Guide to women's college basketball 2024-25: Big 12 won't be same gauntlet Pac-12 proved to be | Greg Hansen

Women’s basketball in the Big 12 will not immediately be as difficult as Arizona found life in Pac-12 women’s basketball.

Why? Pac-12 women’s teams have gone to 23 Final Fours. And it wasn’t just Stanford (15 times). In the past 10 years, Oregon, Washington, Oregon State and Arizona reached the Final Four.

Big 12 women’s teams? Only Baylor (three times) and Texas Tech have gone to the women’s Final Four out of the Big 12. (Although to be fair, ex-Big 12 powers Oklahoma and Texas combined to go to six Final Fours).

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What Arizona might find most difficult about life in Big 12 women’s basketball is that attendance is far more robust than in the Pac-12, where only Oregon and Oregon State routinely draw as many as 4,000 per game. Not even powerful Stanford averaged more than 4,000 at home last year.

To be fair, after years of a lull at Utah’s Huntsman Center, the Utes became a national power the last two seasons and averaged 5,209 at home last year, by far a school record. Now Utah figures to be a Big 12 “pit.’’

By comparison, the Big 12’s interest in women’s basketball is strong at the top.

Iowa State averaged 9,567 last year, followed by Texas Tech’s 5,432, Baylor’s 5,030 and Kansas State’s 4,995.

McKale Center will be one of the most feared venues in Big 12 women’s hoops. The Wildcats averaged 7,333 last season, one in which they were not a regular in the Top 25.

Big 12 women’s coaches: No familiar faces

If nothing else, women’s basketball in the Pac-12 had familiar faces on the sidelines, led by Hall of Fame coaches Tara VanDerveer of Stanford and ASU’s former coach Charli Turner Thorne.

In addition, Oregon State’s Scott Rueck (14 years, three Pac-12 titles) and UCLA’s Cori Close (13 years, five Top 10 finishes) are considered among the game’s elite coaches.

So we ask: Other than the one who coaches the home team, name one Big 12 women’s basketball coach.

That’s a tough ask.

The most accomplished Big 12 women’s basketball coach is Iowa State’s Bill Fennelly, who is in his 30th season. He has gone 611-313 at ISU, with two appearances in the Elite Eight and three Big 12 titles.

After that, it’s mostly newbies with the exception of Kansas State’s Jeff Mittie, in his 11th season with five NCAA Tournaments.

Six Big 12 coaches have put in just one or two years as head coaches: BYU’s Amber Whiting, West Virginia’s Mark Kellogg (who went 25-8 last season), UCF’s Sytia Messer, Cincinnati’s Katrina Merriweather and TCU’s Mark Campbell, a former Oregon State assistant, and Oklahoma State’s Jacie Hoyt.

It’s hard to believe, but Arizona’s Adia Barnes begins her ninth year at McKale Center. Her career record is 150-100. She is more than halfway to exceeding Joan Bonvicini’s Arizona career record of 297 victories set from 1991-2008.

Ex-Wildcats from coast to coast in ’24-25

The personnel movement in Arizona’s women’s basketball program has been fluid, but not excessive in the transfer portal era. Ten ex-Wildcats are active elsewhere this season. They are:

• Maddie Conner, TCU. The 3-point shooting whiz averaged 19.2 points for the Horned Frogs last year and was an All-Big 12 selection.

• Lauren Ware, Texas A&M. Arizona’s former starting center averaged 9.1 points and 7.8 rebounds for the Aggies last season.

• Koi Love, UT-Arlington. Bouncing to her fourth school, the ex-Wildcat forward has gone from Vanderbilt to Arizona to USC to UT-Arlington.

• Aaronette Vonleh, Baylor. After averaging 14 points at Colorado last year, an All-Pac-12 first-teamer, Vonleh has relocated to Baylor.

• Lemyah Hylton, Miami. She averaged six points for the Hurricanes last season.

• Paris Clark, Virginia. The former prep All-American from New York was a hit for the Cavaliers last year, averaging 10 points as a point guard.

• Gisela Sanchez, Kansas State. The 6-3 post player averaged 5.5 points for the other Wildcats last season.

• Anna Gret Asi, Oklahoma State. The former UA guard will now be a formidable Big 12 opponent; she averaged 12.7 points for the Cowboys last season.

• Kailyn Gilbert, LSU. After leading Arizona in scoring last season, 15.1, Gilbert moved on to the Bayou.

Best of the Big 12: ISU’s Lee is No. 1

Pac-12 women’s basketball of recent years produced four of the most prolific scorers in the game: Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu, Washington’s Kelsey Plum, Arizona’s Aari McDonald and Stanford’s Chiney Ogwumike.

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The Big 12 can match that with Kansas State’s 6-6 senior center Ayoka Lee, who, believe it or not, scored an NCAA-record 61 points in a game and has already scored 2,194 points in a career that — believe it or not — dates back six years.

This will be Lee’s seventh year at KSU. She was the Big 12 freshman of the year as far back as 2020.

In her 61-point game, an NCAA women’s single-game record, against Oklahoma in 2022, Lee made 23 of 30 shots and 15 of 17 free throws. She also had 12 rebounds. She missed the 2023 season with a knee injury. Lee originally was part of the 2017-18 high school senior class, ranked No. 38 overall.

Joining Lee on the All-Big 12 preseason first-team would likely be these four:

• Gianna Kneepkens, Utah. She missed last season with a knee injury but helped the Utes reach the Sweet 16 a year earlier, averaging 17.8 points.

• Kaitlin Peterson, UCF. After transferring from Indiana, Peterson averaged 20.7 for the Knights.

• Ja’Naiya Quinerly, West Virginia. A senior shooter with range, Quinerly averaged 18.8 for the Mountaineers.

• Audi Crooks, Iowa State. The leader of a potential Top 10 team, Crooks, a sophomore, averaged 19.2 with 7.8 rebounds last season.

One man’s Big 12 (women's) predictions

1. Kansas State. The schedule isn’t taxing. KSU doesn’t travel to Arizona or Baylor, but does have toughies at Utah, Colorado and a home-and-home with Iowa State.

2. Iowa State. The fearless Cyclones have a nonconference schedule for the Ages, with road games against South Carolina, UConn and Iowa. Should get ’em ready for the Big 12.

3. Baylor. The Bears looked at hiring Arizona’s Adia Barnes in the spring of 2021; Barnes stayed in Tucson, but Baylor got a winner in WNBA head coach Nicki Collen, who has gone 74-28 and is coming off a Sweet 16.

4. TCU. Moving up. The Horned Frogs bounced back from back-to-back 1-17 and 2-16 conference seasons to 21 victories overall.

5. West Virginia. Winning 25 games last year reached a stop in the NCAA Tournament when the Cinderella Mountaineers ran into Iowa and Caitlin Clark. They should be better this season.

6. Utah. Lynne Roberts’ team has won 50 games the last two years and is viewed as a rising power.

7. Arizona. The Wildcats are young but they have a strong chance to open 13-0 against an unusually weak nonconference schedule. That might help develop some confidence.

8. Kansas. After NCAA Tournament appearances in two of the last three seasons, KU is looking to finish higher than seventh in the league for the first time since 2012.

9. Colorado. The Buffaloes reached the Sweet 16 in both of the last two years and have incoming elite freshman recruit Tabitha Benson, a 6-2 Australian voted the league’s Freshman of the Year.

10. Texas Tech. The Red Raiders have finished 11th, eighth, eighth, seventh and eighth in the last five Big 12 seasons.

11. Oklahoma State. After first-year coach Jacie Hoyt reached the NCAA Tournament in 2023, the Cowboys slumped to 14-16 last year.

12. BYU. The Cougars are still trying to find a way to duplicate ex-coach Jeff Judkins’ 456 wins and 11 NCAA Tournament appearances before he stepped down in 2022.

13. Cincinnati. Over 44 seasons in its women’s basketball program, Cincinnati has won just one conference championship.

14. UCF. The Knights were rolling in 2022, winning their old conference, the AAC, finishing 26-4. But then coach Kaite Abrahamson-Henderson left to coach Georgia, and they’ve been 26-32 since.

15. Arizona State. This could be an either-or season for third-year coach Natasha Adair, who has finished 3-15 and 1-15 in the Pac-12, a bottom-feeder since Charli Turner Thorne’s retirement.

16. Houston. The opposite of Houston’s elite men’s basketball team; Cougars coach Ron Hughey has not coached Houston to an NCAA Tournament in his 10 seasons at the school.

How Arizona’s women’s team will finish

The Wildcats are apt to breeze through a 13-game nonconference schedule without a loss. The opposition is historically weak: Tarleton State, UT-Arlington, Chicago State, NAU, Grambling State, Seattle, GCU, Cal State-Bakersfield and Weber State. Only UNLV, Vanderbilt and possibly Michigan State stand in the way of a perfect pre-conference season.

Arizona should be able to go 12-6 in the Big 12 season, maybe a game better or worse, and then go 1-1 in the Big 12 Tournament.

The Wildcats are likely to finish 27-8 overall, reaching the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament in what looks like a semi-rebuilding season for Barnes.

Guide to men's college basketball 2024-25: Goodbye cozy Pac-12; hello unfriendly Big 12 arenas | Greg Hansen

Part II of Star columnist Greg Hansen's Guide to the 2024-25 college basketball season: Arizona men say goodbye to cosy Pac-12, and hello to unfriendly, often-hostile Big 12 venues