KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Big 12 Conference held the first of its two media days on Tuesday, with all 16 teams sending their head coaches and selected players to T-Mobile Center.
TCU, which won the Big 12 regular season and tournament titles last year, were selected as the preseason favorite. But teams like Baylor, Oklahoma State, Iowa State and West Virginia expect to push them. Plus, a quarter of the head-coaching jobs turned over from a season ago, and one coach is entering his first full season after taking over a program early last year.
Here are five takeaways from Big 12 women’s basketball media days.
Audi’s Big Summer
Iowa State center Audi Crooks enters her junior season as the preseason Big 12 player of the year and coming off a 2024-25 in which she set Iowa State single-season records for total points (820) and made field goals (329).
In between last year’s NCAA Tournament and this season she played internationally with Team USA in the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup in Santiago, Chile. Team USA won a gold medal and she played for Duke coach and Tennessee legend Kara Lawson.
It was a life-changing experience for the Angola, Iowa, native and one that she sees as a springboard to this season.
“I think that really helped prepare me for the season by forcing me to be a little bit uncomfortable, uncomfortable with a new coach, uncomfortable with a new system of basketball and uncomfortable in a foreign country,” Crooks said. “So I think that I learned a lot of valuable lessons. I learned some of my shortcomings as a player. I learned a lot about my strengths as a player, and I think that that helped prepare me for the season.”
Texas Tech’s Turnover
It starting to feel like a do-or-die season for Texas Tech. In fact, senior guard Bailey Maupin used those exact words to describe this season, as there are nine seniors on the team.
But, there’s another factor — coaching turnover. Head coach Krista Gerlich — the 1993 Lady Raiders national champion who is in her sixth season at the helm — turned over her entire coaching staff. That sort of turnover after five seasons of failing to reach the NCAA Tournament feels relevant, especially after a 19-18 season in 2024-25.
“I think that we did have some good success late in the season, but we certainly want to build on that, and we want to be playing in the NCAA tournament,” Gerlich said. “And so, you know, we needed to make some changes to be able to help us do that.”
Among those coaches is associate head coach Adrian Walters, who joined the Lady Raiders after five seasons as an assistant coach at North Carolina.
TCU’s New Role
TCU won 34 games, won the Big 12 regular season title and the Big 12 Tournament title. The Horned Frogs also reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
In the transfer portal, head coach Mark Campbell brought in a haul of players, including national player of the year candidate Olivia Miles, who was at Notre Dame. If “pressure is a privilege,” as Billie Jean King once said, then the privilege belongs to TCU as the league’s preseason favorite. That’s fine by Campbell.
“That’s what you want as a competitor,” Campbell said. “You want the opportunity to compete for championships, and we’ve built a program that you know is worthy of that. And so, with that, there is expectations.”
Welcome to the League
The Big 12 Conference is filled with new coaches this season. There was plenty of changeover out west, as Becky Burke replaced Adia Barnes at Arizona and Molly Miller replaced Natasha Adair at Arizona State. Lee Cummard was promoted to replace his boss, Amber Whiting, at BYU. Matthew Mitchell returned to college basketball and took over at Houston for Robert Hughey. That doesn’t count Utah’s Gavin Peterson, who is entering his first full year after taking over four games into last season after Lynne Roberts took a job with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks.
Miller used an apt analogy to describe the turnover.
“I’m just a freshman crashing the party,” she said.
Iowa State’s Bill Fennelly remains the league’s dean among coaches as he enters his 31st season sitting on 800 career wins.
“I’m old enough to remember when Colorado was in the conference, left and came back,” he said with Colorado coach JR Payne sitting next to him during a coaches roundtable.
Brandon Schneider, Bridesmaid
Kansas coach Brandon Schneider put in a lot of time recruiting S’Mya Nichols, who is now a junior. Keeping the five-star prospect from Overland Park, Kan., was a priority for the Class of 2023. It’s paid off. Nichols is one of the best players in the conference. Schneider levered her play to bring one of the of the best freshman classes in program history this year. That class includes another Overland Park product, Jaliya Davis.
Plus, it sounds like they’re besties — at least that’s how Nichols put it on Tuesday.
“I mean, Brandon’s my buddy,” Nichols said. “We talk so much. We talk every single day. I go into his office, we yap and we yap some more. We’re extremely close. I would like to say, if I could make them my bridesmaid, I would.”
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