The coaches have voted for how they think the league will shake out this year. No real surprises at the top.


2007-08 Big 12 Conference Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll

1. Texas A&M (7) 117
2. Oklahoma (5) 115
3. Baylor 97
4. Texas 86
5. Oklahoma State 66
6. Iowa State 64
7. Nebraska 56
8. Kansas State 54
8. Texas Tech 54
10. Kansas 43
11. Colorado 29
12. Missouri 11

(first place votes in parentheses; coaches not allowed to vote for their own team)


I think the top 4 will end up this way, if not necessarily in that order. Oklahoma lost all their proven guards, save one, and will be relying too much on Courtney Paris. She will still be enough to get the Sooners a first-round Big 12 tournament bye in March, though. I don't see how Missouri will finish anywhere better than last after losing nearly all their scoring from last season.

Places 5 through 11 are up for grabs, with just about any of these teams moving up or down within that range. Kansas showed great improvements towards the end of last season and could surprise some teams - they hung with OU for 35 minutes in Lawrence last year. Colorado returns a good group and Tech has about a billion newcomers, inlcuding the preseason newcomer of the year. K-State should be dangerous after returning most of a team that ended up a 12 seed in the conference tournament last year, but still made it to the semifinal game of the WNIT.

I plan on keeping track of the conference again like last year over the next several months. With all the views that thread got (nearly 5000), there was clearly some interest in what was going on here. I'll try to get basic info on all the teams in the near future posted and share some scuttlebutt I hear from other places.

Go Cyclones!

The South Division looks to be brutal, so it's quite possible a North Division team (such as the Twister Sisters) could make their way into the top 4 with a good run in their Division (provided the top South teams beat up on each other).

The first Coach's Poll of the season has been released. No real surprises, especially with Tennessee and UCONN being at #s 1 and 2. Four Big 12 schools are ranked to start things off, with four more receiving votes (including my Cyclones).

*Rank, School (1st place votes), total points*

1. Tennessee (26) 767
2. Connecticut (4) 714
3. Rutgers 683
4. Maryland 637
5. LSU (1) 617
6. Oklahoma 550
7. North Carolina 539
8. Stanford 529
9. Duke 515
10. Georgia 509
11. Texas A&M 459
12. Arizona State 454
13. George Washington 331
14. California 322
15. Baylor 317
16. Ohio State 284
17. Vanderbilt 181
18. Michigan State 166
19. Florida State 155
20. Purdue 146
21. Pittsburgh 142
22. West Virginia 139
23. Louisville 126
24. Texas 121
25. N.C. State 78

Others Receiving Votes
DePaul 75, Middle Tenn. St. 71, Notre Dame 57, Auburn 41, Wisconsin 32, Mississippi 31, Xavier 30, Marquette 30, Georgia Tech 30, Wyoming 26, USC 17, BYU 17, Oklahoma State 16, Bowling Green 16, UCLA 12, New Mexico 12, Western Kentucky 11, Temple 7, TCU 7, Nebraska 7, Montana 7, Marist 7, Iowa State 6, Minnesota 5, Kentucky 5, Gonzaga 4, Boise State 3, Old Dominion 3, Texas Tech 3, Tulane 2, Ball State 1, Hartford 1, Utah 1, Wisc. Green Bay 1.

Tech has a lot of new faces to plug in this year. Add onto that three players have gone down with injuries already (Maddy Brown G is out six to eight weeks, Tawanna Flowers F is done for the year, and Kaylan Talley C is also out for the year). I think we'll be salty at home and probably pull off an upset or two, but looks like another year or two before this program climbs again. Still excited about the season.

Iowa State starts the season tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon with their only exhibition game this season against Iowa Weslyan. ISU has to replace some scoring and rebounding with the departure of Lyndsey Medders, Megan Ronhovde, and Rachel Pierson.

Sophomore Alison Lacey will be our starting point guard for us this year. Her back-ups will be Denae Stuckey, a sophomore juco transfer from Kansas City. Denae's specialty is defense and taking the ball to the hoop, but has been working to develop an outside shot as well (this IS Iowa State, after all - you GOTTA shoot the 3!). Heather Ezell is also able to run point if there is a need, but she will primarily be our shooting guard.

Nicky Wieben is starting her junior year and will be counted on for consistent scoring under the basket as well as her outside shooting. She averaged around 12 points per game last year and was an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention, but didn't get any pre-season recognition this year.

Toccara Ross will start as our only senior. He has the ability to shoot from beyond ten feet, but the closer she gets to the basket, the better she is. At 5'10", she's undersized for a post player, but can bang around in the paint and get some points with girls half a foot taller than she is.

The fifth starting spot looks like it will go to ISU's only freshman, Kelsey Bolte (bowl-tee). Coach Fennelly has said all since last spring that she most likely would claim a starting spot. She was Miss Iowa Basketball last year (Mr. Iowa Basketball ended up at Iowa State also).

The Cyclones will be looking for more production from guards Shellie Mosman (Miss Iowa Basketball two seasons ago), whom Fennelly says has shown the most improvement over last year of those guards coming off the bench, and Anna Florzak. Junior forwards Amanda Nisleit and Gillian Bjerke are also expected to be able to step up their performances. Nisleit has shown the ability to be a go-to player last year, but needs to be more aggressive and really fight for her minutes.

Jocelyn Anderson and Brittany Lange are two newcomers (juco transfer and Creighton transfer respectively) who should be able to provide good minutes on the floor also. Anderson received some league honors for her efforts at Des Moines Area Community College last year. Lange (a redshirt sophomore) is a walk-on as of right now, but I believe was second all-time in three pointers made in Iowa high school history, so she could prove useful down the road.


This may be another year in the Big 12 where any team can beat any other team on a given night. The favorites are pretty clear, but that doesn't mean anything will be taken for granted in this league.

In the north, Nebraska lost their top scorer and all-time leader in 3 pointers made, along with several other key players, but return Kelsey Griffin, who most likely will become their new go-to girl and team leader.

Colorado returns Jackie McFarland, a post player who hits as many 3s as she does shots in the paint (or at least it seems like it against us), and many players with a lot of minutes from last year - just enough firepower to give teams fits, but not enough to contend for the top half of the conference.

Kansas returns a group of talented sophomores that really came together as a team late last year. They lose their top scorer, but should look to improve with the new kids added to the mix. Danielle McCrae should be their best player on offense

Kansas State probably has the most to prove, only losing one starter from last year's squad and tying for last place only three (?) years removed from a regular season title. I don't know about their incoming players, but the Wildcats can always be dangerous. Maybe their best returning player was a freshman last year, Ashley Sweat.

Missouri is nearly universally picked to finish last this year. They lost a majority of scoring and rebounding from last season and will have a hard time replacing those numbers.

I know less about the southern teams, but here's a quick idea of what's going on... it should be a bloodbath like last year. Oklahoma, OSU, Texas, Baylor, and A&M will all be competing for the top of the south. Texas Tech has about a million new faces (as AusTech said), but is most likely a year or two away from serious contention amongst the southern division. If the new players can come together quickly, something good may happen, but everyone else down there may just be too strong.

OSU and A&M return virtually everyone. Texas returns much of their line-up, minus Tiffany Jackson. She was a star, but I think they'll be better off without her on the court. Baylor will be young, but returns a good core of experience. OU returns Courtney Paris, but lost their big 3 "other" players from last year - Welch, Rush, and Higgins. Sherri Coale always has someone to fill the holes left from previous seasons and this will be no different.

Personally, I have been waiting for basketball season since last march and now it's finally here! The possibilites are great for ISU this year - the Big 12 Tournament is in Kansas City this spring, where we can bring in thousands of fans. And the NCAA Tournament has chosen Des Moines as one of eight sites for first and second round games this spring. If Iowa State makes the tournament, they are guaranteed to play in Des Moines regardless of seeding (just as any other school serving as a host school would be allowed to do).

LET'S GO STATE!!!

Iowa State won their exhibition game 101-38 over Iowa Weslyan this afternoon. It wasn't even really that close. It was 50-25 at the half, but then with just over six minutes to play, the score was something like 87-27. ISU only had eight players score, but all of them scored at least 11 points. ISU was also 13-24 from 3 point range.

The next game is in one week against Pepperdine, which was our only non-conference loss last year before the NCAA tournament. Fortunately, we get them in Ames this year and payback is on the minds of the Cyclone players.

We couldn't allow ISU to be the only team to score 100 The Lady Raiders beat the Houston Jaguars in their only exhibition game 100-82 in Lubbock. Game was close until Tech closed the game on a 34-19 run! Love teams that can close well. Erin Myrick led the way with 24 pts and 11 boards, Keisha Walker had 21 pts, Dominic Seals had 19 pts and 15 boards, and the team went 9 for 17 from 3. Great athleticism and Coach Curry ran a press quite a bit and man to man D in the half court.
The down side: Tech didn't shoot a high enough percentage of free throws, which I expect to improve, and we had more turnovers than assists. Some of those seemed to come from playing with new people and not knowing where the ball/person was going.
Tech hits the floor against UCF and Northeastern at the UCF Classic in Orlando Nov. 9-11 before coming home to play IPFW on the 13th.

Iowa State beat Pepperdine 70-59 yesterday, avenging a loss last year in Malibu to them. Pepperdine looked horrible the first 30 minutes of the game. At the half, ISU was up 38-12 and led 57-20 at one point before we had pulled most of our starters and PU started pressing (with their starters) and actually hitting their shots, resulting in the final score. Coach Fennelly eventually put all of our starters back in to make a point and stop the bleeding, but they had already made their run at that point.

Still, two of our newcomers looked REALLY good. Denae Stuckey was able to run point some and got some good steals and almost-steals, hit a couple of 3s, and seriously showed that she has already learned the system. I'm so happy we get her for three whole years.

Our next game is against Sacramento State here in Ames this coming Sunday afternoon.

Only one Big 12 team has lost so far in the young season - Oklahoma was beaten by Maryland last night, 76-66. The game wasn't really even that close. Maryland led by around 20 points most of the second half. I think OU is going to miss their guards that graduated last year more than most people realize. Their new guards look like they will be really good, but they're all new and it will take time to get into the swing of things, I think.

Oklahoma played #1 Tennessee last night and came up short 70-67. OU was able to hang with the Vols throughout the whole game, but missed a lot of free throws over the 40 minutes (13 of 25 won't help you in a back-and-forth game). The Sooners are starting their season 0-2, but both losses are coming against the last two national champions.

Kansas State picked up a loss to Wyoming in Laramie, 56-44. Three of K-State's starters scored 37 of their 44 points with only three points coming from the bench.

No other Big 12 school has lost a game yet, with Colorado yet to play their first game (tonight at San Francisco).

Several teams are participating in holiday Tournaments across the country, including Iowa State, Oklahoma, Kansas State, A&M, Texas, and Nebraska. Some are even in warm climates (except ours, which is in Nashville - but next year, we go to Hawaii)!

Iowa State managed to eek out at 99-45 win over Sacramento State yesterday. Heather Ezell tied a school record, hitting 10 three pointers in the game, and broke the old Hilton Coliseum record of 8 3s made. She ended up with 32 points on 10 of 15 shooting from long range (and one two-pointer). As a team, ISU came one short of tying the school record for 3s in a game with 17.

If only the team could shoot their free throws from beyond the arc... they were 10-19 from the line and didn't work their way up to 50% until near the end. This is the only glaring weakness they're showing right now and it REALLY needs work. The team looked a bit sluggish on and off in the first half, but the second half seemed to flow much better. Part of the reason for this was that new point guard Alison Lacey got into foul trouble early on and had to sit the rest of the half. I think they've gotten used to having her on the floor running the show already - and she's done a great job so far: Alison has 17 assists and only two turnovers in two games this season. Last season, she averaged only one turnover per game.

The rest of the conference didn't fare so well yesterday. Missouri lost at South Dakota State 78-63, Texas lost to Tennessee in Knoxville 92-67, and Colorado lost to USC in LA 70-57.

Nebraska, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech all won on Saturday.

Up next for Iowa State is the Vanderbilt Tournament in Nashville. They will play Michigan on Friday night and then either Belmont or Vanderbilt on Sunday (both of which were in the NCAA tournament last year).

This afternoon, the Big 12 names Heather Ezell "Player of the Week" for her outstanding performance yesterday against Sac. State. I guess her 10 3s made also tied a league mark set by Stacy Frese of ISU, but also by (I believe) Laurie Koehn of Kansas State a few years back.

Woohoo! Congrats, Heather!

Ok, back from the Vanderbilt tournament in Nashville. We had a great time, which could only have been made better had ISU won the whole thing.

Friday afternoon, we beat Michigan 67-43. Alison Lacey had 35 points, while going 9-13 from 3 point range, plus 3 rebounds, and only two turnovers. Nicky Wieben was the only other Cyclone in double figures, with 12. Michigan came at us with a good defensive effort and a huge physical presence in the post with 6'6" reserve sophomore, Krista Phillips (who scored 21 of their 43 points). The game started with a 22-1 ISU lead until Phillips came in. At one point later in the game the score was Michigan 32, Alison Lacey 32. Vanderbilt beat Belmont, also a Nashville college, 104-43 - and it wasn't even really that close.

Sunday afternoon, ISU played 19th ranked Vanderbilt and stayed close through the first half. Vandy pulled away in the second and ended up winning 62-53. My Cyclones couldn't hit their shots from right under the basket and ended up shooting only 38% for the game. We were forced into 18 turnovers, 8 by Lacey alone. Had those chip shots gone in, it may have been different down the stretch. But you can't argue that we were beaten by a better team. Vandy played hard defense and made their shots, so hats off to them.

We were still proud of our girls and they way they played over the holiday. ISU stands at 3-1 with an RPI of 33 this morning. We play Montana State this Friday and will host Iowa next Wednesday.

The league didn't fare so well over the weekend. Only three unbeaten teams remain in the Big 12 - Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and Baylor. Half the league has at least two losses. Most teams were in tournaments and didn't seem to play well against some smaller schools: Missouri lost to Samford, Nebraska lost to Marist, Colorado lost to Siena. Even our pre-season league #1, A&M lost to Wake Forest. Not the way I thought we'd all be starting out, but there is still plenty of time to get things figured out before conference play starts.

For those who are interested, the current RPI ratings for the Big XII as of 11/29/07...

School, RPI Rank:

Kansas - 9
Oklahoma - 10
Iowa State - 17
Texas A&M - 29
Baylor - 35
Nebraska -36
Texas Tech - 50
Texas - 70
Oklahoma St - 103
Kansas St - 114
Colorado - 119
Missouri - 133

Iowa State beat Montana State in Ames last night to claim the 500th win in program history. I know that is not a lot by most school's standards (I think we STILL have the fewest among Big 12 women's programs), but considering how bad Iowa State was for so long, this is a huge milestone for the Cyclones. We were so bad that Coach Fennelly was told he was committing "professional suicide" by taking the job at Iowa State. Well, 13 seasons and only a single annual win total less than 17 proved that person wrong.

Anyway, ISU won 76-50. It probably wasn't even really that close, but we got lazy during stretches and allowed them to make some easy shots that were barely contested. Plus, as I always love, MSU's coach decided to leave her starters in and full-court press our bottom five players when the lead was around 30 points in the second half. As Fennelly has had to do several times before, he put all five starters back in the game and -what a surprise! - Montana State stopped using the full-court press! That makes him really angry (me as well). He has said "if you wanna have your top players press my team, fine. But you do it to my first stringers, not my reserves." Most coaches will substitute accordingly when the game has all but been decided, each taking out starters and clearing the benches. Once in a while, a coach doesn't quite grasp this concept and views it as a way to "show how good our best girls are" - by playing a more intense defense against our walk-ons and little-used reserves than they had been all game. Ok, enough of my ranting...

ISU had four players in double digits and two more with 9 points each. Junior Amanda Nisleit had a career night with 12 rebounds and 9 points (she missed two free throws at the end which would have given her the first double-double of her ISU career). Our only freshman, Kelsey Bolte, had a great game with 12 points and 5 rebounds. We outrebounded MSU 50-25. Once again, our free throw shooting was horrible - 16 of 28 for 57%. That is going to cost us some games down the road if it doesn't improve.

Next up for Iowa State is Iowa here in Ames. Unfortunately, it's on a Wednesday so that might hurt the attendance a little. We never seem to be able to get that game on a weekend anymore. But it will probably be our best-attended game of the season, regardless. It's a big rivalry (obviously) and one we have dominated since the series was renewed in the mid 1990s. LET'S GO STATE!!!

Last night, Kansas State and Nebraska also had (what looked like) easy wins. Current league standings are:

T. Tech 8-0
O. State 7-0
Baylor 6-0
Texas A&M 5-1
Iowa State 4-1
Kansas 4-1
Nebraska 5-2
Texas 5-2
Colorado 3-2
Oklahoma 3-2
K. State 3-3
Missouri 3-3

Iowa State beat Iowa 58-44 last night in Hilton Coliseum. It was hardly our best performance of the year, shooting only 32% for the game, but we held Iowa to their lowest shooting percentage and lowest point total so far this season. The Hawks managed to hit only 17% of their shots in the first half, resulting in a 28-13 halftime score.

ISU only hit 2 three point shots, but didn't need them as we outscored Iowa 40-16 in the paint in spite of being the smaller team on the court. Iowa's 6'6" Megan Skouby was held to 10 points (tho still abover her average). They might have been taller, but we were faster. Iowa's defense had difficulty keeping up with our guards and also couldn't find easy open looks on offense.

Alison Lacy had a game-high 17 points while Toccara Ross tossed in 15, while fighting off nagging back and leg injuries. Ross also had 10 rebounds.

The attendance last night was listed at 12,900+, but wasn't quite that big. I'd say there were actually 9000 or so in the building, but considering that the game was televised and that the men were playing Drake in Des Moines, which was also on tv, we had a great crowd (plus it was twice as much as the largest crowd Iowa has ever drawn for us over there, and that always includes at LEAST 1500 Cyclone fans). And it was LOUD, which I love to hear in Hilton - it's amazing to hear that place come to life for women's basketball. Few other places have the same energy. AusTech, I know you can relate because United Spirit Arena has had the same atmosphere in the past, especially when Coach Sharp was there.

Other Big 12 scores from last night:

Oklahoma 77, Illinois 67
Colorado 69, #25 Wyoming 55
Wisconsin Green Bay 68, Kansas State 56

Matt:

I was amazed at that ISU vs. Drake men's score! WOW.

Will this be the year for Drake? (sorry to hijack the women's thread).

;-)

It just might be. The ISU men just folded last night and ended up with the worst loss in the history of that series, 79-44. Iowa managed to beat UNI also last night. Not sure when Drake and Iowa play one another. I know it's in Iowa City, tho. The men's mythical state title might well come down to UNI and Drake playing one another like it did last year.

The women's "state title" is in Iowa State's hands now. Iowa had beaten Drake and UNI already. We have yet to play Drake (Sunday) and UNI yet.

Iowa State beat Drake in Des Moines last night 58-51. It was a hard-fought game as we could not pull away until the very end. Drake managed to defend our two primary guards very well. Lacey didn't score until the end of the game (finished with 5 points) and Ezell did not score at all (but played limited minutes due to soreness from the last game when she went to the floor hard).

Our defense played quite well once again. We're holding opponents to 50.6 points per game, so Drake's 51 was right on target. We held the Missouri Valley Conference's top scorer, Jill Martin, to 5 points and those came late as well.

I hope to never see the refs who worked this game again. They went from calling ticky-tack hand check fouls (four on Drake very early) to calling nothing at all for some stretches, even when people were being knocked to the floor, but then making phantom calls when Drake players would flop to the ground because they caught a breeze from one of the air vents above (which resulted in fouls being called on ISU). Ok, if you're gonna call a bad game at least be consistent about THAT! These three were all over the place. I was embarrassed for them, quite honestly.

ISU is now 2-0 in searching for our third straight "state title" (having beaten Drake and Iowa), with Northern Iowa coming up on the 18th after we host yet ANOTHER Valley school, Creighton. Our record has improved to 6-1 with an RPI of 22 this morning.

Other games from Sunday:

Colorado 62, Vanderbilt 51 (we lose by nine on Vandy's floor, but CU wins by 11? wow - impressive!)
Indiana 61, Kansas 69
New Orleans 44, Texas A&M 73

Current Big 12 rpi as of Friday, December 14th (from collegerpi.com):

(School, current RPI ranking, overall record)

Texas A&M 8, 8-1
Kansas 9, 7-1
Oklahoma 11, 6-2
Iowa State 16, 6-1
Nebraska 17, 8-2
Colorado 36, 6-2
Baylor 37, 7-0
Oklahoma St 51, 8-0
Texas Tech 67, 10-1
Texas 87, 7-2
Kansas St 131, 4-4
Missouri 153, 5-4

Iowa State escaped a spirited Creighton team at Hilton Coliseum yesterday, 60-52. The Cyclones had to overcome a 47-37 deficit with less than nine minutes to go in the game. We played possibly the worst half of ball in recent memory for the first 20 minutes. Creighton came in with a game plan and executed it almost without flaw. We looked sluggish and about a step and a half behind them the whole first half and the first ten minutes of the second half.

Kelsey Bolte (you pronounce the "e"), our only freshman, was the only reason we won this game. She had the only spring in her step in the first half, and ignited the run that regained ISU the lead in the second half. She finished the game with her first double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. She hit a couple of shots that got the crowd back in it and the place was loud the rest of the way. That got our defense to step it up a notch and allowed ISU to finish out the game on a 23-5 run from that ten point deficit.

The game bumped our RPI up to #14, which is great. But if we don't start playing with more urgency, that won't last long at all. Hopefully they'll get it figured out before the next game Tuesday night against Northern Iowa, our third straight game against a Missouri Valley opponent. We go to Minnesota this Friday night in what will be a good road test.

Other conference games from Sunday:

Oklahoma 66, Michigan State 55 (MSU blew an 11 point halftime lead at home)
Kansas State 90, Texas State 52 (at Manhattan)
Texas 76, Louisiana Lafayette 43 (at Austin)
Stanford 87, Baylor 63 (at Stanford- Candice Wiggins went off for 35 points and handed Baylor it's first loss)
Kansas 62, UC Riverside 49 (at Lawrence)

Iowa State defeated Northern Iowa here in Ames last night, 69-41, to improve to 8-1 on the season. Nicky Wieben led the way for ISU with 17 points, followed by Alison Lacey with 16. Amanda Nisleit grabbed 10 rebounds. It was another cold-shooting night from beyond the arc for ISU, going 3 of 17, while UNI made only 3 of 13 after hitting a school record 17 3s in their last game.

Northern Iowa only had one player in double digits. Freshman Jacqui Kalin scored 22 points, while no other Panther scored more than 6. UNI began to play a full-court pressure defense against us, but we were able to break it fairly easily.

ISU is still looking to be more of a force offensively, but the defense has made it a non-issue so far this season. We're averaging 67 points per game, but holding teams to a league best 49 points per game for the year.

Texas Christian 97, Oklahoma State 63 (at Ft. Worth - #20 OSU's first loss of the season, but also their first real test)
Texas Tech 91, Oral Roberts 61 (at Lubbock)
Creighton 69, Kansas State 62 (at Omaha - Creighton finally picked up a win against a Big 12 school, their first win in four tries)


RPI standings (out of 339 D-1 schools) as of 12/19 from collegerpi.com (rpi rank, school, strength of schedule rank):

#5 - Texas A&M - 13
#8 - Oklahoma - 7
#13 - Kansas - 32
#15 - Iowa State - 38
#24 - Nebraska - 49
#41 - Baylor - 132
#49 - Colorado - 98
#58 - Texas Tech - 210
#84 - Oklahoma State - 253
#88 - Texas - 205
#133 - Kansas State - 106
#152 - Missouri - 219

Big 12 games from last night:

Illinois 66, Missouri 52 (at Columbia)
Baylor 69, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 42 (at Waco)
Oklahoma State77, North Texas 55 (at Denton, TX)
Kansas 59, San Jose State 52 (at San Jose)


Current conference standings thru games of 12/19:

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

Iowa State dropped its second game of the year Friday night in Minneapolis, 69-61. But, not only did we lose the game, we lost our only senior, Toccara Ross, to a knee injury. The official word is to come today, but Coach Fennelly said it looks like a torn ACL, which would end her season. On the (very small) plus side, the rules changed with the NCAA recently when applying for medical hardships - as long as the player has NOT had floor time in more than 30% of the overall total number of games that season, they are eligible to request another year. It sounds like she is willing to stick around for another year and take some graduate classes just so she can get healthy and play a full season so that the following year she can try out for a pro team either in the US or overseas.

Anyway, the game wasn't played terribly well and the officiating was even worse - both ways. We had two players foul out for the first time in I don't even know how long. Every run we made at them, they had an answer - they'd be up by 6 or 8 and we'd cut it to 1 or 2, then they'd be up by 8 again. But ISU could never seem to get over the hump and actually take the lead. It was a rough, physical game - the kind that we tend to not handle the best, but are improving. You can tell when a team has truly scouted us - they apply full-court pressure from the opening possession and don't let up.

Alison Lacey was able to lead all scorers with 21 points. Minnesota's Emily Fox had 20. Lacey and Heather Ezell combined for nine 3 pointers, with the team making 11 overall. The team is off for the holiday and will return to action in Hilton Coliseum Friday night against Bowling Green, the first of three consecutive games on three consecutive nights (for the Cyclone Shootout holiday tournament).


Some recent scores since my last post:

George Washington 66, Texas A&M 65 (OT - at Washington, DC)
Texas 62, Arizona State 51 (at Tempe)
California 74, Kansas 41 (at Berkeley - OUCH! go Bears!)
Ohio State 86, Nebraska 74 (at Columbus)

Have a great holiday, everyone!!

Ok, the Cyclone Shootout tournament has come and gone over the weekend and I'm happy to report that Iowa State emerged as the champion.

On Friday night, ISU played host to Bowling Green, a team that went to the Sweet 16 last year, returned only one starter, yet had gotten off to a good 8-2 record this season, only losing to Notre Dame in overtime at home and Indiana on the road. Iowa State won the game 74-57 and had five players in double figures, including career highs for Amanda Nisleit (14) and Jocelyn Anderson (11). We managed 22 assists, only 12 turnovers, and 9 steals. BGSU had two players score 18, with one of those also grabbing 10 rebounds. The teams combined to make 23 3 point shots, with ISU hitting 12 of those.

Saturday night had Iowa State playing Tennessee-Martin, which has had an rpi below 300 all season. Surprisingly, this game was not a blow-out, although the outcome was never really in question. ISU won 63-39, led by Alison Lacey's 13. ISU hit 11 3 point shots in this game, tallied 19 assists, and outrebounded UT-Martin 41-24.

Sunday afternoon was the third and final game for Iowa State in the tournament against the Hampton Pirates (Yarrr!...). The Cyclones won 66-47, but got beat on the boards, 41-34, by a much smaller team. We still managed to knock down 9 3 point shots (for a total of 32 made 3 pointers over the course of the weekend). Alison Lacey led the way with 19 points, including going 5-8 from beyond the arc. Lacey should now be leading the Big 12 conference with the most 3s made this season (37 so far).

Alison Lacey and Amanda Nisleit were both named to the all-tournament team, with Lacey winning MVP.

Iowa State now gets some time off before the start of Big 12 play against Oklahoma on January 9th here in Ames. OU does not have a game between now and then either. ISU had not beaten OU in the last four tries after owning the Sooners, going 10-1 in their previous 11 games, including a big win the year Oklahoma played UCONN for the national title. Coincidentally, ISU has not beaten OU since the arrival of the Paris twins three seasons ago, but came close twice, both in the conference tournament.

There weren't any terribly interesting scores from the weekend other than Texas defeated previously unbeaten DePaul 91-81, but then narrowly beat San Diego 81-79 at SD. Of the 20 games that Big 12 teams played Friday-Sunday, only Missouri lost (72-77 to Marshall).


Here are the latest Big 12 standings and rpi ratings as of 12/31 (collegerpi.com):

(team, record, rpi rank)
Texas A&M 11-2, 5
Oklahoma 9-2, 9
Baylor 10-1, 22
Iowa State 11-2, 23
Kansas 10-2, 24
Nebraska 10-3, 27
Texas 11-2, 37
Texas Tech 12-1, 47
Colorado 10-2, 83
Kansas St 7-5, 88
Oklahoma St 12-1, 99
Missouri 7-6, 144

Everyone looks to be in good shape with the exception of Missouri and Kansas State - each has had their struggles in the non-conference games. Eight conference teams are in the rpi top 50, which should allow for most teams to remain highly ranked in spite of beating up on one another as the season wears on.

Thought I'd throw out some Big 12 league stats for people to look at if they want. This isn't everything, but will give a little better idea of what's going on up thru the end of the calendar year. All league stats can be found by going to http://www.big12sports.com for both women's and men's sports.


Stats through games of December 30th:

TEAM
scoring offense - Oklahoma, 85.0 ppg
scoring defense - Iowa State, 50.7 ppg
field goal %, best - Baylor, 49.1%
field goal %, worst - Texas A&M, 40.3%
field goal % defense, best - Baylor, 32.1%
field goal % defense, worst - Missouri, 40.3%
3 point field goal %, best - Iowa State, 38.4% (107-279)
3 point field goal %, worst - Nebraska, 29.4% (55-187)
team rebounds - Texas Tech, 48.5 per game
rebound defense - Oklahoma, 30.6 allowed per game
blocks - Baylor, 7.18 per game
assists - Oklahoma, 17.36 per game
steals - Oklahoma State, 13.46 per game

INDIVIDUAL
scoring - Andrea Riley (SO), Oklahoma State, 20.5 ppg
rebounding - Courtney Paris (JR), Oklahoma, 16.3 rpg
field goal % - Ashley Paris (JR), Oklahoma, 63.5%
3 point field goals made - Alison Lacey (SO), Iowa State, 37 (of 78 for 47.4%)
3 point field goal % - Nyeshia Stevenson (SO), Oklahoma, 50% (13-26, minimum 1 made per game)
steals - Andrea Riley (SO), Oklahoma State, 50 (3.85 per game)
minutes played - Alyssa Hollins (JR), Missouri, 36.54 mpg


League play begins on Wednesday, January 9th. All teams but ISU, OU, OSU, and MU have at least one game between now and then. Those four teams mentioned are off for nine full days. Had heard a rumor that ISU was supposed to play St. Louis during that time, but the Billikens backed out of the deal.

The league will open this way:

Oklahoma at Iowa State
Colorado at Missouri
Baylor at Texas Tech
Kansas State at Texas A&M
Oklahoma State at Kansas
Texas at Nebraska

Let the (real) games begin! The scary thing about the Big 12 is that the bottom teams can sneak up on the top teams on any given night. Consider that the league's 12 seed for the conference tournament last year ended up playing in the WNIT Final Four...

There were three games involving Big 12 teams yesterday:

Baylor 89, North Carolina A&T 48 (at Waco)
Kansas State 68, Western Illinois 53 (at Manhattan)
Nebraska 67, Arkansas - Pine Bluff 39 (at Lincoln)

Nothing terribly shocking here.

Games from the weekend (Friday & Saturday):

Texas A&M 84, SFA 53 (at College Station)
Kansas 62, Xavier 60 (at Cincinnati)
Colorado 65, Pepperdine 53 (at Boulder)
Baylor 84, Texas State 57 (at Waco)
Texas 91, UTPA 43 (at Austin)
Arkansas 80, Texas Tech 57 (at Fayetteville)

Two surprises here. One is that Kansas got such a good game from Xavier, although it WAS a road game for KU. The other was that Tech lost so badly. It started out 13-4 Arkansas and went downhill from there. Tech had only lost one game (playing a relatively weak schedule) and Arkansas is one of the last handful of undefeateds (playing a REALLY weak schedule - no one with an rpi above 117 until December 30th). This game probably should have been closer, but from what I've read, Tech simply didn't show up to play.

Three days and counting until conference play begins!!

WOW! What a wild opening night for Big 12 women's hoops with two big upsets, and nearly three others!

First, the Iowa State/Oklahoma game. We played our asses off last night, but came up just short, losing 67-64. It was back and forth the entire time, with both teams starting out shooting horribly - it was 2-0 OU when the first media timeout happened with 15:something left to go in the half. With all the hype over the Paris twins coming to town, it was an exhibition for the Sooner freshman point guard and ISU's only freshman. They each scored 23 points, with the Cyclone's Kelsey Bolte's line reading: 8-12 from the floor, 2-2 from beyond the arc, 5-6 from the line, 4 rebound, 3 assists, and 4 steals. OU's Danielle Robinson had this: 10-16 from the floor, no 3 point shots taken, 3-4 from the line, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists.

Courtney Paris was held to 12 points, 15 rebounds, while sister Ashley had 7 points, 11 rebounds. For Iowa State, our only other player in double figures was Alison Lacey with 11. No other player from either team scored more than 9 points. OU killed us on the boards, 45-27 and led in field goal percentage, 46-39%, but we managed to stay with them thanks to their 24 turnovers (to our 13), using a series of runs to answer THEIR runs throughout the game.

In the second half, OU was up 60-50, but ISU went on an 11-0 run to take a one point lead. From there is was a matter of having to foul OU and hope that the fact that they are the 4th worst free throw shooting team in the COUNTRY plays true to form. Of course, it didn't. OU was 12-16 from the line while we were only 15 of 24. There's your ballgame. Alison Lacey had a chance at a three at the buzzer to force OT. She put it up and I'll be damned if it didn't go half way down and pop out as the buzzer sounded.

The crowd was incredible and as loud as I've heard it in some time. Oklahoma fans on another message board were listening on the radio and said at points, our crowd was drowning out their pxp guys.

Probably the bigger of the two upsets from last night was Kansas State going to College Station and beating #12/13 Texas A&M 67-54. Kansas State shot 51% while A&M shot only 31%. K-State led by 9 at the half, but trailed 41-38 after an Aggie run allowed them to move ahead. The Wildcats finished with a big run of their own, though, closing out the game by outscoring the host team 29-13. Kansas State has now beaten the Aggies twice in a row and won eight of their last nine match-ups.

The other upset was Nebraska over #15 Texas in Lincoln, 56-45. The Huskers used a strong defense that held the Horns to only 26% from the floor and only 3 field goals in the final 13 minutes of the game. Both teams struggled to find an offensive flow in the first half, resulting in a 19-17 Texas lead at halftime.

#8 Baylor won by five, 72-67, over Texas Tech in Lubbock. The Bears used a series of 3 point baskets to finally pull away in a tight game.

#24/25 Oklahoma State escaped Lawrence, Kansas with a 59-54 win over the Jayhawks. Kansas jumped out to leads of 11-0 and 20-8 before the Cowgirls found their offense and led 24-23 at the half. Big 12 leading scorer Andrea Riley tallied 26 points, 18 in the second half to help OSU avoid the upset.

In the final game of the night, #23 (unranked in the coaches poll) Colorado beat Missouri in Columbia, 70-58. The Buffs led 28-23 at halftime, but Missouri managed to take a 32-28 lead to start the second period. CU answered with a 27-6 run of their own and eventually led by 21 before Mizzou rallied to cut the final margin to 12. Brittany Spears had 24 points for Colorado. Missouri fell to 7-7 overall, the only Big 12 school not above .500 for the season.


Games on the schedule for Saturday:

Kansas at Nebraska
Texas A&M at Baylor
Oklahoma at Oklahoma State
Texas Tech at Missouri

Games played on Sunday:

Kansas State at Texas
Iowa State at Colorado

Yet ANOTHER crazy day in the Big 12! First, the big shocker...

Oklahoma State took down the OU Sooners in a BIG way in Stillwater yesterday, winning 82-63. OSU's Andrea Riley scored 45 points including 17 from the line. This was all done in front of a first-ever sell-out for a women's game at Gallager-Iba Arena (13,000+). For the first time ever, both programs were ranked in the top 25 at the same time, making a big game even bigger.

OU had no answer for Riley and no way to stop her. Double teams didn't work, as the Sooners were called for foul after foul when trying to guard her and they weren't quick enough to step in front of her when she cut to the hoop and get the charge.

OSU jumped out to a 9-0 lead and never looked back, holding OU to just 17 first half points. Courtney Paris did manage to continue her streak of double-doubles (now at 73 straight, I believe) with 15 points, 19 rebounds.

The other shocker was that Missouri, picked to finish last this season, beat Texas Tech in Columbia 68-59. Tech led 51-42 with just under 13 minutes to play, but was outscored by Mizzou 27-8 to finish the game. Tech did not score in the final 3:25. Allyssa Hollins led the way for Missouri with 25 points, hitting 5 of 6 3 pointers.

In another key conference game, Baylor knocked off visiting Texas A&M 59-56. Texas A&M, the pre-season favorite to win the Big 12, has now lost their first two league games. It took the Bears' Angela Tisdale to make her first 3 of the game in 11 tried to give Baylor the lead at the end it needed and hold on for the win.

Finally, Nebraska beat Kansas 71-51 in Lincoln. It was close in the first ten minutes or so, but the Huskers pulled away before halftime and it was never in doubt after that.

Today, Iowa State plays at Colorado. The game is televised nationally on FoxSports at 3 pm central time, which follows the Kansas State at Texas game (on FoxSports right now).

Iowa State defeated #23 Colorado in 2OT today, 84-77, in Boulder. ISU came back from a 12 point second half deficit and actually led nearing the end of regulation. The Buffs caught up and forced the first OT. Iowa State jumped out to a four point lead, but CU eventually forced the second overtime. Colorado quickly scored five points to go up 74-69, but ISU had yet another answer - Alison Lacey scored 11 of her 27 points in both OTs to spark the Cyclones' 15-3 run to finish out the game. Lacey shot 7-11 from beyond the arc and ISU finished the game 14-27 from long range as a team. Freshman Kelsey Bolte scored 20+ points (21) for the second straight game (she had better be in the running for Big 12 Rookie of the Week after the games she's had against CU and OU). The Cyclone win snapped an 11 game Colorado winning streak. The game also makes up for the humiliating loss ISU suffered there last year, trailing 48-24 at halftime, though losing by a smaller margin than that. Iowa State and Colorado now have identical 12-3, 1-1 records on the season.

The other game in the Big 12 today was yet another shocker - Kansas State went to Austin and defeated #15 Texas 77-74 in overtime after spotting the 'Horns a 10-0 lead. K-State is now 2-0 in conference, while both Texas and Texas A&M are 0-2. Hmm - interesting to say the least!

Here are the conference standings as of tonight:

TEAM--CONF. W-L, OVERALL W-L
Baylor------------2-0, 14-1
Oklahoma State-2-0, 14-1
Nebraska--------2-0, 13-3
Kansas State----2-0, 10-5
Colorado---------1-1, 12-3
Iowa State-------1-1, 12-3
Oklahoma-------1-1, 10-3
Missouri----------1-1, 8-7
Texas------------0-2, 12-4
Texas A&M ------0-2, 12-4
Texas Tech------0-2, 12-4
Kansas-----------0-2, 11-4

League games for Wednesday:

Iowa State at Texas (on FoxSports Southwest @ 7pm)
Kansas at Baylor
Missouri at Oklahoma State
Nebraska at Oklahoma
Texas Tech at Kansas State (on FoxSports Midwest @ 7pm)
Texas A&M at Colorado

Oklahoma State achieved its highest ranking ever today as the AP poll was released showing the Cowgirls at #18, up 7 spots from last week (previous high was #19 in 1996). Five Big 12 teams are ranked and all but Missouri and Texas Tech are receiving votes.

Iowa State lost at Texas last night, 59-56. We had the lead with about a minute to go, but the Horn's point guard, Carla Cortijo, hit two long jumpers back to back, which she normally doesn't even take to put Texas up for good. Not only did ISU lose the game, we also lost yet ANOTHER player to a knee injury. Starting center Nicky Wieben went down in the second half after her knee buckled. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but it looked like a torn ACL, leaving Iowa State now short TWO post players and a six player rotation. Juco transfer Jocelyn Anderson will now be the go-to player under the basket (who was originally the THIRD option at the start of the season) and at LEAST one other player from the bench will absolutely have to be on the floor now. Btw, before Wieben went out of the game, she had set the ISU career record for blocked shots in just two and a half years of playing.

If there was a bright spot last night, it was that freshman Kelsey Bolte scored 20 points to make this the third 20+ point game in three conference games (Bolte was named Big 12 "Rookie of the Week" on Monday). No one else was in double figures for Iowa State. Texas had three in double figures, led by Cortijo's 13. This was the Longhorn's first conference win of the season. Both teams are now 1-2.

Here are the scores from last night's games. Two close games, three blow-outs, and one that wasn't as close as it looks (OU/NU)...

Oklahoma 80, Nebraska 72 (at Norman)
Baylor 59, Kansas 35 (at Waco)
Texas 59, Iowa State 56 (at Austin)
Ok State 76, Missouri 41 (at Stillwater)
Kansas St 71, Texas Tech 45 (at Manhattan)
Texas A&M 72, Colorado 68 (at Boulder)

It's official: Iowa State's Nicky Wieben is out for the season with an ACL tear.

http://www.cyclones.com/ViewArticle.dbml?D...;ATCLID=1370408


Here are the upcoming games for the weekend:

Sat., Jan. 19 -
Oklahoma State - Texas A&M (at College Station) FSN (should be nation-wide) 1:00 p.m. central
Missouri - Kansas (at Lawrence)
Colorado - Kansas State (at Manhattan) FSNMW 7:00 p.m. central
Nebraska - Iowa State (at Ames)

Sun., Jan. 20 -
Baylor - Oklahoma (at Norman) ESPN2 2:00 p.m. central
Texas - Texas Tech

It's amazing when your team can play quite well, limit the number of mistakes made, and score above your season average and STILL manage to lose a game at home to a team that hasn't left your building with a win in 11 years. That's what happened with the ISU/Nebraska game Saturday night. The Huskers won 82-72 in a game that was made up of nothing but alternating runs by both teams. Nebraska shot 57% from the floor (nearly 70% in the second half) and 58% from long range (11-19) and won for the first time in Ames since 1997. Consider that Nebraska had been averaging only three made three pointers per game all season and the magnitude of what they were able to do is truly impressive - it literally seemed like everything went in.

Four Cyclones finished in double figures for scoring, including the 4th consecutive game with 20+ points for freshman Kelsey Bolte (7-12, 4-6 from beyond the arc, 6 rebounds, 2 steals). Juco transfer Jocelyn Anderson got her first career Division 1 start, finishing with 8 points and 10 rebounds - not bad for someone who was supposed to be the THIRD option on the team for post players (since options one and two have both torn their ACLs this season). She should only get better with more playing time.

Nebraska jumped out to a 20-5 lead only five minutes into the game. After trading baskets, ISU went on an 11-2 run to cut the lead to 28-24, though NU would lead 43-34 at the half. ISU cut the lead to 43-39 to start the second period. The Huskers answered with a 12-3 run for a 55-42 advantage, which led to an ISU run of 11-0, cutting the NU lead to 55-53. That would be as close as Iowa State got as Nebraska went on ANOTHER run of 10-0 to lead 65-53. ISU had one final push in them and cut the deficit to 69-64, before realizing the final margin of ten points at 82-72. Reserve Cory Montgomery led the Huskers with 21 points on 10-18 shooting and 8 boards.

One thing I'll say is that our crowd was fantastic and loud once again. I really thought we would be enough to throw NU off their game in the second half, but they just kept knocking down their shots. The box score listed the attendance at just over 11,000, but it was probably closer to 7500 as they are still counting "tickets sold" in their final tallies. Everyone does that anymore, but I'd like to get back to the days of Angie Welle and Lindsey Wilson when the box score would list 12-13,000 people and there actually WERE that many in the building. But I digress...

In other games, Oklahoma State stayed in first place by beating Texas A&M 61-58 at A&M. Pre-season favorite A&M falls to 1-3 on the year in league play.

Kansas beat Missouri 66-60 in Lawrence, giving Kansas it's first conference win of the year.

Kansas State beat Colorado 67-60 in Manhattan, keeping the Wildcats in a tie for first place with OSU and Baylor.

Baylor knocked off Oklahoma in Norman 84-73. Courtney Paris kept her streak of double-doubles alive, running the number to 76.

Texas Tech knocked off Texas in Lubbock to notch the first conference win of the season for the Red Raiders, 70-58.


League standings through Sunday, January 20th:

Baylor-------------4-0
Oklahoma State--4-0
Kansas State-----4-0
Nebraska----------3-1
Oklahoma---------2-2
Texas Tech-------1-3
Kansas------------1-3
Texas--------------1-3
Texas A&M --------1-3
Colorado----------1-3
Iowa State --------1-3
Missouri-----------1-3

Interesting to note the 7-way tie for sixth place and that three of those teams were/are ranked at the beginning of conference play (UT, A&M, CU - ISU was 27th in the coaches poll this past week as well).

Let's hope the Cyclones can turn things around. But if ISU has to lose to anybody, it might as well be Nebraska. I know Connie Yori from my early high school days.

Hmm, well I'm not a real big fan of Yori (I can email you as to why if you want, but I'm not going to get into it here), so I'm pretty disappointed that we lost to them at Hilton. She'd never won here with either Nebraska or Creighton and I kinda wanted to keep it that way. We play the way we played Saturday night against 85-90% of the teams out there (not just in the Big 12), we win. But you're just not going to beat a team that shoots nearly 60% for the game, unless you're shooting even better (ISU shot 50%).

ISU played a zone against NU, which is unusual for this season, but Fennelly was trying to keep the legs fresh since everyone was going to be seeing more minutes due to the players we've lost to injury. The Huskers normally don't shoot the 3 often or all that well (relative to previous seasons), but once the first one went in against the zone, everyone on their team had the confidence to put them up and hit them (they made their first 4 3s and first 6 of 7, I believe). But that's neither here nor there at this point. We will just have to regroup for K-State on Wednesday.


Speaking of which, here is the mid-week schedule for the Big 12:

Tue., Jan. 22:
Kansas at Colorado - FSNRM, 8:00 pm (central time)

Wed., Jan. 23:
Texas Tech at Oklahoma
Baylor at Missouri
Iowa State at Kansas State
Oklahoma State at Texas
Texas A&M at Nebraska


Edited to add: Iowa State's Kelsey Bolte was just named 'Big 12 Rookie of the Week' for the second consecutive week! WooHoo!! I had a feeling she might get this one again...

Sorry it has been a while since I've posted anything here. Had a long weekend vacation to the left coast and ran out of time to post anything about the rest of the league. Anyway, to update scores from last week and this past weekend...


Games of January 22nd and 23rd:

Colorado 59, Kansas 41
Baylor 72, Missouri 57
Kansas State 80, Iowa State 49
Oklahoma 78, Texas Tech 39
Texas 70, Oklahoma State 63
Nebraska 73, Texas A&M 60

Games of January 26th and 27th:

Texas 67, Missouri 37
Texas Tech 62, Colorado 44
Texas A&M 58, Kansas 51
Baylor 76, Nebraska 56
Kansas State 68, Oklahoma State 63
Oklahoma 65, Georgia 57

Ok, so Iowa State got clubbed by K-State in Manhattan. The Wildcats had jumped out early just as Nebraska had, but this time ISU had no answers. They couldn't hit a shot and Kansas State could not miss. Only freshman Kelsey Bolte scored in double figures with 17 points. This weekend was a bye week for ISU, so we shall see how the period of rest affects the team. Will they be able to regroup or will the reality of how short-staffed they are set in and deflate them for the rest of the season? Tomorrow night against Colorado here in Ames, we'll find out.

Baylor and Kansas State are still tied for the league lead at 6-0. Oklahoma State has dropped two in a row and sits at 4-2.


Mid-week games of January 29th and 30th:

Tue., Jan. 29:
Missouri at Texas A&M

Wed., Jan. 30:
Colorado at Iowa State
Kansas at Oklahoma
Texas at Baylor
Kansas State at Nebraska

Iowa State snapped a three game Big 12 losing streak tonight at Hilton Coliseum, sweeping the season series from Colorado, 65-45. The Cyclones had four players in double figures, led by Amanda Nisleit, who scored a career high 16 points along with 7 rebounds. Alison Lacey and Kelsey Bolte each scored 15, while Heather Ezell had 14. ISU was 10-23 from long-range and outrebounded the Buffaloes 43-27. CU's Jackie McFarland was the game's high scorer with 18, but no other Buffalo scored more than 9 (Whitney Houston had 3 threes). The Cyclones also managed to hold CU's star freshman, Brittany Spears to zero points. Rumor has it that Mariah Carey and Madonna have been recruited to CU for next season and 'Divas Live' will do a special from Boulder at Colorado's Midnight Madness in October - just kidding...

Baylor beat Texas in Waco on a go-ahead 3 by point guard Angela Tisdale, 61-60 to improve to 7-0 in the Big 12.

Kansas State kept pace with Baylor by winning at Nebraska, 77-75. They managed to win without coach Deb Patterson, who got tossed after her second technical foul was called with 8 minutes remaining in the game. Kansas State has won 10 in a row after splitting their first ten games. Half of the wins in the current streak have come on the road.

Oklahoma beat Kansas 67-51 in Norman in spite of 25 turnovers, including 17 in the first half. Oklahoma moved into a tie for third place in the conference at 4-2 with Oklahoma State with the win. Courtney Paris racked up her 79th consecutive double-double. Kansas was led in scoring by Danielle McCray with 13 and falls to 1-6, tied for 11th place with Missouri.

Tuesday night, Texas A&M beat Missouri 62-43 in College Station, Texas. The Aggies never trailed in the game and forced Mizzou into 19 first half turnovers.


Upcoming weekend games:

Sat., Feb. 2:

Baylor at Kansas State (FSN) 12:00 p.m. (CST)
Iowa State at Kansas
Oklahoma State at Colorado (FSN Rocky Mountain) 7:00 p.m. (CST)
Texas A&M at Texas Tech

Sun., Feb. 3:

Oklahoma at Texas (ESPNU) 1:00 p.m. (CST)
Nebraska at Missouri (FSN) 3:00 p.m. (CST)

Not a good weekend for Cyclone basketball. Both the men and women lost to conference bottom-feeders over the weekend. The men lost to Nebraska while the women lost at Kansas, 53-50 after leading 45-40. Basically, ISU had two people score - Alison Lacey managed 23 points, while Kelsey Bolte had her seventh consecutive game in double figures, scoring 13. The next highest scorer had 5 points. Kansas turned the ball over 20 times in the game, but had no turnovers in the last nine minutes. They hit shots and we didn't. Lacey said in a post-game interview that they panicked a little at the end and didn't do what they were supposed to do at the end. Kansas has a 6'5" freshman post player who has not been terribly good this year at all, averaging 3 points per game - she scored 20, hitting 8 of 10 shots. Natch.

Scores from over the weekend...

Baylor 63, Kansas State 49 (a battle of then undefeateds in Manhattan, which BU won handily)
Kansas 53, Iowa State 50
Oklahoma State 82, Colorado 71
Texas A&M 63, Texas Tech 46
Oklahoma 74, Texas 58 (UT had cut OU's lead to 55-54 after trailing by double digits before OU went on a 19-0 run)
Nebraska 73, Missouri 67 (Mizzou was leading the entire first half by as many as 10)

Conference standings as of Sunday, Feb 2:

(team, conference record, overall record)
Baylor-------------- 8-0, 20-1
Kansas State------ 7-1, 15-6
Oklahoma State--- 5-2, 17-3
Oklahoma---------- 5-2, 15-4
Nebraska----------- 5-3, 16-6
Texas A&M--------- 4-4, 16-6
Texas--------------- 3-5, 15-7
Texas Tech--------- 2-5, 14-7
Iowa State--------- 2-5, 13-7
Colorado----------- 2-6, 13-8
Kansas------------- 2-6, 13-8
Missouri------------ 1-7, 8-13

Games for tonight and tomorrow in the Big 12:

Tue., Feb. 5:
Baylor at Oklahoma State (can Baylor remain undefeated in conference and move to 21-1 overall?)

Wed., Feb. 6:
Oklahoma at Missouri (will Courtney Paris move to 81 consecutive double-double games?)
Texas Tech at Iowa State (which one of these teams will move into a tie for 7th place with Texas at 3-5?)
Nebraska at Colorado - FSN Rocky Mountain, 9:00 p.m. (CST) (can CU stop their free-fall against a fast, high-scoring Husker team?)

Iowa State defeated Texas Tech in Ames tonight, 66-58. Alison Lacey scored 32 points, including 5 3 pointers and Jocelyn Anderson had a career high 14 points for the Cyclones. Freshman star Kelsey Bolte scored only 7 points, by far her lowest total of the conference season, but has been fighting a cold that kept her from playing at 100%. The teams were tied going into the lockerroom at 21 after a sloppy first half. ISU and Tech both stepped up the scoring and shooting percentages in the second half, showing some offensive punch on each end. Tech's leading scorer, Dominic Seals, scored 13 for the Lady Raiders, while LaVonda Henderson led the team with 17.

Oklahoma beat Missouri 64-57 in Columbia. Only the Paris twins scored in double figures with Courtney extending her double-double streak to 81 straight games. OU went 0-7 from 3 point range and spark-plug guard Jenna Plumley was held scoreless. Missouri was lead in scoring by Alyssa Hollins with 19.

Nebraska beat Colorado in Boulder, 80-71. CU leading scorer, Jackie McFarland, had a single point before fouling out. The Buffs led 64-61 with under four minutes to play until Nebraska forged ahead and hit free throws to finish out the game. Kelsey Griffin led the Huskers with 25 points, 17 of which came in the second half.

Tuesday night, visiting Baylor lost to Oklahoma State, 77-67, dropping the Bears to 8-1 in the Big 12, one half game ahead of Kansas State. Baylor lost starter Jhasmin Player to an ACL tear in their previous game, which possibly affected their ability to prepare for the offense of OSU and league leading scorer Andrea Riley. Interestingly, Riley was held to just 15 points of 5 of 23 shooting. Four other Cowgirls scored in double figures to lift OSU to the win. Baylor was led by Jessica Morrow with 24 points.


Games coming up this weekend:

Sat., Feb. 9:
Texas at Texas A&M, FSN - 11:00 a.m. (CST)
Kansas at Kansas State
Texas Tech at Baylor, FSN - 1:00 p.m. (CST)
Colorado at Oklahoma
Missouri at Iowa State

Sun., Feb. 10:
Oklahoma State at Nebraska, ESPN2 - 1:00 p.m (CST)

Hadn't posted any RPI ratings recently, so these are the #s for the Big 12 as of February 7th according to collegerpi.com:

Baylor---------------7
Oklahoma----------8
Texas A&M--------15
Nebraska----------17
Kansas State-----18
Oklahoma State--29
Kansas-------------31
Texas---------------34
Iowa State--------35
Texas Tech--------70
Colorado----------88
Missouri-----------113

Nine teams in the top 35... not too bad.

Iowa State knocked off last place Missouri on Saturday, 64-46, in Ames. This wasn't much of a game, honestly. Mizzou is the last place team in the conference for a reason - they don't have a lot of good players. ISU's Jocelyn Anderson set a career high in points for the second consecutive game with 15. Alison Lacey had a double double with 14 points, 10 rebounds. ISU improved their conference record to 4-5, 15-7 overall. Mizzou dropped to 1-9, 8-15.


All scores from over the weekend:

Texas A&M 66, Texas 57
Baylor 68, Texas Tech 45
Kansas State 64, Kansas 58
Oklahoma 82, Colorado 66
Iowa State 64, Missouri 46
Oklahoma State 92, Nebraska 81


Current standings (team, conf. record, overall record):

Baylor--------------- 9-1, 21-2
Kansas State------- 8-1, 16-6
Oklahoma State---- 7-2, 19-3
Oklahoma----------- 7-2, 17-4
Nebraska------------ 6-4, 17-7
Texas A&M---------- 5-4, 17-6
Iowa State---------- 4-5, 15-7
Texas---------------- 3-6, 15-8
Texas Tech---------- 2-7, 14-9
Kansas--------------- 2-7, 13-9
Colorado------------- 2-8, 13-10
Missouri-------------- 1-9, 8-15

Iowa State lost it's fourth conference game by three points last night to Kansas State, 45-42, in what could be called an ugly game that came down to two missed shots - one that could have put ISU ahead with thirty seconds remaining and one that could have tied the game with 5 seconds to go. ISU was down 26-17 at half time, but tied it up at 30 to start the second half. K-State never led by more than four the rest of the way. This game was ISU's worst shooting percentage of the season - 32. Only hitting 4 of 21 three point shots doesn't help either. Alison Lacey led the Cyclones with 13 points. Jocelyn Anderson had 10 points and 9 rebounds to be in double digits for scoring for the third consecutive day. ISU falls to 4-6 in conference, 15-8 overall. Had we not been down our top two post players, I honestly believe that the four three point losses very easily could have been wins. What a difference between 4-6 and 8-2. Kansas State improved to 9-1, good for sole possession of first place as Baylor was upset by Texas last night.


Scores from the past two nights in the Big 12:

Oklahoma 68, Texas A&M 56
Kansas 70, Colorado 59
Kansas State 45, Iowa State 42
Texas 61, Baylor 51

Oklahoma State plays at Texas Tech tonight.

Oklahoma State rallied to beat Texas Tech in Lubbock last night, 58-56, by hitting two free throws with 2 seconds left in the game. OSU trailed by as many as 8 in the second half, but battled back to take the lead and the game to remain in a tie for third place in the Big 12 with Oklahoma at 8-2 with six games remaining.


Upcoming schedule for the weekend:

Sat., Feb. 16:
Texas at Colorado

Sun., Feb. 17:
Oklahoma at Baylor - FSN (national), 12:30 p.m. (CST)
Iowa State at Oklahoma State
Nebraska at Kansas
Kansas State at Missouri - FSNMW (midwest), 2:30 p.m. (CST)
Texas Tech at Texas A&M - ESPN2, 3:00 p.m. (CST)

It's been a weekend of upsets so far in the Big 12. Iowa State went to Stillwater, OK today and beat #15 Oklahoma State 62-57. OSU trailed by as many as 14 points, but went on a second half run to take their only lead of the game at 54-52 with two minutes to play. ISU used free throws to retake and maintain the lead from there on out. Big 12 leading scorer, Andrea Riley, had 18 points for the Cowgirls. Alison Lacey led the way for the Cyclones with 15 points. Bolte, Ezell, and Nisleit were all in double figures with Anderson coming up with 8 points and 7 rebounds. ISU hit 10 3 pointers and shot nearly 80% from the line, while OSU was only 4-10 on free throws. OSU played only six in their rotation today and only four of those scored. This is the second road win for Iowa State this season over a ranked team after not accomplishing this feat for nearly six years. ISU is now 16-8, 5-6 and the chances of the Cyclones making the NCAA tournament just improved dramatically. This was also a 'revenge game' against OSU as the Cowgirls were the ONLY team to beat Iowa State in Ames last year.

Oklahoma went down by 20 to Baylor in Waco, 79-59, in a battle of top 10 teams. Courtney Paris for OU got her usual double-double, but she and the rest of the Sooners could not stop Baylor's Tisdale, Alison, and Morrow, who combined for 59 of BU's 79 points. OU falls to a tie with OSU for third place at 8-3. Baylor remains one half game out of first at 10-2. While this game was not an upset (the higher ranked team was playing at home and DID win), the margin of victory was something of a surprise.

Nebraska has begun their usual February swoon, falling to Kansas 62-61 in Lawrence. Connie Yori's NU teams have had a history of starting the season fast and fading away the last month, either lowering their possible seeds in the tourney or knocking them down to the NIT altogether. Kansas has surprisingly won it's 4th conference game of the year already (they must've heard me say Bonnie Henrickson was going to get canned if she didn't win more than three games this year). The Huskers missed 17 of 34 free throws in this game.

The other upset was on Saturday when Colorado took down Texas in Boulder, 67-52. The Buff's Bianca Smith scored 26 points on 7 three pointers and five free throws to lead all scorers, while the Horns held Jackie McFarland to ten points, 8 below her average.


All weekend scores from the league:

Colorado 67, Texas 52
Baylor 79, Oklahoma 59
Iowa State 62, Oklahoma State 57
Kansas 62, Nebraska 61
Kansas State 56, Missouri 40
Texas A&M 70, Texas Tech 56


Midweek schedule:

Wed., Feb. 20:
Iowa State at Texas A&M
Kansas at Texas Tech
Oklahoma at Kansas State
Texas at Oklahoma State

Thu., Feb. 21:
Missouri at Nebraska

Will post current RPI and league standings through today's games in the morning.

Current league standings:

(team, conf. record, overall record, rpi)
Kansas State---------- 10-1, 18-6 --- 15
Baylor------------------ 10-2, 22-3 --- 6
Oklahoma State------- 8-3, 20-4 --- 26
Oklahoma-------------- 8-3, 18-5 --- 8
Nebraska--------------- 6-5, 17-8 --- 22
Texas A&M------------- 6-5, 18-7 --- 14
Iowa State------------- 5-6, 16-8 --- 33
Texas------------------- 4-7, 16-9 --- 37
Kansas----------------- 4-7, 15-9 --- 29
Colorado--------------- 3-9, 14-11 --- 80
Texas Tech------------ 2-8, 14-11 --- 73
Missouri---------------- 1-10, 8-16 ---116

Iowa State lost the game and lost the chance to move into a tie with Texas A&M for sixth place when the Aggies won Wednesday night in College Station, 60-46. ISU trailed by 20 in the first half, but cut the deficit to 15 at halftime. In the second half, the Cyclones got to within single digits of the Aggies (9 points), but could get no closer. A&M built the lead back up to 20 points after the last media time out, but two 3 pointers by reserves Anna Florzak and Shellie Mosman cut the final margin to 14.

We dug ourselves too big a hole in the first half to climb out of. A&M went on a 20-0 run early, which proved the turning point as ISU never mounted a run of equal size.

With four games left in the regular season, ISU has two road and two home games left to figure out a way to get to 7 conference wins (what is guessed to be the absolute minimum Big 12 wins to still have a shot at the NCAAs. The first game up doesn't get things off to an easy start - ISU hosts top ten Baylor Saturday morning at 11 a.m. and it will be televised nationally on FoxSports.


Scores from mid-week games:

Oklahoma 68, Kansas State 65
Oklahoma State 71, Texas 66
Texas A&M 60, Iowa State 46
Texas Tech 65, Kansas 61
Nebraska 73, Missouri 57

Upcoming weekend games:

Sat., Feb. 23:
Baylor at Iowa State, FSN 11:00 a.m. (all tv times central)
Oklahoma State at Oklahoma, FSN 1:00 p.m.
Kansas State at Colorado

Sun., Feb. 24:
Kansas at Missouri, FSN 1:30 p.m.
Nebraska at Texas Tech
Texas A&M at Texas, ESPN2 2:00 p.m.

Iowa State let another one slip away on Saturday. ISU lost to #9 Baylor 59-54 after leading nearly the entire second half. The Cyclones were up 50-44 with just over six minutes to play, but gave up a 15-4 run to end the game as Baylor finally hit their shots consistently and Iowa State could not do the same. Until the six point ISU lead, neither team led the other by more than four points.

ISU kept pace in the first half on four 3 point shots in five attempts by Amanda Nisleit. She left the game less than two minutes into the second half with a turned ankle and didn't return (she's doubtful for the game at Mizzou on Wednesday). This may have been the offensive difference in the second half, either by building a bigger lead with her in or scoring more at the end. ISU's leading scorer was Jocelyn Anderson with 14 points, which along with 11 rebounds, added up to Anderson's first career double-double as a Cyclone. Anderson was 8-9 from the free throw line as well, taking all nine of Iowa State's trips to the line (another possible reason why we coughed up the lead at the end - no one else even attempted a free throw).

The game would have been HUGE on our NCAA resume, but it wasn't meant to be. Baylor, with the win, moved into sole possession of first place as Kansas State lost at Colorado to drop into a tie for second with Oklahoma, which holds the tie-breaker over KSU.

Three games were significant upsets this weekend. The K-State loss to Colorado knocked them from first place. Last place Missouri picked up their second conference win in 13 tries when Kansas visited Columbia. Nebraska continued their February swoon with a loss at Texas Tech to drop to sixth place, while Tech moved into a four-way tie for eighth place with Colorado, Texas, and Kansas.

Scores from the weekend:

Baylor 59, Iowa State 54
Oklahoma 81, Oklahoma State 71
Colorado 73, Kansas State 68
Missouri 62, Kansas 59
Texas A&M 65, Texas 50
Texas Tech 65, Nebraska 56

This Wednesday's games:

Iowa State at Missouri (ISU needs two more wins to make it to a 7-9 record and a probable NCAA invite)
Colorado at Baylor (BU needs to win to assure itself of a #1 Big 12 seed and probably #2 NCAA seed, CU needs the upset for any chance at the NCAAs)
Nebraska at Kansas State (NU needs to stop the bleeding against a team that must win to have any hope for a title)
Oklahoma at Texas Tech (OU needs the win to stay in the hunt for a conference title as well)
Texas A&M at Oklahoma State (possibly the best match-up of the night; both teams fighting for first round bye)
Texas at Kansas (this game could go a long way in determining if either makes the Big Dance - projections have both teams as being on the bubble)

ISU did what they needed to do last night and beat Missouri in Columbia, 58-54, to improve to 6-8 in the conference, 17-10 overall. Mizzou has a really low rpi (for a Big 12 team), but it didn't drop us too much - only one spot or so to #34. The game was tight all the way. ISU had the largest lead of the game at 7 in the second half, but most of the time the score was only a matter of three or four points either way. The teams were tied at 52 when Alison Lacey hit a three that would put the Cyclones up for good. Free throws by Jocelyn Anderson and Amanda Nisleit sealed the deal. Anderson collected her second consecutive double-double. Nisleit played after being listed as "doubtful" for the game when she turned her ankle against Baylor on Saturday. Four Cyclones finished in double figures, with Ezell, Bolte, and Anderson each scoring 12. Lacey added 10 of her own. ISU outboarded Mizzou 48-28. Missouri falls to 2-12 in the league with the loss.

No other games that would be considered shocking from last night. Nebraska lost a close game to KSU to fall to 7-7 in the league, only one game ahead of ISU with two games to play, including a match-up for the season finale in Lincoln.

Scores from last night:

Iowa State 58, Missouri 54
Baylor 76, Colorado 62
Kansas State 69, Nebraska 65
Oklahoma 65, Texas Tech 55
Texas 57, Kansas 53
Texas A&M 63, Oklahoma State 57