Ok, let's just start off by saying that the top six teams in the league as of today are not necessarily the six I expected (or hoped) to see there at this point.

OSU's sparkplug, Andrea Riley, scored 43 points on 15-36 shooting, including going 6-18 from three point range as her team knocked off top-5 Baylor in Stillwater, 73-58. The plan for the Cowgirls was to avoid BU's Brittany Griner altogether, accounting for the school-record 37 attempts from long range. As a result, Griner scored ZERO blocks in the game, though she did finish with 16 points and 10 boards to go with 5 turnovers. While offensively for OSU, everything seemed to work perfectly, the same cannot be said for the Bears. They were without third leading scorer Melissa Jones due to a "stress reaction." Only two other Baylor girls were in double digit scoring with both of them tallying 10 points apiece. In a twelve minute period spanning halftime, OSU outscored Baylor 34-6.

The Texas-Texas A&M rivalry used to go UT's way. Lately, it's been all A&M, with the Aggies winning eight of the last nine games between the two teams. Yesterday, in Austin, no less, A&M blew out Texas, 91-70. The halftime score was even worse at 44-19, with the lead growing to 30 at one point in the second period. A&M's Tanisha Smith and Danielle Adams combined for 46 points on 17-27 shooting. 30 of UT's 70 points came from the charity stripe, but they only shot 32% from the floor for the game. Erika Arriaran had a team-high 14 points for the 'Horns. Texas coach Gail Goestenkors had still not defeated A&M (0-5). From the ESPN.com article: "The loss dropped third-year Texas coach Gail Goestenkors to 0-5 against Texas A&M, a frustrating mark for a coach brought in to restore Texas to national glory, but who now seems stuck treading water in the Big 12."

Now if you saw a score of 59-35 between Kansas and Kansas State from this season, you'd figure KU had won the game based on them being nationally ranked, picked for 2nd in the pre-season Big 12 poll, and that Kansas State was sitting at 8-6 on the season with some embarrassing home losses to boot. Yeah, that's what I would have thought also. Kansas State jumped out to a 11-2 lead, before the Jayhawks evened things up ten minutes in and traded baskets until the half to trail the Wildcats 24-22. Kansas came out of the lockerroom and didn't score their first basket until 6:30 remained in the game. KU's Danielle McCray, their leading scorer, was held to 10 points as Kansas tied the school record for fewest points ever scored in a game. KU coach Bonnie Henrickson is now 1-11 against K-State.

One of five remaining undefeated teams left in the country, Nebraska moved to 14-0 with a win in Ames over Iowa State. With only a two point deficit at halftime (after trailing by 10 early), Iowa State seemed poised to make a move and knock off a team ranked in the top 5 rpi. Then the stagnation set in with people standing around watching Lacey figure out what to do next, mental errors, and poorly-chosen off-balance shots by most. Of course, the refs didn't help any (the most idiotic trio I have seen in Hilton in a long time - and that's saying something consider the state of officiating in the Big 12), but typically ISU is good enough to play through bad officiating (like calling Nebraska clearly throwing the ball out-of-bounds a "jump ball," with possession to NU). Anyway, Lacey scored 23 for Iowa State, while Anna Prins was the next highest scorer with only 8. Nebraska was lead by guard Yvonne Turner with 14, joined by three teammates in double digits.

Mid-week games (all times Central):

Tuesday, January 12:
Oklahoma State at Kansas; ESPNU, 11:00 a.m.
Texas at Nebraska, 7:00 p.m.
Colorado at Texas Tech; Texas Tech Sports Net, 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, January 13:
Kansas State at Missouri, 6:00 p.m.
Iowa State at Texas A&M, 7:00 p.m.
Oklahoma at Baylor; Sooner Sports Net, 7:00 p.m.

The Big 12's lowest ranked team in the rpi is still Kansas State, but they shot up nearly 20 spots to 88. There are 8 league teams in the rpi top 50 as of Sunday, with four in the top 15. Texas, Iowa State, and Kansas should all drop out of whichever poll they were in, while OSU should appear in both for the first time in a year with their win.

Results from Tuesday night:

Texas Tech 74, Colorado 61
Nebraska 91, Texas 79
Oklahoma State 70, Kansas 68

Incredibly, losing the game at home against OSU is not the worst news for Kansas this morning. KU has lost their point guard, Angel Goodrich, for the season with a torn ACL and meniscus. She tore her ACL in her other knee last season before the first game and was able to come back this year as a redshirt freshman. She had been contributing about 7 points and 7 assists per game until last night. As far as the game is concerned, OSU's Andrea Riley scored 30 more points and picked up one of her 7 assists feeding Toni Young for the go ahead basket with 3.5 second remaining in the game. KU's Danielle McCray put up 28 points. Kansas has now dropped three straight games and has no points in the latest coaches poll (before this game was played).

Nebraska increased its best-ever start to a season, moving to 15-0 with a win over Texas in Lincoln. NU led by as many as 17 in the second half before UT closed the gap to five points. Nebraska's sure-pick for 1st Team All-Big 12, Kelsey Griffin, scored six points in 90 seconds to put the game away. She's averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds so far this season. Texas once again had no answers to a team they managed to stay with for the first twenty minutes. But the Horns put the Huskers on the line 34 times where they converted 28 of those shots to points. The loss leaves Texas in an 0-2 hole to start the conference season for the second time in three seasons under Goestenkors' leadership.

Yeah, and Colorado lost again (to a not-so-great Tech team). When are they going to stop giving McConnell-Miller contract extensions?

Yesterday's new ESPN poll:

1. Connecticut (31) 15-0, 775
2. Stanford 13-1, 733
3. Notre Dame 14-0, 717
4. Tennessee 14-1, 681
5. Ohio State 17-1, 642
6. Georgia 16-0, 614
7. Duke 14-2, 551
8. Texas A&M 13-1, 545
9. Nebraska 14-0, 501
9. Baylor 13-2, 501
11. North Carolina 13-2, 497
12. Xavier 11-3, 401
13. West Virginia 15-1, 363
13. Oklahoma 11-3, 363
15. LSU 13-2, 334
16. Florida State 14-3, 327
17. Wisconsin-Green Bay 15-0, 303
18. Georgetown 13-2, 152
19. Oklahoma State 13-2, 132
20. Iowa State 12-2, 128
21. Texas 11-4, 122
22. Vanderbilt 12-4, 112
23. Michigan State 11-5, 99
24. Virginia 11-5, 86
25. Syracuse 14-1, 70

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Kentucky 64, TCU 56, Georgia Tech 47, Miami (FL) 47, James Madison 22, Dayton 18, Pittsburgh 15, East Carolina 14, Maryland 12, Gonzaga 7, Vermont 7, Hartford 3, Rutgers 3, Tulane 3, DePaul 2, Mississippi State 2, Gardner-Webb 1, Marquette 1, San Diego State 1, Wisconsin 1

Results from Wednesday night:

Baylor 57, Oklahoma 47
Texas A&M 68, Iowa State 44
Kansas State 65, Missouri 50

So the ISU score was NOT the outcome I was hoping for. Once again, it was the Alison Lacey show and not much else. At least there were more attempts at scoring this time, though. The problem was nothing made it to the bottom of the net. ISU was 15-50 from the floor. Lacey was 6-15, Bolte was 1-10, and Williams 0-4 for her third goose egg in the scoring column in the last four games. A&M's Adams came off the bench for 20 points, while Tanisha Smith added 10. The Iowa State offense has simply evaporated without a trace. I don't know what the answers are at this point. Fennelly usually finds something that works eventually. But what worries me is we see a LOT of standing around and waiting for Lacey to make a move. Bolte definitely tried to remedy that situation, but the shots just would not fall. Saturday has the Cyclones going to Colorado (we'll be there), so hopefully we'll have a better outcome than what we've seen over the last two games. A 0-3 start to the Big 12 season leaves an awful big hole to climb out of.

Ok, just got back from Colorado, so I finally have some time to catch up on posting here. It was a busy weekend in the Big 12!!

Results from this weekend:

Sunday, January 17:
Oklahoma 74, Texas A&M 65
Nebraska 65, Baylor 56
Kansas 72, Missouri 59

Saturday, January 16:
Oklahoma State 66, Kansas State 56
Iowa State 68, Colorado 62
Texas 95, Texas Tech 90, 2OT

If anyone was questioning it, yes, Nebraska is for real. They moved to 16-0 on the season with a win AT Baylor. As was the key with OSU beating BU earlier, NU tried to keep the ball away from Baylor's Griner as much as possible. That success led them to tying a school record with 12 made three pointers (vs. zero made threes for Baylor in ten tries) in spite of missing 10 of their first eleven long-range attempts. The game was back and forth until Nebraska closed things out with a 17-6 run over the final eight and a half minutes of the game for the win. Only Griner scored more than nine points (18) for Baylor as Melissa Jones was still on the bench with a stress fracture. The loss ended Baylor's 14 game home court winning streak. Only Nebraska, Connecticut, and Wisconsin-Green Bay remain undefeated in the women's ranks.

Oklahoma surprised Texas A&M in Norman, winning after being up by as many as sixteen before A&M's rally cut it to three in the second half. OU won the game at the line, going 20-24 vs. 7-15 for the Aggies. The Sooners has four players in double figures, inlcuding two with 20 or more points (Stevenson, Robinson).

Iowa State got a much needed road win (and win, period) at Colorado on Saturday. The game was part of a double header with CU's men hosting Kansas State first. Fortunately for ISU, the CU men lost, so most fans didn't stick around for the women's game. The attendance was listed at over 4,000, but there were clearly not that many people there. This was a homecoming game for ISU's Anna Prins, who is from Broomfield, just 15 minutes down the road from Boulder. She received a huge ovation from the crowd when introduced last for ISU's starting five. But the game would belong to Alison Lacey. She scored a season-high 32 points on 10-15 shooting, including 4-6 from long range, and 8-8 from the line. ISU jumped out to an early 9-1 lead, but trailed by as many as seven before halftime (23-16) before trailing only 26-24 at the break. Lacey picked up her second foul with thirteen minutes to play in the second half, allowing CU to jump ahead. She re-entered with three or so minutes before halftime and was able to guide ISU back to a near draw. The second half was a see-saw battle with both teams trading leads throughout the period. Lacey scored 18 consecutive points for Iowa State down the stretch to keep the game from slipping away.

Texas beat Texas Tech at Lubbock on Saturday, handing the Lady Raiders their first home loss of the season in double overtime. The Raiders led by six in the first OT, 83-77, with only 22 seconds remaining. UT forced three straight turnovers on in-bounds plays by TTU, scoring three straight baskets to tie and force the second overtime. Roberson and Murphree each scored 29 points for Tech, but they got little help from anyone else (10 points was the next highest point total). UT had five players in double digit scoring, led by Brittainy Raven's 20.

Six teams are tied for sixth place in the Big 12 right now with a 1-2 conference record. Those six teams include three that are currently ranked (Baylor, Texas, Iowa State). Missouri is the only conference team left to not have won a league game. Nebraska and Oklahoma State are tied for first place at 3-0.

League standings as of Sunday night:

Nebraska, 3-0, 16-0
Oklahoma State, 3-0, 15-2
Texas A&M , 2-1, 14-2
Oklahoma, 2-1, 12-4
Kansas State, 2-1, 10-7
Baylor, 1-2, 14-3
Iowa State, 1-2, 13-3
Texas Tech, 1-2, 13-4
21 Texas, 1-2, 12-5
Colorado, 1-2, 11-5
Kansas, 1-2, 11-5
Missouri, 0-3, 10-6

The latest ESPN poll was released this afternoon:

1. Connecticut (31) 18-0, 775
2. Stanford 15-1, 740
3. Tennessee 16-1, 700
4. Ohio State 19-1, 658
5. Notre Dame 15-1, 655
6. Nebraska 16-0, 614
7. Duke 15-3, 548
8. Georgia 17-1, 535
9. Texas A&M 14-2, 499
10. Xavier 12-3, 472
11. West Virginia 17-1, 463
12. Baylor 14-3, 444
13. Oklahoma 12-4, 363
14. Wisconsin-Green Bay 16-0, 344
15. North Carolina 14-3, 333
16. Florida State 16-3, 332
17. Oklahoma State 15-2, 304
18. Georgetown 15-2, 270
19. LSU 13-3, 253
20. Vanderbilt 13-5, 137
21. Iowa State 13-3, 116
22. Virginia 12-5, 100
23. Texas 12-5, 89
24. TCU 13-4, 52
25. Kentucky 14-3, 46

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Syracuse 43, Wisconsin 37, Dayton 34, Georgia Tech 17, Michigan State 17, Hartford 13, James Madison 12, Gonzaga 10, Miami (FL) 9, Gardner-Webb 7, East Carolina 6, Maryland 6, St. John's 4, Vermont 4, Marquette 3, Temple 3, Richmond 2, Rutgers 2, DePaul 1, Marist 1, Penn State 1, Tulane 1