IRVING, Texas — BYU was picked to finish 11th in its inaugural Big 12 women’s basketball campaign as the Big 12 Conference released its 2023-24 preseason poll on Wednesday afternoon.
Texas (168 points) is the preseason favorite to win the conference as the Longhorns garnered 12 of 14 first-place votes while Baylor (148) received the other two votes. 2023 WNIT Champion Kansas (138) was picked to finish third with Kansas State (133) in fourth.
Oklahoma (121), Iowa State (107) and Oklahoma State (99) are slotted to finish fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, with West Virginia (80), TCU (77) and Texas Tech (63) coming in eighth, ninth and tenth. BYU (56), Houston (45), Cincinnati (22) and UCF (18) round out the 14-team conference preseason poll.
Second-year head coach Amber Whiting returns seven players from last season while adding two transfers and five freshmen to her 2023-24 roster as the Cougars look to make some noise in their first Big 12 season.
“We are a team that has a nice mix of veteran leadership and young talent that I think can surprise some people,” Whiting said. “This conference is stacked with talented, veteran teams which means that every game is going to be a battle. I love how our team has developed throughout the summer and I’m excited to see what they can do when we take the floor next month.”
BYU brings back all five starters from the 2022-23 squad who accounted for 84.3 percent of last season’s scoring output. All-Big 12 Honorable Mention Lauren Gustin returns to BYU for her final season after leading the Cougars in scoring (16.1), rebounds (16.7) and shooting percentage (49.6) a year ago.
Whiting's team averaged 63.7 points per game while shooting 43.5 percent from the field, 36.6 percent from behind the arc and 72.7 percent from the charity stripe in 2022-23. The Cougars outrebounded opponents by seven rebounds per game, grabbing 37.9 total boards a game, 10.4 of which came on the offensive glass.
BYU will host Westminster College for an exhibition matchup on Nov. 1st before traveling to Bozeman, Montana to open the season on Nov. 7 against Montana State.