The Big 12 got 7 teams into the Dance this year: Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Iowa State, Baylor, Oklahoma State, and Texas. Here are the first round match-ups:

Dayton Region (Ames, Iowa)
(4) Iowa State vs. (13) Lehigh

Memphis Region (Berkeley, CA)
(4) Baylor vs. (13) Fresno State

Memphis Region (Austin, TX)
(6) Texas vs. (11) San Diego State

Sacramento Region (Tempe, AZ)
(4) Oklahoma State vs. (13) Tennessee-Chattanooga

Sacramento Region (Seattle, WA)
(2) Texas A&M vs. (15) Portland State

Kansas City Region (Minneapolis, MN)
(1) Nebraska vs. (16) Northern Iowa

Kansas City Region (Norman, OK)
(3) Oklahoma vs. (14) South Dakota State

(in case you need the bracket: http://a.espncdn.com/i/ncaa/10womens_bracket.pdf )

ISU got screwed being stuck in UCONN's half of the Dayton Region. So if we get past the first two rounds, we'll get the chance to run our record against Connecticut to 2-0. Hey, their bus could get lost on the way to the arena.

I would say Texas A&M has the best chance this year to advance to the Final Four. It could be a great game with Stanford and A&M in the Sacramento Regional final.

There are simply too many road blocks in Nebraska's way to make it to the Final Four this time. They have slipped at the end of the season and do not look near as strong as they did earlier. With teams like Michigan State, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, and Kentucky in the region, it will be a tough task to win more than a couple of games. Not that it can't be done, but it will be exceedingly difficult for them.

Texas is an upset waiting to happen against SDSU. The Longhorns are in one of their "not with it" periods again and if the Aztecs bring their "A" game, they advance to meet West Virginia.

Texas Tech and Kansas both received invitations to play in the WNIT, which has expanded to 64 teams this year. Tech will host Houston on Thursday and Kansas will host Prairie View A&M Wednesday.

NCAA 1st round games will be on Saturday/Sunday and televised (poorly, most likely) by the ESPN family of networks.

Kansas beat Prairie View A&M last night in Lawrence, 82-70, in a first round WNIT game. Kansas was without starting center Carolyn Davis, due to an injury (she's expected back for Sunday's game). Little-used 6'5" Krysten Boogaard started in her place and scored a career high 37 points in Davis's place. Boogaard was 12-19 from the floor and 13-13 from the line, plus 8 rebounds. Kansas snapped a six game losing streak. The Jayhawks will host the winner of Friday's Stephen F. Austin/Creighton game.

Texas Tech beat Houston, 80-77, in Lubbock after trailing by as many as 16 in the first half. The Raiders just could not get anything going offensively in the beginning and didn't get their first basket until seven and a half minutes in. The margin was 8 at the break (37-29). Several mini-runs helped them catch up with the Cougars. Then Tech hit 13 straight free throws at the end to hold them off. Houston committed 30 fouls and sent TTU to the line 47 times where they made 36 attempts. Christine Hyde scored 16 for the Raiders; three others were in double digits. Brittney Scott had 29 points for Houston. Texas Tech will play the winner of Nevada at Wyoming, though the date and location have yet to be determined.

Results from Saturday's first round NCAA games:

Baylor 69, Fresno State 55
Oklahoma State 70, Chattanooga 63
Texas A&M 84, Portland St. 53

The only thing really worth pointing out is that Oklahoma State played this game without Andrea Riley, who was serving a one-game suspension from two seasons ago when she elbowed LSU's Erica White in the back of the head. It was to be served in OSU's next NCAA game. The lost the LSU game and didn't make the field last season. This year, they trailed Chattanooga by 18 at halftime (37-19) without Riley leading the way. The Cowgirls were 6 of 35 in the first half (17%); Tegan Cunningham was 1-13. After the break, OSU used a full-court press and forced 17 second half turnovers to charge back and win the game by 7. They shot 60% in the second half (21-35). Cunningham scored 25, while Toni Young had 22.

Scores from yesterday's games:

(NCAA)
Oklahoma 68, South Dakota State 57
Iowa State 79, Lehigh 42
San Diego State 74, Texas 63
Nebraska 83, Northern Iowa 44

(WNIT)
Kansas 71, Creighton 68

Yes, Texas managed to lose on their home court to the 11 seed, San Diego State, in the first round.

And the National Coach of the Year (according to the WBCA) is....

...Nebraska's Connie Yori!

http://www.wbca.org/releases/2010DICOYPR.html

Even with returning six experienced seniors (and a freshman point guard), what she's accomplished this season has been nothing short of remarkable (31-1, so far). Nebraska has never advanced past the second round of the NCAA tournament, so a win tomorrow would be yet another groundbreaking moment in Husker women's basketball history.

Texas should have never hosted this part of the bracket anyway as a 6 seed

The hosting sites were determined two years ago in a bidding process, so there was no way of knowing how Texas would fare this year, let alone make the tournament at all. The sites used to automatically go to the top 16 seeds, but that was deemed "too much of a home court advantage," so they allowed the same schools to pre-bid to host games instead. Schools cannot host more than two out of every three years and cannot play in a specific region if hosting that regional. Thus, Dayton is hosting a regional this year and made the tournament, but was placed in a different region. The rules have changed every couple of years, mostly when the new ideas fail to produce any extra butts in the seats. But that's the way it stands right now - so you can make it into the tournament as a 12 seed and still host three other teams on your home court if you happen to bid for the right to host in a previous year.

Scores from last night:

Baylor 49, Georgetown 33
Gonzaga 72, Texas A&M 71
Georgia 74, Oklahoma State 71 OT

A&M forgot to bring it and went down in Seattle to Gonzaga. The Aggies had the last shot, but it didn't fall.

Andrea Riley's college career came to an end in OT against Georgia. She leaves the Big 12 with over 2800 points scored in her career. Kind of odd they find win without her in the previous game, but lose when she returns to the court.

Games tonight:

Texas Tech at Wyoming (WNIT) 8:00 p.m.
Nebraska vs. UCLA ESPN2 8:30 p.m.
Wisconsin-Green Bay at Iowa State ESPN2 8:30 p.m.
Arkansas-Little Rock at Oklahoma ESPN2 8:30 p.m.

Of course, the televising of these games means "wrap around coverage" so most locales will not see any one complete game. Satellite subscribers will have more options if you have a sports package of some sort.

Scores from tonight:

Oklahoma 60, Arkansas-Little Rock 44
Iowa State 60, Wisconsin-Green Bay 56
Nebraska 83, UCLA 70
Wyoming 68, Texas Tech 57 OT

There was a bit more fight in Wisconsin-Green Bay than I had expected. The Phoenix led 10-0 to start the game was up five at the break (34-29). The second half see-sawed back and forth, mostly with ISU playing catch-up. Once they tied it and took the lead, "Hilton Magic" took over and they found ways to force GB turnovers and miss shots. Kayla Tetschlag scored 29 for GB, but they had little other help offensively. Kelsey Bolte led Iowa State with 15, including 3 three pointers, giving her 84 made treys on the season. Lucky Iowa State - we get to pay UCONN on Sunday in Dayton.

From the Denver Post: Colorado's Kathy McConnell-Miller is being let go by the university as their head women's basketball coach (not a big shock).


"Colorado is negotiating to terminate the contract of women's basketball coach Kathy McConnell-Miller, two athletic department sources have confirmed.

Colorado went 65-88 in five seasons under McConnell-Miller but was able to generate some excitement, including victories over three ranked teams in 2007-08 en route to a WNIT bid. The Buffaloes (19-15) reached the 2008 WNIT semifinals but could not sustain the momentum. McConnell's past two teams went 11-18 and 13-17, going 3-13 in Big 12 in both.

As it turned out, the 19-15 for 2007-08 remains McConnell-Miller's only winning record. Her best conference mark was 6-10 during that season."

Kansas wrapped up what was ultimately a disappointing season in Normal, Illinois, losing to Illinois State, 71-51. Their record fell to 17-16 overall. Freshman Monica Engelman led the Jayhawks in scoring with 14. Fellow freshman scoring maching, Carolyn Davis, scored only 2 points on two free throws and attempted only one shot in 20 minutes of court time (do not know the reason why she did not start or play more, possible a recurrance of the injury that kept her out of KU's first round WNIT game). Illinois State hit 10-12 3 point shots to keep Kansas under their thumb for the final 30 minutes of action. ISU moves on to face Illinois in the WNIT quarterfinals.

Schedule for the four remaining Big 12 teams in the NCAA tournament (all times CST):

Saturday, March 27:
Baylor vs. Tennessee Lady Volunteers, ESPN 11:00 a.m.

Sunday, March 28:
Iowa State vs. Connecticut, ESPN 11:00 a.m.
Oklahoma vs. Notre Dame, ESPN2 6:30 p.m.
Nebraska vs. Kentucky, ESPN2 9:00 p.m.

I'm going to go out on a limb and wager that Iowa State probably will have the toughest time advancing to the Elite 8. Baylor's job is not easy either, though. Let's just say an Iowa State win this time against UCONN would be epic beyond any expectation anyone could possibly ever have (unlike 1999 when the win against the Huskies merely announced the arrival of Iowa State to the world as a pretty good program). Yeah, we'll see...

Leaving Saturday morning for Dayton. I love 9 hour drives.

Back from Dayton. That was a quick two days. Unfortunately, it was only two days. Iowa State got blown out of the water by Connecticut. That's not really all that surprising, but you always hope your team will at least do well in these types of games. We lost by 38 and had to score a bunch at the end to manage that. UCONN led 42-14 at the half and it wasn't even that close. They simply are the best team in the country and have very few weaknesses for other teams to exploit.

Anna Prins was the leading scorer for ISU with 10. Alison Lacey scored only 9 in her final game as a Cyclone. Kelsey Bolte was held scoreless. Maya Moore had 26 for UCONN, 16 of which came in the first 9 minutes of the game. It's a disappointing way to end the season. Like I said, you always want to play well, even in a loss, but we just were not prepared to take the court in this one. On the flip side, Iowa State won 25 games and made it to the Sweet 16 in what was supposed to be a "rebuilding year." If that was rebuilding, I'll take it.

Nebraska's dream season came to an abrupt end in Kansas City at the hands of Kentucky, the SEC runner-up. UK kept the Huskers out of any sort of flow in the game, using a lot of pressure defense. Kentucky kept Nebraska off the boards, winning that battle 36-25. NU's Kelsey Griffin had 12 rebounds in her last game as a Husker, but no one else on her team snagged more than two. Nebraska exceeded all expecations this year, going 32-2, making it's first Sweet 16 appearance, winning it's first Big 12 regular season title, and tying a Big 12 mark with 30 consecutive wins.

Oklahoma beat Notre Dame in the other game played in Kansas City for that regional, winning 77-72 in overtime. OU's Abi Olajuwon scored 20 points along with 14 rebounds. Nyeshia Stevenson led the Sooners with 21 points. OU had lost earlier in the season to the Irish as well as losing to them in the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2008. OU reaches it's third Elite 8 and is going for it's third trip to the Final Four. You have to say this season has turned out far better for OU than they could have ever dreamed as well. Last season they lose the Paris twins and early this year, lose sharp-shooting guard Whitney Hand to injury, leaving a very depleted line-up. Somehow, with a rotation of seven (six if you count floor time above 5 minutes), they finished 3rd in the Big 12 playing each team in the brutal south division twice, played in the Big 12 title game, and are sitting on the cusp of another Final Four berth. I don't know of many OU fans who would have said that was possible back around Turkey Day.

Baylor knocked off Tennessee, 77-62, to deny a potential match-up between the Vols and UCONN (which ESPN is not happy about). Brittney Griner scored 27 points and blocked 10 shots as Baylor pulled away at the end of the game to score the win. The loss was only UT's 5th in a regional semifinal versus 23 wins in the same round. Baylor gets to play in their first Elite 8 (and second overall) since winning the national title in 2005.


Kentucky 76, Nebraska 67
Oklahoma 77, Notre Dame 72 OT
Connecticut 74, Iowa State 36
Baylor 77, Tennessee 62

Schedule for upcoming games this weekend:

Monday, March 29:
Baylor vs. Duke, ESPN 6:04 p.m. CST

Tuesday, March 30:
Oklahoma vs. Kentucky, ESPN2 8:07 p.m.

Here is an ESPN article that showed up over the weekend on Iowa State's Alison (Aus) Lacey.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/tournament/2...&id=5033624

Two Big 12 teams made the Final Four!! Even more interesting is that it's the 3rd and 6th place teams that did it!

Oklahoma started out badly against Kentucky, falling behind 17-4, but ultimately dominated the rest of the game, winning 88-68. Nyeshia Stevenson had 31 points for the Sooners.

Baylor knocked off Duke in their regional final, 51-48. Brittney Griner scored 15 to lead the Bears.

The national semi-final games are this Sunday. Oklahoma v. Stanford is on ESPN at 6 p.m. CST, while Baylor v. UCONN is on at 8.

The AP All-American list came out yesterday with several Big 12 names on it.

2009-10 Associated Press All-American Teams
FIRST TEAM
Maya Moore, Connecticut, 6-0, junior, Lawrenceville, Ga., 18.3 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 4.1 apg, 51.1 fg pct., 2.2 steals (40 first-team votes, 200 points)
Tina Charles, Connecticut, 6-4, senior, Jamaica, N.Y., 18.3 ppg, 9.3 rpg, 2.2 blocks, 63.5 fg pct. (40, 200)
Kelsey Griffin, Nebraska, 6-2, senior, Eagle River, Alaska, 20.3 ppg, 10.4 rpg, 60.2 fg pct. (28, 166)
Monica Wright, Virginia, 5-11, senior, Woodbridge, Va., 23.7 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 3.7 steals (22, 151)
Jantel Lavender, Ohio State, 6-4, junior, Cleveland, 21.4 ppg, 10.3 rpg, 51.4 fg pct. (10, 119)

SECOND TEAM
Andrea Riley, Oklahoma State, 5-5, senior, Dallas, 26.7 ppg, 6.5 apg, 80.2 ft pct. (13, 109)
Nnemka Ogwumike, Stanford, 6-2, sophomore, Cypress, Texas, 18.2 ppg, 9.6 rpg, 61.1 fg pct (10, 99)
Jayne Appel, Stanford, 6-4, senior, Pleasant Hill, Calif., 13.6 ppd, 8.7 rpg, 54.3 fg pct (10, 97)
Alysha Clark, Middle Tennessee State, 5-10, senior, Mount Juliet, Tenn., 28.3 ppg, 11.6 rpg, 3.4 apg, 61.4 fg pct., 2.4 steals (7, 75)
Brittney Griner, Baylor, 6-8, freshman, Houston, 18.6 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 50.7 fg pct, 6.4 blocks (1, 54)

THIRD TEAM
Danielle Robinson, Oklahoma, 5-9, junior, San Jose, Calif., 16.7 ppg, 5.3 apg, 87.4 ft pct. (3, 53)
Jasmine Thomas, Duke, 5-9, junior, Fairfax, Va., 16.0 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 4.1 apg, 2.8 steals (2, 48)
Victoria Dunlap, Kentucky, 6-1, junior, 17.7 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 3.1 steals (1, 47)
Elena Delle Donne, Delaware, 6-5, freshman, Wilmington, Del., 26.7 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 2.0 blocks, 89.8 ft pct. (2, 35)
Amber Harris, Xavier, 6-4, junior, Indianapolis, 16.1 ppg, 8.9 rpg, 56.1 fg pct, 42.4 3-pt fg pct (0, 32)

HONORABLE MENTION
Danielle Adams, Texas A&M; Kachine Alexander, Iowa; Angie Bjorklund, Tennessee; Alyssa DeHaan, Michigan State; Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame; Dawn Evans, James Madison; Rachele Fitz, Marist; Tyra Grant, Penn State.

Alexis Gray-Lawson, California; Kalana Greene, Connecticut; Allison Hightower, LSU; Alison Lacey, Iowa State; Judie Lomax, Columbia, Kevi Luper, Oral Roberts; Gabriela Marginiean, Drexel; Nicole Michael, Syracuse.

Jacinta Monroe, Florida State; Kayla Pedersen, Stanford; Ta'Shia Phillips, Xavier; Samantha Prahalis, Ohio State; Chastity Reed, Arkansas-Little Rock; Sugar Rodgers, Georgetown; Lindsey Schraeder, Notre Dame; Tanisha Smith, Texas A&M.

Da'shena Stevens, St. John's; Shekinna Stricklen, Tennessee; Helena Sverrisdottir, TCU; Bianca Thomas, Mississippi; Courtney Vandersloot, Gonzaga; Courtney Ward, Florida State; Kaylee Whipple, Utah.

Congrats to OU and Sherri Coale on making the FINAL FOUR!

The national title game will not have a Big 12 team playing in it, sadly. Oklahoma and Baylor both lost last night (granted to the teams ranked #2 and #1 respectively). Both OU and BU made runs at different points to keep things interesting.

Oklahoma trailed by 15 or so nearly the entire game (and 16 with 8:31 to play) before making a run to cut the deficit to only 3 with under one minute to go. They couldn't get the stops they needed at the end and Stanford went on to win 73-66.

Baylor got down early to UCONN and trailed by 13 at the half. They came out of the lockerroom on fire, including using a 10-0 run to cut the Huskie's lead to 3 at 41-38. But Baylor used most of their energy coming back at that point (with 17 minutes still to play) and UCONN slowly pulled away for a 20 point win (70-50).

Stanford will play UCONN Tuesday night at 7:30 CST on ESPN. Stanford was the last team to defeat UCONN and that was in the 2008 NCAA tournament. Stanford's only loss this year is to the Huskies.

<sigh> Here we go again... Whitney Williams is leaving Iowa State after the end of the semester. Here is the story from Cyclones.com:

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State sophomore Whitney Williams has decided to transfer, head coach Bill Fennelly announced Tuesday. Williams will finish out the school year at Iowa State and is undecided on her future plans.

“Whitney Williams informed me today that she has decided to transfer,” Fennelly said. “I appreciate her efforts on back-to-back Sweet 16 teams and wish her the best wherever she finishes her career.”

Williams played in all 69 contests in her two years at Iowa State, making 14 starts in her sophomore campaign. The Ft. Worth, Texas, native averaged 20 minutes a game and posted 5.9 points, one rebound and 1.6 assists per contest in 2009-10. She shot 40 percent from the field and ranked fourth in the Big 12 in three-point percentage, hitting at a 40 percent clip from long range. She also shot 87 percent from the charity stripe as a sophomore.

“My two years at Iowa State have been amazing,” Williams said. “They are memories I will never forget and I will always treasure. I’ve given it a lot of thought and a lot of prayer and I feel like I’m being led in another direction. I want to thank the coaches for giving me the opportunity to play here.”

Fennelly and Williams will have no further comment.

Here are the final rankings for the ESPN poll (AP does not publish a post-tournament poll):

1. Connecticut (31) 39-0, 775
2. Stanford 36-2, 744
3. Oklahoma 27-11, 678
4. Baylor 27-10, 676
5. Xavier 30-4, 652
6. Duke 30-6, 591
7. Nebraska 32-2, 550
8. Tennessee 32-3, 538
9. Kentucky 28-8, 537
9. Florida State 29-6, 537
11. Notre Dame 29-6, 500
12. Gonzaga 29-5, 397
13. Iowa State 25-8, 357
14. Texas A&M 26-8, 336
15. Ohio State 31-5, 306
16. West Virginia 29-6, 287
17. Georgetown 26-7, 218
18. St. John's 25-7, 215
19. Georgia 25-9, 202
20. San Diego State 23-11, 174
21. Mississippi State 21-13, 170
22. Oklahoma State 24-11, 121
23. UCLA 25-9, 106
24. Vanderbilt 23-11, 74
25. LSU 21-10, 53
25. Texas 22-11, 53

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES:
Michigan State 52, Wisconsin-Green Bay 46, Virginia 29, Hartford 29, Middle Tennessee 19, Arkansas-Little Rock 15, Dayton 11, California 7, Vermont 5, Princeton 4, Marist 3, DePaul 2, Gardner-Webb 2, Temple 2, Lehigh 1, Tulane 1

I forgot to post this earlier - OSU's Andrea Riley was named the top point guard in the country last week. Here is the article that was on Big12sports.com:


Release: 04/02/2010
Courtesy: Associated Press

Oklahoma State's Andrea Riley has been named the 2010 recipient of the Nancy Lieberman Award, announced the Rotary Club of Detroit.

The award recognizes the nation's top collegiate point guard in women's Division I basketball. The criteria for the award are the floor leadership, play-making and ball-handling skills that personified Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman during her career. Sportswriters from across the country
determined the award winner and finalists.

"It is an honor to win such a prestigious award. I could not have achieved this without my family, teammates and coaching staff," Riley said. "It makes it even more special to win an award named after Nancy Lieberman because she has been a great friend and inspiration to me."

A second-team Associated Press All-American, Riley finished her senior season as the nation's second leading scorer at 26.7 points per game. Her scoring average led the Big 12 by more than six points per game and made her the first player to pace the conference in scoring three times.

Riley also finished seventh nationally and first in the Big 12 with her 6.5 assists per game.

The Dallas, Texas native scored 909 points this past season, which stands as the 10th-best single-season total in NCAA history. Additionally, she tallied 220 assists, which stands as the fourth-best single-season total in Big 12 history.

Riley scored 40 points on three occasions this season, all of which came against ranked teams. She now has four of the top six scoring games in league history.

A three-time All-Big 12 pick, she also dished out 17 assists to tie the league's single-game record.

The 5-5 guard led the Cowgirls to a 24-11 mark this past season and their third NCAA Tournament berth in the last four years. Riley finished her career with 2,835 points, the 13th-best total in NCAA history and 707 assists, which ranks first all time in school history.

The other three finalists for the award were Samantha Prahalis of Ohio State, Oklahoma's Danielle Robinson and Courtney Vandersloot of Gonzaga.

Missouri hires a new head coach: Robin Pingeton. She was the head coach at Illinois State for the last seven seasons. Prior to that, she was an assistant coach at Iowa State under Bill Fennelly for three seasons.

http://www.tigerextra.com/news/2010/apr/07...l-coach/?sports

Looks like Colorado has hired Metro State's head basketball coach Linda Lappe as their new women's coach, taking over for Kathy McConnell-Miller. Lappe is an Iowa native and a former Buffalo player from approximately ten years ago.

(moving ahead in the day...) Yup, it's official. The link:

http://www.cubuffs.com//ViewArticle.dbml?D...TCLID=204927162

congrast to her on getting a job with the Big 12!!!

There has been a little controversy with the hiring of Robin Pingeton at Mizzou. During her initial press conference, she had made reference to her staff being (paraphrasing here) "married, family people." Some took the comments to be code for "no homosexuals" (which is not without precedent). Mechele Voepel blogged about the issue, along with some comments on the hiring of Lappe at Colorado. Here is the link to that first article:

http://voepel.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/new...ghts/#more-2089

Mechele was able to sit down with Pingeton to clarify the remarks she made and see what exactly is up. Pingeton has never been shy about stating she is a Christian and that she runs her program as such. Voepel wrote about her sit-down in two parts on her blog. The comments are interesting as well. Definitely worth a read (the bulk of the piece dealing with the controversy is in part 2):

Part 1: http://voepel.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/2101/

Part 2: http://voepel.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/wha...-mizzou-part-2/

I thought it might be interesting to look at the top seniors for scoring this past year in the Big 12 to see how much talent is going to be missing next year. I left the scoring rank, total points scored this season, and season scoring average.

(league rank, name, school, year, total points in SR season, points per game)
1.Riley, Andrea-OSU............... SR 909 26.7
2.Griffin, Kelsey-NU................ SR 685 20.1
6.Cunningham, Tegan-OSU..... SR 586 16.7
8.Sweat, Ashley-KSU.............. SR 514 16.1
9.Lacey, Alison-ISU................ SR 473 15.8
10.Smith, Tanisha-TAMU......... SR 514 15.1
11.Stevenson,Nyeshia-OU....... SR 553 14.6
12.Raven, Brittainey-UT...........SR 472 14.3
13.Thompson,Amanda-OU....... SR 496 13.1
14.Smith, Bianca-CU.............. SR 385 12.8
15.Montgomery, Cory-NU........ SR 431 12.7
16.Johnson, Jessra-MU............ SR 353 12.6
19.Roberson, Ashlee-TTU........ SR 404 12.2
21.Murphree, Jordan-TTU........ SR 381 11.9
23.Turner, Yvonne-NU............ SR 395 11.6
26.Olajuwon,Abi-OU............... SR 401 10.6
30.Morris, Sade-KU................ SR 322 9.8

The following is a list of former Big 12 players who are active players on WNBA rosters this season.

Atlanta: Shalee Lehning (KSU), Brittainey Raven (UT)

Chicago: Abi Olajuwon (OU), Jia Perkins (TTU)

Connecticut: Kelsey Griffin (NU)

Los Angeles: Andrea Riley (OSU)

New York: Tiffany Jackson (UT)

Phoenix: Nicole Ohlde (KSU)

San Antonio: Sophia Young (BU)

Seattle: Alison Lacey (ISU)

Tulsa: Plenette Pierson (TTU), Amanda Thompson (OU)

Washington: Nakia Sanford (KU)


The following are former Big 12 players who were signed to training camp contracts this season, but waived by their teams before the final rosters were set last week. There are a couple of very surprising names in this group...

Ashley Paris (OU)
Nyeshia Stevenson (OU)
Courtney Paris (OU)
Lindsey Wilson (ISU)
Cory Montgomery (NU)

Not sure what happened with the Paris twins this year that neither made a final roster. Stevenson and Montgomery were rookies. Wilson has been playing in Europe since her Iowa State days and has had a very successful pro career overseas, playing for teams in Greece, Slovakia, Turkey, Lithuania, and Poland. She's had several tries at WNBA teams, but is typically kept until the last days of training camp, then waived (as happened again with her hometown Seattle Storm this season).


For complete WNBA team rosters, you can follow this link:

http://www.wnba.com/players/Team_Rosters.html

The official attendance numbers are out for the Big 12's 2009-2010 season and it's another record for total attendance. Here's the story (and figures) from www.big12sports.com:


Big 12 women's basketball set an NCAA attendance record for the second consecutive year with 1,091,289 fans while leading the nation in attendance in 2009-10 for the 11th straight season.

The Conference reached the one-million mark for the fifth time, bettering last year's record attendance of 1,073,069. The Big 12's 2009-10 average of 5,247 per game fell just short of its own national record of 5,381 set in 2003-04.

The Big 12 remains the only conference to reach the one-million attendance mark, also accomplishing the feat in 2001-02 (1,002,651), 2006-07 (1,023,576) and 2007-08 (1,010,528) in addition to 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Ten Big 12 schools were ranked in the Top 50 for average home attendance with five listed in the Top 10 and eight in the Top 25. Iowa State led the Big 12 contingent for the second consecutive year in third (9,316) followed by 6. Oklahoma (7,681), 7. Nebraska (7,390), 8. Baylor (7,209) and 10. Texas Tech (6,837). TTU has been among the Top 10 teams nationally in home attendance all 14 years since the inception of the league.

Nebraska led the nation in the largest improvement in attendance average from the previous season with an additional 4,719 fans per game in 2009-10.

Baylor (248,238), Oklahoma (245,432) and Iowa State (233,645) were among six teams nationally (Connecticut, Tennessee, Notre Dame) to draw more than 200,000 in cumulative attendance for all games - home, road and neutral.

2009-10 Women's Basketball Conference Attendance Leaders (conference name, total attendance, average attendance):

1. Big 12 Conference
1,091,289^
5,247

2. Southeastern
740,993
4,005

3. Big Ten
735,453
3,997

4. Big East
778,916
2,996

5. Atlantic Coast
568,184
2,719

(^NCAA Record)


2009-10 Big 12 Women's Basketball Attendance [school (national rank), total home attendance, average]:

1. Iowa State (3)
177,002
9,316

2. Oklahoma (6)
122,902
7,681

3. Nebraska (7)
118,232
7,390

4. Baylor (8)
122,550
7,209

5. Texas Tech (10)
129,896
6,837

6. Texas A&M (15)
72,165
5,155

7. Texas (17)
78,539
4,909

8. Kansas State (25)
60,137
4,009

9. Kansas (29)
67,892
3,772

10. Oklahoma State (49)
45,891
2,699

11. Colorado
43,324
2,407

12. Missouri
27,347
1,609

Here is a nice article from Cyclones.com about Iowa State's Alison Lacey's first few games as a professional athlete with the WNBA Seattle Storm. She's not getting a ton of minutes, but she's playing the first minutes any Cyclone player who was drafted since Stacy Frese played for the Utah Starzz in 2000. Brittany Wilkins played for a season and a half with Sacramento, but was not drafted - she was invited to their training camp after the draft, then made their roster in 2006 and 2007 (yeah, yeah - details).

http://www.cyclones.com//ViewArticle.dbml?...TCLID=204954102

Here is an article by Mechele Voepel on the possibility of the Big 12 falling apart as it relates with women's basketball. For what is top-to-bottom the best and best-attended conference for women's hoops in the country, a break-up would be disastrous. She raises the question of Baylor being left out of nearly every expansion equation - would a program like theirs, with the ability to make a Final Four nearly every year, be able to sustain themselves in a minor league? You can say the same thing of Iowa State in women's hoops. Could the Cyclones maintain the level of success they've had over the last 15 years if they're bumped down to a smaller conference? Short term answer: yes to both. Long term answer: probably not.

http://voepel.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/is-...y-near-the-end/

Newest development in the saga of the crumbling Big 12: Nebraska issued an ultimatum to decide by Friday whether or not they will leave to go anywhere else. Looks like if they decide they want to go, that will give Texas enough reason to bolt and take most of the Big 12 south with them.

From the Omaha World Herald:

http://omaha.com/article/20100605/SPORTS/7...nebraska-s-call

Kansas asks Nebraska and Missouri to stay in the Big 12 (from ESPN.com):

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5262068

Meanwhile, the Mountain West Conference decided to not invite Boise State yesterday, instead waiting to see what happens with the Pac 10 and Big 12:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5261053

Looks more and more like Nebraska is going to hit the road.

From Omaha.com:

http://omaha.com/article/20100608/BIGRED/3...early-as-friday

From ESPN.com:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5265631


Colorado's situation is still no clearer than it was earlier in the week. No decision has been made and no official offer has come from the Pac 10. There is still the chance they may be dumped from the Pac 10 deal for Baylor (if Texas gets it's way). I don't see that happening, but it's a possibility. From Denverpost.com:

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_15252948


Regardless of what happens this week (or year, for that matter), the Big 12 will exist for at least one more season, possibly two, before teams are allowed to move on to different leagues.

With Colorado being the first school to officially declare themselves "gone," and Nebraska literally a day or so away from making the same announcement, Mechelle Voepel wrote a nice article about the legacy Big 12 women's basketball will leave behind - it's fans.

http://voepel.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/if-...f-the-legacies/

The Big 12 will continue to exist!! We will go on without Colorado and Nebraska, but keep all ten remaining schools. Texas and the others announced today that they have chosen to stay in the league as a new tv contract is being worked out that significantly increases the revenue to each school.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5286672

If anyone is looking for more information on how things unfolded with the realignment deal, you can read the thread "conference realignment" in the College Football section. Here's a nice over-view of everything that I posted there also:

http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1094753

There is a nice video showing highlights and interviews from Iowa State's NCAA tournament history during the 15 year Fennelly era (like there was a different NCAA era ). It's a little long, but if you'd like to learn more about ISU WBB history or just to relive some fun moments, check it out.

http://www.cyclones.com/ViewArticle.dbml?S...DB_OEM_ID=10700

Just a bump to keep at least one topic current for the last month in Women's Sports. Won't be long before there will be things to post for the 2010-2011 season!