Becky Burke won’t have to deal high expectations in her first season as the Arizona head women’s basketball coach, with Big 12 coaches having picked the Wildcats to finish 14th out of 16 conference teams.
In releasing its official preseason poll and preseason honors Thursday, as voted by coaches, the Big 12 also did not list any Arizona player among its 10-person preseason all-conference team.
Coach Becky Burke, lower right, yells out to her players during an open practice for the Arizona women’s basketball team at McKale Center on Sept. 30, 2025.
TCU was picked to repeat as Big 12 champions, receiving 10 first-place votes while Iowa State, Baylor and Oklahoma State each picked up two votes to win it. The Cyclones were picked to finish second in overall voting, followed by Baylor, Oklahoma State and West Virginia.
Iowa State’s Audi Crooks was named the Big 12 women’s basketball preseason Player of the Year, and TCU’s Olivia Miles was named its Newcomer of the Year. Cincinnati’s Dee Alexander was named Freshman of the Year. Both Miles and Crooks helped Team USA win gold in the AmeriCup last summer.
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Crooks and Miles were also unanimous selections for the Big 12 preseason all-conference team, as were Darianna Littlepage-Buggs of Baylor, Delaney Gibb of BYU, S’Mya Nichols of Kansas and Stailee Heard of Oklahoma State.
Others named to the all-conference preseason team included Jordan Harrison of West Virginia, Jade Masogayo of Colorado and Addy Brown of Iowa State.
Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at bpascoe@tucson.com. On X(Twitter): @brucepascoe
Bruce Pascoe
Reporter
